Lil-mage-99 - Limbo Simulator

Cover illustration and design for Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (2023)

Born of fire, never been

Black clouds of smoke hung heavy in the sky and smothered the last light of day. The earth still glowed from the fury of battle, ash danced through the air like shadows of the past.

She stood alone. No crown, no cloak - only the scars of war on her skin.

She had won. All enemies had fallen, every threat had been extinguished.

But the cost was unspeakable. Even her own people had been swept away by the violence that had been unleashed - lost in a storm that she herself had ignited.

The island was hers - but what was once alive now lay in ashes. No rejoicing, no shouting, no life. Just scorched earth and a painful silence.

And in this silence she stood - victor of a war she had paid too dearly for.

She felt the wind on her skin, tasted the dust in the air, felt the weight of her guilt - alive, deep, human.

But above her, strange apparitions flickered in the sky - pixelated, erratic, artificial. She did not see them.

She didn't realise that she was just a game character, created in a virtual world. A simulation of life, characterised by pain and triumph.

For her, everything was real. And maybe… it was. ---------------------- Done in Illustrator and Photoshop

maker

inspired by clayshaper on instagram

Armor of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, (Detail of Breastplate), 1549

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