Abaddon the Destroyer - Arkhamhaus Images

The rains have stopped. Clouds like plugs of bloody cotton dab ineffectually at the slashed wrists of the sky.

" Those footsteps. The distinct rhythm of Something walking, slowly walking.... and the low murmur of the voices, the singing, the talking.... I saw the wings rise up above me, over him. I saw the immense obliterating darkness shoot up as if from a volcanic rip in the very earth and the light rise behind it. Blinding, beautiful light ."		" In all her gates Abbadon rues Thy bold attempt. "
Memnoch the devil, Anne Rice		Paradise Regained, iv 1671 John Milton
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 6,7

Fantasy \ the war in heaven \ Daemons \Bene Elohim \B'nai HaElohim \oiketerion \nephilum\ Fallen Angels | 30/05/03

Abaddon (ab-ad-done') Heb : ןודבא n. 1. lit. destruction, ruin or perdition. The Hebrew name for the demon commander identified by the apostle John as 'the angel' of the abyss, bound in "everlasting chains under darkness" for the crime of abandoning his assigned territory. Also known as 'The Destroyer'. He is to be freed in accompaniment with his demonic horde to redefine pain and suffering on a faithless humanity.
His name is an intensification of the primitive root Abad (Heb: דבא) meaning to wander away, i.e. to lose oneself; by implication to perish ( causatively destroy ): break, destroy, +not escape, fail, lose, ( cause to, make ) perish, spend. In a manner of speaking peculiar to the Hebrew: and surely, take, be undone, alternatively: utterly, be void of, have no way to flee. See Also Apollyon ( ap-ol-loo'-ohn ).

Interpretation : Lucifer stages an attempted coup d'état against the absolute power of the universe and is still 'going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it', Abaddon goes AWOL, and he's incarcerated for millennia. He had to have gone on a seeerious bender.

"This was the Earth of which we have heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night .... Here was no man's garden .... but the unhandselled globe ....

It was Matter ... Vast ... Terrific."

Artists Description and comments relating to characters and concepts.

Client : Personal folio piece ( so very few request this type of artwork ).
Medium : Pencil Illustration : ( on Cartridge ) 20cm by 28cm; tonal range reversed, perpective distorted, Colour & Lightning effect added in Adobe 2003 a.d
Notes : The original pencil sketch (with some minor modifications) can be viewed here »
The colour scheme for this version references an old university study into 'the graphical representation of satan down through the centuries' (yeah, I know back in the day my parents and fellow students were concerned as well) originally demons/fallen angels were rendered by european artisans as blue in pigment to represent their earth-bound nature (the sky) and the angels proper in red. A 6th century mosaic of the last judgement in Ravenna, in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Italy, clearly shows Jesus flanked on the right by an angel of light, in red; and on the left by an angel of dark, in blue.

Gradually, as the Catholic religion extended its power, the Devil began to take on a more visually sinister form. The blue angel sprouted horns, and slightly resembled a dragon. Interestingly, Hell at this time was not yet the fiery furnace it is depicted as today, the river of flames would be first painted with the last judgment mural at Torcello Cathedral in Venice, produced during the 11th century

The Devil slowly changed color to red, and took on elements from other mythical gods and creatures: firstly Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, and then another Greek god Pan, who was originally the god of shepherd. (His name meant “to pasture.”) It was Pan who gave the Devil his goat’s legs and cloven hooves. Our vision of the Christian Devil owes more to artists than it does to any descriptive verse in the Bible.

anyway this piece is suggesting the angels transitional stage. As always its great fun to draw expansive fantasy style wings.

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Soundtrack ( music to draw to ) : Glenn Danzig - Black Aria 1 & 2

-nemo vos seducat volens in humilitate et religione angelorum quae non vidit ambulans frustra inflatus sensu carnis suae-
地獄で会おうぜ、ベビー
For the more credulous surfers I am Forced to point out that this illustration and the others like it on this web-site are not actually based upon any first hand observations. They are works of imagination and are not produced under any infuences, hallucinatory, psychotic or otherwise. Therefore, when you are e-mailing me from your padded cell or any similar enclosure, please do not send me inquires/statements regarding the true nature of Hell / Scheol / Hades / Duat / Niflheim / Avici / Mictlan / Asurisa / Jigoku / Narake / Kurnugia / and any of the inhabitants chained or contained therein. ( omission of a particular cultural 'dark after-land' doesn't presuppose exclusion )

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" There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve their existance. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight..." C.S. Lewis

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