We took a place within a darkly flourishing landscape where even the air was ripened into ruddy hues and everything wore the wrinkled grimace of decay, the mottled complexion of old flesh. The face of the land itself was knotted with so many other faces, ones that were corrupted by vile impulses. Grotesque expressions were molding themselves into the darkish grooves of ancient bark and the whorls of withered leaf; pulpy, misshapen features peered out of damp furrows; and the crisp skin of stalks and dead seeds split into a multitude of crooked smiles. All was a freakish mask painted with russet, rashy colors - colors that bled with a virulent intensity, so rich and vibrant that things trembled with their own ripeness.”
Thomas Ligotti - The Shadow at the Bottom of the World
“There, in the grey beginning of Earth, the formless mass reposed amid the slime and the vapors. Headless, without organs or members, it sloughed from its oozy sides, in a slow, ceaseless wave, the amoebic forms that were the archetypes of early life.”
Clark Ashton Smith - Ubbo-Sathla
Credits Image: Courtesy of the artist
Make-up: Ada Mușat
Claws: Dana Bordea