Concept art - God, + lore! (Patreon)

it's God!!! her design has gone through a lot of revisions, and even this concept art doesn't 100% match some last-minute changes i made in the latest page.

the palace of the shades is a tremendous tower with its top in the heavens. and at the very highest floor is an imposing black gate known as God's Door.

it's said that God's Door existed long before the tower, the city, or the Shades, but that it was only a frame floating in space high above the crater that would become Tsul Aset. it was the Shades, under the rule of the Last Empress, who fitted the frame with a door, and opened the way to heaven.

some say that the frame was created at the time of the last Confusion, by the ancient precursor civilization who once existed where Tsul Aset does now, but that period of history is known only from the vaguest whisperings of archaeology.

regardless, what is known is this: God's Door has only been opened twice in its history. the last time it opened, in the first year post-war, God Herself emerged from within to bless the despairing Last Empress.

in present day, the room containing God's Door now houses the personal office of the current Emperor... who we'll learn a little bit more about in coming pages!