The Infernal Lords III: Asmodeus

“An addict to my tones,
You will drink me till you say when,
And then you’ll have to drink some more.
You’ll love me like the devil loves
To drink his water laced with wine,
But you won’t like him be called an Angel
When you fall.”
[ King – The Romanovs ]

Count Asmodeus, also known by Mortals as Asmodai, is a Higher Demon of the First Level who was previously the Chief of Cherubim and is now the Demon of Lust, thus one of the Seven Satans known as the Count of Judgment. His elemental powers rely on Heat (although he’s not the Master of Fire). Extremely dissolute and vain, he’s well known for his love of alcoholics and gambling, which stretches as far as making him the Director of the Infernal Casino.

Being the Demon of Lust, it’s not surprising that most of the memorable things about him are connected with his love affairs: he had a long-lasting relationship with Princess Lilith shortly after she fled the Garden of Eden after her Fall, and is famous in the Sublunar World for having fallen in love with a mortal woman called Sarah, to the point of killing her husbands before any of them could even touch her and fighting against Great Angel Raphael for that. It’s not surprising, though, that he had so many remarkable lovers, since his own Sin makes him an extremely good one, who is almost constantly flirting and having affairs with countless Demons of both sexes: rumour has it that he was bold enough to sleep with Archduke Beelzebub despite the latter’s reserved nature, and even dared to seduce Queen Barbelo and Emperor Lucifer themselves. His company is very enjoyable also outside of bed, for he’s a real gentleman, very polite, galant and subtle when flirting, with a good sense of humor and a lot of entertaining gossip to tell. This is what makes him a good friend of both the indolent Duke Astaroth and the vain Duke Belial, his favourite comrades when it comes to wasting time in the Court or spreading the Sins among Mortals.
Nobody tries to guess how many lovers he had, and rumours have it that the only Courtier he hasn’t slept with is Count Mammon, the Demon of Greed, as the two openly hate each other due to their opposite activities and different personalities. As a huge womaniser and alcohol lover, there’s almost no need to say that Count Asmodeus particularly likes Marquise Decarabia, as she can make the best beverages in Hell, and as an art lover he’s the patron of Count Naberius, the Demon of Figurative Arts.

Asmodeus: development and symbolism

Credits:

Photo, concept, manipulation, styling, frame design: GothicNarcissus
Model, hair, make up: Nick Chiron

Assistant: Ayl Rose
Additional resources: Darklaela-stock (wings)

Asmodeus is another Demon I came across through Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary. This time, though, her influence was quite limited, as Asmodeus’ figure is unusually well defined for the Jewish/Christian mythology standards, and I had plenty of sources which didn’t even contradict each other I could develop my character on, namely the Bible, the Talmud and many grimoires. Most of the sources agree about him being the Demon of Lust, most notably the Malleus Maleficarum (to which Sebastian Michaelis agreed) and Peter Binsfeld’s classification of the Upper Demons based on the Seven Deadly Sins. To my pleasure, I found more information about what he does in Hell and his relationships: he is depicted in the Malleus as the director of the Infernal Gambling House, some sources cite him as being an alcohol lover and having had a relationship with Lilith, and the Bible describes his fling with the mortal woman called Sarah; other sources said he was the Chief of Cherubim before the fall. Gosh, finally a fully round character!

Asmodeus from the Dictionnaire Infernal.

I had more than enough material to base my Demon on, but I decided to stick more closely to the Deadly Sin part, representing him most prominently as the Demon of Lust. Now I only had to come up with an aesthetic idea, as neither his “official” appearance nor Kaori Yuki’s depiction fit my ideal. It’s quite useless to say that the portrait found in the Dictionnaire Infernal was anything but fitting, so I had to do it by myself.

The first thing I had clear was that he had to be clothed, as a naked Demon of Lust would be rather banal. So, I decided for clothes that were elegant but messy enough to leave him strategically half-naked: a white shirt with a vest, black trousets and a loose tie (which I find sexy).

Asmodeus from Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary.

