#religious fantasy

[glasscitadel]

Guys... after working on this incrementally over the past 8 months between other personal work and commissions, I finally did it. I have kicked clothing design's ass and have served my archael heirus, Eden, the finest religious sci-fi drip... Very minimally shaded so this can serve as a good reference!

And a version without wings <3

[andromedaexists]

𝔇𝔢𝔰𝔢𝔠𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔢 ℭ𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔯 ℜ𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔞𝔩

hi hello it's time!!

Today I bring something beautiful for you all to gaze upon: the cover for my next novel, Desecrate!!

Summary

What would you do if everything you knew about your faith was flipped on its head?

That's what Kit has been trying to find out. After dropping out of Seminary and giving up on his life's dream of being a priest, he has to piece together the shattered remains of his faith.

But what if those pieces fit together in ways they never have before? What if they reveal a secret that the church has been hiding for millennia? What will he do then?

Adonai's been held in captivity for longer than They can recall. They don't remember what the sun feels like on Their skin, what the wind feels like in Their hair. It's a shame, one of Their only regrets was not fighting back that day.

Their time will come. The Messiah walks among the living once again, and They know that he will free them. Until that day, They will remain patient.

The Cover Reveal

I cannot even begin to describe just how in love with this cover I am, from the very first sketch I was head over heels for it. Soren did an amazing job with my boys!! Make sure to check him out @t-hornapple here or @/t_hornapple on twitter and instagram or at his website!

I also made a lil video for tiktok and all that so I'll add that because why not

TAGLIST

@lockejhaven @mr-writes @eleanordaze @flowerprose @starlitpage

@dogmomwrites @annetilney @ceph-the-ghost-writer @inkspellangel @outpost51

@love-whatit-loves @365runesoftheamalgamations @crypticcodexcreations

Please fill out this form to be added or ask to be removed!

[killemwithkillness]

07/25/2023

Thinking about how part of my deconstruction journey was when I added a fake religion to my fantasy book, then had the uncomfortable realization of how easy it is to just make up an entire half-assed religion on the spot because it didn’t sound all that different from what I believed in real life. 

Now I’m an agnostic atheist who gives their characters religious trauma.  Write what you know I guess lol

[comikbook]

Under My Skin, 2024, Digital Painting by myself, Liz Pence

⬇️commissions⬇️

[bebs-art-gallery]

The Unclean

[ex0skeletal-undead]

Fallen Angel by daylyte04

[bungledown-chim]

i cannot explain how much kristen needs to change her marketing tactic

she keeps going around and saying that cassandra is the goddess of mystery and doubt and the night, but thats not quite true. cassandra is the goddess of finding safety in the unknown. of not being afraid of doubt.

she is the belief that even if you don't know where you are or what to do, if you are lost and alone in a dark forest, there will be something on the other side, and all you have to do is get there. Cassandra is the goddess of staring into the cold, uncaring void and feeling a warm hand clasp your own, of a whisper in your ear saying youre going to be okay. you aren't alone. it is going to be scary and hard and uncertain, but you will never be on your own because i am here with you. you will never be lost because i know where you are

[stars-in-a-jam-jar]

I don't think Buddy asks Helio any questions.

Kristen asked 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' because she believed in all the good things she was taught, but noticed the strange disconnect between the world as it was and the world as it was taught to her. So she thought, surely, if I can't come up with the answer, Helio will have it. And she hates him for dodging her question.

Buddy is far more deluded than Kristen ever was. And he is far, far angrier inside as a result, even if he deliberately conceals this fact from himself to protect himself from the inevitable mental breakdown this would cause. Buddy is not as altruistic and giving and caring as Kristen is. He wouldn't question why he was betrayed or dig into a question like 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' Those aren't the answers he needs, because of course he'd be betrayed by someone outside the church, that makes perfect sense. Of course bad things happen to good people, we simply live in a fallen world.

Or, well. He used to live in a fallen world. Now he's dead here. In Helio's divine domain.

I think Buddy, as he wanders through fields of corn to the big farmhouse where Helio is chilling out, privately thinks about the fact that Kristen Applebees' horrified expression was the last thing he ever saw before a sharp pain in his throat. I think Buddy assumes Helio knows he's thinking this and apologizes for bringing thoughts like that into paradise. I think he thanks Helio for recognizing his devotion and bringing him here once he died and dutifully deceives himself about his own rising emotions at contending with the fact that he's dead now.

After all, he was raised to die. He was raised to want to die.

