The traitorous Lord of the Shasar, Helel, came to “the Realm in the Shadow of the Stars” with revenge on his mind against the Lord of Gods. He forged a rebellion that empowered the gods and seperated the Realm’s citizens from their Great King. Then, as silently as he arrived, he disappeared…

It is now some five thousand years later in The Shadow of the Stars: Advent. The son of Lord Helel has escaped captivity and enigmatically taken refuge from his Shasar pursuers on Tellron–a planet located in one of the few regions largely untouched by the greater war.

Meanwhile, after a series of decisive battles, the whole of the Realm is at the brink of being overrun by the gods and their servants for the first time since before the Forever War began. But other winds are stirring as the Realm strains under the weight of its ancient betrayal, and the long-forgotten advent of its redemption is about to be known.

The Shadow of the Stars is the creation of KM Radke. “I always had a fascination with angels and mythology, especially Nordic and Egyptian. I spent a lot of time wondering what it would be like those two groups interacted and fought over some unknown part of the universe.” As the granddaughter of a former Protestant church leader in Germany, and a lover of the Pini’s Elfquest, the Hohlbeins’ fantasy works and such popular German shows as Winnetou and The Rose of Versailles, there was much to fuel a young girl’s obvious natural talent for creativity. By the time she was fourteen, she was tirelessly developing, through writings and drawings, this new fantasy cosmos revealed to her.

“The idea actually started with a fan fiction I was writing based on a Japanese anime show about soccer that was popular in Germany called Captain Tsubasa,” she remembers. “All of a sudden the characters from that fan fiction meshed with my deep interest in angels and mythology…and everything else I was watching on TV and reading.”

The Shadow of the Stars is set in an epic landscape with elements that will be aesthetically familiar to readers–such as mythical gods, historically-themed cultures, warrior orders and mast-and-sail ships–with architecture, characters, and other aspects very much original to the fantasy universe. And all of these are coming to readers as a visually-told story for the first time by the comic series’ exceptionally talented all-deviavtART creative team of Kat Laurange (pencils), Dan Prado (inks), and Steve Townsley (colours); their work based on the adaptation and script of Joshua J Radke, who is best known for his contributions to Lucasfilm’s fan magazines, Star Wars Insider ("Who’s Who of Echo Base") and Star Wars Gamer ("Wraith Squadron: The Dirty Dozen of Star Wars").

“At the heart of the story is redemption. Everyone has that chance no matter who they are or what they have done, but there is still a price. That "price" is not necessarily death–sometimes it’s about giving up a way of life that is familiar to us so that others can benefit.” Kasandra says. “I know that these themes are not new in storytelling, and I don’t think that they should ever stop being told. The only thing that changes is the presentation of communicating these age-old virtues, and the ways that authours balance the adventure with the deeper meanings of the story to keep things fresh for the community of readers.”

SOTS: Advent is a three-issue comic book series, and the first part of the SOTS: The Prince of the Universe story arc. The series is being released for free online ahead of its printed version (coming later this year). The webcomic is updated every Wednesday. [link]

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