Cat Dead, Details Later

So, I was reading the late Jake Stratton-Kent's "The True Grimoire," a while back, the first in his series "Encyclopaedia Goetica." He describes it as a "reconstruction" of the "Grimorium Verum," an 18th-century grimoire written in the 1517 by Alibeck the Egyptian. Except there was almost certainly no such person as Alibeck, and the book was probably written sometime in the 1800s.

Anyway, the first section of the book is titled "Concerning the Characters of the Daemons," and outlines the hierarchy of the elemental spirits. This hierarchy is rooted in medieval European political and social structures, with the demons often given titles like "duke, "archduke," and "lord." Confusing matters is that some of these spirits might be the same figures, sometimes referred to throughout the text by one name and then another. Others are mentioned as part of the firmament but not included in the base hierarchy. And then there's Scirlin, adrift in the structure without visible ties to any of the other demons.

This illustration, modeled on modern organizational charts, is my attempt to put these relationships into a visual perspective.

I used elements from vintage star maps, as well as art from Jacques Collin de Plancy's "Dictionnaire Infernal." That book has illustrations ranging from delightful to terrifying but has almost nothing to do with "Grimorium Verum." So maybe don't read too much into the visual embellishments I selected to frame the map.