The Last Stand of Contagorus

First I would like to thank my buddy Steven Tobiasz for helping me out with this painting. He has been helping me a lot with my work recently so I would like to give a shout to him and let you guys know you should take some time to check out his amazing work.

The paining was based on a little story I came up with while on a long walk with Nicole and Eska.
So here we are, two things I don't do a enough of all at once! I hope you guys enjoy it.

The Last Stand of Contagorus

During the War of Spells, 2 ages ago, when our land was threaten by the otherworldly Spectrum Varhiisium (named in such manner by the elves), who brought to the surface evil that had laid dormant in our world for thousands of years, many lives were lost. All the souls of countless heroes vanished and are only remembered now in the books of men, the stones of dwarves and the scriptures of elves.

Yet, in some places, evidence of these ancient struggles can be found. Such a deep scar in the land is “The Last Stand of Contagorus”. It is a place that should need no history to be remembered. Contagorus’ soul still fights off the very evil he died battling at the edge of the escarpment where the Orior Forest ends and the Litra River comes to a pool, dropping its waters in the form of a veil that feeds in to the Plain River, which runs trough the Blossom Forest far down below.  

During the war, the dark waters of the Litra River were carrying evil into the Blossom Forest. Contagorus was the last of a host of elves that were to hold the ground against creatures that came from within Orior Forrest and pushed towards the sacred grounds of the Blossom Lands. They were to defend the top of the escarpment while a spell was contrived to stop the dark river from flowing. The enemy proved too great and one by one the elves were mutilated. The party’s task had not been accomplished; there had been no time for the spell to be cast. Contagorus and the elves fought off the dark creatures of the forest alone in hopes of help that never came.

Until all others were dead and hope of victory was no more, Contagorus stood his ground. A mighty blow to the chest finally dropped the last defender to his knees. The wound was fatal. With blood in his lungs his last breath of air was used to cast a curse. He cursed his own soul to be stretched through time and never rest while evil still poured out of Orior Forest through the dark river Litra. With his death, a wave of light pushed all present evil in the escarpment back into the darkness of the forest. The shallow waters of the river pool that we now call The Last Stand of Contagorus devoured his body. Where he stood now raises a rock. Sharp edges on the top such as of a blade that strikes the enemy, broad at the base such as a shield that defends, the rock became Contagorus’ tomb. His soul now suffers under the rock slowly and endlessly absorbing the evil that comes out of the forest while bright crystal waters cascaded into the Blossom Forest purified and rid of darkness.

None ever made it alive out of the forest since, and never were any of the races able to put to rest the evil that comes from it. So, in our recklessness and inability to care for problems that we do not perceive as immediate threats, we left it; one of the few places in our land where evil that was risen by the Spectrum has never subsided. Contagorus’s Soul has been suffering for two ages of our world tormented by all the evil that still pours out of the black river. Yet, his Soul has not failed us and the Blossom Forest strives, beautiful as ever, at the cost of letting one of the greatest heroes of our ages to torment, abandoned by all for many a millennia.