February 2018 Challenge: The Isle of Grace, in the Marsh of Time
Of the set of prophecies I got from the linked generator, one stood out to me in particular:
"Upon the Twilight of Grace, in the Marsh of Time, the Helm of Wrath shall be lost"
The Marsh of Time sounded like a rather interesting place to me, and then with Time being a part of its name and all the thought struck me: what if the Twilight of Grace were not solely a time in the prophecy, but also a place?
This idea led to my plans for the Isle of Grace: A large island, or small continent depending on your definition (large partly just because I like my regional maps) situated in the midst of a mysterious wetland known as the Marsh of Time. From without, the Marsh of Time is a decently large, swampy wetland, filled continuously with a white mist. Were one to venture out into its increasingly-watery midst, however, it becomes larger than should fit within its perimeter, until one sails or rows (or heaven forbid, swims) in less a swamp than a sea. And within the mist, the Isle of Grace, a landmass that should certainly not fit within the marsh's geographic confines and upon which time and place are linked in a way quite unlike in other places. Northwards from the island's center, it is frozen in eternal night and winter, while the south sees an endless noontide summer. To the west, trees bear leaves of resplendent fall color at all times, somehow dropping them now and then yet never running out, and their color is only made more vibrant by the sunset of the eternal evening. To the east, dawn breaks on as it has since the Isle's discovery, and the blooms of springtime never wilt.
So it is that the Isle of Grace's regions can be equally defined by their time, and straight west of its center lies the land known as the Twilight, its skies eternally living up to its name.
I decided to incorporate the prophecy that generated just after the one above, as well, because it too named Grace in a way that could be a place:
"The King of Grace shall be slain when the moon is crowned"
The King of Grace, I have decided, was a nigh-immortal, sorcerous tyrant, who ruled the Isle of Grace with an iron fist for centuries if not millennia. He claimed the construction of the most great and mysterious edifices of the Isle, which had predated any other settlers, as far as it was known; chief among these the Clocktower of the Moon, a structure mysterious in that it was a tower at the center of the Isle of Grace, so tall it even eclipsed Grace's tallest mountains in height, the glow of its clock-faces, each displaying a phase of the moon, visible from farther away than should be possible.
In this claim, the King of Grace lied, for the Clocktower came before even he (not that many other inhabitants of the Isle knew or would speak otherwise), and neither he nor any other truly understood much of its purpose or power (indeed, this is largely still unknown). But it proved his undoing: the crowning of the moon described in the prophecy that foresaw his downfall was the moment in which the Helm of Wrath was found, after having been tracked down starting from the Twilight, where the prophecy had first foretold its disappearance, and it being brought into the heights of the Clocktower of the Moon. The precise events that unfolded are unclear, but it seems that some result of this was that the Time whose passing he had ignored caught up with the King of Grace, all at once, and he was no more, freeing the Isle's people.
My challenge entry will lay out the journey of those who found and recovered the Helm of Wrath and brought about the prophecy's conclusion, and will in the process display the Isle of Grace's geography and landmarks as well.
So far, I have this to begin with, basic linework on a parchment background for coastlines, mountains, hills and forests. Here it goes:
### Latest WIP ###
MarshOfTime.jpg