When looking for a model, I scrapped Kaori’s rendition all along, as her Asmodeus’ features were too sharp for my liking. Thanks to Ayl Rose, I found out about Nick Chiron, whose features immediately caught my attention, as he is somewhat cherubic but incredibly sexy. I decided that it had to be him, but was somewhat reluctant to approach him, as it would be the first time I asked someone I didn’t know before to pose. I eventually got in touch with thanks to my dear Ayl, who basically started the thing on her own out of frustration for my procrastination. Despite my worries, the photoshoot went smooth and I got Asmodeus at the third photo overall. I even eventually found out that Nick is quite a sex, alcohol and poker lover himself, so he was most definitely the best choice for the role.

The main symbolism in this photo lies in Nick’s outfit and pose; the latter is allusive but not vulgar, as I wanted to keep it classy. I decided not to include symbols related to alcohol consumption and gambling, as they would look excessive. The theme-colour is Persian rose to recall lust. It was not easy to find a fitting (and possibly not banal) song for the Demon of Lust, but eventually the amazing King by The Romanovs proved a fitting choice.

Brand new stuff coming soon

“I’m just a holy fool.
Oh baby, it’s so cruel,
But I’m still in love with Judas, baby.
I’m just a holy fool.
Oh baby, it’s so cruel,
But I’m still in love with Judas, baby.

Woah, I’m in love with Judas, Judas.
Woah, I’m in love with Judas, Judas.”

[ Judas - Lady Gaga ]

Quite not my usual style, isn’t it? Not only because I’d bet many of you wouldn’t expect me to love Lady Gaga (let alone get inspired by her), but also because this photo is much more revealing, explicit and anti-classical than the vast majority of what I’ve done so far. Nevertheless, I chose this particular photo to introduce my latest artistic collaboration, as it is strongly representative of its main aim: innovation and self-challenge.

I recently met my dear Briar Rose, one of my favourite models and best friends, and we had a very satisfying and rich three-day collaboration, with a whole kind of different ideas and outcomes that left stunned myself to begin with. As she’s now exploring the world behind the camera beside that in front of it, we took turns in shooting and posing, so quite a lot of variety is to be expected. Unfortunately, weather didn’t help us, but didn’t prevent us from taking, beside this single shoot, two mini-series with Briar Rose posing (one with her boyfriend Yue), and another two with me as the model. We only wroked indoors, so we were forced to explore the tricky world of artificial lights, try and provide variety to our photos without the help of the set (as we always used a flat black background) and focus more on outfits and make up.

I must confess I just love working with Briar Rose. We’re very similar when it comes to ideas and their development, as we come from a similar background and point to the same direction: we’re both tired of the strict clichés of Gothic imagery and constantly aim to reinvent and improve ourselves, keeping our work open to a handful of different influences and inspirations not to end up doing the very same thing over and over again. This latest collaboration perfectly represented this aim of ours, as putting our creativity together we pushed our boundaries further than we ever did in more than one direction. You can still expect my distinctive gloomy atmospheres, as well as my classical touch, but the themes I explored while shooting are either pushed further or completely new; also, you will see me modelling in a totally different context that you’re used to. I will talk about each mini-series when I publish it, so stay tuned!

The Infernal Lords II: Astarte

“From our castles we sent ships with demons,
Witches’ lovecraft.
Now she’s gone, yet I feel her breathing
While I tell her story.

Bow my head to the allmighty,
I have lost my way.
Time stood still when we danced the last
Dark and pure September day.”
[ The Allmighty – Gothminister & Nell Sigland ]

