This is an illustration for the development of my personal fantasy setting Sacro Imperium.
In Sacro Imperium, the world has been torn apart by a magical cataclysm that transformed the entire Northern Hemisphere into a hellish wasteland, overrun by dragons and supernatural creatures. In the South, the remaining kingdoms formed a powerful unified empire, ruled by a mysterious figure known only as the Divine Ruler.
In this world, the Inquisition is an Imperial Order originally founded to combat the horrors unleashed in the Northern Wastelands and to hunt down practitioners of forbidden magic. However, as time passed and the Divine Ruler’s bloodline vanished, the Empire began to lose its sacred purpose. The Inquisition, once a symbol of divine judgment, gradually transformed into the ruthless enforcers of the new regent rulers—obedient, feared, and unquestioned. In the later periods of the Imperial era, Inquisitors became the only individuals legally permitted to wield magic, using it to suppress dissent and eliminate any perceived threat to the regime. Magic, once sacred, became a weapon of fear.
This composition was crafted to convey power, control, and a sense of corrupted purpose. I aimed to portray the Inquisitor as a dark, commanding magic user, standing in a brooding atmosphere that reflects the fall from divine grace. The red glow of the spell he's casting is a visual clue of both danger and raw magical power—subtly reinforcing the idea that what once was holy has now become a tool of oppression.