Travel Posters

Social media followers may have already seen images of these travel posters created by artist Lazare Gvimradze. Please take a look at his work!

I absolutely adore Lazare's style and his artwork so I was thrilled when he agreed to do these depictions of my work. Art is the perfect complement to fiction.

Lazare has created four posters of four of the Triempery series' most beautiful locations: Permephedon, Sordan, Mormantalorus, and Gignastha.

That the three remaining of the Five Cities would be featured was a given. I chose Gignastha to show the Vermillion Aqueduct.

Let's look at them one by one and talk about what the images are showing:

Permephedon

Permephedon may have been the last of the Five Cities to be raised by Leur but it was the first to have been created by this author.

Permephedon is the mightiest of the Cities in both legend and magic. Marenthro—who may or may not be the last of the Three—dwells there... and has dwelt there since any human can remember. The City rises from the Lacenedon Plain and looks especially impressive because it is easily the tallest feature of the landscape; it also looks surreal, almost alien.

That’s because, in a very real sense, it is alien. It was raised by Leur song, meaning it was created, not built. Lazare captures this alien grandeur brilliantly in the fantastic and beautiful architecture. Because Permephedon is one of the Cities anchoring the Rill those structures are shown and the three towers symbolize the Three and their descendents. Mages and sages dwell in Permephedon and strive to keep alive lost magic and arts. The blue tones of the poster reference Essera, of course, but also serenity and magical power.

A fun fact about this image is that Lazare’s first sketches made my jaw drop. Here is my teenage sketch of Permephedon:

And then there is this graphic I commissioned about twelve years later. Notice the three towers, sparks of magic, and the squiggly line symbolizing the Rill.

This pen and ink art graced my first business card as an author, because I knew even then that this series was the one I wanted to be known for.

Lazare never saw these images before he showed me his first sketches of Permephedon and yet his work perfectly reflects the vision I've had from the first words I ever penned.

Sordan

I told Lazare I wanted a different vibe for Sordan, more human and in harmony with its setting. Sordan is a City famed in myth but it is also lived in and a center of commerce. Although magic exists in Sordan, it is less visible except for the Rill, to which it is home. By the time of the novels the Rill is regarded as a divine machine, not magic. I wanted the poster to capture Sordan's might but also show the City as a place for humans and human endeavors.

The poster shows the City as it is being approached from the south.

Sordan’s Leur raised Citadel occupies the west slope of Sordan Island’s central mountain—and lifts taller than it. There’s a lighthouse, which makes sense given the City’s location. Sordan sits at the center of a great lake, Sarkuan.

The poster’s scale is off in that Sordan cannot be seen across the lake. Sarkuan is too large for that but it makes for a better poster to show the shore and a bit of native vegetation. Nor are the boats completely accurate—but that doesn’t matter either. What’s important is the vibe of the beautiful city with its temperate climate and palpable prosperity. Sordan is rich... in beauty, location, and human life.

Sordan is home of the Sordaneons, the dynasty to which the first novel, Sordaneon’s, titular character belongs. The City serves as primary setting for much of the series. If you look very closely at the poster and squint extra hard you might even be able to glimpse Rhondda, Dorilian’s estate on the south end of the island.

Gignastha

As I said in introducing these posters, I chose Gignastha primarily to show the Vermillion Aqueduct, though that’s not the only reason. It’s just that the Aqueduct is a nice bit of lore and the city—notice it is not a City, just a city—plays an important role in the story. I love how Lazare captured Gignastha’s ominous mood.

The poster’s red color is symbolic of Gignastha’s toxic location and bloody history. The lake above which Gignastha is situated has water too poisonous for humans to drink, though some strange plants and animals have adapted to live in it. Humans can live next to the lake because the water that flows into it is fresh and pure, come from nearby high mountains. The Vermillion Aqueduct (named for its color) gives Gignastha its fresh water and also powers the city’s energy.

The city’s striking beauty, abundant natural resources, and history of having been founded by the Sordaneons made it rich and also a target for resentment. A Kheld insurrection led to many deaths and gave Gignastha an ugly reputation that plays a main role in the series.

Mormantalorus

Last but definitely not least, Mormantalorus is the southernmost of the Cities and also the least understood.

When Leur raised Mormantalorus, the City sat at the edge of a tectonic hotspot. Leur did so at the request of the Aryati. When the Devastation was unleashed, the destruction of the First Creation sundered the land around Mormantalorus and unleashed massive volcanic activity. Mormantalorus was almost consumed by this activity—and would have been consumed were it not a Leur City. Alive. The City shielded itself with a thermal barrier and remained intact.

Even though the City stands at the edge of an active volcano, people live in Mormantalorus. Access to vast amounts of thermal energy ensures that Mormantaloran mages can power arcane technologies that are nearly lost in other realms. Nammuor, the series villain, has turned his City’s unique situation to his advantage. Among Mormantalorus’s strengths is that the City would be very, very difficult to attack—or conquer. Even more difficult than Sordan.

Lazare created an amazing image of this City and its volcano, Dzalarad.

I hope readers enjoy these travel posters. I've had art cards made of them and have been tucking them into signed books or sending them to anyone who is willing to share a mailing address. It just took me too long to realize I should put up a blog post about them!