Darkovan Guy

I never identified this character, but I gave him quite a portrait, with an empty banner nametag at the top. He's listed only as "Man of Hastur," the highest-ranking noble family in the pseudo-Renaissance society of Darkover. Note his hand hidden by the cloth, suggesting he may have a weapon and be ready to use it in a cloak-and-dagger action like an assassination. I never specified any story for him, letting the viewer do the story-telling work. But I'm pretty sure that he is a bad guy, just from the expression on his face. When I was doing these character portraits, Darkover was an exciting, living place inhabited by the imaginations of a whole community of fans, who wrote fan fiction, created and wore costumes, and role-played. Thirty-two years later, these people are aging dreamers, sitting for hours in front of computers that hardly anyone had in those days, posting to Facebook and playing Farmville. Darkover is just a dim memory.

And from one aging Darkovan dreamer to another: Thank you, Tristan, for your faithful commenting on my entries here. I really, really appreciate it.

Original art of "Man of Hastur" is ink on Bristol board, 4 1/2" x 11", fall 1980.