Malefic Time


Malefic Time is a visual project created by Spanish artists Luis Royo and Romulo Royo. It is set in a post apocalyptic world that mixes reality led to the decay of the society with real manifestations of mythological beliefs and superstitions of different cultures.
The main plot is presented in a trilogy of graphic novels with illustration made by both artists. The protagonist Luz travels through the universe of Malefic Time and meets different people, allies, enemies and their way of surviving in this broken world.
The project has been carried to other media that much develop different aspects of the universe expanding and making it deeper.

Fictional setting

Malefic Time is a fantasy universe where humanity is not alone in creation: there are other creatures, called in many ways over the years, now known as Celestials and Fallen.
These creatures of immense power have been influencing, manipulating us and waging a war in which each side tries to crush the other. In 2019 the world began to sink: social structures crumbled, the world economy disappeared and riots began due to a disease that began to spread worldwide. It was then in 2020 when Celestials and The Fallen showed openly to the world.
This is 2033, and everyone has in mind that it is the end of an era. According to astrology the Age of Aquarius comes, a shift to inward development of individuals and the rejection of imposed laws that will strongly influence human behavior.

Plot summary

Luz – Malefic

She is presented for the first time on the cover of the illustrated book with the same title more than 20 years ago. But it is not until in 2010 when Luis Royo and Romulo Royo retake the character, her story is told and the “Malefic Time” project is founded. Malefic is the protagonist, all the plot consists of her development and in the search for her identity.
Her real name is Luz. She moves through New York City looking for libraries and museums, she knows that there, in the old books and ancient paintings are all the keys to understand this new world and to find out who she is.
In the dilapidated warehouse where she lives there are hundreds of books and papers that she brings from her walks through the city libraries, all of them with apocalyptic themes, Romanesque paintings books, books of Masons, witchcraft, alchemy, notes of prophets and seers, oriental writings, Aztec and African art, reproductions of paintings from ancient times, Greek mythology or Egyptian hieroglyphics studies. All part of a puzzle about the final judgment.
The search for identity, answer her questions, the cracks and falls are what determine her. It is a broken character built on the bipolarity between her power, determination, great resolute and combat skills, and her apparent role in the future destiny against the huge fragility supposed by the doubts, questions, and frequent states of obsession, disease, collapse and trance. She is a charismatic character with multiple layers that make her an atypical heroine/anti-heroine through which the deep folds and nuances of the story are known.
The course of his journey is from New York City to Tokyo and Paris. On a trip of spiritual quest. A road full of mysticism and forbidden topics by the current culture. A symbol of change for the man. An uprising against the oppression of the laws and regulations that govern the world.

Celestials and The Fallen

These beings have the easy association with the Angels and Demons in the Judeo-Christian biblical tradition in appearance but are much more. They have been the origin of all gods for all cultures, they changed names throughout history, but their conflict and their intervention goes back to the earliest days of mankind. The first indications of their existence are dated back to Sumerian religion and then extends, altered, contaminated, adapted to all forms of religion in the ancient Mediterranean and soon after to other societies of the world.
The initial conflict, represented biblically with angel Lucifer's rebellion against God establishes an unbridgeable rift between these two positions that have continued settling their disputes over human existence. Both positions represent two diametrical ways of understanding existence with the following association, among others, these inherent values: