#moonshadow markings

[ask-runaan-anything]

I always thought elves' markings we naturally occurring, but something Ethari said implies you guys choose these markings yourselves? would you be willing to tell us more about it?

I cannot speak for other elven traditions, but among Moonshadow elves, it is traditional to choose face markings very early in life. The adults will help the elflings with their paint until they're old enough to have steady hands.

Markings chosen for our arms are often related to what we choose to do with our time - work or hobbies, or accomplishments related to them.

Any other markings we bear are usually more personal than that, either for aesthetics or vibes or, in my case, duty. *places a hand over the mark on my chest*

One of the aspects of the Moon is its inherent change. Nothing remains the same under the Moon - neithy reality nor meaning itself. So our markings are applied with a temporary paint. If something happens to a Moonshadow elf to change the course of their life strongly enough that they want to reflect that change on their skin, all they need to do is paint their markings differently next time.

Despite that, or perhaps because of it, Moonshadows are tightly knit in community. It is traditional to paint your loved ones' markings for them. To know another's chosen markings is to know what they value most, and to paint their identity on their skin is to see and accept them with your whole heart.

There are a few things in life that feel better than the cool lines of Ethari's paintbrush across my unmarked skin, but not many. My husband sees me for who I am, and he loves me anyway.

[argonblue]

ETHARI CHANGED HIS MOONSHADOW MARKINGS ON HIS ARMS???? FROM THE CIRCLES TO A SWIRL????

A) So does that mean they’re painted on?

B) if they are painted, does he change them because runaan isn’t there anymore to help him paint them??? Because like, an even circle is real difficult to draw on your shoulder without help.

C) in terms of character design, I will be interpreting this as him losing stability. His old design was perfectly symmetrical, whereas now he’s a little off kilter, literally spiraling with grief. To me, there’s a lot of meaning in his markings specifically, especially the ones under his eyes that look like permanent tear tracks 🫶

D) goddamn it now I have to relearn how to draw his markings

[theplotmage]

Halloween-themed Fantasy Festival and Unique Events for Worldbuilding:

1. Whispers Eve – A night when the spirits of the lost whisper secrets to the living.

2. Harrowtide – A festival of fear where nightmares walk among the people.

3. Veilfall – The thin barrier between worlds collapses, allowing passage for the dead.

4. Moonshadow Revel – When the moon is dark, shadowy creatures come out to celebrate.

5. Hallowed Lanterns – A night where enchanted lanterns guide the dead home.

6. Soul’s Gate – The gate between the mortal world and the afterlife swings open.

7. Glimmernight – A festival where ghosts appear as shimmering lights.

8. Dreadmasque – A masquerade where each mask hides a dark secret.

9. Reaping Hollow – An event where spirits return to reclaim what they’ve lost.

10. Bloodfire Vigil – Bonfires are lit with blood magic to protect against the undead.

11. Darkmoon Ascendance – A night where the moon turns black and dark magic reigns.

12. Spectral Tide – The dead rise as the tide reaches its highest point.

13. Twilight’s Grasp – The setting sun never fully disappears, keeping the world in twilight where horrors lurk.

14. Night of the Wraiths – Wraiths descend to collect souls and drag them into the underworld.

15. Frostgrave Feast – A feast in the frozen woods where the spirits of winter grant wishes, but at a price.

16. Bonefire Rites – Sacred fires are lit to honor ancestors and keep malevolent spirits at bay.

17. Witch’s Mark – A night when those who bear a witch’s mark gain immense, but temporary, power.

18. Gravemist Rising – The fog from graves rises, filled with whispers and secrets from the dead.

19. Shadowveil Crossing – A ritual where people cross over into the shadow world to commune with spirits.

20. Autumn’s Curse – A festival where the curse of eternal autumn brings creatures of decay to life.

21. Lantern of Souls – A single lantern, said to hold the souls of the departed, guides the lost on Halloween.

22. Phantom’s Requiem – A symphony is played by phantoms, echoing through the realm of the living.

23. Cindershade Festival – Celebrating the power of fire to keep the dark spirits away.

24. Nightmare’s End – A gathering where the most vivid nightmares are summoned and must be conquered.

25. Hallowveil Procession – A grand parade of masked figures representing both life and death.

26. Gloomhaven Masquerade – A ball held in an eerie town where no one knows who is mortal and who is not.

27. Midnight Harvest – A harvest festival under the blood moon where sacrifices are made to dark gods.

28. Ebon Wreath – A wreath of black flowers is hung on every door to protect against roaming spirits.

29. Soulthorn Festival – A thorny forest springs to life, and only those who navigate it can escape the spirits within.

30. Eclipse of Ashes – During a total eclipse, the ashes of the dead rain down, bringing with them cryptic messages.

31. Gravenight Dance – A dance held in a cemetery where ghosts lead the living in one last waltz.

32. Night of the Void – The stars disappear, leaving the world in utter darkness as creatures from the void emerge.

33. Horror’s Ascendant – A festival that celebrates the rise of a forgotten terror that once plagued the world.

34. Tide of the Forsaken – A night when those forsaken by the gods are given one last chance to walk among the living.

35. Mournstar Vigil – A night when the mournful star rises and the dead follow its path back to the mortal realm.

36. Graveshadow Feast – A festival where the living feast with their deceased ancestors.

37. Shroudfall – The shroud between life and death dissolves, allowing creatures of darkness to invade.

38. Hollowlight Procession – Spirits of lost children carry lanterns, leading a parade through the haunted woods.

39. Doomveil Gathering – A gathering of witches and warlocks under a cursed sky to summon forbidden magic.

40. Veilfire Festival – A festival where fire dances upon the veil between worlds, granting glimpses of the afterlife.

41. Ruinwake Revelry – A chaotic festival celebrating destruction and chaos, where dark beings rise from ruin.

42. Blackthorn Masque – A masquerade in a cursed castle where everyone wears masks of thorns.

43. Echoes of Dust – A ceremony where the dust of ancient beings blows through the town, and their voices are heard once more.

44. Ashen Sun – The sun turns ashen, and with it, the spirits of forgotten warriors rise from their graves.

45. Night of Unraveling – A night when the fabric of reality unravels, and the boundary between dimensions fades.

46. Hushmoor Eve – A silent evening where all sound is banned to prevent awakening the slumbering dead.

47. Cryptwatch Festival – Vigilant watch over ancient crypts, where treasure seekers try to unlock the secrets of eternal life.

48. Wraith’s Breath – A chilling wind blows through town, said to be the breath of wraiths hunting for souls.

49. Duskmire Celebration – A festival in a swampy region where creatures of the mire rise to celebrate with the living.

50. Moonless Descent – A night where the moon disappears and the world descends into a temporary abyss, where anything can happen.

[m4rs-ex3]

no one me making and deleting a twitter account within a 7 minute span just for show info ANYWAY

fuck you

GOD IS NON BINARY

FUCK GOD AAA. also YES GRACIE bro knows rayla hasn't had nearly enough restful nights throughout the course of her life the Only boyfriend

i am still loyal to the concept of rayla's tats starting to fade and bein kinda sad bc she can't go home to redo them and callum doing a bunch of research on moonshadow markings and surprising her and doing them for her and this is further solidifying that idea in my head and and and an

canon

NO /POS. FURTHERMORE NO /NEG shits gonna FUCK me up

mhm

IM CRYING THE FACT THAT OFFICIAL SCRIPTS LOOK LIKE THIS MAKES MY LIFE SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER

[raayllum]

They share her flying steed on the way back to the Banther Lodge, his limbs still sluggish and eyes burning. Callum knows, also, that Rayla is keeping an eye on his breathing. Kosmo had said the darkness and corruption would overwhelm him, but... maybe the spell was too small? Or maybe it would take him over slowly, but...

He rests his head against her shoulder blades and dozes as much as he dares to avoid falling off.

Eventually, they take a break near the fringes of the Moonshadow forest to make camp, and she helps him down with a steady arm braced along his back. "Careful, there," she teases, gentle and warm, but a shadow of guilt flickers in her eyes.

He holds onto her turn and lets them sink to a sitting position in the soft grass.

Soren takes one look, then peels away with an overly cheery tone, "We should go foraging! In the forest! Hey, who do you think can get the most berries?" and then herds everyone else away.