To want to be here with his god whenever it was he called Buddy to him. So he doesn't feel upset, no, of course not. He's just a little surprised at how sudden it was. (How completely random. How unceremonious and unfair.) He's a little bit worried how his grandparents would react to the news is all. (He cracks a joke that maybe he'll see them here shortly after they do get the news. He doesn't laugh at it.) He had his own plans for how he'd spread the good word in life, but of course, Helio had other plans. (Nothing Buddy ever wanted really mattered. He knew that, he knew the will of Helio was the real thing that mattered, and everything else was just a small list of preapproved extracurriculars in the syllabus of his life.)

He can't be upset about this.

He shouldn't be upset about this.

This is his reward.

This place and these people and this god are his reward for a life of service and devotion and walking in the light.

It's not his place to be upset about his own reward. Kristen got upset when she went to heaven, when she met Helio, and look where that got her.

Look... look where that got her.

He thinks he hates her. For looking at him like that. All the ways she looked at him. Like he was something pitiful and contemptible. Someone she needed to threaten away from her little brother. Someone she has to double and triple check if he's going to revive her when he's under magical oath to do just that or lose his connection to a divinity she threw away after being chosen.

And then. In that last moment, she looked at him and he saw grief and horror and caring. Like his death was awful and unfair and tragic.

And he thinks maybe he hates her for that. For challenging him every conversation they had and looking at him like she knew something he didn't. Like she was above him. Like killing your own god twice in life is a preferable fate to living for the promise of eternal sunlight and cornbread in death. A promise which was kept to him.

Kristen was promised to Helio, too.

And he can't unsee her face. He can't move along and focus on what truly matters (Helio, the church, spreading the word, doling out divine punishment when needed) because he's reached the end. There is nothing left. Only this bright sunny cornfield and a god who... is nice. And who cares about him, personally. He got Buddy's name wrong the first and only time they held audience.

He thinks he hates Kristen, and he hates that that hatred isn't immediately squashed out of his soul just by being here. In paradise. Where he belongs. Where every follower of Helio belongs. Where he never has to have anyone look at him the way Kristen did ever again.

I don't think Buddy Dawn asks Helio any questions. Because how do you ask the god you devoted every waking minute of your life to, 'Why do I hate it here? Why does this feel like hell?'

(There's a part 2 now that the next ep is out >:3)

[amidstsilence]

do you know your holy relics?

prints

[ewwww-what]

I don’t think this is going to be important this season but I would really like it to be.

[xochimillilili]

I want to kidnap and tie up my boy, stuff his mouth with his soaking panties so he can't scream as I take him away. Tell him he's mine and only mine forever as I collar him up, scratch my name into every single one of his limbs, make him only see me

Fuck him until he's unconscious, pump his holes full of my cum, make him only want me, need me, love me. I'll keep him forever as my beloved pet, my beloved boy until I'm his entire world, his shining light and god

[andromedaexists]

WUPDATE: Incorrect Eyes

𝚆𝚎𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚍𝚊𝚢, 𝙾𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟸𝟹𝚛𝚍 || 𝙴𝚢𝚎𝚜 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎

I already tagged all the Desecrate people this week so I'll do an Incorrect Eyes update this week!

BIG NEWS!!!! INCORRECT EYES WAS PUBLISHED!!! AND YOU CAN READ IT FOR FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED!!!

Okay, now let's talk some more about that! I was updating y'all pretty regularly earlier this year as I worked on IE and then I kinda... stopped.

Well, I was able to get it to the editor I was really hoping for (thank you @whatsuptyler ily beepaw)! Tyler did an amazing job really finding all my inconsistencies and making sure the narrative worked!

I also had a big change on the art end! I originally wanted to have Mx. Morggo doing the chapter art for IE, but they fell through (literally just never responded to an email after telling me they were interested in the project but that's okay! Life is weird!). Then I kinda waffled on where to go next and ended up having WerewolfPresident on IG do it and it turned out great!! I love the illustrations and the chapter header that I got, they're everything!!

I am also waiting on some illustrations to come in from my tattoo artist, I would like to use these as like those vellum art pages that you can put into books. I don't know if I'll actually get these art pieces but that just seems to be the vibe for IE lol

I say that because I am still waiting on the cover art for IE. I am really upset about this just because I have not heard from the artist since June, when I had stated that the book is being published in July back when I first got into contact with her in December. It has been nearly a year and I don't have the art. I am really hoping to receive it still, and I won't make the paperback editions of IE available until I have the cover illustration.

