Furcifel: development and symbolism

Credits:

Photo, concept, manipulation, frame design, styling, background stock photos: GothicNarcissus
Model, hair: Francisco De Rosa
Additional resources: Amptone-stock (texture), Thy-Darkest-Hour (wings), UniversalKinase (thunderbolt) sxc.hu (horns)

Here we go with a new Infernal Lord, Furcifel, the Demon of Storms.
First things first: in traditional sources, such as Colin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal, this Demon is referred to as Furfur. Why did I decide to change his name to Furcifel (something I’ve never done to any other Demon)? Well, it’s a purely aesthetic choice: Furfur is awfully similar to the Italian word for dandruff, which is a bit disgusting; some scholars suppose the etymology for his name comes from a corruption of the Latin word “furcifer”, which means “rogue” and sounds much more fitting for such a badass Demon, especially if you stylise it as “Furcifel” to recall other angelic names.
So, provided that I wanted to include a Demon of Storms into my series, why did I go for one with such a troublesome name, instead of just choosing another? Well, just look at his picture from the Dictionnaire Infernal: where else have you seen such an amazing-looking traditional rendition of a Demon? It’s beautiful! As soon as I found out about him, he instantly climbed my favourite Demons list, so he had to be in my series!

Furfur from the Dictionnaire Infernal.

Such a beautiful depiction deserved a tribute, which is why I decided to basically just turn him into a fallen angel but retain the dragon wings and deer horns. The latter got bonus points because they visually recall the lightning motif and fit the Demon of Thunderstorms perfectly. Also, when I wrote down his biography I could easily justify this by having him being spotted often by mankind and generating the myth of dragon-winged, horned Demons in the first place. Speaking of which, I didn’t even have to make up too many things, as the Dictionnaire Infernal already says he’s an Earl (a Count) and commands all sorts of thunderstorms, and other sources list him as a fallen Throne (the name “Throne” comes from the same root as “thunder”, which is his element).
The rest of the symbolism was quite easy to pull off: a thunderbolt in his hand and a stormy background (which I shot and blended already a couple of years ago) would demonstrate his powers perfectly. I came up with the styling quite easily too, opting for a leather jacket to give him even more badassery.

All of this happened quite early in the development of the series, but the longest part was, as usual, casting the right model. Given the elegance of the deer figure in the drawing, I wanted someone slender, with delicate facial features to portray Furcifel. At first, I asked an acquaintance of mine if she was interested in posing dressed up as a male, to which she agreed. I didn’t bring up the subject again for what I think might have been a couple of years because I never had the chance to organise a meeting, and when I finally did she had changed her mind. This troubled me a bit because I was quite specific in my mind about Furcifel’s general body frame, but then, last summer, I came across Francisco in the best way I’ve been coming across people lately: insulting Lana del Rey.
The thing is, lately I’ve become much more socially awkward than I’ve ever been and I have quite a hard time handling interpersonal relations, especially with people I don’t know. I have spent a few months kind of staring at Francisco from afar while the idea of him being a perfect cast call for Furcifel kept growing in the back of my mind. As I eventually told him, what made him perfect for the role was not only his body frame and delicate features, but especially his melancholic-looking eyes, which would add some nostalgia for Heaven and thus extra depth to the character. Also, there is a huge shortage of blondes in the Court. I found him so perfect for the role that I was too scared of a refusal and could not bring myself to propose him the role. Seriously, we made friends on Facebook on June, started talking sporadically in August and I could only find the guts to ask him to pose in December, riding the wave of enthusiasm I got from Leonard.
Even though we scheduled a shoot in February, he decided to pull off almost last minute, but since we had found out we get along very well we decided to meet anyway and I took the chance to basically force him to pose. Although, in my defence, I have to say he got almost more enthusiastic than I was when the final deadline was decided. It took me forever to postproduce the photo because in the past weeks I’ve been on minimum inspiration and I’ve got tons of older works to do, but at last, here it is.
I always say that, in hindsight, waiting even years to shoot my Demons is always a good thing because I get more proficient in what I do and I can pull off certain editing effects better. This is especially true in this case as, on the one hand, I now have a softbox which was extremely useful, given how I had to direct the light according to the bolt he would be holding in his hand. And there was no way on Earth, Heaven or Hell I could have given the right highlights and shadows to the horns to make them look tridimensional a few years ago, let alone blend the horn into the skin like I’ve done now. Seriously, I’m very, very satisfied with how I edited this picture.

