The Last Dark cover art revealed

[dlbpharmd]

Couldn't have said it better, Orlion.

[Orlion]

Guardian of the new One Tree.

Now you're just reaching... we don't even know if the world can be made anew, let alone if another One Tree can be created, would be necessary, or even wanted. Besides, since the Guardian is an Elohim construct, there is no natural reason to even have a new Guardian with a new One Tree... further, there is no need to set it up the same way as with the Old Guardian.

[thewormoftheworld'send]

Guardian of the new One Tree.

Now you're just reaching... we don't even know if the world can be made anew, let alone if another One Tree can be created, would be necessary, or even wanted. Besides, since the Guardian is an Elohim construct, there is no natural reason to even have a new Guardian with a new One Tree... further, there is no need to set it up the same way as with the Old Guardian.

Someone mentioned the stars around the figure on the cover, those are the stars of the One Tree. They don't even look like wraiths.

[Orlion]

No doubt you jest when you say 'little strength'. A Forestal is as puissant as the number of trees in the forest he protects. Andelain + Salva Gildenbourne might be the greatest forest since the One Forest; even greater than Garroting Deep

u.

They're mostly young, and Mahrtiir would be new to his Forestal powers. And we are talking about skurj that are essentially a hoard of fiery hydras and Sandgorgons, to whom distance has no meaning to such power. Hell, I don't know if even Caerriol Wildwood could fend off one Sandgorgon, let alone an army off them.

Granted, and yet Wildwood was more than a match for about 750,000 Foul warriors and an Illearth Stone fragment fuelled Giant Raver. It's one of the imponderables of the Chron; just how fundamentally incommensurable powers can be stacked up against one another (one of the reasons I have such a low tolerance for superhero movies ).

u.

Incommensurable? A little... but that is namely because they have a range, various limitations be they natural or self-imposed, and in the case of the Forestal, their powers are geographical and/or dependent on other member participation (like the ur-vile Loremaster).

The way I look at it, a Sandgorgon was able to rend a Raver. That places them pretty high up on the powerscale... I'd put them almost at level with the Elohim, so they are almost or just about the most powerful "natural" creatures of the Land-world. So even though a Forestal did hold off the Sunbane from Andelain for thousands of years, I'm not sure one could hold off a direct assault from a Sandgorgon...

Of course, we do not know much about them or if they have any exploitable weaknesses (much like how the Harrow could easily dispatch any Vile-spawn since he knew exactly how they are held together). We know wild-magic can beat them, and when that is the only known effective weapon against them... well...

Of course, I'm certain the Worm or SHE could devour them easily.

[Orlion]

Guardian of the new One Tree.

Now you're just reaching... we don't even know if the world can be made anew, let alone if another One Tree can be created, would be necessary, or even wanted. Besides, since the Guardian is an Elohim construct, there is no natural reason to even have a new Guardian with a new One Tree... further, there is no need to set it up the same way as with the Old Guardian.

Someone mentioned the stars around the figure on the cover, those are the stars of the One Tree. They don't even look like wraiths.

Or they're just stars, or Elohim... or the stars actually belong to the Worm.

Further, the tree does not have a stump where a branch of wood was cut off from the One Tree to make a Staff of Law. Ultimately, I think the artist:
1)Likes to draw trees.
2)Was going for a more twilighty tone. We do not know how or why he chooses the figures he does or how accurate they are (see the Fatal Revenant cover). Ultimately, the only thing we can be certain is that he gets enough right that if you know about the character, you can identify him. And the blind-fold and Native-American features is a dead give-away of Mahrtiir.

[thewormoftheworld'send]

Now you're just reaching... we don't even know if the world can be made anew, let alone if another One Tree can be created, would be necessary, or even wanted. Besides, since the Guardian is an Elohim construct, there is no natural reason to even have a new Guardian with a new One Tree... further, there is no need to set it up the same way as with the Old Guardian.

Someone mentioned the stars around the figure on the cover, those are the stars of the One Tree. They don't even look like wraiths.

