My friend June Jensson from Norway is in the process of bringing my main characters to life. Here is her first painting. This is Rand of the Scoth. I’m very pleased with her work and I’m excited to see my other characters become more real as well.
Rand learns that he is the one foretold about in the ancient scrolls, who will gather the five keystones and open the well of souls to free the Messiah. He refuses the call, after all, he’s just a nobody.
Eventually, standard bearer for his father Rommen, who is a Knight of the Realm and Captain of the Guard, Rand watches his father die in the battle of Breachfille, killed by a demon master who has taken on material form. He takes his father’s sacred sword, a Nyakil, which violates the sacred decree that all Nyakil may only be wielded by a Knight of the Realm. Deciding eventually to return it, he instead is framed for the assassination of the King, and becomes a hunted outlaw.
He is tracked by Erinwe of the Rhiannon, daughter of the King and a Knight herself. Two years older, she is Rand’s love, and eventually learns that Rand is not guilty of the crime to which he has been accused. Rand and Erinwe enter the Great Wood, crossing the impenetrable forest by the help of Rand’s Guardians, they discover Brinn Ea Drihallin, the last illuminar (immortal) left in The Realm. The three carry three of the five keystones, realizing that upon finding the other two, they will be able to open the well of souls.
Seemingly impossible, they continue the quest to the immortal sanctuary of Illianor, to where all illuminar but Brinn have escaped. Brinn is reunited with his wife R’ille Ea Forentialle, though she fights demon possession after having given her soul to the Demon Lord two thousand years earlier attempting to save Brinn’s life. She is the fourth keystone, and eventually they unite with the fifth keystone, the most improbable member of all, Legion, who is a nightshade, immortal being created by the Demon Lord to fight the immortal illuminar. Legion is the son of R’ille, as all nightshades are born from a nightshade raping an immortal illuminar female. This unlikely alliance attempts to do what hasn’t been done in thousands of years: open the well of souls and free the illuminar Messiah, in order to save their world from the ravages of the Demon Lord.
Rand: at eighteen, he has grown into the body of a fighter, a knight, like his father. About 5′ 10″, 180 lbs, with unruly jet-black hair, gray eyes the color of polished steel, he looks a little unrefined in his simple leather armor, and out of place is the jet-black nyakil he wields. His look is serious, somewhat worried, for he has seen the death of both his mother and father, watched the demons come to take the souls of his parents, and he greatly fears death. He is seeking the illuminar in the wild hope of finding immortality to escape death. He’s head over heels in love with Erinwe.
