Many beings in hell are neither formerly Humans or angels, some are beings of unique origin while others are birthed inside hell but the most numerous are the denizens hell creates itself to hunt for souls to fuel it’s ever expanding worlds.
An angel formally of the powers, during his lifetime he slowly began to lose his grip on what he considered important and began an aimless rebellion that throw heaven into turmoil eventually he was destroyed though his remnants fell to hell with many of the angels who unwittingly, or other wise, followed his command.
Living now body less he uses his will to bend parts of hell into his forms taking the guise of hundreds of crows he uses to enslave souls turning them into devils to act as his thralls, though he possesses no true power anylonger he has managed to retain control of many of his former angels without fear of attempts on his life as none of them are sure how to kill him as the death’s of the crows and other forms he craft seem to be puppets rather than vessels.
Mammon was an angel but during samael’s anarchy was cast out into hell with a large number of other angels, now mammon needs to consume the souls as he can to maintain his strength. Like many he fears to cross Samael’s rule over hell and regularly does his bidding.
Main Character Themes: Wrath, despair and glutony
Rough Design of the Father, tried to create a simple character that looked poor but Results are a bit underwhelming.
A rough draft of the Godson’s appearance, Giving him an anonymous appearce similar to death and in the attire of someone used to working with those that will surely die, a fitting guise for the company he keeps.
I chose a little bit of a different design to create death with than is traditionally represented with as I wished to try and see what I could do with the concept.
The key differences is the face and hands, thinking it over a more ambiguous idea for the face was more appealing setting the face with a more “other” feel and removing any hands or arms to reinforce the idea of this character being helpless to affect the world around him, he may move through it but never truly interact as a human could.
I began designing Death by drawing different designs for him based on his research, it was difficult with him as his long flowing cloak and unusual facial structures I wanted to get a grasp of how to draw them while Experimenting with some ideas.
`In the lands of Despair there is a forest, each tree is the soul of a human that took their own life and now suffer through strangulation til the tree’s grow over their body and they become part of it still suffocating.
Many of the tree’s turn violent and will attempt to ensnare those who walk through their forest to suffer with them, never to leave again.
The land is also permeated by a thick fog that like the tree’s it hides will attempt to prevent those who enter from leaving by obscuring their path and causing them to suffer the same despair as the tree’s felt in life’
The main themes of this world represent despair, suffering and the loss of life.
The keep was originally it’s own place within hell based on a sketch for it (below drawing bottom right) but after talking the idea over I put it above the Lands of Despair.
`Mammon’s Keep was pulled from the ground by Mammon himself and used to house himself and his legions as it provided useful defense against the majority of hell’s denizens which are unable to fly.
Great effort is required on Mammon’s power to have the Keep remain in the air as such he rarely leaves and uses his forces to attain more souls for him to devour, those under his rule that instead of returning every soul they capture decide to devour one or more themselves are thrown from the keep into the forest below eventually to be ensnared by the forest.
Leaving or entering the keep is next to impossible with the exception of a doorway with the keep itself that connects to other lands where the newer souls are deposited into hell, the doors can only be opened from within the keep though and will leave the devils sent through trapped outside.’
Power and authority are not given within hell, they are taken, I enjoyed the symbolism that the keep represented, the idea of mammon pulling a piece of hell out of the ground in an attempt to escape what’s on the ground in hell, that it is supposed to keep those he doesn’t control out but traps himself and many others there and they can only leave to replenish the food sources.
For my Computer Arts brief I chose to do the Godfather death from Grim’s Tales as an interactive media piece.
The tale is of a an elderly man who upon the birth of his 13th son goes off in search of a godfather for the son as he doubts he will be able to care for him given his age.
On the road he meets God who he rejects as he “distributes wealth only to those already rich.” and then meets the devil who he rejects as he is the king of lies and deceit.
Next he meets death who offers to be the child’s godfather and the father accepts as he treats all men equally.
