Gooday everyone,
Welcome to the Deacon Corner. If you’re new here, these galleries dive into the inspirations behind the images you’ll find throughout the books posted on these pages. In these issues, I also like to share the commission details for each project, so readers can follow along with how these images came to life.
If there’s a particular piece you’re curious about, you can find all previous issues under my journal entries or linked directly beneath the images within each chapter.
Now before we begin, none of these beautiful art pieces would exist without the incredible talent of Sickjoe who is the creative force behind all the artwork in these books. Quite literally the heart and soul of this visual world. If you appreciate his work as much as I do, I encourage you to visit his gallery and explore more of his stunning creations.
Now, without further ado, let's take a look at the featured image and the commission details below.
At the outset of a Pallid War, most engineers mistake the Tonsil for a moon, an ominous, low-hanging sphere suspended from the vaulted flesh of Kath’le Kal’s hard palate. But this is no celestial body. The Tonsil is the Pallid Throne, entombed and dormant, tethered to the ceiling by a thick fleshy stalk that sways with unsettling rhythm like the pendulum of a grandfather clock counting down to calamity.
Structurally, it resembles a vast, inverted teardrop, a weight of soft tissue that pulses faintly with some internal rhythm. Its surface is sealed by overlapping petals, slick and pale, as if some Lovecraftian rose were budding from the throat of a god.
Furthermore, the Tonsil is not passive. It responds to death.
With each fallen engineer, the weight of the Tonsil grows. It descends, slowly, inevitably, sagging toward the dunes below. When only a single engineer remains, and the bloodletting ceases, the stalk breaks and It ruptures.
That is when the petals unfurl.
The opening of the Pallid Throne is not an event but a revelation; a grotesque flowering, heralding the end of one era and the birth of another. Whatever secrets emerge from within are only for the reigning monarch of Kath'le Kal.