Untold Tales of Kalda: Melinar, the Stonemason [COMPLETED] ✔️

1 - The Sculptor

The Sculptor

6,492 C.D.

Melinar Dol'shir was well known for his attention to detail. His meticulous nature was but one of many traits that earned his renowned reputation as one of the finest sculptors in the city of Tor. But even at a young age, many claimed Melinar had a natural gift for refining stone.

As a young boy–no older than four years old–Melinar had discovered his love for chiseling stone when his father built their family's country homestead on the plains west of Soroth–a large island in the Kalishir Ocean. One of Melinar's earliest memories was helping the workers hammer their chisels to shape the home's exterior walls. That was an impressionable moment that would forever shape his life.

At some point during his childhood–when Melinar didn't know exactly–he began scouring the fields outside his family's home to find large rocks. Together with his father, Melinar would chisel the rocks, making what his younger self deemed, "masterpieces of art." His father had kept many of those "masterpieces" over the years, and some decorated his father's study even to this day.

Masterpieces, Melinar laughed, shaking his head. My... how far I've come, he marveled, adjusting his grip on a riffler–a tool used for fine sculpting. He stepped back, studying a true masterpiece towering within the center of his workshop. It was a likeness of one of the Fathers of Freedom, standing over twice the height of an average man. The statue was a representation of Melthas Dol'shir–Melinar's grandfather.

Melthas's effigy was made from white galstra–granite like stone with beige flecks and strata–and stood atop a knee-high pedestal chiseled from the same white stone. Exquisite armor befitting a general of the Western Sovereignty was chiseled from the stone. Two empty scabbards–each hanging along the statue's waist–were also chiseled from the same galstra slab.

"Now this is a masterpiece," Melinar said, grinning.

The statue stood in a heroic pose, chin lifted with its gaze skyward. Melinar imagined his grandfather as bold, stalwart, and tenacious. He wanted to capture those traits as Melthas Dol'shir was one of the greatest heroes of the Western Sovereignty. Not only did that nature show in the statue's expression, but it was also conveyed in its brawny physique.

An uneducated eye might think the statue an exaggeration, but it was quite accurate. Not only was Melinar given paintings to base his work, but he knew his father and grandfather shared the same brawny build. In many ways, Melinar thought he was sculpting a likeness of his father. After all, Cornar Dol'shir was no less magnificent.

"The resemblance is uncanny," Melinar mused, and then glanced to a painting upon which he based his sculpture's face. Both Melinar's father and grandfather had the same round jaw line. Their deep-set eyes were the same emerald shade, and their high-cheek bones were identical.

Still grinning, Melinar returned his focus to the statue. He was nearly finished with the masterpiece; all that remained was to finish the detail on one of the scabbards. He had since polished the rest of the statue.

With riffler in hand, Melinar returned to the unfinished scabbard. When he was first commissioned by the Overseers of Historical Preservation they requested that he leave the scabbards empty. Melinar thought that odd. Then, they requested that Melinar sculpt the weapons meant for those scabbards: a serrated dagger and short sword. That puzzled Melinar further.

After all, this statue of Melthas Dol'shir was to stand atop a pillar within the Great Wall of Osilgard–a grand barrier that surrounded the older parts of Tor. There was no place atop the pillar where the stone weapons could be display. Melinar deduced that they wanted the stone weapons inside the scabbards. But if the sculpted weapons were laid in the scabbards the fine detail on them would undoubtedly break under the weight and pressure of the stone.

Despite his concerns, Melinar sculpted the weapons separately as requested. Besides, it wasn't the first time he had replicated them.

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