Or they're just stars, or Elohim... or the stars actually belong to the Worm.

Further, the tree does not have a stump where a branch of wood was cut off from the One Tree to make a Staff of Law. Ultimately, I think the artist:
1)Likes to draw trees.
2)Was going for a more twilighty tone. We do not know how or why he chooses the figures he does or how accurate they are (see the Fatal Revenant cover). Ultimately, the only thing we can be certain is that he gets enough right that if you know about the character, you can identify him. And the blind-fold and Native-American features is a dead give-away of Mahrtiir.

At first I thought it was Brinn, but then I realized it was Mahrtiir as the new ak-haru.

[Krilly]

It might not be stars or wraiths. Could be an artist's interpretation of a Forestal's twinkling music. *shrug*

[Prover of Life]

where did this cover come from?

[Prover of Life]

where did this cover come from?

Never mind. I see "source link" at the bottom of the picture. It comes from Penguin USA site.

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Troy's blindness corresponds well to Mahrtiir's blindness, no?

EDIT: If time ends up looping back on itself, maybe Mahrtiir will end up being the *first* (and the last) Forestal.

[hue of fuzzpaws]

One quick Mahrtiir.

[Vraith]

Troy's blindness corresponds well to Mahrtiir's blindness, no?

Not that it doesn't mean something...but I'm mostly sure in the GI or somewhere SRD said [really roughly] "I didn't realize I had such a thing for blind until someone else pointed it out."

[Savor Dam]

He just never noticed?

"The words that I remember
From my childhood still are true
That there's no so blind
As those who will not see"

"And to those who lack the courage
And say it's dangerous to try
Well they just don't know
That love eternal will not be denied"


Sorry...can't leave that stanza incomplete.

[Orlion]

And the grass stains are growing, underneath our jeeeeans!

[Savor Dam]

Such is what happens when we are on the Verge of Wandering...

[Frostheart Grueburn]

One quick Mahrtiir.

Not bad, I like the defiant expression. That bandage will slide down in a second, though, unless it's fastened with hairpins. As far as I recall, it went only over his eyes, as SRD keeps describing his eyebrows.

[hue of fuzzpaws]

Not bad, I like the defiant expression. That bandage will slide down in a second, though, unless it's fastened with hairpins. As far as I recall, it went only over his eyes, as SRD keeps describing his eyebrows.

[The Puissant]

I'm actually thinking that only now are we seeing the similarities betwixt Caer-Caveral and Mahrtiir. My vote is that the person is Mahrtiir, and that he is going to become a Forestal.

Ditto. I like the idea of Mahrtiir as a guardian of a new One Tree.
Pics gotta be him, not exactly how I'd have imagined the Manethrall but hey....

[Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg]

Is it possible that cover is a cruel hoax, or like a study? Seems awfully, uh, colored in, to be a study.

But I mean, that picture looks almost exactly like my re-release of Fatal Revenant's cover, with a photoshop head swap.

If that is Mahitir...why is he...old? I loaned out my Runes of...whatever, book 7. But I was pretty sure they introduced 3 Manethralls, the woman who initially saves them, the 30ish 'young, eager, bloodthirstyish' one(Mahitir), and the old man who stares off into space.

And again, the re-release I have (not sure if it is new art or not, but the Covenant art changes a lot) of Fatal Revenant has an old man, with his eyes closed, holding a black staff, in front of a black tree, my first thought was Anele but Anele's robe is not beautiful and pure white, so I guess it is Caerroil Wildwood, or yet another case where the artist didn't talk to the author? =p

I mean, damn, the picture of Covenant on the cover of wounded land, or white gold wielder, the one that High Lord Tolkein fellow uses, has him looking like he is 50 or 60.

[Krilly]

Bhapa is the young one. Mahrtiir is the older Manethrall of the group.

Also... I'm not arguing for it, just playing devil's advocate here. But to those who say that can't be the Staff of Law on the cover due to how it looks nothing like it... have you looked at your AATE cover lately?