Izabela Raittila's Blog

First of all apologies for the long silence, I’ve been rather busy lately. I’m currently taking a break editing ‘Reign in Hell: A Gothic Romance’ and revising my other fantasy project set in Gragiyan Empiure universe- ‘A War of Blood, Mountains and Sand’ the prequel novel to ‘Tiriyanin’s Riddles’. ‘A War of Blood, Mountains and Sand’ is an epic fantasy set thirty years before ‘Tiriyanin’s Riddles’. It tells the story of Emperor Tiriyanin’s father Emperor Vecatian II and his adventures during the five year with with Misoa.

As I have covered some of the Gragiyan provinces in earlier posts, I figured now would be a good time to talk about their neighbours and former enemies, the Northern nation of Misoa. Misoa was inspired by Viking era Scandinavia. Their is renowned for its cold climate, harsh winters and dense pine woods. Misoans were a nation of farmers and fishermen whose harsh climate drove them to raid the Gragiyan Empire as means to improve their economy and living standards. That’s how the war began. After the war they began trading with the Empire, as part of an agreement between King Arkon and Emperor Vecatian II, a wise move that proved incredibly advantageous for both nations.

Misoans are fair skinned and many of them have either blond or red hair. With regards to their religion, they worship a holy trinity of deities known as the Maesen: Ursa, the giant bear, god of the earth, life and death, Asera, the giant wolf, the god of the sky and Auroga, the sea serpent god. Unlike Gragiyans, who only offer flowers, jewels or fruit to their gods, Misoans sacrifice animals, typically goats or sheep to the Maesen. Their royalty are addressed with the titles of ‘Ursa Rigu’ (meaning King) and Ursa Ringa (meaning Queen). The term reflects their connection to the god Ursa, whom they believe to be descended from. The royal family including the spouses and children from the age of eight also bear tattoos of the Maesen.

Here’s a post war map of The Gragiyan Empire and Misoa by Skylar Woakes, https://www.behance.net/skylarwoakes1

https://www.instagram.com/skylarwoakes.

This map dates from the reign of Emperor Tiriyan’s cousin King Erkyl. Idursa is their capital city and the seat of the royal family. Other major cities include the two main ports Asiral and Aurogaron and the mountain fortress of Montreden. Varges was a small fishing village that was destroyed during the war and rebuilt decades later.

Each of the nine circles of hell featured in my Gothic horror novel ‘Reign in Hell: A Gothic Romance’ has its own distinctive look and atmosphere. Yet there was one that stands out, the one where the party never stops and resident demons seem to have the most fun. One of my Alpha readers even stated that it was his favourite out of all the circles. I’m talking about Queen Mazikeen’s home in the 8th Circle, the circle of lust. This is the home of the succubi, lust demons. So I thought I’d share some information about this circle including its function, residents as well as my inspirations for this region.

Although the concept of a story set in the Nine Circles of Hell was inspired by Dante’s Inferno, the circles I describe in my novel bear little resemblance to those of Dante’s masterpiece. For this particular circle I drew inspiration from a completely different source – heavy metal music. The circle of lust was inspired by a music video for the song ‘Demons are A Girl’s Best Friend’ featuring Alissa White-Gluz by the power metal band Powerwolf. For those who haven’t seen the video, it features three succubi, one of whom, their leader played by Alissa Whit-Gluz enchant a group of men to fight each to the death for their personal amusement. There’s a similar scene in my book, where Queen Mazikeen and her daughter Princess Lucretia cast a spell on two men and watch them fight each other with their bare fists. The men are in a state of trance and have no choice but to keep fighting until the queen or the princess ends the enchantment. This is meant to highlight the sadistic nature of the succubi and how easily they’re able to manipulate human minds.

Unlike other lilim, whose magic involves manipulating elements and mixing verbs, the succubi specialize in enchantments, mind manipulating magic. Being lust demons they typically seduce their victims first before drinking their blood. Mazikeen’s palace in the 8th Circle is a lively place where the party never stops. The succubi enjoy good music, dancing, blood and of course lots of sex. The sinners, mostly various types of sexual deviants, are naked and kept in cages so that the succubi to torment them as often as they please. But there’s only so much sex a succubi can have before getting bored. And that’s when they resort to enchantments as a means of playing sadistic games with their victims. As with all the Circles of Hell, the sinners’ suffering doesn’t end once a succubus has consumed his or her blood. After all, they’re souls who have already died once. No matter how grisly their death, every single soul will come back to life and the cycle starts all over again. Their torment never ends.

