Arelith: Xun'viir Art Catalog
Author: Adelyn Belle'rose
Rozen Chalice Publishing, a division of East Arelith Trading
Original Publication: 176 AR
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"The Arelith Antiquarian Society is instituted to examine, preserve, and publish all antiquities as connected with the art, language, literature, and history of the Arelith Archipelago. Articles bearing this notation have been selected for conservation regardless of race, faith, alignment, or affiliation. While all efforts have been made to ensure the information within is accurate regarding the subject matter covered, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any other inconsistencies herein, whether such errors or omissions are the result of negligence, accident, or any other cause. If any such errors, inaccuracies, or omissions are discovered please contact the author who will address the issue."
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FOREWORD
After more than 78 years, House Xun'viir of Andunor would fall in 176 AR at the hands of an Abyssal cult known simply as "The Syndicate." With the loss of the city's oldest Ilythiiri organization, a concerted effort was made by me and others to preserve the sizeable collection of art and history collected by this family since its founding by Va'sarra Xun'viir in 97 AR. Recognizing the passion of various malicious forces to obliterate all evidence of this remarkable Noble House from Antiquity, I have created the subsequent catalog to document their collected artwork. For regardless of one's opinion of House Xun'viir, the family has played a significant role in influencing Andunor across the decades and, as such, secured a position within Arelith's Historical lore.
ART LISTING
THE BATTLE OF THE TREADSTONE LOCKS (151 AR)
Ilphaeryl Xun'viir
Oil on Canvas
This painting depicts the Treadstone Locks of Andunor, the dock of the infamous war vessel of the city: The Mighty Dreadnought. The Treadstone Locks do not look peaceful, in fact they are largely aflame. Corpses and rubble are seen everywhere on the land.
Upon the water is the mighty Dreadnought itself, however the warship is sundered down the middle. Numerous smaller ships are in the process of pelting it with flaming pitch, stones, and magical barrages of dazzling variety. The water about it roils white with spray and foam, churning from violence.
Upon the carnage of the shore is a sinuous shadow dragon, poised as if about to take flight. In front of the dragon is a female drow in green and black armor, her long white hair standing out in stark contrast. Next to her is a fully armored, large male drow warrior in a horned helm. The scale is small, but the expression on the female's face is one of fiery outrage and determination.
The painting's scene is cloaked in a haze of smoke, the fog of war giving it a surreal, dream-like quality despite the precise realism of the scene.
On a golden plaque below the painting is written:
"The Fall of the Dreadnought and Captain Jhaamdath Xun'viir. 3rd Month of 151 AR" - Ilphaeryl Xun'viir
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XUN'VIIR SHADOW DRAGON OF T'LINDHET (Unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas, Enchanted
This painting is of the dark depths of a deep cavern. The cavern wall seems distant, and almost surreal, but is clearly worked in the image of drow stonecraft sinuous and sinister. Hints of red faerie fire outline various sharp designs upon the distant cavern walls.
Various drow figures all hooded and cloaked mill about the cavern though they are not the focus. In the center of the painting is a gigantic, ancient shadow dragon curled up as if in a deep slumber.
Its scales are an almost shiny black, and its form bleeds shadow like steam wafting off of dry ice in sinuous, billowing clouds. Its talons are almost as large as the drow that surround it. The fang lined maw cavernous enough to likely eat one whole.
Upon closer inspection, one can see various infernal sigils about the dragon as it rests. A binding, or a protection? That is up for the viewer to decide.
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THE FALL OF UMBRICK'S HALLS (Unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas
This picture tells a story, The background is a tunnel shaft, weaving left to right across the painting, so that the viewer easily observes events transpiring. The top left shows a group of dwarves; miners, warriors and craftsman, walking together merrily, ails and axes in had, around them fine pillars and rich carvings,
Down the tunnel is a dwarf in cloth stands facing them, a warning hand raised and a solemn look on his face. The Dwarves he is addressing are merry and dismissive, Amidst them is one in rich armor, a crown on his head. He's likewise uncaring of the lone dwarf's words.
