The People of Light and Shadow: The Morrigan

Like the waxing moon, the figure emerges from the shadows, the glint of silver growing sharper as the light catches on the blade…
The Raven’s caw echos through the darkness… question… challenge… promise…
‘One guardian will not serve… but I am the energy of the maiden, the strength of the mother, the wisdom of the crone…’
‘Walk with me, and you do not walk alone.’
Distant Era MVP Elizabeth MacDougald on The Morrigan

The Morrigan: Shellie DiSalvo

Shellie DiSalvo presents the Morrigan, a magical figure of Celtic legend, a goddess of war, fate, and magic, translated sometimes “the terror,” at times interpreted as a triple goddess. One of her most prominent symbols is the raven.

Shellie is a theatre maker in Chicago, associated with two fantastic and innovative theatre companies: Idle Muse Theatre Company and The Conspirators. In late 2019 we discussed having Shellie as part of the next Distant Era series. It took two years to make another Distant Era series, but it happened at long last. Shellie is a longtime friend and a wonderful theatre artist with whom we’ve worked, conversed, and played for years on end. Shellie also created the makeup for Freja Johanson on Erin Gallagher’s magnificent Thor costume, which we posted earlier this year. Suffice it to say, it was an honor to finally, finally make Shellie’s vision come to pass.

The look of this incarnation of the Morrigan that Shellie created is accompanied by accessories (those long chains) from the aforementioned Erin Gallagher, our official costume consultant for this series. Distant Era MVP Elizabeth MacDougald assisted in every part of the shoot including the all important corset tying and the snippet of inspiration above, which she contributed while looking at the edits to the Morrigan image.

Photography

The third image shot in The People of Light and Shadow series, The Morrigan’s lighting setup continued to expand: one big, soft light to the left of camera, one big light behind camera, with a light on the background and a light on the hair, with a reflector to fill in from the right. All of this light is important when shooting a subject wearing black, as the details of black clothing can be easily swallowed up in shadow, the details lost, when there isn’t enough light. It’s a balancing act to get the right ratios. Shooting against a dark background, there needs to be enough light on the subject (and background) so that each one is separate from the other.

As has become standard for this series, the images were shot at f/8, 100 ISO, 1/200 sec with a fixed 85 mm lens. This makes things pretty uncomplicated. Details tend to be clear and in focus, there is little noise or distortion, and the subject and the background are easily within the frame. It isn’t always convenient to be so far away from the subject, but one focal length makes things simple, and in pandemic times, being farther away is probably safer for everyone.

Editing always feels like a series of difficult decisions. Every edit becomes a question of, How much is enough, and how much is too much? Look closely and you may see the raven feathers swirling against the background. In previous iterations there were raven feathers everywhere—a whole storm of raven feathers—but the subject began to get lost in the image. So the background feathers were adjusted—just enough but not too much, for those who want to look for them.

As usual, Garrus the cat oversaw the proceedings. Here are some behind-the-scenes-images of the work that we did.

Story Inspirations: The Morrigan

The Morrigan has always been a part of my understanding of the fey. At a Gen Con Game Fair a decade or so ago, I once asked D&D’s Jeremy Crawford what kind of fantasy he liked to read. He told me he was into Celtic fantasy and the lore of Ireland. He mentioned The Book of Invasions, the compilation of Irish folklore that told the story of the original creation and foundation of the land that is Ireland and included the Tuatha Dé Danann (ancestors of the faerie people) and the Fir Bolg, among others. I absorbed the lore in the beautifully illustrated Book of Conquests and The Silver Arm, both by Jim Fitzpatrick. One of the most striking figures in that story was the Morrigan, a powerful and mysterious war goddess who could shift her shape and become a crow. Later, I worked on a D&D book about the fey that Jeremy developed, which was called Heroes of the Feywild, where among other things I designed a witch character class that drew heavily on the Morrigan and the shapeshifting roots.

Thus, when Shellie DiSalvo proposed this concept for The People of Light and Shadow series, it seemed an intrinsic part of the lore of the fey, and there was never a second thought. Here’s a great paragraph about the Morrigan from author/illustrator Jim Fitzpatrick, from his book The Silver Arm:

High up in my eyrie, I the sea-eagle Tuan, saw a huge raven plummet down onto the tent of Nuada. As it alighted on a tightly drawn hawser it spread out its wings, silver-blue in the moonlight, and I knew it for what it was. I watched it turn into a woman, it’s pale nakedness shrouded by dark hair. It was Morrigan, the crow of battle, also beautiful war-witch, who had come to answer the anguished call of Nuada. As she entered Nuada’s tent my heart ached, for I remembered a time when I too was king and received pleasure and comfort from the same dark-haired woman who was my queen, but now lost to me forever.
Jim Fitzpatrick, The Silver Arm

Here are a few more images and styles from The Morrigan.