Duchess Astarte is a Higher Demon and the third most powerful woman in Hell. She is the twin sister of Duke Astaroth, whom she loves dearly, but her powerful sibling is certainly not the reason of her high status in the Infernal Peerage: she was the original Queen of Heaven before her own Fall and the subsequent ascension of the Virgin Mary, and as the Chief of Seraphim, the highest-ranking Heavenly Choir, she was adored like a Goddess by fellow Angels and mankind. She was not part of the first group of Fallen Angels because, after the Great Heavenly War, she stayed in Heaven undercover, faking loyalty to Yahweh while using her pure, holy appearance to lead the newly-created mankind to adore female motherly deities instead of the patriarchal Yahweh. Such was her appeal that, through many different names, she was known to the majority of ancient human cultures. Her cover resisted the turmoil caused by Countess Agares after the Babel Tower incident, but she rebelled openly and was cast out of Heaven when her close friend and fellow Fallen Seraph, Marquise Anamelech, foretold her that Yahweh intended for a mere Mortal woman to become the new Queen of Heaven in her place, in order to have mankind adore a surrogate, less powerful Heavenly Mother to bring the cult into his patriarchal religion.  Thus, she was the last Great Angel to officially fall from Heaven.
As the nemesis the Virgin Mary, who stole most of her looks, Duchess Astarte has become the Demon of Abortion, Miscarriage and Infertility. Sharing part of her brother’s elemental power over Air, she can control Humidity and related atmospheric phenomena, playing an important role in the fertility of Earth itself. She is also an Astral Demon, mastering the astrological influence of Planet Venus. She still occasionally appears on the Earth as a fake Madonna to hinder the Virgin Mary’s propaganda.

Beside her friendship with Marquise Anamelech and fellow Astral Demon, Marquis Andrealphus, she shares a sort of friendly rivalry with Queen Barbelo and Princess Lilith, two other prominent ladies who embody other aspects of femininity. Thanks to her great powers, prestigious past and the delicate mission she carried on, she’s one of the highest-ranking Demons just below the Seven Satans, being the de facto Leader of the Second Demonic Level, as Princess Lilith often neglects her duties. Due to her seraphic, solemn appearance and gentle manners, many Fallen Angels still tribute her the reverence she once received as the Queen of Heaven and take part in her retinue, most notably fellow former Seraphim Archduke Beelzebub and Marquis Leviathan.

Astarte: development and symbolism

Credits:

Photo, concept, manipulation, frame design: GothicNarcissus
Model, make up: Ayl Rose
Hair, styling: Ayl Rose and GothicNarcissus
Additional resources: Amptone-stock (textures), Alegion-stock (wings), Jen-ni (star brushes)
 

Similarly to her “twin brother”, I first found out about Astarte as a Demon thanks to Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary. Although largely outshone by her fascinating brother, I quite grew fond of her character and her relationship with him so, when I decided that I would eventually shoot the Infernal Lords, I wanted her in – also to have some more female characters in the series.

Astarte from Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary.

Like Astaroth, both the physical appearance and the general characterisation of this Demon are largely reminiscent of Kaori Yuki’s version, also because the information I could found about Demon-Astarte was really scarce. Before reading the manga, I only had some general knowledge about the Semitic goddess, roughly corresponding to other figures such as Ishtar, Anat, Isis, and Aphrodite, but didn’t know anything about her adoption into the Christian pantheon-in-disguise as a Demon. When I tried to look for something about her Demonic self, I only found “behind the scenes” stuff about the goddess, how she was perceived by the Hebrew culture and then absorbed into the monotheistic system. After that, particularly in the Middle Ages, she was mostly confused with and merged into Astaroth, with basically no mention of her as a stand-alone figure. After some discouragement, though, I found out that, as a demonised figure, she was held responsible of infertility and miscarriage. Great, finally something that, together with some borrowing from Kaori Yuki and from her pagan background, could provide a base for the character. Looking further, I also found out about Asherah, another version of Astarte who was considered the Queen of Heaven and spouse of Yahweh, which would perfectly fit in the character. Beside that, anthropologically speaking, Astarte is basically the same virgin-mother figure as the Virgin Mary and many depictions even portray her with the same attributes as the Madonna (the crown of stars and the colour blue, for instance). Basically, the Virgin Mary was the alternate Christian adaptation of Astarte into the pseudo-monotheistic system.
Thus, I decided to give her a double background, one in which she was still in Heaven and adored as a Goddess at first, then cast out and replaced by the Virgin Mary, becoming a Demon. This helped me diverge from Kaori Yuki’s material as I considered Astarte and Astaroth two completely separate entities; also, as she was considered a Goddess of general fertility and subsequently became the demon of abortion and infertility, she could as well share her brother’s powers over Air, although specialised in the humidity kind of thing; thirdly, there was no mention about which Choir she was in whatsoever, but as the Queen of Heaven, by logic she had to be the top of the top Choir, namely the Chief of Seraphim; finally, as the former Queen of Heaven, born an Angel and now the anti-mother, she was the perfect nemesis of her “alter-ego” Mary, born a mortal and become a mother. To sum things up, what came out was basicaly the anti-Madonna.

