Grace Hall

I know, I know, this isn't the most dynamic shot, but I have an obsession with perspective scenes. I have literally stood at one end of a hall at the college and taken pictures with my phone because I so love the straight lines disappearing into an imaginary point somewhere far away. So sue me.

This was inspired by my rereading of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series staring Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell. I was in the middle of working on a scene featuring the magical sliph when another idea came to mind; how many people have made a simple interior of the People's Palace? Not many, I figure, and the television series has a grand total of two rooms that they change the tapestries and pillars in depending on if they want a tavern or a palace or a dungeon. It gets old. So, I made my own.

The People's Palace in D'Hara is built in the design of a spell form in order to give the ruling family, the House of Rahl, increased magical power to defend the D'Haran people, and weakens any other gifted individual's magic. Because the Palace is laid out in a spell form, the hallways and corridors don't necessarily line up like a typical building's.

I imagine that at least several hallways in the People's Palace contain a high number of powerful magical symbols in order to enhance and reinforce the spell's magic. In this hallway, pulled out of my imagination, the original spell form, The Grace, given into the world of life by the Creator Himself, is prominent.

The Grace is drawn from the inside out, starting with the eight point star that is representative of the Creator. Next is the circle representing the world of life, then the square that denotes the Veil, the boundary between the world of life and the underworld, which is shown by the second circle, beyond which is the eternity of the underworld, the Keeper's domain. The Creator's light radiates through all, showing that everything is held in his Grace. Drawing a Grace from the outside in is known as a Fatal Grace, and is considered suicidal.

Because a Fatal Grace would have been easier to draw in my program, I spent way more time on this Grace design by drawing it properly. The eight point star was a royal pain in the rump. This design I purposely made far more ornate than the traditional Grace, but I did so because the Grace can be altered depending on the spell. The more ornate, I figured, the more powerful magic in use. And strengthening one magic while weakening all others is a powerful feat indeed. Here's the grace I made: [link] For the typical, more widely-used grace designs, go here: [link] [link] [link]

Eh-heh...

Programs: Vue, Google SketchUp 7, Photoshop
ETC: 15 hours
Fractal Designs: =timothy-vincent (Pick them out!)
All materials made from scratch, except for the marble pillars and the wood frame. Framed image is from the Season 1 finale (I think) of Legend of the Seeker, the series based on the books.
Richard, Kahlan, D'Hara, and the Grace all belong to the Mighty Terry Goodkind.