A giant slowly rose from beneath the dunes, erasing them. As rivers of white sand flowed down from his rising figure, his shape and appearance were slowly revealed.
The being who had changed the underlying currents of the world with his mere presence resembled a human — a skeleton of a human, at least. He towered above the desert like a dreadful monument, a tattered robe of fluttering ivory fabric obscuring his ancient bones. Those of the bones that were in sight were black, like the bones of other Deathless, but also different.
That was because they were inlaid with strips of pure gold, which framed his cheekbones, empty eye sockets, and rose above his skull like a crown.
In his hand, the giant was holding a white staff — one that might have been carved from the trunk of a sacred tree, or maybe fashioned out of the spine of an enormous serpent. At the top of the staff, a clear crystal was emanating pure white light, set in gold.
