PARVATI

Long ago there was the great city of Sati, unrivaled in its wealth and beauty...until the slumbering mountain that was its foundation, Agni, awoke in a fiery cataclysm. The volcano, at its center the crater that was Sati's funeral pyre, loomed over the land for generations, a reminder of the country's great civilization that had crumbled leaving squalor in its wake.

Centuries later, the country was swept by another eruption, the Age of Steam. It was once again a place of prosperity, alive with new ideas and new inventions. To show the prowess of Steam, the Maharaja summoned the world's finest engineers to orchestrate a project of unparalleled magnitude.

Sati, consumed by her funeral pyre, would rise again as Parvati, the most beautiful city in the land. The lava of the caldera that destroyed the old city, would become the blood that coursed through the veins of the new city. It would power massive geothermal turbines that provided electricity to the entire city, and traverse a byzantine network of branching steam pipes to reach every building. It provided the steam for the city's many renowned public baths, water for its many tropical gardens, and fuel for the engines of its aerial train system.

Parvati was not just an engineering feat, but a city created to a spiritual plan. A common motif in its architecture is the lotus: the beautiful flower grown from the mud of a swamp, a symbol of purity amidst suffering. Parvati's lotus is a beautiful but fragile flower of glass, its roots the pipes that lead to the city's fiery underbelly. A walk through the city's precarious overhead bridges reminds one not just of the city's engineering prowess, but also of the fragility of life and the power of nature.
At funerals, the dead are cremated, and the ashes from the burning ghats flow into the caldera to live with the spirits from the old and new city. Intermingled with the lava, they rise again through its power systems to breathe life into the city of the living. The city of contrast, of fire and ice, beautiful and fragile, and forever suspended precariously in the air.

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It's been too long since I did an image for my personal work; my free time and energy lately has been consumed with freelance projects which I cannot release yet. Making this image was a nice break, I hope to get back into the swing of personal work, time allotting.
It also commemorates getting a second DD yesterday, thanks to the great `hellobaby, and breaking the 10,000 pageview mark. Much thanks to everyone who follows my work, your support keeps me going and encourages me to take on new challenges.

The city idea was the inspiration for this, as well as some vague inspiration from Hindu mythology.

Production wise, it's probably worthy of note that I didn't use any photo reference this time, as opposed to most city images I've done in the past which involve some amount of elements from real buildings as reference. While I like being grounded in reality, I feel it's a more original image.
I spent a lot of time fighting back and forth on the composition, I wanted an interior/exterior scene but am still not sure if everything is balanced and not too busy.

Thanks for viewing.... and reading!

Statistics:
Time: 30 hours
Programs used: 3ds max, Photoshop, Illustrator, SAI
Number of lights: 400-500... seriously