When the godson is older death takes him to where a magical herb grows that will cure any ailment but warns the godson that he should use it to become great doctor but only on those who can be saved, that death shall stand at the head of any one fated to die and at the feet of those that can be saved.
The godson became a renowned doctor for being able to tell at a glance those that could be saved and those whose last moments where on them, so when their king fell ill he was sent for to administer to him.
Upon seeing death at the kings head he knew he was to die yet the godson decided to try and trick death, the godson moved the king so that the kings feet were where death stood and despite death’s menacing glare administered the cure.
The king recovered and promised the doctor his daughters hand in marriage for saving his life but when the godson returned him he found death waiting furious at him, despite his anger he let him be as he was his godson.
The next day the king sent for the doctor as his daughter had fallen ill with the same disease and upon seeing death at her head he tried the same trick again, though it worked death immediately took him away to his lair where there were many candles representing all living things, death took his godson to his candle where it had almost burnt out.
the godson begged death to light him a new candle but when death picked it up he loosened his grip and the candle fell and went out.
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Death visual research
Death’s character has a Regal nature to, he acts as a herald in many sense’s as he he is the one who in informs those that have passed on of their fate if they have not had time to know already of their mortality and take them beyond.
Their is also a good deal of coldness and cruelty to the character, not out of any malicious intent but in his unflinching equality he deals in.
Harsh shapes inform his type and cold colour’s as there’s no true life to the character.
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Father Research
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Godson
His days working as a doctor have led him to wear the plague doctors uniform, though he doesn’t live in a land where there is plague he wears the suit to be sure not to be infected by any illnesses that might harm him as he doesn’t wish to use the cure on himself regularly.
An idealistic person that finds the work he does fulfilling he is irked by that although his cures prevent people’s from being badly crippled or suffering over long periods of time, that he cannot truly save people’s lives.
Despite his godfather’s nature he does care about him, as he see’s that although some people suffer under death it is those that suffer grave injuries through life and without death those would mount up for all eternity.
his clothes are not truly terrifying as though they are their for his protection they don’t have the same extreme level of rubberized joints and seals that most plague doctors do, in fact the suit is made from comfortable fabric and a bit tattered given him a softer appearance than his peers and as he will frequently remove the mask to show his patients not to be worried when he can save them.
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Environment Research
Deaths lair is the old druid style of architecture, dark, imposing and earthy with no comforts for visitors.
The same bed chamber is used for the king and prince as it is not their regular sleeping quartes but a room designed with looking after a bed ridden occupant in mind and so is closer to servants and the kitchens while being out of the way of any other guest or nobles that could be striken by their illness.
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God father Death animations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzYKIzID8h0&feature=share&list=PLUMGAun9gZxIyBIxe4Wo8j_aGTAKHzPuM
For my Creative Research I have begun to create a story world bible set in the same world as my narritive class in year two based on christian lore set around the character Maric and his journey through hell and heaven.
The works of several artist’s helped me to inform the aesthetic style of the hellscapes, hieronymus bosch’s paintings were quite influential in setting the tone and atmosphere out of what I wished to create myself.
While much of Hell’s multiple world’s are devoted to tormenting the captive souls within taking fearsome or hazardous appearance being the more common theme some of the sprawling landscapes take on shapes impossible to naturally navigate surreal and bizarre dimensions and much of it is comprised of indecipherable patterns and rules to entrap souls within.
The works of H R Giger and Zdzislaw Beksinski also provided inspiration, as hell is continually devouring souls and incorporating them into it’s worlds as a further form of torment and a good chance to explore visually the grotesque elements the Hellscapes crafting grim reminders into some environments to show the fate of some poor souls.
Giger’s and Zdzislaw Bio art work are interesting as they seems to blend themes of pain and imprisonment while being in many ways cold and unemotional, a contrasting set of ideas that makes the varied images seem even more unsettling than if the “victim” looked to be suffering.
AlaisterGrier 