Runaan gives him a lingering look, and then follows the rest; he and Ethari will go to return to the Silvergrove soon without them.

Then Callum stares at Rayla and waits, till her lips twist and she sniffles, her voice all wobbly and small as she begins, "Callum—"

He places his hand over hers. "Thank you. For having my back in there."

She stares back at him, tears in her eyes. "How can you say that? I was going to—"

"—do what I asked you to do," he says firmly, giving her fingers—the same fingers that had drawn back the arrow that would've taken his life—a squeeze before he cups her face. He traces her indigo marking, brushing away tears as he does so. "I needed you to back me up. I needed you to trust me. To do the right thing." Even as he did the wrong thing, of sorts. "Thank you."

She lets out a sob and throws her arms around his neck; Callum holds her while she shakes and cries, some of his own tears and adrenaline seeping out of him. Fuck, he'd been so tired and so scared and so...

He can feel her heart beating through her chest. Her heart for Xadia. Him, for Xadia, and—

He holds her tighter. "We'll figure something else out, before he comes back. We have time."

Seven years and nineteen (seventeen now?) days. He'll make each one of them count.

I don't want to be separated again.

"You were willing to do what you had to do," he says softly, rubbing her back. However the corruption works, he is corrupted, and that means, when Aaravos comes back, he'll be able to... "Because that's who you are, selfless, brave, and I love you for it. I depend on you for it. And now we can figure out how to do what we want to do... To make sure you're stuck with me."

She hiccups, her tearful laugh still more of a sob, but her eyes are brighter when she pulls back to look at him and wipes away some of his own tears, her thumbs gently caressing his cheeks. "Do you promise?" she says, whatever levity she's mustered up flickering this time too.

He holds her hand and kisses her palm and fingers. With enough time, they can make anything work—finding her and him again after her return had made that clear. Seven years will have to be enough.

"Yes," he swears. "I do."

[hazieash]

Here is my fan design for 7-year timeskip Claudia! I included some of my favorite items from the Xadia game, implying she has been to the Moonshadow Forest, the Far Reaches, and the Blacksteel Sanctum. She also has a red feather, perhaps from Redfeather herself? (Someone Rayla met in Scumport in the reflections short stories). I gave her Human Aaravos’s belt, implying she went to find the husk body. She also painted Aaravos’s Star markings on her face. And finally, the dragon scale pendant is now fused with her body so no one can take that power from her.

[never-ending-fanfic]

The Dragon Prince x Rebels AU

I'm excited to announce I officially finished drawing the designs for the Spectres in The Dragon Prince universe! I already talked about it in this post, but made a few changes. Their elf race is based mostly off of their personalities, not appearance so:

Hera- Skywing Elf (she loves flying and as a pilot, she needed to have wings, so she's in this small percentage of Skywing Elves who are born with them)

Kanan- Startouched Elf (both he and Erza fit with this, because Startouched Elves are the most myselterious and powerful race

Ezra- Startouched Elf (^)

Sabine- Sunfire Elf (I mostly went with the fact that I can give her a bow and she could shoot flaming arrows at her enemies- you know, like bombs. Also Mandaloria s kinda remind me of Sunfire Elves in general)

Zeb- Earthblood Elf (that should be obvious- he's big, he's strong and I don't know if that's because of all the headcanons about Lasats being very close to nature, he fits with Earthblood Elves the most)

Kallus- Moonshadow Elf (perfect for an assassin spy, who would join up with the Spectres later on- and also by the light of Lothal's Moons- COME ON, IT'S PERFECT)

Also I'm so so so excited for their marks to match with their Rebels designs- Hera's lekku markings, Kanan's Jaig eyes, Sabine's helmet designs, Zeb's stripes and Kallus' freckles- the only problem was Ezra, I had to get a little more creative

[beautifulterriblequeen]

12 Days of TDP

Day 3: Favorite Lore

This is an extremely unfair question for a lore enjoyer to have to answer!!!

And also surprisingly easy.