Further down the rich tunnel miners hack at amethyst veins with joyous and greedy expressions. But behind the stone another group of Dwarves, Duergar, sit in wait axes ready. A few inches down the tunnel some of these Duergar have sprinted out of their holes and are attacking the miners!
The rest of the tunnel is a confused ruckus of beards, Dark dwarves swarm from various blackened holes, doing battle with the ill prepared surfacers. It's a mass slaughter, and as the carnage is followed downwards the winner cannot be determined. Nevertheless, dwarves are on the retreat, Duegar hacking them from behind.
All that prevents a massacre is three dwarves, who stand firm. A red cloaked axe wielder, and the same cloth garbed dwarf and kingly dwarf with a smug smile seen further up the picture, though their beards are greyer. They withstand the Duegar, giving their kin time to escape. The bodies of the Duegar piled up around.
The refugees flee into daylight, down a winding mountain path that leads to the very bottom right of the picture, where the Gates of Borgenstein stand proud. The weeping refugees enter, tugging their beards at the loss of their halls.
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GREYPORT'S HISTORY (Unkn)
Unknown Artist
Carved Marble
This highly decorated vase made from marble depicts a number of scenes chronicling Greyport's history.
The first shows its founding by Gracklstugh; a host of armor-clad duergar appear to be leaving a towering structure, presumably Gracklstugh's embassy. Some construct buildings, build piers, and erect scaffolds, while others keep watch.
The second shows a single ilythiiri female dressed in rather provocative attire beckoning a host of humans with eyepatches and armed with cutlasses ahead; the same humans appear to be fighting a mixture of orogs, other ilythiiri, and other Underdark races.
The third scene depicted features a female duergar seated upon a crumbling throne, surrounded by male duergar, inside a crumbling ruin. They are surrounded by ilythiiri, orogs, gnolls, goblins, and others, who seem to keep them hemmed in.
The fourth scene shows a single ilythiiri female of regal bearing upon the once-ruined throne, now wholly restored, flanked by well-armed males. The image of a shadow dragon over a barbed web hangs overhead.
The fifth scene shows two thrones now, with two ilythiiri females wearing laurel wreaths seated, again flanked by males. The image from before yet remains.
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THE LONG ROAD (Unkn)
Phaerlyn De'lyl
Ink on Parchment
Sketched entirely in blacks and whites, this is a simple piece. Depicted centrally is a winding path, and various figures are padding down its sinuous length, towards the viewer. At the forefront is a traveler, shrouded in a heavy cloak and kneeling onto the path. He seems to be inspecting the dirt and soil of the region, while his head is turned slightly to the side. Perhaps regarding the path ahead, or the figures behind him.
Seemingly only a few steps behind him, but likely longer due to the sinousness of the path stands a warrior, tall and proud. Harsh and rounded features mark him, and his hand rests on the scimitar sheathed at his side. The slightly pointed ears and hair colour would reveal the warrior to be a Drow Male, and his expression seems...distant, musing. His gaze is directed towards the viewer.
And at the back, almost lost is portrayed a ragged child. His head is bowed and hands clenched, a few drops of blood dripping from them. Hovering behind him is a figure barely sketched, although it does appear to be masculine. A poor urchin, a far cry from the proud duo that were further down the path, and yet there were the resemblances.
On the back of the painting is written simply: "Continue the long journey, Ilmryn. I will follow the path you have cleared, eventually. -Phaerlyn."
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THE HARPY'S NEST (161 AR)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas, Enchanted
This is a fascinating combination of magic and paint. Much of the image is still, rendered in a drained color nearing black and white, but two figures stand out in full bold color outlined by a soft pulse of Faerie Fire. One Male, One Female.
Inside Lloth's Temple, the Devil's Table, in the main chamber wrought in cold unfeeling stone and furnished with all the dreadful and expected motif's of the Spider Goddess, lies a council-style half circle of high-backed chairs centered by a throne.
