MM1-3O: The Darkness Is In Your Blood
by zaqxsw
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Description
The atmosphere along the deep woodland trail was decided darker than the rest of the forest, providing proof of how it earned the name ‘Dark Road’, but the companions spirits were bright as Taenya and Mistale shared their repertoire of songs, while Coran kept one eye focused on the trees.
They made good time, passing the mid-point westward bend in the trail well before midday, but as the afternoon wore on Coran noticed a faint glistening amid the trees, which seemed to keep pace with them, never getting close enough to real make out, or even be certain he had actually seen it. Then, in mid-afternoon, the area around them seemed to suddenly grow darker and a shimmering, white female elven figure manifested just two dozen feet ahead of them, demanding in a hollow, moaning voice in elvish; “Begone… You who have skin as dark as your heart and those who would travel in her company intrude too near to land sanctified by elven blood!”
For an instant, the trio was stunned by the apparition’s sudden appearance, simply staring at the ghostly figure, which appeared solid, and unearthly beautiful, despite the unnatural glimmer to her pale skin and the solid black orbs where her eyes should have been, but floated several inches above the ground.
Finally Taenya found her voice, retorting, also in elven, as she stepped forward without fear, presenting her holy symbol to the ghostly apparition; “My heart is free of darkness… I sever Eilistraee, daughter of Corellon Larethian, who strives to lead the drow back to the path into the light.”
“The darkness is in your blood… it can not be escaped… and your blood shall not escape my wraith. You will not poison these sacred lands with you presence!” the angry spirit threatened, her hollow voice seeming to echo unnaturally around them.
“I don’t want to call on Eilistraee to banish you,” the drow cleric warned, presenting her holey symbol boldly before the ghost, knowing that such spirits where resistant to being turned away, but showing no fear. “You have every right to defend the lands sanctified by elven blood, but we have not intruded into the Vale of Lost Voice, you came to us… so you are the aggressor here… we only wish to continue our journey in peace.”
“In peace… what would a drow of peace? Your kind know nothing but war, murder and betrayal. You have infested the Cormanthor, poisoning our legacy… seeking to corrupt our mythals with your toxic evil and turn the very forest against our children,” the spectral elf-maid moaned in a voice so heavy with sorrow that it weighed on the companions’ hearts.
“Yes, most drow still cling to their dark ways,” Coran injected in a calm tone, his disciplined will holding the natural fear of the dead at bay. “But every day they spend in the light, more and more of them turn from those evil ways… they haven’t corrupted the Cormanthor and its mythals as much as the forest has rehabilitated them… and the priestesses of Eilistraee have always stood as beacons of kindness and harmony between the races of Fearun.”
“Your kind is little better than the drow,” the ghostly elf groaned malevolently. “You lie, murder and steal without conscious, how would you know if the drow turn from their dark ways, when darkness dwells in your very souls.”
“Darkness dwells in all intelligent beings,” Coran shot back, keeping his voice calm and controlled. “It isn’t the absence of evil that proves our dedication to the greater good, but our struggle to overcome our baser instinct and serve others over ourselves that leads us to enlightenment.”
“And you claim to have achieved this ‘enlightenment’ do you mortal?” the ghost challenged confrontationally.
“No,” Coran confessed, “I strive each day to take one small step closer to that goal, but doubt I will ever achieve it.”
Comments (19)
zaqxsw
I had intended to use the V4 Ghost morphs and textures for this image, but Poser 11 has a horrible time with transparency maps! The figure's inner mouth and teeth were left visible by the transparency map, showing through her face and when I made them transparent a weird hollow showed, additional the vacant eyes didn't look right and when I added the black eyes that I used here, the entire eyeball was visible as a black sphere. So I went to plan B, and used a pale skin texture which I applied a silver spherical reflection map to, to give it that unearthly glimmer... Despite requests to bump up the lights again, I actually toned them down on this one because the brighter lights really washed her out. Hope you enjoy!
OkrimSlava
well done.
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
chacornac
Joli scène, avec cette superbe atmosphère, bravo
zaqxsw
Thank you for your kind comment!
bucyjoe
good image good writing
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
RiverWillow
Great writing once again, and I love the character. Beautiful!
zaqxsw
Thank you so much for your kind comment!
Kordouane
Magnificent creation, I like very much her hair
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments! I used an old A3 product called Elfdance Hair... Surprisingly it fits V4 quite well. It's a little anime for my taste in most cases but it worked well here.
RedPhantom
Hope they get out of this. Enchanting character
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments! I'd say they have a ghost of a chance (sorry, I just couldn't resist).
miwi
Klasse image,klasse story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
MajinBoo
I agree the transparency can be a double edged sword in Poser. I've tried blue skin, silvery, or even off white colors to create the illusion of ghosts. I'm not complaining about you did here and I'm eager for next part in the story.
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments! No offense taken... I'm always interested in suggestions and opinions... I did try a few other textures, and even tried applying different degrees of transparancy to get a more ghostly appearance but I just wasn't happy with the results.
Palaemon
Beautiful composition !
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
hashdoc
Hard to say what's better: your images or your writing! Well done!
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments... I do really appreciate all the encouragement!
anitalee
Excellent
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
PhthaloBlue
Superb!
zaqxsw
Thanks for your kind comments!
goldie
Well, I knew if they took that Dark Road they would meet trouble...
As for getting a transparent character: render the character over as a transparent image (over black saved as a png). In your image processing proggie, e.g. Photoshop, place your character with the transparent background over your intended final background and reduce the opacity of the character. Voila, a ghostly image. For those void eyes simply make the diffuse and ambient settings black and set to 1 for all eye parts in the material room. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments! I really appreciate your suggestion, unfortunately I don't have Photoshop and I've never done any postwork… I'm pretty much limited to what I can do within Poser.
starship64
Great work.
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
RodS
Your efforts have paid off beautifully - she is stunning. At once beautiful and frightening. I'm wondering how this will play out!
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments! I'll just say they don't call "Ghostbusters".
Richardphotos
she really has a hour glass figure. superb work
zaqxsw
Thanks for your kind comments!
Axeye
Poser and DS both have transparency issues I guess because several friends have made the same complaints. Cool image anyway and your story rocks!
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
shadownet
That's a shame on poser 11 and the transparency maps as it would have been cool to have this character more like you wanted her to be. Great story and render all the same.
zaqxsw
Thank you for your kind comments!