It's Moonshadow horn cuffs representing their devotion to one another, and specifically how Runaan and Ethari wear cuffs that evoke each other's vibes. (obviously)

Runaan's are bright and silvery with a soft edge, and they're decorated with beautiful scrolling swirlies, which Ethari loves putting on everything he touches. These cuffs represent someone with patience, creativity, artistry, and a fine, steady hand.

Ethari's are dark, sharp-pointed, no-frills cuffs with bright turquoise gems inset, representing his husband's broody nature and stabby profession, as well as his singular, memorable eyes.

In both cases, you can take one look at these men and get a good idea who they've chosen to bond with, even if you've never met either of them before. Which, along with the rest of their Moonshadow markings and runes and symbols, paints a pretty clear picture of who they are.

This has long been one of my favorite things about the Moonshadow elves: you can read them like a book if you look closely enough, and they never have to say a single word, as they probably prefer. But at the heart of that appreciation lies Runaan and Ethari's horn cuffs.

[fandom-susceptible]

Moonshadow Ages

So I could go on for hours about what we know about the culture and history of Moonshadow elves, but yk what would be really funny?

Rayla is 15 in season 1 and nobody seems to bat an eye at her being on a high-profile assassination and treated the same as anyone else on it. When she was 9, Runaan noted her horns were sharpening and would be fully grown soon (the short story Lunabloom). Additionally, the art of baby Rayla in Lunabloom is the only time we see a young Moonshadow elf with horns that aren't fully grown that have the wood grain sort of markings that the adults have in the show.

Theory: Moonshadow elves have a different standard of majority than humans do. Once their horns are fully grown and marked, they may still live with your parents (as Rayla does), but they're effectively adults within a larger societal sense. Rayla's been considered sort of the equivalent of humans between 18 and 25 this entire time - adult enough to be treated as one, but with passive acknowledgement that she does still have growing up and stabilizing to do.

Which produces the sheer comedic value of post-season 7, at Callum's 18th birthday, someone congratulating Callum on finally being a grown man and Rayla just having this record scratch moment

"What do ye mean I've been datin' a teenager!" "Rayla, you are only a year older than me??" "I've been a grown woman since before we met!!" "I think - and stay with me on this - I think we might be having a culture clash moment, honey"

[dragon-susceptible]

Underappreciated detail about Bloodmoon Huntress: The background elves all have such neat designs.

cut because long, image-heavy post.

Let's start with these two kids. Look at the little curleque on the one kid's cheek! And then the sharp stripes on the other! The other kid has a ponytail, too.

And then this guy! Who is definitely not Ram. This is Sam. He's entirely too tall to be Ram. Also, his tattoos don't match. The lines on his cheek are too long, and the one on his shoulder is also too big - it looks like it's a circle partially hidden under his sleeve, not the thin slash Ram has where you can see the tip of it in the sleeve window.

This set is also of Sam, with Skor (displaying how much taller Sam is than Skor, which is Not a trait Ram shares) and Callisto.

And then there's the Skywing elves! The first images are washed out because they're from Suroh's memory but look, it's so neat. Two of them have short hair. Vests seem to be a staple in Skywing fashion. Look at the cute bob haircut from the one closer to Suroh and his parents!

And then of course there's Suroh's unnamed parents. Look at them. His dad is so pretty. His mom is doing a fantastic job of looking fierce and disheveled.

And then there's the guards Rayla goes to for help after Runaan and Ethari investigate Suroh's location and find nothing there. Look at this dynamic duo. I need a whole buddy cop five minute episode about these two.

Look the tall one's even got the humor value. And there's so many background elves in this image! Also, none of the stands are manned at any point in this book, so I'm inclined to believe that Moonshadow "market stands" within the forest are basically just. where they drop off community supplies. But also look at this - most Moonshadow adults seem to have long hair, but it looks like most kids have theirs cut short. ALL Moonshadow elves have white hair though, even if their brows are darker.

And here, look, we get another better shot of some of the other kids here. Again, lots of short hair, but they all already have facial tattoos though none seem to have any marks on their hands. One kid has swirls on their shoulders already.