Furcifel by GothicNarcissus – detail. Click to enlarge.

Now, the final details: yellow is the theme colour I chose because, on the one hand, I was seriously running out of colours, on the other it didn’t fit any other Demon, and finally because it’s often associated with lightnings and electricity, especially in children’s drawings (but you can also look at Pokémon, for that matter: many Electric Types are yellow). On the other hand, choosing the song was a piece of cake: I hope that Storm, by my favourite band Theatre of Tragedy, doesn’t really need much explanation. No, okay, it does, ‘cause beside the title, the lyrics are just perfect for the work.

Sandalphon: development and symbolism

Credits:
Photo, concept, styling, make up, frame design: GothicNarcissus
Manipulation: GothicNarcissus and LunarShore
Model, hair: Dirk Alexander
Additional resources: Amptone-Stock (textures), DeviousRose (sparkle texture), Mithos-2000 (wings).
Special thanks to Kira Novak for helping me with the Hebrew lettering.
 
The first thing I want to say about this work is that I want to dedicate it to a very dear friend of mine, Soy Mallika, for her endless support to my Infernal Lords series, for helping me take a clear decision about this particular character and, more generally, for reminding me I have to stand for what I want and is worth to me.

The second is that this has been the most difficult Infernal Lord so far, both in conception and realisation, and it’s been constantly troubled throughout its development.

I will say it straightaway: Sandalphon is by no means listed as Demon by any source. He’s a very important Archngel in both Jewish and Christian traditions and there is basically no instance of him being a Fallen Angel. The only account of him being somewhat of an evil creature is a plot twist in Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary (woops, spoiler!) and that’s it. So, apart from Yuki-Sensei’s work being so influential on mine, why did I decide to include such a potentially controversial character to the bunch despite the fact that I always wanted to stick the most I could to the “official” sources and not to depend on Angel Sanctuary too much? Why did I take even more freedom than I did for Barbelo, which I already considered a risky move, this time?

The answer is very complex and multiple factors contributed to my final decision. The first is most obviously Kaori Yuki’s rendition of the character, which is simply brilliant: childishly cruel, totally manipulative, with a sort of inferiority complex towards his twin brother Metatron, and most certainly a miserable victim of God’s schemes, it’s a creepy character that gets his fair share of attention; I was also fascinated by his nature of “Nightmare Eater”, which was something I wanted to include in some character of project.

Sandalphon from Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary.

The “official” chartacter I discovered thanks to Kaori Yuki’s was interesting on his own and I particularly loved the fact that he’s openly depicted as having a twin brother, the aforementioned Metatron, even in the kabbalistic sources; this made him somewhat closer to humanity in my eyes, together with the fact that he’s linked to Malkhut, the lowest sephira of the Tree of Life, and carries on many duties in the Material World. He even goes as far as inhabiting (basically possessing) mortals and being summoned in a rather demonic kind of way. So, all in all, he’s an easy character to bring on the verge of his fall.

Moreover, on the one hand Soy Mallika did some further researches for me and found no interesting alternative for a “dream eater” kind of Demon, and on the othershe reminded me that, as I’m not a believer anyways, all of my characters differ from their “official” counterparts, so what’s the point in worrying at all? And since she said she would love to see Sandalphon in a Grimoire or among the Fallen ones, I was glad to fully accept the challenge and give her this “gift”.

Finally, a general plot for a possible Infernal Lords-related novel is starting to take shape, and a character like Sandalphon would be a very useful one, so why not? And there I was, ready to shoot.