That's all the updates I really have on the art end of things, but I do have one more update in general: Incorrect Eyes qualifies for the Bram Stoker Awards in the Long Fiction category this year!! If you know an HWA member or are an HWA member yourself (like I am now!!), then I would greatly appreciate your consideration of my psychological religious horror story for the awards cycle this year!

Now that that's done, let's get to the good part (the snippies!):

Be Not Afraid. My life changed when I heard those three words. It wasn’t an immediate change. No, it was a slow, crawling thing. I was raised a good Catholic kid, after all. Those three words were ones that I grew up with, ones that I am well acquainted with. Sundays were always full of stories about the messengers of God, tales as great as They were that sung their praises. But, of course, any time the Angels were mentioned, the greeting wasn’t far behind. Be Not Afraid was a melody that hung in the background of my life over the soft harmonies of the church’s organs, soothing me into complacency.

maybe one more for yous:

I can remember what the Father told me to believe in church all those years ago. Remember how he guided me in prayer after I asked about this description and why is was so scary. He told me that the chants of the Angels were something to be heard, that They could lift a soul and bring it closer to God. But when I read the words on the page I return to the question the small child I used to be asked. Why is it so scary? I can’t hear their chants, my ears are filled with Their screaming and wailing. Their shouts beg for atonement and forgiveness. Images pop unbidden into my mind: Angels as we knew them growing up, human-like and innocent. But now They have tears of viscous blood streaming down Their faces as They grovel before His throne, screaming and begging for His warmth. Seraphim and Cherubim just behind Them, blocking the pathetic Angels in, forcing Them to submit to His holy gaze. Their screams harmonize in the worst ways, ringing through my mind and spilling through my ears. The mind-numbing pain They cause is only worsened as my eyes are drawn further down the page. Woe is me for I am ruined [must be silent] because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. Unclean, unclean, unclean. The word repeats in my mind, tearing through the chorus of terror put forward by the Angels. I am unclean, just like he was. I live among people with unclean Eyes, just as he with lips. He—I—we are RUINED. My mind conjured the image of the next paragraph. Of the Seraphim flying towards me—Isaiah—us holding a glowing coal by means of a pair of tongs. From the altar is comes. As it lays the burning stone in my eyes, it speaks: Now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed and your sin is atoned for. Then I scream.

and then the final thing I'll share, the first chapter header:

TAGLIST

@winterandwords @crypticcodexcreations @inkspellangel @smol-feralgremlin

@joswriting @love-whatit-loves @annetillney @bebewrites

Please fill out this form to be added or ask to be removed!

[killemwithkillness]

08/11/2023 | The "Savior King"

It's funny how when I was a Christian everything had to be an allegory for God. Every moral lesson had to be on the nose or else you were in the dangerous realm of "glorifying sin".

There are themes of messages I don't believe in anymore all throughout my old manuscript that I now have to rework. The biggest being that of the "Savior King" (A bit of a deus ex machina that appears in the second book.) He was supposed to come in and fix things for my characters, to make things easier. He was a testament to what I believed at the time, a condescending message of hope to my audience: "Fear not, reader, Someone is coming to save us. If you just believe."

But I don't believe that anymore. Not in a morbid way (well, maybe in a bit of a morbid way) but more in the way that it's simply not realistic. As a species, we cannot count on anyone to pick our asses up and save us from ourselves. That is, except for us.

And here I see blooming a new theme for Ellis. He is not a Savior. He is simply a man; Doing the work, caring for his fellow humans. Breaking generational traditions, becoming better than the people who came before him, despite the fact that to call it an uphill climb would be an understatement. These types of people are the true saviors. Not because they are perfect, or because they sweep in and fix absolutely everything. But because they do the best they can to leave the world a better place than they found it.

[comikbook]

Violent Dog, 2023, Digital Painting by myself, Liz Pence

[kirkwallguy]

one thing i hate about the whole solas story is how it shifts the discussion of religion in the series from looking at it from a social angle to like... basically supernatural or percy jackson. questioning whether the maker is real or whether mythal was evil just does nothing for me because it isn't relevant to anything that's actually happening in the present day; the maker could have been a time travelling oghren for all i care, what's actually interesting is the way the chantry works as an institution. imagine if da2 had been about trying to prove the maker was real so we could find out whether he was cool with what was happening in the gallows. or if dao had an elven god come down to us and grant us the power to slay the archdemon. it's bad!

[ex0skeletal-undead]

Voracious Carnivore Communion by DARK-NECRODEVOURER