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THE WHAT
House of Stone is an allegorical story of generational trauma and survival in the wake of an impending full-scale military invasion. The villains become the heroes, the benevolent become the villains. Think Dune-meets-Game of Thrones with the magical spirit of a Hayao Miyazaki film.
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A last-stand-at-the-Alamo story of salvation and self-actualization, set in a post-apocalyptic utopian/dystopian evolution of mankind.
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Five siblings, led by the intersex “First Born Sun” defend their kingdom against an overwhelming invading force. The First Born is mute, finds a child in one of the conquered neighboring territories and chooses to take her, raise her, and ultimately sacrifice their life to save hers as the invaders infiltrate their House of Stone.
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Each of these five siblings are the villains of their world, each of them struggling with mental illness, dysfunction and trauma as it pertains to “The Father,” ruler of the House of Stone.
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As their fates rapidly unfold before them, each sibling is faced with processing and reflecting on their relationship with The Father by whom they were groomed through violence, or disowned due to their facing direction in life.
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House of Stone is a five-part episodic, avant-garde, multimedia story, originally composed and recorded as a concept album between 2006-2016. Morgan Sorne created hundreds of works of art and wrote over eighty pieces of music using his expansive and otherworldly vocal range as the driving force for the orchestrations.
This initial work serves as the foundation for an expansive story that will break new storytelling ground, evolving into:
+ a graphic novel with accompanying score +
+ a live-action feature film and/or series +
+ an immersive live experience +
+ an animated series +
The narrative follows five siblings struggling to survive in the wake of their father’s murder. This powerful ruling family are the enemies in their world, feared and hated by the rest of humanity.
As we see life through the eyes of each villainous sibling, we are left unsure of who the heroes and villains are in the end. We are given the privilege to witness the siblings in their struggle to find meaning and atonement for their acts and nature. As we witness each character arc unfold, we find virtue and a deeper understanding in their sacrifice and the pursuit of their truths against all odds.
THE WHY
This story is an allegory of the current events witnessed in our families, our communities, our governments, our environment and our world.
The work serves as a vehicle for processing familial trauma and dysfunction and provides a vital link in our ability to grow, evolve and thrive as a culture.
The creation of ORIGINAL and NEW stories, developed by way of channeling our lived experience into an inner world of meaning, symbolism and spirit is desperately needed in our lives, especially in the lives of our children.
This is a story for ALL people regardless of race, gender, creed and station.
Throughout human history, it is through creative storytelling that we can most effectively cultivate critical thinking, expand the consciousness, process complex emotional states, heal communities and strengthen inclusivity, kindness and love for our planet, the animal kingdom and one another.
THE HOW
The first step in effectively executing this vision begins with the pre-development of the world of House of Stone. This will provide the codex and mood board for all projects that will be created in support of the HOS world. Much of the foundational writing is already completed, and a screenplay for the graphic novel is the next undertaking in fleshing out the story and characters.
House of Stone already has a cult following, and with the graphic novel, Martyr Loser King, written by Saul Williams and illustrated by Morgan Sorne due out internationally Winter , 2026 via 23rd Street Books (MacMillian), embarking on the graphic novel, House of Stone, will further cultivate an even wider following. The timing is right to begin with the screenplay and illustration for the graphic novel now.
Aesthetically, the book will appeal to fans of Niel Gaiman, Frank Miller, Katsuhiro Otomo, Hayao Miyazaki and Alan Moore and Moebius. Thematically, fans of Frank Herbert, J.R.R. Tolkien, Alejandrow Jodorowski, William Blake, Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell will equally be drawn to this story.
By beginning with the graphic novel and reinvisioned score for the book, this will provide an effective proof-of-concept and audience support for the development of the subsequent feature film, live-action series and animated series.
The Five Siblings, conceptual art for House of Stone lyric book, 2011
The Blue Sister
The Black Sister
The First Born
The Second Sun
The Little Brother
The debut record, House of Stone serves as the overture to the opera with five volumes of music providing the narrative content, all told from the perspective of the five brothers and sisters. In conjunction with the art and music, Sorne created hundreds of art works, designed and built stage sets and costumes and toured internationally working with a host of dancers musicians and artisans who all helped bring the story to life.
