"Last Rite of Passage" by Rochelle Green

(this one killed my tablet, I think. It was 40hrs plus, and this weekend my tablet kept trying to turn itself off at the most irritating times. Anyway, I have been very inspired by elements from old woodcuts lately, and listening to Ill Nino really doesn't help my natural morbidity-factor)

Hmm...a story....This is the unseelie Aelarion, here newly one of the ceremonial warrior-priests that make up the Dark Host. There are several terrible rituals involved in becoming a Hunter. For the final rite of initiation they ride out on a fairy raid, which can involve anything from stealing babies to all out burnination!!!! While my sidhe are angelic in origin, some of them are rather demonic - angels and demons, they are all different colours on the same supernatural scale.

This particular race of sidhe are very much into parodying human reality in a ghastly way. The Red Court, or the Cabal of Hunters love their decadence and their masquerades and their revels as much as the decay which lies just beneath the surface. Hence this particular Hunter gets to be Death of the Tarot Deck...and another one might be the Fool.

The horse-like thing is my version of a Questing Beast. The priest in the scene is heavily inspired by old woodcuts. I don't really intend for this image to come across as satanic, there isn't really any dark evil meaning behind it , I just think this stuff is uber-cool.

March 2006.