I am working on the concept of a Sauron-moloch alter/statue, and as per usual I don't make things eazy for myself.
I want the idea to work both culturally and technically which is a bit nuts, I agree, but that is just he way I roll.
From a cultural perspective I am considering the following:
Looka at the Kali idols photos attached. Quite impressive, one of my favs of all nonexistant gods. Very convincing as a dark god-entity. She is dancing; sporting club-wear of skulls, various implements, a crown etc. What I *don't* think is transferable to Sauron, from a Easterling perspective, doing the boogie on the vanquished Free Folk, neither to have eight arms. What does work is the dark bronze collour, the crown; him in some other way resting on images of the crushed and opressed elves, men and what have you.
The Wicker Man is a really cool and, as I under stand it, is a celtic type of moloch (sacrifice of flesh). For a primitive type of tribes it spot on, but for the interpretation of Easterlings in the MESBG i am not so sure. They are advanced in metalurgy etc. Also, burning the effigy of the Dark Lord to the ground everytime day of worship doesn't sit right with the Middle-Earth lore.
Now turning to the technical.
I am very much married to using the aforementiond Baal-worship and idolatry. A throne bronze statue with arms mechanicallly tossing human sacrifice into a internal furnace would be the shit. It is however quite intricate to make work convincingly, I notice, when scetching the idea. Using modelling dummies work to some degree.
So far I have come up doing an idol of Souron, crowned, seated on a throne, arms and hand outsteched to receive offerings.
The throne, is of fire resistant brick with openings to recieve fuel. The throne should (inspired by Kali imagenary) should rest on carved images of suffering elves and men. The outer shell of Sauron should be dark bronze, internally lined with brick (a very functional decision). The idol works as a chimney, meaning the crown of the Dark Lords skull is chanelling much of the heat, that the bronze idol doesn't warp. The throned seated statue will have an Iron crown but in other aspects be unadorned/naked, but perhaps for a necklace of gilded skulls (again a Kali reference). The face of the statue will have one cyclopic eye, oversized, in which the sacrifice are thrown.
Now, making the arms work as levers to toss victims into the Eye is tricky. I want this to work, functionally, which means elbow hinges need to be in the rigt place and angle and arms/hands need to be of the right lenght and angle. My art manequins are of a certain help.
10 April 2023, 09:31:42 PM
