They say a picture is worth a thousand words or in the case of ReDeus: Beyond Borders over 100,000 words. Artist Lorraine Schleter was recruited to execute the book’s cover and read the story outlines before digging into her research. What she delivered thrilled the collective and is worthy of a little worship on its own.

We asked Lorraine to talk a little about the process.

By Lorraine Schleter

I wanted to portray all the gods as abstractly as I could, rather than getting caught up in the physical details of how they would look rendered out in flesh. I tried to be very careful and respectful so as to not offend anyone, because that would make people overlook the real point of the book, which is (from what was described to me) how these deities relate to humanity and what they mean to us. I made a strong effort to design them from representations already depicted in ancient work made by the people who actually worshiped these gods. As for the face in the middle, I wanted to paint it to be as ambiguous as I could to have it represent the minds of all people, sort of the collective consciousness of the world.

ReDeus: Beyond Borders will be available in print and digital editions later this month.