Nova (Please view in full size) "Ultimately all stories begin with a dying star. Stories are artefacts of intelligence and intelligence, as far as we know anyway, requires the specialised arrangement of atoms and molecules far more complex than the simple hydrogen and helium which make up most of the universes ordinary matter. Such complex molecules, carbon, oxygen and so forth are all created in the nuclear furnaces of collapsing stars. Evolution of planetary systems and subsequent life forms leads to eventual intelligence (although some would argue with that theory it is sufficient for our current needs). Almost nothing is now known of the First Skrellians - their race was old beyond measure before the later stars formed - but what little we do know suggests that the star around which their home world orbited was too hot and too large for a long and stable life. It appears that the astronomers of Skrell knew well beforehand that their star was going to go nova and thus a gargantuan effort to save the Skrellian culture from oblivion was made. The dying sun began pulsate prior to the impending cataclysm casting off great shells of hot gases, laced with the glowing arcs of massive coronal prominences. It was then that the Skrellian Diaspora was launched. Huge fleets of giant star faring spaceships fled the doomed world on the incandescent pillars of fusion-powered plasma drives and scattered like windblown seeds across the cold universe." Excerpt from the treatise "The Skrellian Atrocity: Origins of the Wizard Wars" from the Collected Grimoires of Bolgaradol Smekter, Uber-wizard of the First Age, the only person known to have entered a Skrellian Seedship and escaped with his mind intact. ******* Models created with trueSpace 7.6, 2d texturing and minor post work done with the GIMP. Rendered using Vue 6 Pro Studio. Unfortunately the final .jpg compression has created some banding artefacts around the sun but hopefully this image still works. Check our www.wizitch.com for related art.