Scenes from The Great North

Tom Kilian has sent me some more works-in-progress for art for The Great North (formerly The Meeting of the Waters). As a reminder, this is my follow-up to Yoon-Suin, in which I give the same 'setting construction toolbox' treatment to a pseudo-Northumberland; the text has long been complete and Tom has been beavering away at producing the illustrations. 

Some choice pictures, with text from the book itself:

Barghest - 'A malevolent and vindictive shapeshifter sighted in its animal form at night or at times of grief, but otherwise walking the earth in disguise as a solitary man or woman...' 

Followers of the Old Ways - 'A religious group whose members are still engaged in Emperor worship or even pursuit of the gods who used to walk these lands in the ancient past. Often such people are merely in love with secrecy and the excitement of strange ritual, but there are those with sincere belief that the Emperor will someday return, or that they can revive old spirits who are not gone, but sleeping...'

Grindylow - 'The lank-haired, long-armed pool-dweller who delights in drowning. She waits for passers-by who she can grab and pull beneath the surface of her dark waters, and spends the rest of her time plotting to expand her power and influence...'

Heron man - 'Long limbed, lurching walkers, with the feathered heads and beaks and sharp yellow eyes of the heron, and the gracile limbs of the man. Like the birds which are their namesakes they are patient and quiet; they prefer to wait for the chance to kill, and their eyes are as adept at spotting a chink in a man’s armour as they are seizing on the silvery flicker of a fish darting in the shadows of a pool....'

Hobgoblin - 'Foul mannish things who live to playfully ape some aspect or other of the life of mankind, poorly understood and perceived through a lens of pure malevolence...'

Knucker - 'A slithering, serpentine water dragon, enslaver of the weak-willed, coiling its mighty length in the murky depths of a lake or river....' 

Lamprey man - 'Slimy, sinuous swimmers, made of soft cartilage which renders them pliable, loose, bendy. They emerge from their watery homes to roam on land in search of prey who they can drag back to feed their young, creeping close to the ground before suddenly rearing up to walk bipedal on uncertain but unfailing legs. Their mouths are jawless, sucking, rasping, hungry - filled with circular rows of teeth for slicing through flesh....'

Nature spirit - 'The land itself is capable of feeling: of mourning, of yearning, of hating, of loving, of hoping. Anyone who has walked in a forest in spring as green life appears to instantiate itself from the very air around it, stood on a hilltop as the winds of autumn blow in wild, or strolled along a desolate and mournful beach in winter, will be unable to dispute this. Usually, these feelings are expressed only in the minds and hearts of those who are present to observe them. Sometimes, however, the land makes its emotions tangible in much more direct form, creating a spirit of great power to walk the earth and give voice to what made it....'

Ogres - 'The man-eating sons of Orcus, the Punisher of Lies, who have been in these lands since they came from abroad as mercenaries in the Emperor’s pay long ago. His rule bound them, but in his absence they have reverted to their old faith. Their deity demands of them that they kill and devour all oath-breakers, and since that word can describe all human life, any man, woman or child may be made their victim....'

Lares - 'Patron demigods were brought to the Great North in their thousands by the Emperor’s servants during his reign, each being given purview over a tiny sliver of public or private life - a road, a house, a family, a field, even a single room. Many have faded into nothingness now that their cults have disappeared and the places which they inhabited have fallen into ruin. But there are those which remain, often in the most unlikely places: a forgotten cellar on an urban street; a small shrine hidden in a  barn; a toppled statue in a copse of oak in a hidden fold of land; a narrow lane running from nowhere in particular to nowhere special. Some are sorrowful, some are imbued with rage, while others have long gone mad; a few, though, retain the devotion to protective care which they were originally given, and exercise it still...'