With the characterisation done, once I found the fitting model, the symbolism came out much more smoothly. I chose my dear friend Ayl because we sort of look alike (which is quite notable in these works), her thin shape was perfect for the role, and her face may be so gentle I would simply define it as seraphic. We had to do some brainstorming together about the outfit and pose, and then we were ready to shoot.

Like Astaroth, the hairstyle is strongly based on Kaori Yuki’s character, but the outfit we chose was totally different, as we needed a very tight corset to symbolise constriction on the womb; also, her right hand, which bears the Seal (and thus the power) is placed upon her uterus. She has six wings because she is a former Seraph, and a halo of stars similar to that of the Virgin Mary which symbolises her status as the (former) Queen of Heaven; the Seal is simply made of a heptacle with decorations similar to those of Astaroth to fit the seven-letter name. The azure theme-colour, beside being the colour associated with both Astarte and the Virgin Mary, gives a (fake) heavenly feeling and recalls cold (thus infertility) and air/humidity, and is also Ayl’s favourite.

Finally, the song, The Allmighty by Gothminister featuring Nell Sigland, sounds quite heavenly itself, and the character described fits with Astarte.

The Infernal Lords I: Astaroth

“In a world of disillusion,
Loitering away your time,
There’s no harm in reconstruction:
Paint the world in black and white.”
[ Empty – Theatre of Tragedy ]

Duke Astaroth is a First-Level Demon and one of the most powerful figures in the Imperial Court of Pandemonium: he represents one of the Seven Deadly Sins, masters one of the Four Primary Elements and represents one of the Planets. His most prominent role is being the Demon of Sloth, which makes him one of the Seven Satans known as the Duke of Terror. He was formerly the Chief of Thrones but became one of the most loyal Generals by Emperor Lucifer’s side during the Great Heavenly War, getting to corrupt and turn many of his fellow Thrones against Yahweh. He is the twin brother of Duchess Astarte, whom he loves deeply, and he fought fiercely especially in hopes of winning the war and spare her from a dangerous mission under cover in case of defeat. After the Fall, he managed to retain most of his powers, including mastering Air and the astrological power of Planet Mercury as a former Elemental and Astral Angel.

He’s well known for his interest in art, literature, music and philosophy as a mean of killing boredom while still being blissfully unproductive, his violent and rather frequent mood swings and his languid appearance, which he uses along with the temptations of Sloth to lure and corrupt Mortal Souls. Despite having fought fiercely during the Great Heavenly War, he now prefers indulging his own Sin, enjoying the pleasures of the Court, lying around comfortably and chatting about cultural and mundane subjects especially with Marquis Andrealphus, the Demon of the Stars, and the Demons of Art, most notably Countess Agares, the Demon of Literature, and Count Murmur, the Demon of Music. He’s manipulative and prefers acting as a subtle corruptor rather than doing actual evil deeds, which he does only when his temper swings to bad due to deep boredom. His dearest friend, the passionally-tempered Princess Lilith, occasionally manages to shake him from his constant apathy and convince him to fly to Earth with her retinue of nightly Demons who prey on the sleeping Mortals’ energies: despite his indolence, he greatly enjoys the company of Marquis Leonard, Marquise Naamah and Marquis Rosiel during their escapades. He is also friends with the equally debauched Count Asmodeus and the former Second-in-Command of the Thrones, Marquis Adramelech, being unaware of the latter’s plot to overpower him at the time of the Great Heavenly War. His best friends, though, are Count Furcifel, a fellow former Throne he took a particular liking to even before the Fall, and especially Duke Belial, the poshest and most popular courtier of the Pandemonium, whose quick wit and elegance give Duke Astaroth solace during the endless afternoons of boredom at Court.

