Lord Asterbury - Ender of Stories. God Among Men. Wanderer of Worlds. Champion of Urd'thin.

Snappy Dresser.

This incredible art by The Secret Cave depicts Lord Asterbury, the primary antagonist of my ongoing Revaramek the Resplendent saga. Or is he the true, secret hero? That depends in part on who you ask...and how far into the story you've read. And how you interpret its events...

The story you can find him in starts here: https://www.sofurry.com/view/931243

Asterbury has become perhaps my favorite urd'thin character of all. For those who haven't read my work, urd'thin are a species of my design, one of the races of my worlds. Originally conceived to fill a kobold sort of role, they've long since grown into their own and become main characters in multiple stories, including Revaramek and Dragon in the Dungeon. They combine traits of coyotes, fennecs, and rats, plus horns.

Asterbury plays at being a noble, a mockery of the man from whom he stole his name. They wouldn't listen to an urd'thin, but they'd damn sure listen to a noble...

Here we see him posing dramatically, as he often does, talking to his stolen life, and laying claim to a shattered edifice depicting the symbol of his enemies, an organization who call themselves The Storytellers. Their reach extends across many worlds, but he will drag them from any hole in which they had, and then them to ashes in the light...

Or yanno, just stab them a whole lot.

Behind him, we see the silhouette of Aylaryl, the female dragon who has become his greatest comfort, his best friend, and some daresay, his lover. It could be argued that when at last Asterbury found peace...it was Aylaryl's undying anger that dragged him back into the darkness...

This gorgeous rendering of my favorite villain was created by  thesecretcave, part of a project commissioned by  dragonwise to bring art of my urd'thin into the world at last. So thank you Secret Cave and Dragonwise!