Even after I finally overcame doubts and conceptual issues, the story of this Infernal Lord kept being plagued by mishappenings, difficulties and random troubles. First of all, when I accidentally dropped my external hard drive, some of my files got damaged and the PSD with the background for Sandalphon, which I did long before taking the photo, was one of them (actually, the only IL-related file that did not open). I did export the full-resolution jpg image before, but I eventually noticed that the names of the Sephiroth were spelled backwards, so I had to do it all over again, eventually to a much better result. Aftermaths, I found the perfect model in Dirk Alexander: with his blond, flowing hair, he really had something of a badass angel, which was what I was looking for. Unfortunately, it took us many months and several attempts to finally arrange a meeting (coincidentally, quite similarly to Abaddon we first talked about it in July and eventually shot in early December), so the shooting was delayed twice before we actually did it. The shooting itself went quite fine and dandy, after some time for the make up it only took a couple of test-shoots and two or three actual attempts to finally get what I wanted. And then, postproduction started and further problems rose.
I have been very ambitious with this work: the colourful yet abstract background made it rather difficult to effectively blend the model in, the white wings worsened the problem, and the bright Malkhut orb floating among his hands made the lighting quite tricky to achieve. I started the postproduction straightaway while at LunarShore’s house, and this time he did physically help me manipulate the image with his tablet, in particular for the whole light and shadows ordeal (so part of the credits go to him). With the lights set right, I thought most of the work was done, but no, just no, because the blending was painfully difficult. I kept working on the manipulation for the next month and a half and was never totally satisfied. During this time I had to change the wings twice because they looked super-fake, tried different combinations of lights and shadows to blend the model with the background before settling for a slight halo, and changed about a million textures to see what would make the image work as a whole. To no avail, the work still lacked cohesion and depth.
Again, it was LunarShore who saved me by suggesting that, rather than a neutral texture, I added something either hazy or sparkly. I found a texture that worked in both ways, and finally, after ages, the image started working, I got what I wanted and was kind of satisfied with the result. Seriously, I do think DeviousRose’s Ice Galaxy texture is what saved the whole work – which, by the way, is a monstrous 410 MB PSD file which kills my computer every time I try to open it, compared to the average 110-or-so MB of the other works. And gosh, only Legion took me longer from the shooting to the publication, and only because I had to gather more faces for the spirits.

So, now that I’m finally done (and have ranted about how difficult it was to complete it), let’s talk about the symbolism. As in the continuity of my project Sandalphon’s position is unique, this work is in many aspects an “odd one out” in the project. First of all, a particular emphasis is put on the background (which doesn’t show that much in the final work, but you can see it by clicking on the preview on the right), in which I built the scheme of the Tree of Life except for the lowest Sephira. Indeed, even though I got inspiration for the pose from the idea of Sandalphon collecting the prayers into orbs of light, what he’s holding in the image is actually a physical manifestation of Malkhut, which is how it is in the picture. I was really glad to use Hebrew characters (which simply spell the names of the Sephiroth) as I particularly like them and find them mysterious and elegant (yes, I know that sounds stupid), and had fun with the whole copy-paste process, which proved to be a bit difficult because Photoshop screwed the right-to-left direction and I had to manually compose the words.
Of course, much like Absinthion, Sandalphon has pure-white wings and lacks a Seal, as he’s not a Fallen Angel yet (he’s not even an undercover agent, he’s just… confused, if you will).
Also, this work is unique because, despite its theme colour being fandango, the background itself had two dominant colours and the work as a whole tends more to a bluish hue which, in turn, gives it a more heavenly feeling. Anything but heavenly is the theme song, Lullaby by Leandra, which is more connected to the ambiguous, dream-eating nature of the character.
On a side note, I mentioned a more concrete possibility of a written work inspired by this project. Although I sort of have a long-term plot and I’ve even tried to write down a prologue and a chapter, I can’t really say I’m moving in that direction yet. The details of the plot are still unclear, so it’s something I’m saving for the future. Perhaps after the graphical project is done. Oh, and by the way, this is the twentieth entry out of thirty, so two thirds of the Infernal Lords project are officially done! While waiting for the next work, enjoy a couple of test shoots that turned out particularly nice.

