"Spectral - *Looking beyond the golden mask" by Anca Raluca Sandu

Despite his looks, he could not be on some serious or important job. Even the ones like him need some free moments simply to stay and do nothing. Or perhaps somebody just made a sign to attract attention and... was someone talking to him? Somebody who? And then... where was he looking ???

Beyond a great barrier, from behind the golden mask... again, behind which something uncertain lied.

[HERE CAN BE FOUND GENERAL DETAILS ABOUT THE "SPECTER/SPECTRAL" CONCEPT]

The first specter I drew. Specters were very simple but very powerful beings, which I would say are rather the most interesting sum of qualities and situations in my stories. Nothing clear was known about their naked nature, but the other saw them as beings which could float (their clothes was believed to help that possibility) and always were very, very large clothing, decent, fully covering their body, and their king also had a golden mask. Physically, specters seemed human, had almost same habbits and means of life. Mentaly, they shared the same system of qualities and what was moral and what not. Any type of physical crime was condemned and they also avoided any moral depravation. Which was not hard at all in their poor realm and simplicty.

Spectral, their realm, only allowed blue, green and the blue-greenish hue to thrive, while darker and lighter spots of these colors were also there. The golded mask (in fact, a sort of yellow glass, very special and faboulous) of their king was the only yellow thing (the king is the only painted specter because he was rather similar to the others, except he had a golden mask). Other paintings also show better landscapes, with their blue sun. Spectral also was a poor realm, with almost no precious material to be mined and less fertile lands. That was why specters had to farm larger areas to sustain a smaller population. On the other side, this was a good thing since invaders avoided the realm like the plague :D. Meanwhile, they took care of arts, more types of arts, which assured in their way that the moral values were passed on. In fact, specters were renown for their care of education and such related things.

As for their powers, despite all the obvious, poverty and problems their realm had, specters were very, very poweful. Nobody knew sure why, but their race was peaceful and very well protected as well with only few methods the realms offered. Their floating infantry (that could become imaterial for short whiles) with swords that could strike at distance as well (the only type of army they had) was an unstopable force. Luckily, they did not wage any war. They were also well trained in the major element of ... spectral.

Specters were said to also have inspired or contribue the greatest to the "Halls" concept in some poetries.

Oh, and there was another thing with their controversed cavalry...