Conceptual art, music and story cards for House of Stone, 2014-2017
House of Stone: Death II - Story card for the song, “Unnamed.”
House of Stone: Death I - Story card for the song, “Holy.”
House of Stone: Death V - Story card for the song, “This I Give to You.”
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House of Stone is not set in any time period, nor does it find itself rooted in any place or culture, though, many references have been made implying that this place and its people belong to a future remnant version of the United States of America, broken and reduced to a city-state located in the desert.
The Father, ruler of The House of Stone had sired five children, The Black Sister, The First Born, The Second Sun, The Little Brother, and The Blue Sister. In this culture, the mother is merley a vessel to birth a child and so none of these children know who their mothers are.
The story begins with the murder of the Father, ruler of the House of Stone, at the hands of his two eldest sons, The First Born and The Second Sun.
The First Born was born intersex but forced to present as male by The Father and was ritualistically beaten as a child to be made strong as is the tradition for every first born son of the House of Stone. At the age of thirteen, The First Born became mute, obeying every directive by The Father without question. The First Born never wanted The Father’s Throne but sealed their emotional world off within the persona of the frightening warrior killer prince.
For seven years, The Second Sun has plotted for his own ascension to the Father’s throne. Their kingdom, a once great and feared nation, has gradually been reduced to a withering city-state whose land has been sold off, traded away, and its people demoralized by the outside World Union.
The kingdom is the last of its kind, a symbol of old-world ideas and a place controlled by fear and acts of violence. The First Born and The Second Sun are a codependent brotherhood in which one fulfills the needs of the other. The Second Sun defers to The First Born for brute strength and action. The First Born defers to The Second Sun for tactics, leadership, and will. The two brothers pledged their allegiance to one another as adolescents, when The Second Sun tried to take his own life and was saved by his brother, The First Born.
It was during this moment of trauma, that The Second Sun developed a second personality; a god-complex self which then fostered the weaker, more volatile Second Sun in the development of a new vision and destiny for himself and his country.
Now, they have acted on the plot of The Second Sun, and The Father is dead. In the wake of his murder, the two brothers immediately begin the master plan of The Second Sun to reclaim the land that was taken from them, and rebuild and resurrect their empire to the glory and power of its former state.
In the aftermath of a brutal attack on a neighboring city, The First Born discovers The Child, a small girl of two years hiding in the ashes of her dead home. The First Born takes The Child back with them and secretly raises her as their own. He never knew his mother, and in his yearnings to have known her, becomes the mother of their dreams for this small child.
It is with this surrogate daughter, that they begin to speak again. The only other person who knows of this child is The Black Sister who watches over the well-being of her brother and son, The First Born. She resolves to keep the child a secret from The Second Sun.
Both The First Born and The Black Sister are loyal members of their house and have served The Father up until his death. Now, they both begin to look inward, in an attempt to decipher and untangle the complex web of conflicting emotions as their fate unfolds before them.
During this time, news of The House of Stone’s exploits spread across the land and oceans, inevitably attracting the attention of the World Union, the majority collective of peoples brought together under the banner of peace and prosperity centuries prior when the world fell into chaos.
The House of Stone had rejected their offer of unity. During the time of chaos, The House of Stone pulled together their resources and like-minded people and retreated to a desert mountain surrounded by a ring of mountains and fortified their claimed territory, amassing weapons and resources to withstand and protect against the apocalypse unfolding around them. They are now the last independent country and viewed as terrorists by the World Union who also have a hidden agenda in claiming the land that The House of Stone has held for over five hundred years.
As tensions mount, the long-lost Little Brother, third son of The Father returns home. He was cast out years ago to wander the land as a vagrant of shame and self-loathing for being homosexual.
When he was a child, The Little Brother was forced to drown a young boy with whom he was discovered lying naked by The Father. This violent rejection of The Little Brother permanently damaged the psyche of the child and that trauma evolved into a pathology that was far more savage and brutal. The Little Brother would suffocate every lover he would seek out like a predator seeks its prey.