As for the characters, most of the succubi in my book were inspired by those from Jewish folklore. Princess Lucretia is my own invention. Her mother, Queen Mazikeen, the ruler of the realm, was inspired by a character of the same name (though not a queen) from Mike Carey’s ‘Lucifer’ comics (a DC series spin-off from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman’). Her creepy appearance with half her face misshaped, is based on Lucifer’s lover, the lilim Mazikeen. In my story she’s also a warrior and daughter of Lilith but she’s Lucifer’s oldest daughter instead of his lover. Also the origins of her misshaped face are different. Unlike the comic book character Mazikeen wasn’t born like that. Her face was partially burned during a fight. I don’t want to go into any more details because it would spoil the plot.

I hope that you enjoyed this region spotlight. I’d also like to share an AI (Freepik) generated image of Princess Lucretia based on my description of the character.

I’ve recently did a guest post for a blog called The Protagonist Speaks where I interviewed Lucifer, the protagonist of my latest Gothic Horror short story ‘The Fall’.

Here’s an extract from that interview:

“Dear readers, tonight we have a special guest with us. Introducing the Light-bringer, the former King of Hell, the morally grey Archangel Lucifer. He’s here to tell us about his past and how it feels to be in Heaven after several centuries of ruling Hell.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

I’m one of Almighty Father’s (‘God’s’) first creations. I emerged as a fully grown adult angel so I never really had a childhood. I was one of the eight “First Born”, the original seraphs, the Archangels. Three females and four males. Almighty Father created me and my brother Michael at the same time. Our home was Heaven, a massive golden palace in the sky. We all had our own chambers in the first sphere, the closest to our maker’s throne-room. He called us “his children” and gave us thrones so we could sit by his side. I felt special to be there. We witnessed the creation of various classes of angels and the universe.”

You can read the full interview here:

Lucifer (of The Fall, by Izabela Raittila)

‘The Fall’ is available as a free download from my website.

Good news. I’ve just finished editing my Gothic horror story ‘The Fall’. A massive thanks to my friend and Alpha reader Jesse S. Frankel for his help. If you’re into young adult fantasy then I would seriously recommend his work. Here’s a link to his Goodreads page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4859674.J_S_Frankel

My story is now available as free download from the main page. Here’s the link:

I’ve just finished writing the first draft of my new Gothic horror short story ‘The Fall’. I’ve sent a copy to an Alpha reader who agreed to help me the editing process. It will take a while before this story will be available as a free download on here. For now I’d like to share something as a teaser of what’s to come. Here are opening lines:

“One cold, stormy night after a long day delivering messages of the recently deceased souls destined for Hell, Azrael, the black-winged seraph more commonly known as Messenger of Death, landed on a cloud outside the golden gates of the Sky Palace. Exhausted, she stepped towards the large gate, clutched on to the bars and yawned while waiting for Heaven’s guard to open the doors.“

I also used the AI tool Freepik to create another image of my protagonist Azrael, The Messenger of Death. This time she has small black wings covering her eyes. Check it out:

Hi everyone, I hope that you’re all doing well. It’s been a while since my last post.

I’m currently editing my Gothic horror/ dark fantasy short story ‘The Fall’, which is set in Heaven after the events of ‘Reign in Hell: A Gothic Romance’. As mentioned before, this story is about Meredith’s great-grandfather Lucifer and his new wife Azrael. I plan to make it available as a free download once it’s ready. For now I’d like to share a new update. Last time I shared the cover art. This time I wanted to tell you more about one of the main characters – Azrael.

Azrael is a blind, dark seraph known as the Messenger of Death. She acts as Yahweh’s (God’s) messenger to the netherworld, an intermediary between Heaven and Hell. Each time a sinner dies on Earth, Azrael flies to Hell and informs the demons to open their portals for the new arrival. She typically covers her eyes with a small set of wings. Her powers enable her to navigate with ease in darkness but she’s as blind as a bat when at home in Heaven. Her function and grim appearance makes her the black sheep of the seraphim community and she has very few friends. Lucifer loves her for her kindness and also because she reminds him of his deceased wife Lilith.

Here’s an AI generated I made of her using Freepik.

Happy New Year everyone! I’m currently taking a break from editing my Gothic horror novel ‘Reign in Hell: A Gothic Romance’ to work on a new short story set in the same universe.

