Each month we share excerpts from the illustrated novel Dreams of Ýdalir with our followers. Each excerpt is accompanied by an exclusive “sneak peek”/”work in progress” of the concept art work, created by Roberto especially for the main theme and mood of the chapter it comes from.
Remember, if you want the WHOLE chapter and full finished image (plus so much more!), you can subscribe over at our Patreon Project – new issues come out on the 15th of each month.
Now for the excerpt and art:
Humans are a part of nature and cannot dominate it; no matter how hard we try. When we try we end up destroying ourselves in the process, look at all of the wars in the modern age, the disease, the pain, and anguish. The human world needs to make reparations for what we have inflicted on our world and on the lives of all who live here since we forgot about the Old Gods, the spirits of the land and all those forces of nature, forces of the cosmos that teach us how to be better and live happier lives. When we are acting in accordance to the Old Rules, when we remember that we are animals and part of nature, we are happier.
This is my story, a human story of my flourishing season, the time when I saw beneath the thick cover that humans have created through years of neglect, decades of apathy and centuries of disconnect from the very heart of what sustains us and keeps us happy and whole.
This story also takes us on a journey from the fabled halls of Asgard, home of the Gods, to the most ancient times on Midgard, our own home, Earth.
It is also a story of love found and lost, of the human condition, filled with sorrow, joy and undying passion.
Perhaps you think this story is not for you, a mere fairytale. I once thought like you did, but when I put on the mask the whole world opened before me and I could see through the veil of humankind to the Otherworld. But there is time yet for that. So I ask you instead, are you part of nature? Do you live because you eat fruit from the trees and wheat from the fields? Does a violent storm keep you from leaving home even when you had plans to go out into the world? If you answer yes, then this is your story too.
This story will hopefully inspire many others to make those reparations and begin anew a relationship with not only the Earth and Nature but with the Gods themselves. For we are all bound together and the way we intertwine is what ultimately sustains us all.
~Fawn, 17-year old heroine
