ethereal storytelling

Dark Serpent Concept: Our Sweet Underworld

Incensed smoke coils around the dais, her golden-scaled beasts slithering through the shadows as the tall maple trees silently shed their burgundy leaves, one by one.

She sits upon her throne in regal stillness, enveloped in heavy lace and amber light, her jewelled crown sparkling like honey-drops in the dusk.

In this realm of dry bones and rotting flowers, she draws each soul into her light with a weighted glance, revealing what must be seen before its onward passage into the great beyond…

Dark Serpent Concept Essence

The Dark Serpent Concept is rooted in the influences of Persephone — the ancient Greek floral maiden and goddess-queen of the underworld — and her gothic-romantic elegance, as well as Byzantine imperial opulence.

The setting and atmosphere define a transitional world where slow decay and the remnants of life coexist, and a female archetype reigns. She is omniscience rendered humanly perceptible.

Her role is ceremonial illumination: reflection before transcendence — gravitational, merciful, inevitable; a quiet reckoning.

Mortal souls see themselves, stripped to the values by which they lived — laid bare and unadorned — through her radiance.

Thus, truth itself is the final threshold before the journey continues onward.

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Dark Serpent Concept Characteristics

Colours

  • Antique Gold, Burgundy Dusk, and Abyssal Black.

Styling

  • A majestic, structured heavy velvet or lace gown with a built-in corset.
  • Embroidery in opulent gold threads and sheer panels revealing soft shadow and dimension.
  • An elaborate jewelled crown worn over a low chignon, serpentine hairpins glinting in the dim light.
  • Gold and burgundy makeup applied with artistic precision to the lids and brows, complemented by blood-red lips gently curving into a knowing smile.

Atmospheric Elements

  • A cavernous, cathedral-like space with the edges dissolving into the gloom, an ornate throne illuminated by a diffused light source with sculptural rays.
  • Lavish, jewel-toned Greek and Byzantine-inspired iconography and sacral beams depicted in aged splendour across the walls.
  • Bones signifying mortality and the body’s end; decaying flowers marking beauty undone yet still fragrant with memory.
  • Candles and suspended thuribles releasing slow trails of resinous smoke.
  • Crimson King maple tree installations evoking fading autumnal nature and the silent equilibrium of the collective threshold world.
  • With roots deep in the earth and a wide canopy reaching upward, the maple serves as a natural bridge between below and above — a living axis mundi.
  • Serpents in motion symbolising wisdom, transformation, and eternal continuity.

Scents

  • The sensual red rose, juicy pomegranate, gourmand honey, incense-rich opoponax, sweet-balsamic labdanum, and velvety vanilla together form an olfactory palette of deep, sensuous, honeyed darkness.

Music & Movement

  • Reverberant choir and layered vocals impart ritual gravitas — communal yet eerie.
  • Her preternatural stillness and deliberate, ritualistic movements command the audience’s attention.
  • A slowly emerging pulse and glassy, warm synthesiser guide the piece from darkness into revelation, then back into suspension — a mirrored motif of pull in, reveal, let go.

With light,

Viktoria Gruber

Viktoria Gruber

Concept Auteur — flowy dresses, starlight, roses, harp melodies, dancing, hypnotic fragrances distilled into creating beauty & harmony.

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