𝕸𝖆𝖝 𝕸𝖔𝖔𝖓

Day 7 of demonic inspiration for #osemonth !! I took a little break from posting. I am back. Today we have Le Dictionnaire Infernal by Jacques Collin de Plancy and illustrated by the amazing Louis Le Breton. This English translation edition is awesome, with a caveat. First, I love the full page demon illustrations and just the sheer size of this is lovely. The binding is great and I am grateful to have it in English. My French is not what it used to be. That being said, I have to warn that I have stumbled onto some rough spots in the translation, one of which completely misses an important aspect of the demon. The English was awkward, but I know enough about demons and witches and I have studied enough French that I was able to catch the error, revisit the original French, and figure it out. So while I recommend this as a fun and beautiful edition, there may be better translations out there for those who want to ensure what they are reading is fairly accurate. But still, I highly recommend this for anyone who wants a large resource on the demonic and ghastly. It is extremely handy, and is very much an encyclopedia style book with entries for many many things. Whether you are a writer or GM looking for inspiration, this is a must! #dictionnaireinfernal #demons #osemonth

Day 6 of demonic inspiration for #osemonth and it is an absolute classic: Paradise Lost featuring the illustrations of William Blake! How can we talk about hell and demons at all without this gorgeous work of fantastic poetry! Milton manages to create a new mythology built upon the battle between heaven and hell, one that is deeply romantic. I first read it in high school and it was so incredibly moving that I couldn’t tear myself away. This one will always hold a close place in my heart. Its influence is infinitely far reaching. #hell #williamblake #paradiselost #inspiration

Day 5 of demonic inspiration for OSE month! If you haven’t done it yet, get over there and back the Black Spire Pact! Before I talk about The Red Dragon, I have to talk about this song. Orbital sampling the Butthole Surfers is just way too perfect on this #mothersday ! Okay, now, for this gorgeous copy of The Red Dragon from @black.letter.press When I first got my hands on a passed around xeroxed copy of this in ‘01, I never imagined it would be something readily in print and so lovingly cared for. This was so darkly rumored and taboo where I came from! All I am going to say about this one is that if you want to summon up the devil and make a deal to garner some advantage in life, well this is the book for you. #satan #darkfantasy #osemonth #inspiration

Day 4 of demonic inspiration books for #osemonth !! Today, we are focusing on #clarkashtonsmith one of the absolute greats of weird fiction, and probably the biggest influence on my work on The Black Spire Pact. I can also say, C.A.S. Was one of the people @arikroper @theartofskinner and @janaka_stucky all nerded out on as we were starting this project. No one knows how to capture the eerie mad sorcerer quite like CAS, who surely was one himself. Here are a few of my favorites from my shelf, including some old Necronomicon Press chapbooks! The Magic of Atlantis contains a story that really put the vision of Voth into my head. And if you haven’t backed it yet, The Black Spire Pact is live on Backerkit and we could really use your support!! #weirdfiction #darkfantasy #weirdtales

Day 3 of posting demonic inspiration for #osemonth brought us by @exaltedfuneral and @necroticgnome ! Let’s talk about Faust. There’s a damn good reason we use the term “Faustian” when describing making a bargain. Contracts with demons are such a wonderful area to explore. I also have to talk about Harry Clarke. One of my all time favorite illustrators. I feel very lucky to have found this copy of Faust (some of the pages were even uncut still!). Harry Clarke’s work is so wildly imaginative, creepy, and straight up mind-bending! #demons #harryclarke #faust #ttrpg

Day 2 of posting demons books for #osemonth Let’s get academic today. This book is an absolute must for folks who want to better understand and contextualized the relationship of demons to colonialism. The concept of “small gods” is fascinating. It also layers onto the concept of “demonization.” I burned through this one way too fast and should probably reread it. One of my all time faves. #demons #anticolonialism #ttrpg #folklore

Day 1 of posting books I love about demons during Old School Essentials Demons Month! The Fallible Fiend by L Sprague de Camp! What if the protagonist was a simple demon summoned into servitude on the material plane by humans. What if those very humans prove to be completely ridiculous with no sense of real morality or logic? Tell me to kill and eat anyone who enters and then get mad at me for following orders? Agree that we should have a healthy vegetarian diet but then get mad at me for not devouring an intruder? And don’t even get me started on procreation! L Sprague De Camp has a dry and goofy sense of humor that I admire. I highly recommend this book. For fans of the Unbeheaded King series, you will be happy to know it is set in the same world! Our demonic project is live on @backerkit right now! This book was a significant influence! #lspraguedecamp #swordandsorcery #demons #oldschoolessentials #appendixn

Look upon what object exists in my very hands. Five years ago I began to translate The Book of Lies into a Mörk Borg setting. I started the working on Walpurgisnacht. The physical book arrived exactly 5 years later on Beltane. What a fertile serendipity. #abyssofhallucinations #morkborg #occult #aleistercrowley #ttrpg

An excerpt from today’s newsletter with a nice drop from @heimat_der_katastrophe . Fuck AI. Buy tapes. Fuck Spotify, buy vinyl. If you feel inclined to share, comment your favorite DS label/artist/tortured soul for me to check out. I love dungeon synth. I love fantasy synth. I love the hyper niche and relentlessly small. Weird shit for weird people. No one sets out in DS to make it big. Hell, most don’t set out to leave the bedroom. There is something beautiful in this tape culture that reminds me of what I have always loved about music. The longing for escape, for nostalgia, for a world where evocation is meaningful. In this doomed age of Spotify, on the escalator to hyper-polished AI slop, I am reminded of Arthur Danto’s theory of indiscernibles. It is as if we have somehow reversed it. Art isn’t dead. Everything else is. So, I listen to my dungeon synth tapes in this ossuary I call my office. I drown my nihilism in my mobile Toyota Mausoleum. I fill my catacomb with cassettes. And I feign at life in a fetid graveyard called society. So that’s a little bit about why I love dungeon synth and why I am still just as dramatic as I always was. It helps when the art is good and calls back to an obscure as hell Steve Jackson telephone game (F.I.S.T.). - Max Moon #fuckai #dungeonsynth #cassettes

The Apotheotic Arena is a short zine I wrote that is an arena style monster hunter for Mörk Borg, specifically using the creatures from Mörktastic Beasts. Remember how the creatures in the core book have silver values associated? Well, this zine is all about killing monsters and turning their corpses in for cash to help you survive the next challenger! If you back the Mörktastic Beasts campaign from @flaming.hand , you are getting a free copy. As of today, very little time left. #morkborg #indiettrpg #monsterhunting #notdnd

MÖRKTASTIC BEASTS is live! ⛓️‍💥☝️❤️‍🔥 Eleven artists made original creatures straight from the abyss of their subconscious. Then we reverse-engineered the lore and stats from the art. The art creates the monster—then we figure out how it kills your party. The book is 150+ pages, A5 hardcover in yellow leatherette with debossed black foil, full-bleed illustrations on every spread. Compatible with Mörk Borg, hostile to your hit points. 💀 For the truly devoted there’s a Reliquary Edition limited to 13 copies—a handmade clamshell box bound in Japanese cloth by the Campbell-Logan Bindery in Minnesota, with signed and numbered book and a portfolio of giclée prints. Never to be reprinted. Back at any physical tier in the first 48 hours and you get a free Flaming Hand / Fire Troll patch 🔥

The obscure, the ever entombed, the futility of prayer. It is risen. SÖLITARY DEFILEMENT. The ache ends with death. Preorders are open. Created by @darkvalleyds and published by @flaming.hand Solo supplements for @morkborg_rpg