Astaroth: development and symbolism

Credits:
Photo, model, concept, manipulation, styling, hair, make up, frame design: GothicNarcissus
Additional resources: Amptone-stock (textures), Sxc.hu (wings)

I first came across Astaroth’s figure through kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary and he immediately became one of my favourite characters from the manga. Kaori’s depiction of him is just helplessly fascinating and sensual and that’s what got me into the character/Demon. I mentioned in the post about the project that my first inspiration for the series came from the manga and Astaroth was one of the most motivating parts. No wonder I decided to portray him myself and start off the project with him.

Astaroth from Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary.

Along with Astarte, this Demon is the one in which Kaori’s influence is most notable, both in the characterisation and aesthetics. For instance, when browsing through the various sources, I mainly considered the informations that she used as well, hence sticking more closely to Sebastian Michaelis, according to whom Astaroth is a former Prince of Thrones who tempts men to be indolent. Beside useful because it contained information about what Astaroth was up to before being cast out of Heaven, this information automatically dismissed Belphegor as a potential Demon of Sloth in my series.
Also, even though I knew that Astaroth’s Christian figure was derived from the Semitic Goddess Astarte, I ignored the fact that their figure was mostly unified after the “demonisation”, sticking to the very thin trace of Astarte’s independent demonic figure to reinforce my own rendition of two twin Demons. Astaroth’s peerage as a Duke was taken directly from The Lesser Key Of Solomon, while I associated him with Air because he kills people by breathing. Of course, all of his network and relationships were all made up by me.

Aesthetically speaking, even discounting Kaori’s strong influence, the “official” depiction of Astaroth played a big role in my concept. If you look at it, it is quite unusual compared to other Demons. He’s represented as a naked and, all in all, good-looking Fallen Angel, whose monstrous characteristics are quite limited if compared to others:

Astaroth from the Dictionnaire Infernal.

I refused to get naked myself but I decided give a twist to Kaori’s depiction with a more luring touch to fit the original character. Kaori’s influence is most noticeable in the hairstyle, with the messy high ponytail falling all around the head.
The symbolism in this work is quite minimal: the languid pose and unshaven beard recall sloth and the misty texture recalls Astaroth’s powers over Air. The seal is taken directly from The Lesser Key Of Solomon while the symbol on the forehead is a direct homage to the manga. Crimson being the theme-colour of the whole work, most noticeably on the wings, is a reference to poppies, a notoriously sleep-inducing flower. I decided to deliberately ignore the fact that he is supposed to carry a viper, as there is plenty of other Demons who associate with snakes and it would have been superfluous.
Empty by Theatre of Tragedy was chosen as the theme-song due to its sensually indolent mood and the mention to the loitering of time.

The Infernal Lords

It’s about time I wrote something about my magnum opus on this blog. It’s not surprising that I haven’t yet, as there hasn’t been any news on this side lately and I had more urgent things to talk about, but it’s a vaste subject which will take quite a lot of posts, one for each Demon, so I’m better start off now.

The Infernal Lords project was first conceived around September or October 2009, and was mainly inspired by Kaori Yuki’s work, most notably Angel Sanctuary, and Draconian music, in particular the albums dealing with Lucifer, his Fall and all the Biblic folklore. I was looking for the right idea for a long-term project to develop in time, and this one stuck. The project has evolved a lot ever since, but its main standpoints haven’t change, both conceptually and stylistically, so I’m going to introduce them.

