Gooday everyone,
Welcome to the Deacon Corner. If you’re new here, this space dives into the inspirations behind the images you’ll find throughout the books on these pages. What began as a place to share commission breakdowns has grown into something more. In addition to detailing how each piece came to life, you’ll now find expanded chapter notes, lore entries, and my own black-and-white concept illustrations which are raw glimpses into the ideas that shaped this world before they fully took form.
Before we begin, it’s important to say that none of the beautiful stylized images found in the hard and soft copies of these books would exist without the incredible talent of Sickjoe who is quite literally the heart and soul of this visual world. If you appreciate his work as much as I do, I highly encourage you to visit his gallery and explore more of his creations.
Now, without further ado, let’s take a look at the featured image and learn a bit more about the lore hidden in this chapter.
For this month’s request, let's work on Lachesis.
Lachesis is Decima’s alternate personality. She is, at least to sisters of fate, a motherly figure, albeit a creepy one. To everyone else, she’s a horrific predator with a taste for mortal flesh. Her appetites cannot be satiated easily and she often possesses Decima when her hunger boils over.
Once possessed, Decima’s body changes, indicating Lachesis is in control. All those fingers along her legs extend outward into long spider-like digits. Have you ever seen the spider head creature from the thing?
That’s the idea. In fact, much of the mass that makes up her feet are these appendages curled up inside.
Additionally, she develops open sores along her forearms where winged gnats erupt from under her skin. Yeah, all her freckles come alive revealing their true nature, famished bloat flies. She literally becomes a hive.
Lastly, Decima’s hair grows longer and comes alive, living parasites coiling around each other like horsehair worms. She’s quite an imposing figure and Lachesis is far more dexterous and able to use Decima’s body to her full potential. Climbing across the walls, hanging from chandeliers using her legs much like a centipede and her head swiveling like a mantis, eyes glowing bright red.
Many of the other points about Decima remain the same from prior commissions and we’ll be using her adult version for this. The scene I have in mind takes place in Alexander's Tower, inspired by the Winchester mansion. A strange building designed with staircases leading to nowhere and doors opening into walls. He designed the tower as a labyrinth to hide from his wife when Lachesis takes her body for a test drive. In this scene specifically, she’s hunting him. We’ll save Alexander’s design for another commission.