Now, finding his way home, his intentions remain unclear to him as his unsavory lust dictates his actions all the while. He comes to his brothers only after talking with The Black Sister on the first night of his return and decides to help them in their efforts to rebuild their country.
Hearing of her Father’s death, The Blue Sister, youngest of the five, also returns home. When she was a child, The Father scarred her face out of spite, when she would not submit to his will to molest her. Under cover of darkness, she ran from home, aided by The First Born and for twenty-two years, travelled the earth, bottling her tears for the day when she could water the flowers on The Father’s grave. She had learned to overcome her anger, forgiving The Father and using her suffering as the means by which she must survive and transcend her reality.
As an impending sense of doom grows, each sibling comes to terms with their suffering, seeking atonement, salvation, redemption, freedom, and death through their shared sense of fatalism.
Each character arc unfolds and the siblings go through a transformation of self-actualization up until the final deciding battle between the House of Stone and the World Union.
As the battle begins, The First Born spirits their surrogate daughter away to safety in the cave tombs of The Forefathers, hiding her away with The Blue Sister.
Ultimately, the House of Stone is destroyed, and all are slain in the battle. During the fight, the cave tombs collapse, trapping The Blue Sister and The Child.
As she had resolved to do many times in her life, The Blue Sister musters all of her strength to claw, dig and push away the stone rubble which covers the entrance. As she breaks through the rubble, her eyes fill with tears upon seeing her house and people laid to waste.
As she had resolved to do many times in her life, The Blue Sister breathes deeply and travels south with The Child, ultimately finding a peaceful place to live amongst a people unknown to The World Union. The Blue Sister and The Child are the only survivors of the war. She raises the girl to become a fearsome warrior, and it is this girl who rises up against The World Union in memory of her surrogate father, The First Born.
This is another story.
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The Characters
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The oldest son of the father. Groomed, reared and raised to assume the throne. Trained to kill. He was beaten and whipped to make his body and mind strong. He became mute at the age of sixteen. Born a hermaphrodite. Does not want any of the responsibilities of the throne. He defers to his younger brother, Second Sun. He is feared by all, but depends on his brother, Second Sun for leadership.
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Born by a different mother, but of the same father. Has a major inferiority complex. Very intelligent. Idealistic. His mother commits suicide when he is a teenager. Her death sends him over the brink, and he tries to kill himself with a .22. First Born saves his life. From the age of eighteen onward, he develops and exhibits a second personality, one who he relies on for guidance and reason. He develops his manifesto and plans to reform and resurrect his country and all that he believes it should be. He depends on his first-born brother for strength.
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Born of a different mother, but of the same father as First and Second. Born homosexual. Because of his orientation, he is beaten by his father. He is cast out in his adolescence. Spends twenty years roaming the earth as a vagrant, prostituting himself for change. He discovers a lust for blood and death of the lovers he takes. Never knew his mother. As a young boy, his father ordered him to kill the first boy with whom he fell in love.
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In age, she is the oldest sibling of the five by the same father. Their father laid down with the black sister when she was a child. She is the mother of the First Born, but has kept this a secret all of her life. The father is slain and his body burned atop a pyre. The burning is the first of its kind as forefathers were embalmed and buried whole. After mourners leave, she covers her skin with his ashes in mourning. She loved her father. He was her god. She hates her brother, the Second Sun for what he has done. Now, she is godless, fatherless, directionless and seeks only to look after her brother and son, the First Born until she can lay down and die beside her father.
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The youngest child of the father. At the age of 9, her father tried to force intercourse on her, and when she resisted, he scarred her face with his knife, burning her right cheek, and cutting off her nose, so that no man would want her. Veiled in blue, she ran away from home by the cover of night. After twenty years, and with the death of the father, the Blue Sister returns, having forgiven him, and believes in the revival and resurrection of her country, in spite of what her father had done to her.
