Mirthful Mike’s Art Blog Type Thing IV: The Quickening

Mage: The Ascension, News

Hi Everyone,

This week we are featuring the artwork of one of my favorite “old skool” White Wolf artists, Mark Jackson. Back in the day, he was in every Mage book…Sons of Ether, Tales of Magick: Dark Adventure, Bygone Bestiary…the list goes on. So when Rich and I were putting together the artist roster for M20, we absolutely had to get Mark.

Mark’s featured piece this week is Pillory, the Marauder splat for M20. As always, here is Phil’s description for Pillory:

Description: Pillory began, so the story goes, as a girl with Asperger’s Syndrome and a taste for pain. It was the pain, she’d say, that brought her out of herself. As she grew, she allowed herself to fall into relationships so abusive and injurious that her Avatar’s shriek could be heard reverberating through the Otherworlds. Finally, one climactic burst of agony broke through her Sleep. Pillory Awakened… but that awakening trapper her in a permanent nightmare she now shares with everyone nearby.

Essentially a solo Marauder, Pillory has crafted four arms out of Life Magick. One holds a bell, which she constantly rings; one remains empty-handed; the third has forged itself into a razor-barred cage full of butterflies whose colors perpetually shift and change; and the fourth has become a whip with dozens of thick, spiked thongs. She has neither eyes, nor a nose, nor ears – only a mouth gaping in an eternal silent scream. Spiders crawl in and out of that mouth, which opens not from her jaw but from her forehead. A swirl of tangled hair hovers around Pillory’s head – a crackling sick halo of coruscating blue. Her long dress shines a deep, wet crimson shade.

For the most part, Pillory remains in the Otherworlds, tormenting the spirits and tormented by them in return. From time to time, however, she seeps through into material reality, bringing with her a dark red mist that spreads out from her like thick oily smoke. That smoke smells ripe and meaty, like air from a slaughterhouse. Each time she casts a spell, the bars on her butterfly cage open up; a flock of butterflies escapes, morphing into the effects of the spell itself. Those “butterfly spells” appear as smears of bright colors in the air.

Now, last week I asked what kind of things you’d like to see in the blog and it seems “Artist Spotlight” got some good response. So, I will be reaching out to one of our classic artists over the coming weeks and hopefully have the first “Artist Spotlight” up before Thanksgiving.