Its taken me a few weeks to really put this post together. Like the other characters from The Amaranth Chronicles: Deviant Rising I had to create a few pieces of art to go along with her story, and quite frankly, I got a little carried away. For those of you yet to read the Deviant Rising, the “Magdalene’s” operate out of Grace Cathedral, an old Gothic relic left over from the times in which man believed god sat in the clouds punishing the guilty and exalting the righteous. Tarja, head priestess of the Magdalene’s congregation in San Francisco, seeks to help those people that have been cast away, forgotten and lost too the “Under City” of San Francisco. In the story, San Francisco is a multilayered city from generations of billionaires trying to build taller and wider while ignoring those living on the streets until the very roads themselves are covered over by “terraces”. With those layers, a new systematic oppression came to life; "The Helix network”. It banished the poor and sick to the forgotten alleys and surface roads. This section of the city is simply called the Under City. But, there is hope. There are the Magdalene’s of Grace Cathedral and Tarja.

Tarja’s original concept art:

I’m still learning how to use Octane Renderer for 3D Studio Max and iRay in Daz 3D. I’ve been working hard, creating artwork for Tarja and Grace Cathedral.

AI generated images of Tarja - 2022

I’ve been live streaming the creation of Grace Cathedral check out the first video in the series here:

Given the times in which we live, I wanted to share this sermon I wrote that Tarja preaches to her congregation in The Amaranth Chronicles: Deviant Rising;

“…You are all singular unique beings, but those in power act to hide the truth, they create a world where your potential is suppressed. Your capacity for action hindered… hindered because they fear you… They fear what you could do because the alternative is a world where everyone has the ability to change that world. We look back at the past, we look up at the stars, and we look forward into the future as we’ve done for centuries. But it is not in these places that we find our celestial gift. The truth reveals itself when you look within yourself and find a vision and purpose for your spirit. Something that invigorates you with the spark of life, and something that you have a burning desire to become.“ The average and mediocre man has spent his life majoring in minor things. He’ll never reach his purpose because he has allowed his fears to paralyze him. He has allowed the world to tell him he is powerless to change his life let alone the world. The beauty of his dreams will slip away back to the noise of the universe in which it came.”

“Nurture what it is inside you as much, if not more than, you tend to those outside pursuits. Plant the seeds you need to grow a healthy crop of self enlightenment. Take the time to make yourself large in your own estimation, and so will you be in the estimation of the world.”

“So friends… look into yourselves and throw off the lies you’ve been told your entire lives and take charge. Take charge of yourselves and change the world around you. Every one of you has this power; the power to grow yourselves into something large that can reach out and make a change.”

“How very bad it would be for those in power if everyone knew they were just as capable of changing the world… How very disruptive would it be for people to know that we, every one of us, have absolutely amazing powers. There’s no wonder out there that can compare to what’s inside all of you. Don’t let that go to waste. Don’t let them cram you into the little box they’ve made for you.”

 Thank you for reading