Cytos, the Great Mother (Guardians of Nature #1)

These two drawings chronologically begin my most current project-- the environmentalist, animistic/pantheistic "Guardians of Nature" series. In the lore of this series, twelve terrible kaiju-like Guardians, each representing a form of life, emerge as the collective embodiment of the millions of organisms that humanity has killed due to industrialization, habitat destruction, pollution, and environmental degradation. These Guardians proceed to wreak havoc across the world as revenge for our actions, either through climate change or other catastrophes that bring civilization to its knees in just a few years. The first Guardian on the list is Cytos, aka the Great Mother, the Firstborn, and the Ancient of Ancients, who looks like a cross between an amoeba and the nigh invincible tardigrade. She is the mother goddess who created life on Earth through abiogenesis and is the progenitor, spirit, and master of all microbes, bacteria, and pathogens. When she emerged in Greenland, she made her way towards Europe and later continental North America, where she spread horrific diseases and super-mutant pathogens that killed millions of people in a short amount of time. Cytos has three forms, as discussed later in my lore: Cytos the Mother (who seeded ALL life in the cosmos through a combination of panspermia/asteroid bombardment, and experimenting with the primordial chemical soup that gave rise to DNA), Cytos the Daughter (who manifests on Earth to monitor the health of the planet), and Cytos the Earthly Spirit/The Will to Life. Cytos, for all intents and purposes, IS the essence of life herself.