Nergal: development and symbolism

Credits:

Photo, concept, manipulation, styling, make up, frame design: GothicNarcissus

Model, hair: wishes to remain uncredited

Additional resources: Amptone-stock (texture), SalsolaStock (wings)

Thanks to Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary, I found out that not only I like Angels and Demons, but also men in military outfits. There are several moments in which some of the characters get to wear a military hat and they all look particularly sexy in it. Thus, when I found out about Nergal, a Demon in charge of some important military duties in Hell, I got immediately fascinated by his figure and decided it could be nice to have him on board. As I once mentioned, the idea of Heaven and Hell being basically two opposite kingdoms with their own court and armies is what intrigues me the most about the Christian conception of supernatural, and Nergal was particularly fitting with this mundane vision. He’s based on a fiery god of destruction, death and war, adored in the Mesopotamian city of Cuth according to the Bible, and when assimilated into the monotheistic system, he was turned into a warrior Demon who, according to Colin De Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal, is in charge of the “secret police” of Hell, as well as being an “honorary spy” of Beelzebub’s.

The Mesopotamic god Nergal, upon which the Demon is based.

The aesthetics for such a character were conceived quite easily and almost everything was already clear in my mind by early 2009, when I purchased a DDR Aeronautics hat for the purpose; I had already decided I would also use the handcuffs I already owned for, well, other recreational purposes. Other details would be a military jacket and some medals; the ones you can see in this photo are my grandfather’s, so original Soviet decorations (70th anniversary of the October Revolution, and 20th and 30th anniversaries of the end of World War Two).

As I really liked this Demon but I’ve never been, like, dying to shoot him, I took my time and waited patiently for the right model without rushing, elaborating even more symbolism meanwhile. This time, it was the model who found me and proposed me a collaboration, which I accepted; looking at him I thought he would suit the role and we took the photo amidst a larger photoshoot. By the way, I had to provide the military jacket we needed,  so yes, it’s the same that I used several times in the past, albeit it suits him better than me.

One thing I’m particularly proud of in this work are small details, which I put a big deal of care in, most notably on the hat. I did the red gem with the Infernal emblem and the metallic Seal badge entirely in Photoshop, and then took advantage of the slight blur and noise and the sharp light in the photo to try and blend them correctly, making them look three-dimensional. Below you can see a detail of the photo with the hat (which, by the way, was originally grey with a blue border, quite interesting to turn black and red).

Nergal by GothicNarcissus – detail. Click to enlarge.

Besides the outfit, that represents the military side of Nergal, and the handcuffs, that underline his police duties, the rest of the symbolism is indirectly derived from the deity the Demon was based upon via his Greek counterpart: in Babylonian astrology, Nergal was associated with planet Mars, and he found a counterpart in Ares. Thus, I put the symbol of the planet on his forehead and gave him vulture wings, as vultures were Ares’ sacred animals. I also gave him bright red eyes, as I wanted many red details to stand out of a generally murky photo (thus the sharp, lateral light), and thought they’d be scarier and particularly fitting for Nergal.

On a side note, in this work I put the Seal (borrowed from Aim because it resembles an arrow) on a piece of clothing rather than on the model’s skin. Nergal does have his own Seal imprinted on his body and he has it reproduced on his hat as an identification for lower soldiers (as all military Higher Demons do). I decided to do so in order to try something new and because I had to replace the propeller of the original hat, which didn’t suit the fantasy theme.

The theme colour is asparagus, which is widely used in military clothes, and the theme song is Murder by Within Temptation, really fitting for the character.

Xaphan: development and symbolism

Credits:

Photo, concept, manipulation, frame design: GothicNarcissus
Model, hair, make up: Fabio Rossini
Styling: Wiegenlied and GothicNarcissus
Additional resources: Amptone-stock (textures), Cesitlie95 (wings), Sxc.hu (fire)

Special thanks to LunarShore for his advice about blending the fire.

When doing some researches about Demons, it’s quite easy to bump into Xaphan. He is mentioned in Colin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal which, despite having no more than a four-line entry about him, provides some concrete and interesting facts about him, and even a glimpse about his personality. So, we have a Second-Level Demon whose mind is described as “inventive”, going as far as setting Heaven afire right before being cast out. His emblem is a bellows, but he fans the flames of the furnaces with his mouth and hands. I don’t remember where I found it, but I can swear that I read he’s also credited for inventing chips. Wow, I seriously wouldn’t expect to find anything so interesting and particular about a given Demon. No wonder I immediately decided to include him in my project; also, in his illustration on the Dictionnaire Infernal he’s, well... sort of kawaii, and the evil-eyed bellows is so hilarious I couldn’t help but like him.

