CGSociety

This image began as a very simple portrait--a painting of a girl that I took a photo of in Ghana. It became something more when I infused it with a short story I have been working on. It's working title is "Dream Child" and it tells the story of this girl--Rebekkah--who travels through the City of Dreams to find the dream that will make her grow. She is a "ghost child" who was born by sorcery from a woman who was already dead. The world she lives in is dominated by a war between the god of the sun and the goddess of the moon, and people like her--who walk a fine line of "mortal" and "already dead"--are usually forced to join in the war as traffickers of lives. For all of the lives of mortal men, these wars have raged, and the gods "harvest" mass quantities of mortal men for their armies--using their souls, not their bodies, as slaves to their heavenly armies.

Societies everywhere have grown up around the trade of human souls. Entire governments rest on their commitments to the gods'"Counselors" who reside in the cities, and tally the amount of souls brought to them. Among the greatest of kingdoms build on this trade, is Nkros--the dark city in the background of this image. Nkros is a city that is full of technology, yet also full of destruction and desolation. Rebekkah and her father sail into it on the Iron Seaship, causing much fear and confusion--as none other but a Decendent can sail on the waters of the sea Nkros borders. The waters are known to eat souls--not because they are violent waters, but because the waters themselves disappear. They are a portal to the many worlds, and it is this Drinking Sea that brings souls to gods and counselors to cities. But only decendents can traffic them back and forth.

This image was done in Adobe Photoshop 7.0 with an Intuous 2 6x8 tablet. The wonderful fellows in the WIP forum helped me out with it a lot, and so I owe them my thanks. I also owe my thanks to the confused and sullen girl who let me take her picture in Nzuelezo, Ghana.