All the seats are occupied by withered, hideously frail and skeletal thin drowesses, with sunken eyes and rotten clothes and rusted crowns and sharp pointing accusatory fingers at the Male Hero that stands in defiance against them in the center of their chamber.
Our Hero: unarmored, shirtless, with rippling and gratuitously enhanced masculinity, wearing little more than tight fitting breeches and a horned full-helmet. He stands with legs spread and knuckles at his waists creating a mixed caricature of confidence and disobedience.
The seated council of grotesque priestesses are in negotiation with The Hero over the subject that lies in the background, though illuminated much the same as the male in a glow of Faerie Fire and bold colors - a captured female in the custody of the Council of Harpies.
Our Female: voluptuous and curved in all the right ways, draped in the finest silk tattered to ribbons in a somehow revealing and feminine enhancing manner, and with her hands bound just barely in a soft rope. There is a tiny cut on her cheek with a dribble of blood - an immense crime owing to the Hero's presence.
There's a tiny plaque at the bottom: "Belfryn frees Princess May'riina AR 161"
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LIBERATION (Unkn)
Initials: V.X.
Oil on Canvas
A beautiful figure of ashen skin and white hair like strands of spider silk seems to dominate this painting, her expression severe, imperious, and commanding. She appears dressed for war, wearing platemail decorated with numerous spikes. In one hand, she holds a weighty scepter that could double as a war-mace; indeed, this gilded ornament appears stained with blood. In the other is held a barbed scourge.
At her feet lies numerous dead elves of various kinds. Blood pools from a sun elf's corpse, his face frozen in a look of shock. A moon elf lies beside him, her body punctured by innumerable arrows. A wild elf's body is strewn overtop them both, his head having been caved in by a blunt instrument of some kind.
Behind this in the background can be seen an army, rendered in excruciating detail. This formidable host includes ilythiiri led by female officers on riding lizards, giant spiders, a variety of other Underdark races like kobolds, orogs, gnolls, and duergar, and perhaps most notable of all? Devils.
Spinagons and erinyes fly over the troops, providing aerial support. Towering malebranches stand close to the siege engines they seem to dwarf to protect them. Kytons gleefully lead prisoners-of-war, all elves, along in chains.
Two sigils feature prominently in this painting; indeed, all the uniforms and tabards seem to carry them. One depicts a web with nine points equidistant from one another, and the other depicts a shadowy wyrm superimposed over a barbed web.
In the corner are a pair of initials, stylistically drawn over the depiction of a vazhan-do: "V. X."
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SAINT MEBRITH (Unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas
This painting is a drow female standing on what appears to the deck of a stone ship, squaring off against an ocean harpy. She is slim and agile looking and her face and bare biceps carry the scars of many conflicts and the signs of longer life, even by Drow standards.
Her pants are leather and her shirt is silk of the finest quality. Her Drow piwafwi trails out behind her and is embroidered with the imagery of a Shadow Dragon trapped in a Barbed Web.
She carries a large Mythril shield emblazoned with the same image, and a shortsword of the finest quality shining with divine energy. Her eyes are red and intensely focused on the foe before her, and her lips are twisted in cruel grin.
A plaque below declares the following: "In memory of the Saint, Survivor of the City of Survivors, rescuer of the Matron Shairin Dria'fiend. Once Warlord of the Spider Legion Once Captain of the Dreadnaught. Saved from Choas and Insanity by Taly'rrae Xun'vir, among first of many saved in the City of Andunor. She spread the glory of the Savior in Pain and Pleasure and Strength and Unity and Victory. In life she gave up everything including the desire to depart in obscurity, and in death she knows the end of suffering at the hands of the Savior."
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SAVA (Unkn)
Initials: V.M.