More of the kids! And the one mom we saw in the wide shot a minute ago. She has an upside down version of the curleque we saw on the little girl from earlier, so I bet they're related. All the kids cling to her so readily though, which supports the implication I got from the Mooncubs in season 7 that Moonshadow elflings are raised pretty communally. Also! The boy telling this story has the same facial tattoos as Runaan! No reference is made to them being related though. He's also one of the few kids that has marks on his arms already.

Look I just took pictures of all the unnamed elves in the book, and that included pretty much every shot in existence of the Skywing elves. I love this little detail of Suroh's mom ducking behind his dad in fear, it hurts my heart. Also I love their hair, his ponytail and how hers is as white as a Moonshadow elf.

His dad is just pretty and I love him, okay? Look at that jaw. The purple eyes. The subtle white stripes that draw the eye down his nose and highlight his cheekbones. Also Suroh's tattoos though, also white, highlighting how he's a little darker than his dad, the lines that highlight his cheekbones too but come to geometrical corners.

There's another elf that we never get a name for behind Rayla here too, there was at least three whose faces we never really saw. The one in this shot is dressed differently than the one we saw in Suroh's memories earlier (pale pants where that guy's were dark, and long sleeves where his were short).

Yeah another shot of the assassins, I regret nothing. Sam's tattoos definitely don't match Ram's. That line on his shoulder is too strong.

These last three images are literally just gonna be me droning about Suroh's parents, I regret nothing. The way Suroh's horns don't quite match either of them though. The way his eyes are the same color as his mom's. His skin is darker than his dad's, but not the same as his mom's. He's got his mom's nose, his dad's hair. His mother has dark brows like some of the Moonshadow though, despite her white hair. They both look so worried.

And then there's this one, where you can see how tall his dad is in comparison to his mom, where yes she's kneeling and he's standing but her head is level with his hips still. The way they're both looking almost fierce with how concerned they are, but Suroh just looks stiff and worried, not afraid of them, because they're fussing over him even as they scold him for coming back.

And then there's this shot, where they've clearly parted for a minute (presumably to talk to Runaan and Ethari) and are now reuniting to leave. Suroh's around Rayla's age, based on how they both look, so somewhere between 7 and 9, and he's almost as tall as his mother. She has a lovely waist.

I also thought of something else that I want to point out using a credits sketch from season 5.

Suroh's dad and Callum's wear their hair in a similar way, with the longer ponytail in the back and long bangs in the front.

I just love this book so much, man. And the background characters are so neat. I want to know what happened to Suroh and his family after this. Did they ever find out that Rayla was the Last Dragonguard who saved the world? Will she ever get to see them again and be reminded of the first lives she ever saved? What did Suroh grow up to be like? What do his parents do for a living? What does he do, as an adult? Especially with Kim'dael back, I'd love to know what's going on with them. Did they hear that she'd returned? What was their reaction?

[ask-runaan-anything]

Do you know why Lujanne doesn't have markings? Is that an illusionist thing, a protector of the nexus thing, a Lujanne thing, or something else?

Moonshadows paint each others' markings. Lujanne lives alone.

Part of our identity is reflected in the eyes of those we love, and those we trust. We are our fullest selves when we are surrounded by friends and family, and so we trust that paintbrush to the hands of those who care for us the most and want us to be our most authentic selves.

Fewer smudges that way.

also my husband has exceptionally steady hands

[sunstone-nerding]

If we assume Moonshadow elves see painting each other's markings as a bonding activity, something done with family or other people important to them...

...especially if spouses paint each other...

... Then in S5 E9, when Callum is drawing mage gills on everyone, I can see Rayla trying not to blush and thinking over and over It's not the same to him it's not the same to him.

Edited to add: Bonus if Callum knows it's kinda personal and is also awkward about it.

[argonblue]

Ok I talked abt this a lil before in another post but THE RUTHARI DESIGN LANGUAGE

Ethari outwardly has changed, but that design reflects more of his grief, the passage of time, and his inability to let go of his husband. It’s also all external—his hair is longer, his Moonshadow markings are now asymmetric/unbalanced, his earrings are gay as hell and really show how he is not over his marriage at all. Most importantly, his armor/shoulder things. He looks prickly, closed off, and that’s exactly how he acts when he thinks runaan is a stranger, which is very un-Ethari.

