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A member of an archaeological team is killed and dismembered and Lord Valentine, the Pontifex, or supreme ruler, of the planet Majipoor goes to investigate. As an amateur sleuth, Valentine has his work cut out for him for a number of reasons. First, the victim, Huukaminaan, was a gentle Metamorph whom everyone liked. Second, the Metamorphs on the archaeological team are indifferent to the investigation to the extent that their benign compliance seems suspicious. Third, murder, and even most crime, is unheard of on Majipoor during this part of Valentine’s reign and he sees no motive.

This archaeological murder mystery story takes place after Valentine has been Pontifex of Majipoor for nine years. He’s a hands-on Pontifex, to get out and investigate himself, since he loathes being in his stifling castle (the “Labyrinth”). Valentine has a confident and relaxed air as he looks over the site of the murder. His entourage includes a colorful band of characters who have been at his side through previous adventures. Some of them look down upon the Metamorphs because they are the conquered people of Majipoor; the humans have ruled for generations. Valentine had brought peace between the races, but this shows that divisions still exist.

Are the Metamorphs hiding some cultural knowledge that would explain the death? Valentine feels like an invader and alien to the world, even though he has a conflicting desire to adopt Majipoor’s history as part of that of the humans. As he learns more of the culture, and about the shrines and practices of the Metamorphs, he comes closer to an understanding and a solution.

In this first of two parts, the story trots along much like the initial horse train of Valentine Pontifex and his entourage arriving on the scene. But on this world, since violence and warfare no longer exist, the battles will be emotional, cultural, and intellectual.

As background, we find that the humans had come to Majipoor a long time ago and overrun it.* The shapeshifters — Metamorphs — became a subservient minority; Valentine had brought peace between the races, he thought. But could this murder have been done by a human? Or by a Metamorph? And what are the implications of either?

Hugo- and Nebula-Award-winning author Robert Silverberg (A Time of Changes, Dying Inside) brings us a world that metaphorically seems as if Majipoor were the Americas and the humans Europeans, but it is not overtly preachy. The dragons echoed the sandworms of Frank Herbert’s Dune, in my mind, and the conquered planet/indigenous people scenario is treated in a similar fashion.

This originally appeared in 1998 as a short story in the Silverberg-edited anthology Legends alongside stories by Orson Scott Card, Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind, among others. If you liked Dune or Isaac Asimov's Foundation then you should like this.

Instead of comicbook panels, the text is printed full measure and illustrated occasionally with beautiful paintings by Anders Finer (The Hedge Knight).

The issue is 60 pages long, counting the front and back covers, and almost half of that is illustration by Finer.

The Dabel Brothers, who licensed the product and brought it to Image Comics, did the same with George R. R. Martin's The Hedge Knight, which appeared in the same format through Roaring Studios. Both parts of The Seventh Shrine will later appear in one volume.

Snapshot: “‘At this point,’ said Valentine, ‘nobody here is under suspicion. And everyone is. Unless you want me to believe that Dr. Huukaminaan committed suicide by dismembering himself and distributing parts of himself all over the top of that platform.’”