The first of four hosemen, Conquest rides atop a white horse — one white as the fibers of asbestos. Asbestos is a mineral, stripped from the earth and used in the walls of many buildings still standing across the world, and as such is a symbol of humanity’s supposed conquest of the earth and the consequences they could not see.
Asbestos naturally forms in thin, spindly fibers that take a rod shape down to the microscopic level. With highly fire-resistant properties, it would soon be found in building insulation throughout the mid-19th to 20th centuries. Infamously, the artificial snow seen in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz is well believed to be entirely made of asbestos.
The conquest of asbestos came with a price - inhaling the microscopic fibers of asbestos can cause gradual scarring in the lungs, slowly building up into potential cancers over the course of decades. In truth, mines and manufacturers had known this for years, but kept silent and paid off evidence to cling to their coffers. Now, the symptoms of asbestosis have become a household name in the disease mesothelioma, a phrase seen on legal advertisements for financial aid.
On a white horse it rode, entering the insides of walls as quickly as it did the lungs of thousands. Now, it rests inside countless buildings from the height of the asbestos craze, a sleeping giant borne of decades of corporate greed.