Conceptually, this project is about the traditional Demons drawn from Christian and Jewish mythology. The sources are mainly demonology grimoires such as Colin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernel, John Weiner’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and The Lesser Key Of Solomon, the Talmud and, occasionally, the Bible. Nevertheless, I gave a personal interpretation of the subject, as I strongly rejected the traditional division between good and evil with a direct consequence in the aesthetics of the project: disregarding the monstruous and grotesque rendition of Demons in popular Christian imagery, I chose instead to represent Evil as genuinely beautiful, as it must be physically appealing to exist. Put in other words, it must be very attractive and pleasent to the senses not as a disguise, but by its very essence in order to be effectively tempting as an alternative to what is considered good. As a consequence, each one of my Demons (or, most appropriately, Fallen Angels) is represented as a beautiful being, retaining all the beauty they had before the fall, as well as generally their noble and elegant aura.

Originally, my idea was to simply give a graphical rendition of the traditional Demons according to my own canon, without any addition. Nevertheless, due to the substantial lack of sources and stories which really characterize the Demons, beside the fact that most of the existing sources just contradict each other forcing me to a careful selection, I had to characterize them myself, with the results that my Demons started walking on their own feet and became round characters that, while still largely based on their ‘official’ counterparts, have powers of their own, maintain a whole new network of affairs, rivalries and friendships and stand in a well-defined peerage, contextualized in a well defined cosmology.

Truth be told, what I love the most about the Christian cosmology is the extremely mundane rendition of the supernatural. The Jewish and Christian God is essentially a dispotic monarch with his own court and army, and so is Lucifer. I basically kept this vision, but totally wiped away the moral identification with good and evil: Heaven and Hell are basically only opposed factions, both with their share of corruption, inner struggles, inequity, lust for power and so on, and mankind is simply caught in between them, Earth being their battlefield; it’s not good against evil, it’s Yahweh (God) versus Lucifer (Satan) for the supreme power on the universe. And to be honest, I don’t consider this vision of mine particularly far from what actually Christians have depicted ever since the Middle Ages, but this is not directly relevant to the artistic part so I’ll save it for another time.

Stylistically, the finished series will be made of 30 pieces, one for each Demon. I initially didn’t want to have a given number of works and simply end the project whenever I felt like, but after reading through many Demon biographies I just decided this is the ideal number, having a whole host of interesting characters while avoiding to repeat them (as most of the Demons I found, in particular the Goetic ones, are just a copycat of each other). These Demons will be the very élite of the Infernal society, each one being a noble who attends the Court of Pandemonium under the wing (read: close control) of Emperor Lucifer. Each of the pieces is a stand-alone work which doesn’t necessarily need the others to be understood, and most of them retain unique traits blended with others which are common to all the works and provide continuity to the series: a black or generally dark background, an elaborate frame, the presence of the Demon in a portrait-like pose showing off some characteristic true to its nature, and most often the Seal of the Demon, imposed by God to denote their Fallen status but which basically acts as a cathalist for their powers. The model is different each time, and each work has a unique dominant colour and a theme song associated.

Technically speaking, the works in this series are not pure photographs, as they are usually heavily manipulated, but I strongly refuse to consider them photomanipulations either, as I work on actual portraits taken by me and I rely on stock photos only for the details, rather than creating a brand new image out of thin air. I’d rather call them regular photographic portraits with necessary digital additions, as people don’t have wings, halos, seals and don’t use magic. So basically something in-between photographs and photomanipulations.

The next I.L.-related post will be the first of the Demons’ biographies. I don’t know what the ourcome of this series will be. I’m pretty sure I will print a book for myself out of it, but I strongly doubt it will be up for selling, as getting the green light from all the stock providers will be most unlikely. It might be I write a novel out of it in the feature, after I’m done with my Vampires or while working on them, but I have to come up with a plausible plot which possibly doesn’t plagiarize Angel Sanctuary, so who knows?

Meanwhile, I just hope you enjoy my works; I wish to thank you all for the support you gave to the series so far, and I hope I won’t let you down with the next entries.