On the other end, Runaan’s design is hugely the same as season one, with the only two changes being A) his weird ass cutout sleeve is missing on his right, and B) his horn. Unlike Ethari, runaan’s biggest character design change is losing a part of his actual body. Hair can grow, clothes can change, but Runaan’s horn is part of him. His being has been fundamentally altered in a small way, and he’s going to carry that change for ever. Both figuratively, with how he’s seen the true outcome of his assassin work, and literally.

Ethari has a design that communicates his relationship with runaan, he always has. In bloodmoon huntress, runaan calls Ethari his guiding light, but in reality I think it’s the other way around. Because Ethari is the most out of character without runaan. He ghosts Rayla out of grief, which is very out of character, because runaan is gone. But after two years, runaan still comes home to an Ethari who is grieving and hopeless, but not broken.

And after they reunite, Ethari returns to the same state we’ve seen him in for pretty much the entire show. And I get why. He’s a minor character, the plot doesn’t need him to have a paradigm shift like runaan, but I like to read into it as Ethari being the moonfam anchor. He’s the home they all come back to, he’s the warm hug they all need, he’s soft and he’s kind and he’s defined by his love for them. So when he loses his family, he loses himself. He’s and anchor with no ship. Runaan is his heart, without runaan, there is no point for there to be an Ethari, and it makes him lash out and ghost Rayla.

So. Here’s why I’m thinking about all this: Ethari making Runaan a prosthetic horn. Ethari, runaan’s anchor, helping him reforge this part of himself and shine truth onto the great lie of assassin-hood that runaan held so close to his persona. Runaan choosing to replace his belief in precision violence with his belief in love. Most importantly to me, Ethari confronting the lie he helped reinforce for runaan. Ethari seeing that he’s been making weapons to fuel the cycle of violence that in turn took his entire family and his heart from him. And Ethari and runaan deciding to help build the new world, Everkynd, where the lie and the cycle don’t have to dictate their lives.

[jal-the-jinxed]

MOONSHADOW MARKINGS S7

a maybe mildly comprehensive rambling

Whenever we meet an elf in the show I stare at their markings and this is what I've got from season 7

Lets kick it off with the Moon Cubs!

First off there's the cub who's making embarrassing Callum her new favorite hobby

From what I've seen, her markings are most like Callisto's

Then we have the cub with the yellow eyes

The only moonshadow with markings I'd call similar is this friend from the tabletop game

But they're only a little bit similar and I don't know too much about the tabletop game so I'm not sure what such markings might mean 😅

Either way, what the elves paint on themselves has meaning, which leads up to the cub I really want to talk about-

Last of all is this little guy, who's got a nose stripe like Runaan

Past Runaan specifically

I'm fairly certain this sketch is of the past bc I'd find it confusing to change up his facepaint and mend his horn for no reason, on top of that Ethari is wearing his og outfit and also has different markings. The markings stay for a long while, I think the creators described them as like extra-long lasting henna's, so the fact that 2/3 cubs might have assassin markings is Interesting to me. There's a lot of moonshadow markings that go across the cheeks like the oldest moon cub's does, so it could be only one cub with possible assassin markings, but i find it curious either way. Like how and why are marks picked for elf children, especially marks that seem to have correlation to roles/careers/etc? Do kiddos get markings similar to what their parents have to kind of show familial connection? Or do parents paint the markings based off what they'd like their kid to be or what the kid seems enclined for? And if so then how often do the markings get swapped? People can change their mind on what path in life they want as they grow, and kids can change their mind on something like that every day.

On the note of swapping markings-

In that past sketch, it looks like Ethari has fewer marks on his cheeks and shoulders, then in the episode we meet him, he has these circle-y markings filling up the space on his cheeks and shoulders.

And then in season seven he has very swirly-ee markings

Similar enough that I didn't notice on my first watch but different enough that I'm staring wanting to know the meaning

Since it seems like markings correlate to roles/jobs/whatever and also the rank the elf has in that position, I'm guessing the increasing amount of circles on Ethari and the second nose stripe on Runaan is to show their moving up in the ranks. But the change from clean, geometric markings to more organic swirlies for Ethari feels like a more personal thing. We know home boy has a steady hand, so even if Runaan painted his markings before they wouldn't look this different now. Maybe he wanted something more spiral-y to lowkey match the mark over Runaan's heart or the patterns he adorned his husband with?