Oil on Canvas
A pair of drow females sit at a sava table, a game already in progress. One, seated on the left, appears to be a comely drow priestess wearing an emerald green and black dress resembling holy garments. A trio of vipers, seemingly attached to a whip resting within her lap, coil around her forearm and hiss threateningly at the figure seated on the right.
If the figure seated on the left was a model of elegance and grace, the figure on the right was anything but. She wears drab and unremarkable leathers, her hair cut short. Tattoos scrawled out in crimson run up and down her exposed thighs. A pair of shortswords rest in her lap; her palm appears to be bleeding from a nasty cut there, and one of the shortswords seems to be stained heavily with blood.
A long row of pieces that were captured rest on the left-hand side of the board, each one silver and teal; a host of different pieces decorated with black, crimson, and gold lie scattered across the board, having undisputed command of it. The figure on the right's head hangs, her expression one of intense frustration and anger, and yet it is also the look of the defeated as well. At her feet lies a mask with a pair of goggles attached and an iron dagger.
Resting above the wall over the triumphant, smiling figure seated on the left are the coat-of-arms of House Xun'viir, along with a barbed scourge and the emblem of a spider, resting side by side.
In the bottom-right corner rests a pair of initials, "V. M.", superimposed over a vazhan-do.
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JUDGMENT (Unkn)
Initials: I.X.
Oil on Canvas, Enchanted
This painting depicts a nebulous figure, humanoid female figure shrouded in a mist upon a dias of marble and gold. The dias seems to belong to an ancient royal court, enigmatic and ethereal like the afterthought of a bygone era. At the edges of the painting one can see a dense forest hazy and unfocused.
The female figure kneels in the center of the dias, facing toward the viewer. She appears beaten and bloodied, her once fine garments of silk ragged and torn. It is clear she was once a proud and powerful individual, though strength seems to have escaped her as her head remains lowered.
The painting seems to hold a hint of magic in it, as suddenly a flash of bright blue-white faerie fire forks down in tendrils of lighting and flows into the female figure clearly meant as an executioner's bolt.
Directly after the bolt hits the figure it seems to surge with power and presence, outlined in hints of crimson flame with eyes that burn with the endless wellspring of fresh hatred and primal outrage.
Sketched subtly in the corner is the title, and the painter's signature: "Judgment" 'I.X.
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IGNAN (Unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas
Aggressive, broad strokes of an almost universally warm coloured palette marr this canvas, with a queer contrast of white painted zurkhwood to frame the thing.
Among crags scarred black by fire's bite, an enormous and mighty crimson Dragon unfurls its wings; the dull amber of its gaze set upon a troupe of shining knights, pathetic in size and scope to the enormous beast.
The golden sun of Lathander shines defiantly on their clutched banners, and the skies are an overcast of dark ashen clouds. No rays of sunlight poke through their density, making the only light source the rivers of lava that bleed and twist through the rocks.
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THE GOODLY VICAR (Unkn)
Initials: V.X.
Carved Stone
This statue depicts a human wearing the holy raiments of the clergy; which clergy is unclear, but his robes are far from plain, gold trim decorating its marble facade.
It holds open its arms, as if proselytizing, whilst looking accusatively and judgmentally towards the viewer. Attached to the statue itself is a donation box on a pedestal, it seemingly overfull with gold and silver.
If one looks for long enough, the statue almost appears to not only be looking down upon the viewer but also at the coin before him, covetously.
Inscribed upon the plinth is written the following words: "BE WARY OF THOSE WHO PROCLAIM TO DO GOOD; FOR ALL ARE SELF-SERVING, EVEN IF THEY LIE TO YOU AND THEMSELVES."
Chiseled elsewhere into the statue's surface is a pair of initials, superimposed over a drow lyre, a vazhan-do: "V. X."
