The figures are (all four) from photos of yours truly, with the background and the hand tossing the D&D dice composed seperately in Poser (a 3d modeler by Curious Labs).   

The figures, background, dice and all were merged and composited in Micrografx Picture Publisher (v.6.0)...a tool that, in my opinion, far surpasses Photoshop.  It takes about a fourth of the hard-drive space and allows for far more fexibility in terms of handling layers of images.  (I have versions of Picture Publisher up to and including v. 10, but 6.0 is by far the most intuitive.)

The fireball in the dark figure's hand is a "lens flare" special effect added in PP v.10, as is the small white-light effect on the light figure's forehead.

The swords are both from my collection...the light figure is wielding a United Cutlery copy of Glamdring from the Lord of the Rings; the dark figure is using a cavalry sabre, circa civil war (since stolen).  Costuming is just stuff I had hanging around from days when I attended RenFair.


The whole thing, text included, was meant to be interpreted on several levels...the most obvious being two players at Dungeons & Dragons, shown on three levels of existence as characters in play, characters observing play and players (represented by the hand tossing the dice).  Secondarily, with both images being pictures of the same person, this was meant to be seen as an internal conflict between the dark and light natures of a single individual, with the decision often resting on the toss of the dice.

Any further interp is (as always) in the eye of the beholder.

Even in the middle of a 'discussion' 
between two men 
trying their best to murder each other, 
I had the oddest feeling 
that it wasn't really happening...
that on some level 
we were just observing the moves 
and going through the motions.
 
It would have been comforting 
to believe it. 

I was too tired for this, but he didn't stop 
to ask if I cared to dance 
(and he didn't wait for an answer, either). 

All I could do 
was try to keep up with the music
and wish I didn't keep hearing 
those dice 
rattling in my head! 

Sometimes, it's just darn hard to tell the dancer from the dance!