Xaphan from the Dictionnaire Infernal.

However much kawaii his original portrayal was, though, I had to think of a rendition of my own for Xaphan. I’m sure my first idea came up no later than December 2009. As a bellows would be a bit difficult to find, I immediately scrapped the idea, opting for having him holding something with fire instead; the most obvious choice was a candlestick, or better yet a candelabrum. I can be sure I already had this idea clear in my mind by December 2009 because I took some candelabra stock photos during a visit at my aunt’s for Christmas, as the last ditch in case I couldn’t find one while shooting (not everybody has an old-fashioned house full of useless ornaments nowadays, so I thought it wouldn’t be easy). Also, I immediately thought it would be nice if he had moth wings; as he was deeply connected with fire it would fit the character, beside providing some variation from the other works. Beelzebub, Decarabia and another Demon would already have insect wings, rather than feathered ones, so no big deal. The first general idea for the work was there.

I found a possible model for Xaphan as soon as January 2010: a friend of mine who lived near the Milan area offered to pose for me when I complained about the lack of male models and I agreed, thinking he would fit the role rather well with long, black hair. Nevertheless, any attempt in this direction just didn’t work and we never managed to actually set up the photoshoot. As my dear Ayl Rose had a candelabrum to lend me, I always tried to arrange the session when I went to visit her, but to no avail. The first attempt was due in early February, in occasion of the Autumn and The Gathering concert, but we didn’t meet because, I think, he was ill; attempt number two, to take place in mid-February while I was coming back from Turin via Milan after shooting Lilith, was hindered by a train strike; a third attempt in mid-March we partly successful, as we finally met and took some photos, but didn’t shoot Xaphan because Ayl couldn’t come by and bring the candelabrum; the fourth attempt was delayed about a zillion time, up to December, when I visited Ayl again, but it was cancelled last minute, which annoyed me a bit. As my friend hinted that I could look for someone else, I didn’t think twice and decided to recast Xaphan. This time, I decided a gingerhead would be much more fitting for the role and I looked for a new model accordingly. I first saw Fabio modelling for Sarah Wayne on deviantART and immediately asked the photographer if she could lend me her model. This time we arranged the meeting soon when I went to Milan for Ayl’s degree and everything went fine and smooth. I think it’s a sign that Fabio was just meant to be the right model all along (I only had to find him).

It’s quite easy to imagine that in the nineteen months between the original conception and the actual photoshoot, the idea for Xaphan has changed quite drastically until the current, finished, perfect form. The moth theme was initially supposed to be reinforced by a moth wing-like eye make up, so Xaphan 1.0 would have had long, black hair, the moth-inspired make up and a traditional gothic outfit with the candelabrum. As the model went into steampunk, I quite liked the idea and decided to expand the “ingenious mind” concept: Xaphan 2.0 had to have slightly shorter hair, the same make up, a steampunk outfit and, again, the candelabrum. Also, by then I had decided his moth wings would have got burnt in the arson and he’d have also mechanical ones, which I carefully prepared.

When I went for the alpha version, I changed my mind quite a lot. First of all, I dropped the moth make up idea as I wanted to keep it simpler and tidier, and opted for Fabio’s usual bohemian-chic style for the outfit in order to have a more glamorous photo rather than sticking to strict gothic or steampunk styles (which would have been reduced to some minor detail if anything). I asked my dear Bloempje for advice about the outfit and she came up with the idea to have him bare-chested under a leather jacket, while I thought of the scarf and necklace. The latter is a choice that could be a bit controversial due to the many crosses in the necklace, but I really love the slightly blaspheme touch they give. Also, the glamorous pose came out quite spontaneously during a small break to show Fabio the previous photos and I liked it so much I just shouted him to freeze, adjusted it a bit and shot him that way. Actually, the Vogue-esque feel of this photo is what I love most about it. I eventually scrapped the insertion of mechanical wings as they just didn’t fit, just like other steampunk details.

