The challenge was to give enough detail to engage the reader in both the words and the ink. There must be enough detail to make sense but not so much as to give things away. At the same time, some things will not make as much sense without knowing the larger parts of the history behind the character.
The character, a priest-turned-sell-sword, is named Kalkin after a character in the great book, Lord Of Light, by Roger Zelazny. The drawing is one of my favorite in part because of the background it represents; however, it stands on its own. A framed copy hangs in my house. I've included a small version of the original drawing and a link to the story, which begins,"At the edge of the valley the Dark God emerged. Pools like black ink welled up from the stony ground of the foothills and began to run together and merge. A thunder of wings carried a fearful flock of screaming birds away from the growing obsidian stain. The trees where they had roosted began to wither, smoke oozing from beneath their gnarled bark. Drawing himself upward the Dark God rose from the pitch and stood upon the blighted spot. Everything around Him held its breath; even the wind was stilled. He bent his mind across the valley, seeking a soul.
A multitude of auras brushed by the feathery edges of his unimaginable mind until one reacted against him. A single aura blazed up as it was touched, as if a blue curtain of fire was drawn to avoid his will. As, in fact, it had been. The Dark God's touch withdrew. Malice boiled from the Being, spilling from into the lowlands and across the plain and seeping into every other living being, but one. Every soul recoiled from the iron tang of their own mortality--the fear of death and the chill of its hopeless approach. The bitter knife only failed to penetrate one soul. The god could taste its essence like a bold liquor, and his mind was bent on savoring that one man's eternal dying."
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