Fantasy author Tracy Hickman — whom, you’ll recall, has contributed to the story design of Shroud of the Avatar and is credited as its Lead Story Designer — has been working on a trilogy based on his Blade of the Avatar novella, which was written to give some backstory to Shroud of the Avatar and was released as a reward to backers of the game.

The first novel in this trilogy bears the title The Sword of Midras, and the cover art (visible here to the right) features the statue that also graces this piece of concept art (which depicts a ruined city situated in the Blackblade Pass lava fields).

This book is actually an expanded version of Blade of the Avatar (the novella was 220 pages in length; this book is listed as being 304 pages). It and the two others in the trilogy are the result of a publishing deal struck with Tor Books, who agreed to publish Blade of the Avatar if it was subjected to additional edits and was expanded upon.

The Sword of Midras will be released in hardcover format on June 21, 2016 (or, at least, that’s the estimated date). The two other books in the series will follow along in their own time, but at present we have no idea of when that will be…or, for that matter, what the titles thereof will be.

The Sword of Midras is available for pre-order via Amazon, Indigo-Chapters (for you Canadians), and Macmillan.