As Ayl was very busy with her degree, I decided not to bother her and didn’t even ask for her candelabrum, going out to buy one myself instead. I found this rose-shaped candlestick by pure chance the day before leaving for the photoshoot and, after an initial reluctance, the idea of turning it onto a metal torch struck. Below you can see a detail of it with the fire: click onit for the full size.

Xaphan by GothicNarcissus – detail. Click to enlarge.

Now some words about the characterisation: as my own Second Level was already quite crowded, I decided Xaphan would go to the Fourth Level instead, but as a Duke (a high title would be expected for arson in the Heavenly War). I expanded his inventive side and scrapped the fact he fans the furnaces with his hands (if he’s a genius, he would make them automatic, wouldn’t he?), and as a moth, I thought he had to be fascinated by the Demon of Fire, Barbelo. The torch and burnt wings represent his arson, while the metal flower and necklace his actual element. I don’t think I need to explain why the theme-colour is flame, do I?

On the other hand, choosing a theme-song proved quite difficult. I had some songs dealing with fire, but none of them truly satisfied me until Iron by Within Temptation was released earlier this year; it’s just perfect to portray Xaphan’s character.

Mephistophel: development and symbolism

Credits:
Photo, concept, manipulation, styling, frame design: GothicNarcissus
Model: Wishes to remain uncredited
Hair, make up, assistant: Nebulosamente
Additional resources: Amptone-stock (textures), Nightgraue (wings)

Mepistophel (more commonly Mephistopheles) is one of the most well-known demonic figures in Western culture, to the point that he’s often identified as Satan himself and his name is used as a synonym for “the Devil”. He is derived from the German legend of Doctor Faust, a dissatisfied scholar who makes a deal with the Devil’s rapresentative, Mephistopheles, to sell his soul in exchange for superior knowledge, magical powers and a life of pleasure with Mephistopheles serving him with his powers. After his death, according the original accounts, he’s damned and his soul is carried to Hell by Mephistopheles. The legend was so influential that it was turned into many literary and theatrical works, most notably Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust and Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, and originated a zillion other interpretations, some even portraying Mephistopheles as an agent of God who simply carries away souls which are already corrupted. Cut it short, there was more than enough material not only to sketch but also to base a character on.

Mephistopheles Flying over Wittenberg by Eugène Delacroix (1828).

Graphically speaking, Mephistopheles’ common representation is rather generic, basically the very stereotype of the Devil, so I had to “customise” it. When making up the character, I mostly drew from the popular imagery, with some twist every now and then: he’s a lieutenant of Azazel, he writes the contracts and make Mortals sign them with blood (thus purchasing their soul) and provides them with powers. In my interpretation, it’s the mere power to summon the competent Goetic Demon, who will be in charge of the Mortal needs (for instance: if the Mortal needs knowledge in astronomy, Mephistophel will make a contract between him and Andrealphus and give to the victim the power to summon him, leaving up the rest to Andrealphus). His function is essentially bureaucratic, so I would portray him as a dark, fashionable and fascinating lawyer/notary in the exact act of luring some innocent to sell their soul for whatever futile reason. Hence, the symbolism: he’s holding the contract in one hand and giving the pen to his victim with the other after dipping it in the other’s blood. As for the name, out of all the different options I chose “Mephistophel” because it’s the most fitting in my series. Many Angels have their names ending in -el, so it would fit the Fallen Angel motif better than any alternate spelling.
On a funny side note: the contract. Geez, that was the most difficult part of the work, even longer than the make up and hairdo, and it even turned out to be just a minor detail in the photo. First of all, my assistant Linda and I had to get some parchment effect on the paper and I came up with the idea of using the Amélie Poulain method: washing the sheet in tea and drying it with a hairdryer like in the movie. The result was less than impressive, but at least it was something. Then the writing: we had no idea about what to put on it, so the model came up with the idea of printing a quote of Goethe’s Faust. Problem solved: I installed the needed font on Linda’s computer, put Mephistophel’s seal at the bottom of the page and tried to get it printed. To no avail, as the printer just refused to work. Linda and I tried to reinstall the drivers, update them with no results, until we resolved to bring her older laptop to life, install the printer on that one and finally have the whole thing done. So basically: make up time = 15 minutes; shooting time = 3 minutes, even less; printing the contract = more than 2 hours. Heck!

