Blood Magic- SCD

First and foremost, I want to say: after, this is for the ‘s latest round, theme of ‘sword and sorcery’. I got to say, this one was a matter of pride, my friends, because I AM sword and sorcery, and I’d be damned if I didn’t come through and do a good job this round there were quite a few criteria for this round, so I’m gonna address them as I go…..

The woman [link] (close-up!)

Okay, this is Mordrian, one of the many, many members of my book-cast, though interestingly enough, she is not directly written about. She’s actually a historical figure in my tales, being part of the bloodline that both [link] and [link] belong to. Her claim to fame in the history texts is the little cult she created called the ‘blood dova’ © j. leigh 2007, that in a nutshell believed in blood sacrifice and ritual to call-forth the minions of the Red ( the Red Dragon, who represents the ‘ path of Evil’ ) which are essentially demons that influence good ppl to do bad things and bad ppl to do *really* bad things.

Her dark blue robes symbolize death (and make for some nice cooler contrast + change from the original stock) while the gold band= ‘the all encompassing’ and the red triangles are a symbol of the Red Dragon= Evil. The overall interpretation of her robes is: ‘death is the path that shall carry evil to everything,’ which is sort of her mantra.

The tattoos on her face also hint at her race (which is actually a type of vampire, heh) and clan- the one on her right eye (our left) signifies her birth clan, while the one on the other side shows the clan she married into. (and she did kill her hubby later-on, btw.)

The necklace she’s wearing is a repeat of the \/ symbol on her clothing, which as said is a symbol of her evil religion. (it’s the single bottom-most point of a 12 point star- it signifies that while the rest of the paths in the religion all claim equality, the Evil path is divergent in they think they’re the only ones who are right.)

The dagger she’s poking herself with is another hint to the blood aspect of her cult, and the symbols on it read ‘death is doorway’ which to be honest, is a line off of Ghostbusters 2 and a private running joke having to do with ghosts and reincarnation.

Overall, Mordrian is powerful, devious, and a very controlled woman, who caused a considerable amount of undermining chaos before she was finally found and killed. The ‘smoke dragons’ you see her summoning are a symbol of this, and how she wanted to take-over the entire country. (It also hints at the extent of her influence across her homeland.) Which takes me too…

The Map [link] (close-up!)

This is actually the map of the country where most of my writings take place, and is so COMPLETELY COPYWRITE J. LEIGH 2000, I swear if I see this anywhere else I will FIND AND KILL YOU. *cough* excuse me…moving on……

Each of the little castles are modeled from castles in china or japan except [link] which is my design of the ‘holy city’ of my world and [link] which is actually the country’s capitol, even though it looks like a prison. (The city is INSIDE the mountain.) [link] is Mordrian’s birth-clan’s capitol, and [link] is her married clan’s capitol, while [link] is their greatest rival clan’s capitol.

The compass in the corner is a take off of the 12-point star of the main religion of the world, and it’s in black to signify protection. (It was also the black dragon’s followers who eventually defeated her, hence the compass’s prominent placement AWAY from the red-glow.)

Oil on illustration board

Research bits:
Stock ref for the girl: [link]
My influence for the tapestry: [link]
Links to my short stories of my world: [link] , [link] (best to read if you want to know about the different paths of the religion) and [link] (our award winner ) with *bloodrose83 and [link] my solo attempt for =my-dark-desire ‘s contest.


Okay, I *think* that about covers it all.

also, this has been entered here [link]

And you can see the step-by-step of all my insanity here: [link]