I think I actually know why, though: "Similar but different."

When there's stuff you did with someone and suddenly you don't have that person anymore, doing that stuff is hard. To put it lightly. There's this part of your brain that screams something's incorrect, something's off, something is wrong. Because this isn't a you thing, it's a you and that person thing. But they're not here. It's not supposed to be like this.

That's were the "but different" comes in. If you change it up then it's no longer what you did with that person, at least not exactly, and that can be enough to make it manageable. You still achieve whatever the objective is, just differently.

So if Runaan and Ethari painted each other's markings, then I believe that this is one of Ethari’s Similar-but-Different's. Painting them the way his husband did was painful, it was supposed to be Runaan's hands creating those shapes, but now it was his own. So he changed them. He couldn't just stop wearing them, they're kind of like a uniform, so he made them similar but different.

More on changing markings- As far as I'm aware, no elf has changed markings more than Runaan. Not canonically, but in the Xadia phone game. The game was never compatible with my phone so everything I know about it is from other people's posts, but from what I've seen it looks like Runaan has the most marking changes out of all the elves. He's got different markings in his moon phoenix skin, the wasteland skin, the halloween skin, the theif skin, featherblade skin, another one that idk the name of, and maybe more? No idea how many skins the characters have, but I don't think I've seen major marking changes in the other elves skins? Could totally be wrong though

Either way, I think Runaan's markings are going to change and I think the game might have hints as to how.

Runaan no longer believes in precision violence, hell the boy just realized he's alive, too. So he's probably got a career change coming, which means a uniform/markings change.

So what's a stabby boy who no longer believes in precision violence gonna do? Probably protect, I think. There's a whole brand new city/kingdom and undead souls running rampant every time the sun goes down, so between that and more, there's tons of stuff to protect and defend. And I think he's going to become some type of guard or something like that.

How will this change his markings? I think they'll look most similar to his moon phoenix skin markings

Our guy was "already dead", actually died, came back to life, and realized he's actually alive. That's just got phoenix vibes all over it. We're also introduced to moon phoenix's by a guardian in the show. But besides vibes, I want to point at the marks on his cheeks in this skin. They're these two little lines beneath his eyes atop his cheeks, kind of like...

They're slanted at different angles and I think the dragon guards markings are supposed to remind you of dragons its the shapes for me but I think Runaan's new markings are going to be similar, sort of twin little lines across his cheeks under his eyes like his old friends and his phoenix skin.

I think his arm markings will probably change too, but I'm too sleepy to go on about that, goodnight ✌️

[jupiter-dragonsong]

any WIP sneak peeks? 👀

I haven’t worked on this one in a while! But basically I have this headcanon that Moonshadow elf couples give each other new markings when they’re about to become parents. And since all the cool kids are writing Rayllum baby fics, you know… Anyway, here’s a little snippet!

 “I think my parents would have been excited to be grandparents. Maybe.”

He squeezes her hand. “Mine would be too. And hey, Runaan and Ethari will be, when we tell them.”

She lets herself imagine that for a moment. Her fathers holding their grandchild in a few months. Runaan someday letting them play with the Shadowpaw cubs, teaching them to climb trees. Ethari showing them the forge like he did when Rayla was little. “Yeah. They will.”

Callum kisses her between the horns and she feels the soft tickle of the brush on her back again.

Then she narrows her eyes. “Until we start discussing your plans for the other nine.”

He gives her a long-suffering sigh. “I am never going to live that down, am I?”

She grins. “No. All I’m saying is if you want ten, I’m glad we’re getting started now…”

“Please no.”

Rayla giggles and pulls him down for a kiss. And another. And—

“Okay, okay! You’re going to smudge the paint.”

“Right, right. Sorry.”

[raayllum]

Allegorical Rayllum in "Dreamer's Nightmare"

Really thought I'd walk out of Dreamer's Nightmare thinking more about the broyals + Harrow, or an Ezran centric meta (and there may be ones to follow) but this was something that stuck out to me on my first two read throughs and was a truly unexpected part of the graphic novel so...