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LOVE (Unkn)
Qintarra Vh'larra
Watercolor, Oil on Canvas
Muted ambers, vivid oranges, and deep purples battle each other in twisting, weaving threads that dance and twine together until all become one at the canvas' center. Their edges are dark, fading into the colorless, black backdrop the sphere is transposed upon. At its center, the blend is bright, giving the illusion of illumination. The back of the frame sports tiny Xanalress runes that translate roughly to: "Love.", by Qintarra Vh'larra
These watercolors are interrupted by a layer of acrylic paints: Icewhites, Obsidian blacks, Faerzress Reds and Purples. An immense, rusted iron pillar rises through the center, both ends encased by granite. Steel arms protrude from the column, stretched outwards for an embrace, with shackles instead of hands.
Thin wrists, skin the color of painted Obsidian, poke through the tightly latched shackles. A female Drow hangs from her cage in an exaggerated Y pose, slender hands limp; head held aloft, Faerzress red and purple eyes transfixed forward in an expression that c- [Lost due to painting damage]
The Icewhite tunic and cloak born by the prisoner matches the close-shaven hair she sports. If one looks close enough, and possessed the right knowledge, they might notice a pin signifying the rank of Matron affixed to her breast, alongside a House symbol of a screaming skull looming over the prisoner's heart.
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MIRACLE AT SIBAYAD (Unkn)
May'riina Xun'viir
Magical, Enchanted
[This is not so much a classic painting as it is a magical hologram in artistic rendition. The details are hyper-realistic, and the images and landscape shift and flow as the viewer's angle of perception changes]
Sibayad's desert fort: a large airy tent, a small homestead, assorted horses resting and drinking from loose troughs. Windswept mountainous range crests the background distorted by heat's haze, wiggling and writhing the image as the viewer moves.
Underneath, the setting falls towards a scene of ongoing violence.
Armored in dusty black steel, and on her hands and knees in the sand of the desert, a black-haired moon elf is defeated, beaten, bloody, and with tears streaming in trails down dust-ridden face. As the viewer shifts their angle, the elf appears to not just be crying - but bawling. Smoke wafts from slug holes in her armor, and she heaves with every sob of pain and sorrow.
Haloed by a black sun, and triumphant over the pitifully detailed moon elf, a man dressed in beige and gray stands as protector to her. His eyes blaze with ghostly blue energy.
With a mighty rack of rock hard abs made visible by an ethereal wind blowing his monk's attire, and bulging biceps straining to stay inside tight vestments, the monk is flying outside of his tent with great purpose.
That purpose being to beat the moon elf's aggressor, another rail-thin and purposefully weak-looking elf dressed in nonsensical flamboyant regalia, senseless.
The monk holds the scruff of the elf's collar, and the hologram repeatedly punches and withdraws for another as the viewer changes angle. The elf receiving the punishment is crying and making no efforts to protect his face - suffering an eternity of face crushing punishment.
In the distance two more elves run from the scene, discarding weapons as they retreat, into the desert heat to leave their kin to a permanent fate.
In the corner, the artist: May'riina Xun'viir.
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GLAMOUR (Unkn)
Initials: V.X.
Oil on Canvas, Enchanted
This painting seems to depict a wizened human mage wearing fine blue robes and a cowl to match; at least, this is how it appears to the naked eye. Yet even to the most casual of examinations, something seems off. This painting appears simple and there isn't much detail to it.
It is only through casting a spell that pierces illusory glamers, such as True Seeing, that the painting's true nature is laid bare. The beard of the wizard transforms into a set of six tentacles, his wrinkly pale skin grows taut and takes on an unnatural violet hue, and his kindly ice-blue eyes give way to a baleful crimson glow.
Even the background of the painting has changed; what was a pleasant night sky reflected in the windows of a magician's demesne has given way to a dense mist that pervades a room of clearly alien design. A hand, if one can even call it that, no longer clutches the staff in its grasp either, but instead holds out a slimy-looking tadpole towards the viewer; it seems to move and squirm on the canvas.
Curiously enough, if one sees the painting with the naked eye, the letters "V. F." are painted in the corner. If the glamour has been pierced, however, the initials shift to "V. X.", instead.
