Deadman’s Chair

A deadman’s chair is a device associated with the watchtowers of the Guarded Land—each tower generally having four chairs: one facing up the road and the leftway, another down; two more looking out across the land—one in each direction A deadman’s chair insures that the lookout sitting on it remains awake by threatening his life should he fall asleep: the seat itself is a freely rotating drum astride which the lookout sits; to stop himself …

Dragon Towers

The first sketch shows a Master sitting in the command chair of a dragon tower. Before him is the lattice bone screen that he looks out through. On either side of him kneel his Righthand and Lefthand, with the tubes connected to their helmets that allow them to be talked to by other crew in various parts of the tower. At both lower corners of the drawing can be seen the ‘voice forks’ that the …

Dragon Ruhuimur

I drew the second and third drawings in 1982; they predate the writing of the Stone Dance by decades—showing just how long I had been brooding ideas for the books The first drawing shows the final form that a dragon and its tower took. The original image was produced in 1993, but was constantly modified during the writing of the First Edition of The Third God as I came to more fully understand how everything …

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