My new story called ‘The Fall’ takes place during the epilogue of the main novel and focuses on two minor characters from that story. On their wedding night, Meredith’s great-grandfather Lucifer (former ruler of Hell, now an angel again in Heaven) tells his new wife Azrael (The Messenger of Death) the story of his adventures in the Garden of Eden, his fall from Heaven, his romance with Lilith and how he became the first King of Hell.

That’s all the information I can share for now. The story will be available as free download from this website. For now check out the cover I made for it using Canva. Please note that the images are royalty free and may be partially AI generated.

Hi everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on here. I’ve been dealing with the aftermath of the social media addiction, attending therapy sessions to help me deal with my depression and reconnect with my family and friends. I’m also currently unemployed and actively looking for a new career which may involve possible studies in the future.

The good news is that I’m still writing. I’m currently revising the second draft of my Gothic horror novel ‘Reign in Hell: A Gothic Romance. With limited funds for an editor, I’m looking for new Alpha readers to help me with the project. I’ve reached out to some author friends but the process is much slower without the writing communities present in social media.

Anyway, one piece of news I can share is that I’m still planning to release this novel at some point in the future, possibly next year. For now, here’s t a new blurb I created for the book using Canva. This is how it will the back of the physical book will like. Check it out:

That’s all the updates for now. I hope that you all have a great time this autumn!

So no more social media but I’m currently working on the second draft of my Gothic horror WIP ‘Reign in Hell: A Gothic Romance, a tale inspired by Dante’s Inferno about an angel named Malakai and his demon witch girlfriend Meredith, who travel through Nine Circles of Hell to rescue a child’s soul. I don’t have any plans to publish this any time soon.

One thing I can share is some images and some details about the main characters: Meredith & Malakai, art by Karoliina Lehtinen
https.//twitter.com/kittensartsboo1
https.//www.instagram.com/kittensartbooks/

Meredith “Merry”
Race: lilim (demon witch)
Occupation: guard of the 9th Circle of Hell
Age: immortal, 2000 in human years which makes her around 20 in demon years
Malakai “Kai”
Race: cherub angel
Occupation: guardian angel and Captain of the 7th Legion of Cherubim Guardians
Age: immortal and roughly the same age as Meredith. Approx. 21 in celestial years.

& 3 side characters:
Name: Prince Samael
Race: nephalem (demon-angel hybrid)
Occupation: Prince of Hell and Lord of the Third Circle
Age: immortal, younger than Meredith, approx. 16 in demon years
art by Catharine Bowen
https://www.facebook.com/Queencordite/

Meredith’s father art by Syed Muhammad Faizan Hassan
https.//www.artstation.com/soraart
https.//twitter.com/SoraArt13
Name: I can’t tell you because it’s a massive plot spoiler.
Race: melhi (male demon)Age: immortal, several centuries old but approx mid 40s in demon years.
Occupation: Prince of Hell and Lord of the Fifth Circle

Name: Amduscias, art by Mary Lennon
Race: melhi (shapeshifter), can also change into a unicorn
Age: immortal, centuries old, even older than Meredith’s father but looks young.
Occupation: Duke of Hell and Lord of the Second Circle

For those who follow me on Twitter may have noticed a decline in activity followed by no activity at all. The truth is that I’ve made a decision to leave the social media platform for good. I chose not to delete the account because it is currently one of few places where I can advertise my fantasy romance novella ‘Tiriyanin’s Riddles’ for free. But I will not be active on there any more. I’ve permanently logged out and I’ve forgotten my password.

This has been a tough decision because I’ve met some really nice people on there and I really enjoyed interacting with other authors. Sadly, the site had some serious downsides. For example, there were issues with spam and con artists trying to convince me to waste tons of money on book advertising with no results. In addition to this, I became so addicted it to it, it had a negative effect on my mental health and my social life. In the worst moments I was tweeting stuff on my phone instead of spending time with my family. I felt depressed and tired a lot of the time. The more I more I spent on there, the worst I felt. I struggled to concentrate on anything including my writing. Something had to be done. So I chose to quit. It was hard at first but ultimately it was the right decision.

I’ve been feeling a lot better since leaving. I’m still in touch with my alpha readers (the author friends who offer feedback my work before I send it to the editor) and best of all I have more time to work on my stories. I’m currently revising my Gothic horror WIP ‘Reign in Hell: A Gothic Romance’ based on my alpha readers advice. I’ve recently commissioned some artwork for one of the antagonists of the story, the demon-unicorn shapeshifter Amduscias. Here’s the character illustration by Mary Lennon.

For those who follow this blog, thanks for your support. Have a great spring & summer! Stay tuned for more updates on my stories.