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DUNES BY NIGHT (Unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas
Wide landscape of dunes, overcast by the dark of night and above the dim of stars and a silver-crescent moon. To the right side and closer to the viewer's perception are ruins wrought of white stone, bleached long by the rays of an absent sun and swept with dust and sand from days of desert gusts.
Further leftward stretches distance of emptiness, with exceptions of occasional fungal stalks that stretch up and kiss the stars' glimmer with their wide, rotund caps.
The sands never end, gentle in their roll and dotted always with those too-exotic trees.
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THE SUZERAIN (Unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas
Viewed from on high, a dark elf dressed in a robe made from voluminous carmine silks is seated imperiously in an intricate throne of dark iron. He is bald both of brows and of head, the hairless scalp like some dark and inverted lunar dome. Under his chin rests the thumb of his left hand, propped up by an elbow in the armrest of his throne.
In sight of his court are a strange enslaved host of beasts in manacles, caged birds or bats, and crimson-clad, blindfolded men holding open books in which are pressed an inscrutable number of insects, arachnids or other such anonymous creatures. None of them dare to look up from the hard, austere stone of the room, and on each wall is a long banner wrought of that same colour red which makes up the clothing of all present.
From his seat on high The Suzerain gazes toward the viewer, but he is eyeless.|
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LOYALTY (Unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas
The subject of this painting is a Drow woman, tall for her kind; she is sitting on a lavish stone throne in a simple hall; two empty wooden thrones on either side of her, her hand holds her head up, as she looks lazily out of the painting.
Her eyes are a dull red, they are the eyes of someone who has worked a lifetime, and then asked to work another; an endless line of petitioners, their faces undetailed, simple ovals with the barest suggestion of features; stretch out before her. With a green cape folded over the arm of the chair, she seems to resemble a famous Drow Matron of Andunor; one known for her constant meeting with the unwashed masses.
A circlet, one with a hint of a crack beginning to show itself sits atop her head, it is in the traditional shape of ancient Elven royalty, though in place of the traditional jewels and gold, is Adamantine and blood-red rubies; ones that glitter in the fae-fire lanterns that cast purple light over the hall.
Her right hand holds a blade firmly, though her arm remains loose, it seems to be embedded in the stone of the throne, it is one made for purpose, its blade made of black metal, the handle a leather wrapped affair.
Beside the throne stands an almost doppelganger of the figure, barring that within her red eyes is a hint of green flame, as she looks covetously upon the hall, though her hand rests almost lovingly on the Coronal's shoulder.
The subject is clad in a robe made of chainmail, red cloth overtop giving it a fashionable chic; her boots are made of plate, though they sit restfully on the back of a human male, who seems satisfied with the state of affairs.
Despite the almost lavish nature of the Coronal's environment, her face seems like that of someone far older, she is clearly under a great deal of stress and the weight of years of dutiful work to house and country weigh upon her.
A plaque at the base of her throne reads 'Proud to Serve' in Dwarven.
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THE BURNING SHORES (157 AR)
C. Crowe
Oil on Canvas
A painting consisting of reds, oranges, and streaks of yellow to pattern a sky which had been lit ablaze by dragon fire. Beneath it, torrential winds send waves crashing against the side of an immense warship, which has its six cannons turned towards the sky.
The style of warship is decidedly illythiri in nature. Where the cannons are pointed, a dragon with bright gold scales takes flight--flames spraying from its maw as it does battle with the warship. The painting captures the very second that the vessel unleashes its final barrage, moments before the beast is sent crashing into the seas.
A signature marks the frilled obsidian frame. "C.Crowe - Painted on 11 Nightal 157"
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GHOST SPIDER (unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas
Full body view of an elven maiden seated nude in a meadow under the shade of an alien tree. The sky is too bright an azure, and the sun merely a white, dense orb set somewhere in the sky.
This elf is pale, alabaster both in hair and skin tone, her limbs like those of some perfect golem wrought of ivory and bestowed also with life true. Only her eyes, these things wrought of narrowed, hateful carmine, emerge as spots of hue.
