Adhiratha

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Adhiratha, the brave and selfless charioteer who finds Karna at the river banks and risks his life for him and the child Heerusama. Taking them into his house, he raises Karna as his own son, though Heerusama leaves to pursue a different fate, to be reunited with Adhiratha and Karna only years later and under very different circumstances.

Adhiratha is noble and kind. A good husband to his wife Radha and an inspiring father to both Karna and his adoptive younger brother Shon. In the early years of Karna's life, he plays an important role both in teaching Karna about the world and in raising him to be humble and generous in spirit.

Though Adhiratha has enjoyed no formal training in arms, he is exceptionally strong from years of dedication and hard work and has made a formidable opponent to those who threaten the people he cares about when it has been necessary to defend them.

Na-Mina

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Daemon-Queen of Dahka, wife to Heerama and mother to Heerusama, Na-Mina indirectly plays an important part in the unfolding tale of DevaShard.

Born in the rich and corrupt trading ports of Nysathor, her father was a wealthy trader known for having a hand in the slave smuggling business, taking daemons from Umbra and Dahka to Nysathor to be sold. She was to originally to marry Heerama’s father, before a series of unpredictable events led her marrying Heerama in his stead.

Beautiful and dangerous, it is not wise to cross the Daemon-Queen of Dahka or those who serve her. It is said that a blood curse runs through her family line and that many of that descent are tainted by it's touch.

Heerama

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Also known as the 5-tailed Daemon-King, Heerama is the Daemon King of Dahka, father to Heerusama and son of the previous Daemon-King of Dahka.

Son of a long line of daemon-King warriors, Heerama took the throne when a small group of Im-Himnan elite warriors stormed Dahka to take the life of his father’s concubine, Na-Mina. He later married Na-Mina.

A sombre and quiet man, his motives often remain a mystery to all but those who are closest to him. However, he has fought and risked his life many times to hold the borders of Dahka and keep back the great evil that looms ever in the shadows across the great bridge.



His closest associate is Aduri, the 4-armed healer from Uundan whom he trusts with his life and closest counsel. As he is too often called away to battle and the defense of Dahka, the care of his son Heerusama falls often to Aduri.

On the field of battle, Heerama is implacable and few in the world of Bhumi could hope to stand against his fury for long.

Heerusama

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Daemon-prince of Dahka, son to Heerama and Na-Mina. Heerusama’s powers are great, but he struggles to tap into them because of the blood curse that has fallen to him through his mother’s bloodline. His skills require calm, clear thinking, but his blood curse blocks that, instead filling him with rage and bloodlust.

Aikoh

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Aikoh, who is also generally known to our in-house team as "bird-girl" is one of the main characters throughout the entire DevaShard series.

The closest associate of Heerusama, the Daemon Prince, they have been friends since his earliest childhood years. For reasons that remain clouded at the beginning of the series, they are very closely bonded and for much of the books remain inseparable. Not without power, she users her skills to support Heeru in all that he does, even when his motives seem a little questionable.

Concept Art - Characters

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Wanted to focus in a little more on some of the different concept art we put together whilst developing the characters and our world and thought I would begin with the character art.

First entry coming up...

India Launch

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DevaShard: At First Light - Out in India now!!!

It is now available in all major bookshops across the country.

For the Indian market we designed this special cover in-house featuring our interpretation of Surya the Sun God:


A couple of weeks ago we reached a major milestone in our worldwide roll-out and I wanted to write something about it...

Feel free to give your feedback.

Aduri - the Dahkan Healer

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Aduri

Originally from Uundam, little else is known about Aduri's past. With 4 arms and standing at over 7 foot he cuts a very impressive figure. Highly trained in fighting arts, he is extremely skilled, yet by profession he is a powerful healer with the ability to cure many diseases and speed recovery from all but the most fatal wounds.

Heerama's oldest friend and greatest ally, he spends much of his time training, looking after and where necessary protecting his son Heerusama, the Daemon Prince.

Below you can see the development of Aduri's appearance from the earliest pencil sketches, through to more finished drawings, the addition of inks and then the final colouring stage bringing him truly to life.



Pencils - Keith Burns
Inks - Keith Burns
Colours - Johnny Tam

The Lands of Bhumi

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After putting together our map of the world and then separating it down into different lands and looking at what the characteristics of each land and it's people would be, it was then time for us to start working on our concept art.

Of course this meant creating the actual close-up look and feel of all the different lands, so that we could have our main characters traveling through them and interacting with the people of each land.

Today, I am featuring some of this concept art so you can see for yourself how we envisaged these areas in our mind and put them together on paper.


Im-Himna the icelands




The Half-Light City




Broken MoonGate




Bridge from Dahka to Umbrastra




The Province of Dahka




The City of Rhimn

Bhumi

When first working on the concept of our new series DevaShard, one of the earliest decisions we took was to create our entire world first before working on the stories in detail.

This meant drawing up a map for the full world, then we had to work out the trajectory of the sun and three moons we had decided on and what effect this would have on the weather patterns and climates of the different parts of the world. Through this process we could decide whether different areas would be green and fertile, covered in ice or raw deserts. Finally we divided the world up into the different lands and outlined the appearances, clothing, customs and history of the various peoples of our world.

We decided to call it Bhumi , which in Sanskrit means both the ground and the Earth.

The images that follow are the full map of Bhumi and then a close up on each of the different lands.