Wyrm

Before I present the piece, please be reminded I am approaching this with care and discernment, speaking in symbols rather than being overly literal. Maybe it’s cowardly to preface it like this, but I already know I am prone to mistakes. I want to educate myself as much as I am able to on my limited time.  

Wyrm the person considers himself to be an outsider. In character lore, he is a guardian of universal law that was left to itself until it began to reflect, isolated for a long time. He’s iterated on his self-representation before, arriving at the concept of entropy itself. The way things go by design, inevitable rot, but also, as Wyrm put it, a slow cleansing fire to make space for the new. He has taken this character concept to an ultimate stage. A Tarot Reading placed emphasis on the Lovers here: the process of oo and O. Regarding the question of whether Wyrm still fits his person, the Lovers seem to say that in spite of this question’s urgency, all things naturally separate, congregate, counterchange: Enantiodromia. In this commission I have not answered that question, but two sides of the same coin do come into play.

Things Wyrm was looking to include visually were a throne, black reflective stone, columns that extend into infinity, a temple created from fragments that have been collected, and a large quasar in the background. This would be Wyrm’s “home base,” so to say. He approached me for the environment, not necessarily his character. I more or less insisted on the presence of the latter because I was afraid I would focus too much on only “designing” an environment visually without the presence of a person in it. Maybe I’m just not comfortable yet with the lack of a creature in a picture. Weird.

Before I forget and move on, yes, I chuckled to think of the Dark Souls III DLCs. Miyazaki was always good at such things.

My response to the individual elements. Reflectiveness reminded me of intentionality, as the development of a personality or Self was something that came up in the character’s story. This idea was not expanded upon directly. Columns and temples immediately resonated with Greek architecture as Western philosophy and our first ideas of Logos, Self, Introspection and so forth start there, but a Greek temple wouldn’t be complete without a roof or an inner-outer - limiting the possibilities. I chose to separate the idea of the spoliae / accruements and the metaphysical columns, placing the latter behind and above the center and fading them out of view to make space for the other elements of the composition, the midground of which acts as a staircase into the above. What I wanted to convey was that the columns could really extend everywhere, becoming visible for the sake of the picture. Aside from the debris, the background Quasar was my favorite part of the project, which is why I wanted to show as much of its waves as I could. It is not intended to appear realistic, but is an adaptation of the Ace of Cups in my Tarot deck.

The esoteric idea I drew from the most was that of the Sephira of Binah, the Womb / Grail to which the queens (always on a throne) and Threes refer. Binah is described as a silent dark sea (fertility, unconscious) veiling a tiny point of light within. It is also thought of as the Will to Form, origin of Law and Soul, outer veil of concealment. It completes the Supernal Triangle of the Tree of Life, making it a limiter - hence its connection to Severity or Saturn/Lead. Isis as a personification of “nature loves to hide” would belong here, as would Jung’s Anima, which I will all eagerly research in time. Water’s archetypal waves are sometimes mentioned in esoteric literature as parallel to Quantum Mechanics and the vibratory nature of our perceived world. And lastly, Saturn is also Chronos, an aspect of time that Wyrm had previously dedicated a character to. Ultimately the statement is that the world is cyclical, Saturn eats its children. The Torus comes to mind. (Mh, Donut.) The colour of purple here, I guess, makes me think of vaguely magical vibes. It may be worth mentioning that just before the highly energetic Violet turns back to red as it might on a colour wheel, the electromagnetic waves return to the invisibility that makes up the vast majority of their spectrum.

In the composition, beginning and end are on two simultaneous, perpendicular axes - the beams of the Quasar versus the columns. My greatest self-criticism in the composition would be the lack of an explicit link between them, then. Logic tells me that inner and outer are one. Wyrm as a character here is simply observant, alone at the farthest extension of the quiet he maintains. What comes next, what could bring it back together, may still emerge in time.

My gratitude goes to Wyrm for his readiness to work together with me to determine the nature of the image! This is my first actual illustration commisison. It was a relief to be able to take the necessary amount of time for it.