Between her fingers is clutched a brilliant, violet hibiscus, though in the places her skin touches the flower decays to wilting rot. Between gaps in the shade of branches and leaves, sunlight filters through to illuminate parts of her perfect flesh; from illumination rises smoke off flesh burned black.
Elsewhere over the surrounding grassland bloom magnificent fields of multicolored flowers, heedless still.
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THE LOWERDARK (unkn)
Initials: V.X.
Oil on Canvas
This painting is largely cast in darkness; it is only through the bright, bioluminescent fungi that line the walls that these otherwise lightless tunnels are given illumination. Curiously enough, the mushrooms in the painting seem to actually glow, even in a darkened or dimly-lit room -- especially in a darkened or dimly-lit room. Bright hues of yellow, orange, purple, and green seem to jump off the canvas.
Indeed, it seems the paints used for this piece of artwork were in fact produced from the very bioluminescent fungi depicted. The effect is astounding, as it captures the eccentric and dangerous beauty of the Underdark's bowels with extreme effectiveness.
However, it appears as though something malevolent lurks in the darkness. A number of especially long eyestalks can be seen sticking out from behind the bleached bones of a deep dragon's carcass, long ago picked clean. If one focuses hard enough, in fact, the massive central eye of a beholder can be seen peering through what was the creature's ribcage, out at the viewer.
Scrawled in the corner with a paintbrush in yellow bioluminescent paint is a pair of initials, "V. X.", superimposed over a stylished rendition of a vazhan-do.
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WORM TUNNEL (unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas
Low angle looking up as a party of dark elves descend in a stable freefall through a grotesque white-hot interplanar tunnel made out of liquid illusion.
The walls of this tunnel look like waterfalls of elongated wholesomenesses, gelatinous virtues, alien vulgarities, monster-filled scenes of placid grassland, and mercurial torture scenes all stretching past at terminal velocity.
Most of the generally indeterminate five have gleeful expressions of their faces, with the singular exception, a male, peering directly toward the viewer.
He holds a hand out toward a wall. His eyes are filled with dreams. His nose is bleeding.
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DANCE OF BONES (unkn)
Unknown Artist
Oil on Canvas
The center of this painting depicts a joyous dance. Two dancers dancing naked, so naked in fact that they are no longer wearing their skin or flesh, only strips of flesh hanging from their bones.
Around these two, people of all ilk from elves to goblins, drow and so on. Multitude of races forming a crowd. The crowd is cheering for these two dancers and some brave ones are busily tearing off their skin and flesh. Piles of discarded clothing, skin, flesh and blood all over.
The landscape this takes place seems to be completely barren, no trees, no animals, no life. Just gray rock and bones. No clouds, just gray sky.
All of this, this joyous gathering seems to be warmed by the gray rays coming from the great solar eclipse that dominates the sky.
Strange thing about this macabre painting, besides everything. Is that it never seems to stay the same. While in complete stasis as a painting should be. Eventually, when the looker blinks or turns away, the painting has changed.
The dancers in different position as they dance their never ending waltz. The crowd cheering and joining the dance. The painting seems to be alive somehow.. Well, alive might be a misleading word.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
[The modest portrait of a young vermilion-haired lady with pallid flesh is positioned next to the paragraph below. Her emerald gaze looks intently at the reader, betraying the aspect's alluring facade with callous indifference. The suggestion of a predatory smile appears hidden within the corners of full upturned lips.]
"The Vampire Adelyn Belle'rose has been charming readers with her historical works upon the island of Arelith for years. As the former curator of the Cordor's Museum, she helped bring the past to life through exhibits and displays. Later, as a member of Andunor's Erudite Arcanum, she would lead the research team to investigate Shadow Wharftown's Third Iteration. Through the founding of the Arelith Antiquarian Society and the East Arelith Trading Company, she continues to advocate for the preservation of knowledge across the archipelago."