Mephistophel by GothicNarcissus – detail. Click to enlarge.

The theme-colour is called khaki, and I used it because it’s a common military colour and Mephistophel is a very active member of the Army (although with diplomatic duties). Despite having entire gothic metal discographies on my computer, finding a fitting theme-song for Mephistophel proved quite difficult. Soul trade is not as popular as one would expect among gothic metal bands. I eventually opted for Hatred by Gothminister because I couldn’t find anything better, but then I found  Torn To Pieces by Susanne Sundfør and it was just perfect!

Andrealphus: development and symbolism

Credits:
Photo, concept, manipulation, styling, frame design: GothicNarcissus
Model, hair: Mattia Montanari
Make up: Pukkia CyIce
Assistant: Jimmy Richter
Additional resources: Miss69-stock (textures), Nightgraue (wings), Ro-stock  (starry sky)
Special thanks to Insolentia for helping blend the wings!

Ever since I was a child, up to around sixteen, all I wanted was to become an astronomer. Then I realised I sucked at maths and physics so it wasn’t the job for me, but I never ceased to be fascinated by the night sky. No wonder I decided that a Demon who granted knowledge about the stars was to be included in my series, and here comes Andrealphus.
Which was not an easy pick: as I often say, most of the Goetic Demons are just a copycat of each other, doing pretty much the same thing in a slightly different order or combination. Although not as commonly as the Demons who “knoweth things past, present and future”, “findeth hidden treasures” or “reconciliateth friends and foes”,  browsing through The Lesser Key Of Solomon I came across quite a bunch of people who taught either astrology, astronomy or both, and I had to decide who was fit for my project. The problem was that most of their names were just plain awful. Seriously, I couldn’t take seriously a Demon called Marax, Stolas, Furcas, Bifrons or Alloces; they’re just… bitch, please. Asmodeus was already busy with his own lusty stuff, while Amy sounds too much like the goddess-complexed female Demon fronting Evanescence. I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about Andrealphus either, until I read Innocent Bird by Hirotaka Kisaragi. One of its main characters, Shirasagi, is a Demon and his real identity is Marquis Andrealphus; although I’m not overly fond of that character, he was enjoyable enough to make me opt for that name.

Shirasagi, aka Andrealphus, from Hirotaka Kisaragi’s Innocent Bird.

Although I already had a clear idea about the symbolism and even what the finished image would look like even before choosing the name, I had no clue about the model, apart from preferring a dark-haired guy. I found Mattia casually while browsing the “people you could know” on Facebook (which is proving unexpectedly useful in casting models) and immediately thought he was perfect for Andrealphus. I asked him, he liked the idea, we quickly arranged the shoot and everything was done smoothly and without any trouble.

A very rough Andrealphus sketch.

For what concerns the symbolism, it’s all about his starry nature. My idea was so show Andrealphus while demonstrating his illusory powers by recreating a starry sky all around him and a model of the Solar System in his hands; his clothes are meant to make him look smart and professional. By the way, I’ve depicted him as the Demon of both Astronomy and Astrology. A little side note on my view of the subject might be useful: first of all, in the Infernal Lords cosmology, there are two planes of existence, the Astral and the Physical one. Astronomy is the science that studies the physical universe, while astrology interprets the apparent position of the planets to determine the influence of their Astral Plane counterparts: in a world with Angels and Demons, how far-fetched can it be for them to use the stars to influence mankind?
In the real world, astronomy is a science which I love, astrology an art with no scientific pretence whatsoever which I don’t believe in but I’m very fascinated by. My thought is, basically, that one doesn’t harm the other and I see no need for astronomers to go around bitching about astrologers.

Andrealphus by GothicNarcissus – detail. Click to enlarge.

The theme-colour is indigo, which recalls the night sky; the theme song is also called Indigo and is sung by :LOR3L3I:, and I chose it because the lyrics are quite fitting for one of the most eye-opening, mind-widening Demons in the series.