to be a star, you must burn

(sorry did some finetuning this morning. now I'm done can rest in peace now.) (or melkor after, idk.) again, painted over on AI, idk im lazy. here's original.

Notes:

-vampirism and cannibalism vaguely referencing the post I saw yesterday

-I also really dig the Zigur mask illustration circling around online forever

-lyrics quoted from ORE's song "How I paint the World in Flames 4 You"

-I used Rop Morgoth concept as motif because its so so obv hes gonna do that.. I also ran an iteration of his costume design based on Byzantine/Roman/and Rop baby Sauron?? But I dont feel it so far so its in my sock drawer

---

"I adore Thee, Lord of Malice!

By its thirst, the cruel craving For things infinite, unheard-of,

Dreams devouring and depraving, Songs no God may guess a word of,

Songs of crime and songs of craving—

By the drear eyes of the devil Bleak and sterile as they glitter

I adore Thee, King of Evil, With these lips, as dry and bitter

As the drear eyes of the devil"

("Hymn to Satan" - Aleister Crowley)

ok so this is kinda rough but hear me out what if utumno style was really bombastic and baroque-esque in an archaic way because they have all the riches they can ever get and theres literally no one can rival them in middle earth? and the theatricality? Kind of like the golden age??

it can be over the top can be messy and ugly because the form language may be going everywhere but they arent supposed to be so artistically refined anyway??? (its nice you can always justify any vulgary and ugliness and bad taste here if any of it shows up)

(and then it goes downhill and militarized and becomes more practical in angband style)

(this is actually insp from a chat with AD yesterday who went for an hour long rant on how GoT and Dune didnt do dothraki & fremen designs justice lol their styles shouldve been much more colorful per his opinion) (And I actually sent him Jack Lowden's FA sauron asking what does he think that they made it very Roman.. He said Roman's were the enemies!! (in perspective, haha)) (and they are both an empire that last for a millenium/millenia.. makes sense ya)

side note: the crown looks so crude? what if melkor made it lmao (so sweet). or maybe this is some type of naturalistic aesthetics. Mairon def has skills to finess it more, so its either not made by him or its deliberate (smiling face)