#ylts spoilers

[sootandpepper]

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 2 OF 'Young Like The Sea' by @mangogreent

Had the priveledge to be commisioned by Lake for the art at the end of chapter 2 shoutout Lake ur so cool and the prompt for this was very fun to work on B))

There r two different versions but the difference is very subtle lel (its in the eyes)

[nicosraf]

Hello. I adored your book. I was wondering if you could share a bit about your research/inspiration for Uriel/Kimah? I don't know much about Judeo-Christian theology and history. I was curious if this came from the Bible or some sort of folklore or if it was your own interpretation?

Aaa, thank you so much! I'm happy you enjoyed!

Regarding Uri-Kimah: it was all revealed to me in a dream.

(That's the short answer. The long answer, with spoilers, is that it's an interpretation:)

The Bible refers to angels as stars a couple times — Job 38:7 and Revelation 12:4, for example. Revelation 12:4 is especially relevant (Job too, but I'll get to that later); it reads that Satan took down 1/3rd of the stars with him, which most assume to mean angels that became demons due to his influence. So, angels are stars, angels are also weird abominations occasionally, and angels are human-ish sometimes too — I tried to spin these 3 things together and came to the decision that only some angels were physically stars, but which?

I was also thinking scientifically. I wanted to incorporate some aspect of real stars (like the silly lil inclusion of dinosaurs) and I thought a lot about the thousands of years of a dark universe. I wrote all this down, thought about it, then considered, "Maybe the first angels were stars."

Uriel. So Uriel is a bit fascinating to me. I looked through a lot of angel art while planning, and I noticed people tended to depict the archangels with almost consistent personalities. Uriel, to me, usually looked upset, or unhappy. (In comparison to Gabriel, especially, who looks very serene and kind and happy, most of the time.) He also was typically depicted with fire, stars, or the sun (including in Paradise Lost). I was especially struck by this stained glass of him:

I then thought maybe Uriel was one of the first angels or that he knew them.

In my outline, I vaguely wrote that there would be a confrontation between God and Uriel in Chapter 28 about Lucifer, then the first angels, who became stars. I wasn't sure what I was going to write really but, as I drafted, the story of the angels as stars started becoming clearer to me (ex. Michael telling Lucifer, on Earth, the parable about the stars). I started getting flashes of scenes and lines in my head (I remember suddenly imagining Uriel creating fire, and making the connection to his name "Uri" (light) and "-el" (of God). And then I thought that maybe there was no God for a while, and he was just Uri.)

I also started to understand Uriel as a jealous character, (everyone is jealous in this book) but where was his jealousy coming from? I thought maybe he had been in love once too.

A night or two before I wrote Chapter 28 (which I was stressing about), I dreamt about the story of "Uri" and this other angel, along with the other first angels who God turned into stars. After freaking out for an hour, I opened the (YLT) Bible I had, went to the book of Job, where angels were referred to as stars (Job 38:7), and then I stumbled onto Job 38:31: "Dost thou bind sweet influences of Kimah?" Kimah was apparently referencing a constellation.

I liked it, and Uri-Kimah sounded right.