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.
I need a piece between Teenage Morta and Decima, who are picking out witnesses for Decima’s wedding. Yes, another wedding. The frequency of her ceremonies is getting on Morta’s nerves.
The two women are perched on the rooftops of a desert bazaar, and Decima has her serpentine calves swung over the roof like Rupunzle's hair. Mortals below go about their daily lives trading meats, textiles, and eggs, completely oblivious to the duchesses. They cannot be seen save for those with close ties to the astral romances.
Decima licks her lips, picking out her witnesses like lobsters from an open tank, and Morta and Igor fetch them for her.
Morta and Igor: Teenage Morta is Decima’s chaperone and maid of honor, and she wears a black gown with a slit skirt, her hair done up in a white bow to complement her natural black. Though she’s dressed for a wedding, she has a Colt strapped to her thigh, and she slips out of her heels, twirling one of them by its straps on her finger as she leans against Igor.
In a sense, Morta is her sister’s opposite. Decima represents commitment and lasting attraction, while she represents hookups, one-night stands, and momentary pleasures. Death lives in the moment, for she never knows the time or the hour. Put simply, she isn’t cut out for a sweetheart romance, but puts up with the lipstick, nail polish, and garters because she loves her sister.
Though Morta is only a teenager, Igor is fully grown in this scene, and Decima has strung flowers in his mane and tied a string of empty tin cans to his saddle, which rattle across the ground as he trots, a wedding tradition from a more modern era. On the back of Igor’s saddle, we can see human-shaped cocoons bound tightly in steel wool. They’ve already selected a few witness, and Igor, like a spider, has wrapped them up snugly for the trip home. They struggle, unable to scream, squirming like bank robbery victims moments before being laid out on the tracks.
Decima: Teenage Decima believes it’s bad luck for the witnesses and the groom to see the bride in her gown before the wedding, so she dresses in her normal attire. However, her hair is already done up with a black ribbon like before, and she excitedly picks out witnesses among the oblivious crowds, waiting for Morta to do the heavy lifting. She licks her lips, the fingers along her calves twitching in expectation as her legs thump against the side of the building. Decima’s uncontrollable hunger peeks out from a pampered shell. After all, even Nona only gets one baby shower a year; three weddings at once is more than a little gluttonous.
Background: The duchesses have traveled to a human peninsula from a dated era. This place is a desert Bazaar, not too much unlike the one the Gnatu oversee, just without the sunken ships. Think colorful tarps, numerous tents, clay huts, and dome rooftops. The people wear simple attire and light robes to deal with the sun’s heat. With that said, you don’t have to be too detailed here, as, once again, the focus should be on Igor, the sisters, and their strange collection of steel wool wrapped victims.