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Known only through the memories each sibling recalls in the wake of his murder, The Father was the last ruler of the House of Stone. Each Father is ordained as The Sun of God, a demi-god, an intermediary between mankind and The Omnipotent One. The Father is the embodiment of patriarchal tradition, using fear, extremism and brutality to train his Suns and prepare them to become the next Fathers. Compassion is Cancer. The Father beats his Suns like iron is pounded in the fire, thus made stronger through acts of violence as rites of passage.
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A two-year old girl, orphaned and found in the ruin of a city raised to the ground by The First Born. The First Born chooses to take The Child with them to care for and raise as a surrogate daughter.
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Concept art for the graphic Novel, "House of Stone"
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"Eat Your Young" Story Art
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The Three Brothers Concept Art
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The Black Mountain
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"Alive" Story Art
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Second Sun Doll
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Performance of House of Stone, 2011
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"This I Give to You" Story Art
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Children of the Black Mountain
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The Little Brother Cover Art for "House of Stone: Death I"
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The Manifest Destiny of the Second Sun
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Live Performance of House of Stone, 2014
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"Bloodstar" Story Art
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Lament of the Black Sister
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The Slitting of Their Father's Throat
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Concept Art for The First Born
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The Co-Dependents
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First Born EP Cover Art
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The Tears of the Blue Sister
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The Madness of the Second Sun
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Blue Sister Doll
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"Vergebens" Story Art
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The Valley of Vergebens
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"Little Brother" Story Art
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Mask of the First Born
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Little Brother Doll
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"Dust to Dust" Story Art
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Concept Art for the First Born at Thirteen Years of Age
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"Candlelit Cannibal" Story Art
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Set Design for The Black Mountain
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The Black Mountain
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"Gutshot Soldier" Story Art
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Live Performance of House of Stone, 2013
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The Surrogate Daughter
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"Whitewall Wasteland" Story Art
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Forefather Nono
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"Holy" Story Art
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Forefather Papa
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Black Sister Doll
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Forefather Grandpa
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"The Black Mountain" Story Art
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Concept Art for the Little Brother
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Live Performance of House of Stone, 2013
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"Solace" Story Art
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First Born Doll
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"When God Wakes" Story Art
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The Terror of the Black Sister
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Live Performance of House of Stone, 2013
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The First Born Cover Art for "House of Stone: Death I"
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Concept Art for the Five Siblings
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"Call to Arms" Story Art
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The Death Cry of the Black Sister
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"Eloi! Eloi" Story Art
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The Body of the Father Upon the Pyre
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The Heart Cry of the Little Brother
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Live Performance of House of Stone, 2013
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"Oh My God" Story Art
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The First Born with Their Daughter
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"Blood & Water" Story Art
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The Coronation of the Second Sun
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The Lament of the First Born
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The First Born with Their Forefathers
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"Darkness" Story Art
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The Heart Cry of the Second Sun
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Live Performance of House of Stone, 2013
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"Vergebens" Story Art
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The Heart Cry of the Black Sister
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The Blue Sister Cover Art for "House of Stone: Death V"
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"Humbled Hands" Story Art
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The Breakthrough of the Blue Sister
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"Lone & Lost" Art Card
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The Heartache of the Little Brother
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"Million Man March" Story Art
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The Five Siblings Costume Design
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The Second Sun Cover Art for "House of Stone: Death II"
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"One-Eyed King" Story Art
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The Golden Death Chant of the Black Sister
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"Rite & Reign" Story Art
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The Black Sister Concept Art
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"Golden Death Chant" Music Video
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The Blue Sister Concept Art
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"Atmosphere of Sky" Story Art
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"Omnipotent" Music Video Shoot
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The Black Sister Cover Art for "House of Stone: Death IV"
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Performance of House of Stone, 2011

"The Black Sister" Story Art
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Performance of House of Stone, 2013
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"Unnamed" Story Art
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Performance of House of Stone, 2012
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"Sleep Well" Story Art
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The Two Sisters
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"Swan Song" Story Art
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Concept Art for the First Born
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"All Is Falling" Story Art