In any case, these short stories often don’t get as much love as the novels and novellas.  It’s hard to validate the idea of spending a considerable amount of money on them since they likely won’t make much back, but there are some exceptions to that rule.  So when Rhianna’s first story was complete, I knew we had to celebrate.

We’ve had short story covers done before, but our other artists’ styles ended up clashing with Leo’s, which we consider the de facto standard for Tellest at the moment.  They may not be the kind of book covers that people expect on Amazon, but it’s the right type of character for us and the stories that we tell.  I’m hopeful that eventually people will recognize the stories that Tellest is known for, and that Leo’s style will let you know right away that you’re looking at something that’s been written by one of the folks in our stable. With that in mind, we had Rhianna’s tale lovingly embodied in Leo’s art style.

Leo started us out with a pretty bare-bones sketch, but it gave us a lot of what we were looking for.  Rhianna actually gave a perfunctory sketch of her own to Leo to use as a basis, and he nailed it with what we saw here.  Three dwarven brothers sit around a campfire, and the smoke takes the shape of the story the oldest brother is telling.  There was a little too much in this cover than we wanted to reveal, so we made some adjustments to it for Leo to carry out.

As you’ll see here, we covered some of the elements in the smoke, and we gave our sitting brother a more colorful and longer beard.

Leo came back with an even more expansive cover.  That’s one thing Leo is very good for.  He always gives these jobs 110%.  We decided, though, that we wanted the focus to be on the smoke instead of the dwarves, who ended up taking a little too much cover space here. They tell the story, but it’s that story that Midwinter Requiem truly focuses on.

So we took a step back to the earlier cover that Leo crushed with this insurmountable beauty.  I love how lifelike Leo’s pieces look, and this one was no different, with the quality of the trees, the mountains and of course the dwarven keep popping off the pages.  We did think the wolf didn’t quite look mournful enough, and we also suggested a clearer sky with a full moon in the background.

Here you could see some of those adjustments taking shape.

By the time it was all put together, it became one of my favorite story covers that we’ve had done yet.

I hope that we have more opportunities to get short story covers done up.  As we produce more great content, we’re seeing some return on investment, which is a wonderful feeling.  Maybe in the second phase of our release strategies, we’ll see a few more shorts get the proper treatment!

And here you have it, with all the bells and whistles.  It stinks that we lost the dwarven keep behind the title, but you’re not always going to keep every little piece in tact.

For those of you who are interested in seeing the very rough presketch that Rhianna did of the Midwinter Requiem cover, it’s available on our Patreon page.  You will have to be a $1/month patron, but you’ll get that preview, as well a full week’s worth of content… we update that daily!

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First Appearances to Kaos

When Kaos Kreegan and his sister were young, their mother brought them to the city of Viscosa to prepare for a celebration at Atalatha.  On the way there, the children noticed the presence of a wolf at their heels.  Still, the wolf shadowed the Kreegan family for the duration of their travel to the capital.  At some points, they even thought that he was playing with them.

Reconciliation with Kaos

Following his time in Fostervilla, Kaos returned to his childhood home, rebuilding it for the second time.  After some time spent there, he noticed that a wolf frequently spent time nearby.  Initially, he had planned on trapping and killing the animal, wary of the wolf’s fearlessness.  However, after some time reflecting on its behavior, Kaos determined that it was a simple curiousness.

Dirk was named as such because of the lighter patch of grey that appears on his forehead.  After that meeting with Kaos, the two were nearly inseparable.  Whenever Kaos needed to gather supplies, Dirk wouldn’t be far behind.

Eventually, when Kaos determined that dangers were still encroaching on his home and his country, he traveled north to meet with his old family friend, Stephen Caista.  Once there, he joined the Raleighn military.  However, with his personal knowledge and skills, Kaos worked better as an individual, and was permitted to serve with Dirk beside him.

After the War and Capture

After the fall of Ippius and Blacklehn, Kaos and his allies spent time rebuilding various hamlets and towns along Raleigh’s northern borders.  Dirk remained by his side during this time.

When Kaos returned home, Dirk traveled beside Steel Tip for a brief while.  However, during those travels, Dirk was captured by Atalathian poachers due to his size.  From there, he was brought into Atalatha, where he was intended to fight the reigning champion of the coliseum, Geylard the Great.

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For Dirk, I wanted something that was a little more to his style.  For that, I reached out to Amorpheus on DeviantArt.  He’s known for his anthropomorphic characters, and while it might seem a little odd to commission an artist who is known for his “furry” work, I thought he’d give Dirk his best shot.

We started off with some head shapes and orientations.

We felt that this one was a bit too big, and it had some color issues that didn’t strictly leave us feeling like that was Dirk.

This one was the perfect shape and size, but we still had some issues with color presentation. His fur is a lot lighter in the books.

So after we realized what we wanted him to look like, Amorpheus took things to the next step, and delivered us a version of Dirk that had a nice dynamic looking background, and of course a color scheme that really worked for the wolf we know and love.

Note the white marking on his forehead that almost look like it could be a dirk.

We plan on utilizing Amorpheus’ services again in the future.  He did a great job with this version of Dirk, and hey… there might be other versions we have to do of him too.

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