One of us! One of-- urk!

(From Picatrix. Click on image to see it full-sized.)

I've been a bit curious as to where Jamie Haram has been going with Picatrix. On its surface, it's a fairly simple story of a woman of Earth brought to a magical realm, where she (with three other women) have to destroy the Demon King and restore balance to this realm or something like that before they can go home. However, things go on quite the tangent when Winnie flees the other three and ends up with the Demon King Azrael. And there, she learns there's more to this story than meets the eye.

This complexity is what attracted me to the comic. Back a few years ago, I used to run D&D games. Part of this was because no one else in my group would, and part of it was that I loved creating worlds, making stories, and the like. Thus I created Kyriell, a world in which the priesthoods were often corrupt, kingdoms ruled by tyrants, and heroes often did horrible things while trying to do the greatest good. Dragons lived in family-groups called fairs (and you did not want to catch their attention, for these fairs could range from three dragons to twenty or more, and they played games with prophecies and against the Gods themselves.

(In some ways, I suppose Kyriell was a bit like Darken, except not quite as dark. There were noble men out there; noble, but human (well, fallible at least). And the good guys did win at times. It's just that they seldom affected things on a global level; or even enough to affect the rule of nations.)

So naturally, a world in which Demons (fallen angels and those descended of them) war with humans over resources (farmland), food, and the like, and Angels themselves are not allowed past the Heavenly Gates to dwell in God's grace... well, a story like that is going to get my attention like a shiny lure attracts bass. Oh, and many of the Demons can shape shift into cats. This amuses the Kitten Collective, as you might guess.

Still, things took a definite twist when Winnie vanished from the Demon Castle and ended up in the tent of a local lord at war with the Demons. It's 40 years later and Winnie had died in Azrael's arms. Yet she's alive now, with no memory of her death... and Azrael having married her on her deathbed, and mourning her death after the incident.

But of all the things to happen, I never expected this. It's an interesting twist, at that. The four "magic girls" are each an aspect of the seasons, with Spring, Summer, Autumn... and Winter. (Winnie, for short.) In the more mystical aspects, winter is associated with death and the Crone. The Crone is often thought of in many pagan circles as the one who brings the Sacrificed God to the Summerlands, and then at Yule (Christmas) births him again as the Young God. So we have Winnie here with the scythe, often thought of as the symbol of death itself, of the Grim Reaper, being told that she must slay the Demon King.

And she refuses them.

What's more, Winnie is also able to heal. While she's inexperienced in this, it is an interesting converse for one associated for the season of death. (Yet it can also be said that winter is a time of renewal. Many wild animals become pregnant during the winter, and give birth in the spring when food is more readily available. Thus, while Winnie is a bringer of death... she's also a bringer of life.)

Picatrix has only been running for the last half year, so I rather doubt this is the culmination of the story. Either the other magic girls will escape from Winnie's wrath (or she's just trying to scare them off, not kill them - entirely possible, as Winnie has shown herself to be assertive and independent, not murderous), or something will come up to distract Winnie.

Or Winnie will accidentally strike down Azrael. Hey, she's died once, why not him?

In any event, Picatrix has proven to be a fascinating and layered comic, with many aspects to the story, and a rich background to it. So definitely go and run through its archives. It's well worth a look.

Robert A. Howard

Comment on the Forums.