Illustration: The Vow – Defender and Hyarmi

I relish opportunities to make more winter illustrations, and I’m delighted to complete this particular image for my first novella, mostly written in 2008: Nothing Gold Can Stay.

The novella describes the events around Hu-Harek’s death in 1066 DH (0 AK). The illustration depicts a pivotal moment in the Defender’s life. (At this point he is usually called the Avalorn, the name he received in 1054 DH. He has not yet been named the Defender of Life; that happens in 20 AK.) The morning after he receives the secrets of Hu-Harek from Heruvael, he makes a vow to fight against and delay the fulfillment of those secrets, a vow that shapes the course of his life across centuries.

Though no hyarmi or humans were close enough to hear him that grey winter morning, someone else did.

The Defender stands on the bough of an oak tree overlooking a small clearing on a grey winter morning with light snowfall. A ghostly silver stag faces him at eye-height; the spirit has huge antlers, six outspread wings, and intensely green eyes. — The Vow
The Avalorn’s wing-coverts and even the feathers at the back of his head roused; his whole being tingled with the potency of the encounter. The Lord of all Forests did not speak, but the ava knew that his vow had been heard and accepted.

– *Nothing Gold Can Stay*
Read more about this illustration here.

Of the six sacred spirits of creation, the Lord of Forests is the one who has made the most appearances in my stories and novels. This is because it is the benefactor of the hyarmi race, like the Lord of Air is for the avarii. (But the Lord of Air disappears entirely after 916 DH.) I find writing dialogue scenes with these beings a bit scary and quite thrilling, since their minds are so alien. There’s no dialogue here, however, at this first encounter between them.

I needed to cobble together a passable Irish Elk / Megaloceros giganteus figure to depict the Lord of Forests, so my grateful credits go to Renderosity vendors HiveWire 3D and CWRW for their horse model, particularly the HiveWire mule deer and the CWRW Red Stag preset. Equally essential was the Irish Elk skull with antlers on TurboSquid by ericsstudio which I had drooled over since 2014 and finally bought on sale in 2023. (That was a happy day!)

Quercus robur from the e-on PlantCatalog also merits special recognition in this illustration.