This is exactly what it says on the tin, and full spoilers for all of Dreamer's Nightmare.

Let's go

Crumbs

The biggest crumb(s) we get are arguably Callum 1) recognizing the mural as belonging to an elven temple, and 2) this panel below that definitely made me chuckle.

I also, accordingly, lost my mind over the elf-toy from 1x04 being a gift given to Ezran / the boys by the end of the comic, which seems to be modelled both after the Moonshadow elf featured in the story, and of actual canon Rayla per 1x04 itself, down to the girl having a similar hair style, markings, and being a sword wielder. (This also informs our basis for the next section.)

However, the definitely meatier stuff has to do with the Dream Warden (DW) creature, its history, and Ezran's interactions with it, so that's where we'll be focusing, and subsequently big spoilers for the graphic novel. Last chance to get out if you hadn't read it yet!

Identity and Loss

So there's a few things we learn about DW and their little mortal friend.

Long ago, a Dream Warden, still new to the world, befriended a mortal child. This violated the traditions of its kind, but the Dream Warden was young. Each night, it flew to the silver shores of sleep and each night found its friend there, wide-eyed and waiting. And beneath the watchful stars, they could adventure together through the child's dreaming world. But one night, sleep blossomed into dream, the Warden found itself alone. The child did not appear that night, nor any night that followed. The Dream Warden searched dream after dream for its friend. Sorrow became fear came anger, and soon the Warden left nothing but nightmares to flower in its wake.

This happens, of course, because the child has grown up and left their old dreaming behind, and the relationship between youth and dreams vs adulthood (actual and perceived) is something the comic is likewise interested in. Callum wants to be grow up so he can help, but as Harrow says, "Part of being grown-up is looking out for others," and there are many moments Callum acts far more like the 9-11 year old child that he is here than an adult, even if he is definitely more mature by the novel's close than he was at the beginning (and so on and so forth into S1 / beyond).

It is these two things — the abandonment of dreams (a life with Callum) to taking up an 'adult' task (assassinating Viren) in the name of "looking out for others" (Callum, the world) — that leads to Rayla leaving in Through the Moon. This is due to having fallen out of favour the idea that she's "stronger together" (BH) with anyone and missing the memo the boys receive/believe from Harrow—and their mother's actions—that they are "safest together".

So we have a Moon creature (seemingly) befriending an elven (mortal) child, even though doing so goes against the traditions of its kind. Then one day the Moon elf disappears in the action / guise of growing up, leaving the DW despondent, angry, and alone. Saddened, fearful, and furious they leave behind nightmares. [Sidenote: I do love the consistent metaphor of blossoming to flowering, it's nice.] Eventually, they fall into a deep depression and slumber.

This is a pretty close beat-for-beat of Esmeray as well, down to being left behind by a creature connected to the Moon arcanum who specifically "mysteriously dies"/leaves and subsequently causing an icy, snowy storm that shrouds the heavens (hides the starlight) until a return and/or reconciliation.

When she disappeared, she left you all alone. In pain. The storm isn't your rage. It's your grief. Your loneliness. On moonless nights, you miss her the most.

All of this is, however, mostly subtext, even if Callum and Esmeray match up in S6 and S4 in more than one instance, so I thought going through Dreamer's Nightmare that Callum's evident parallels to DW, and even Rayla to the moon child, that it would likewise remain subtext. Imagine my surprise when it wasn't.

Ezran

I've talked about Ezran and Rayla and their parallels before, decently extensively. Despite having different personality presentations, they have very similar cores. Both are less inclined towards violence in spite of Ezran having access to power and in spite of Rayla's upbringing, both have received prejudiced consequences for things they couldn't control (the assassin hit out on Ezran due to his father's crimes / Rayla being Ghosted partially because of her parents' as well as being seen as a monster), and these things contribute to them questioning perceived monstrosity more than, say, Callum, would.

We see this even reflected in Dreamer's Nightmare, where Callum despairs and in a desire to protect him and Ez, defaults to, "If I can't fight it, what can I do?" versus Ezran stating, "I can't fight you, and even if I could, I don't want to."

And while I have other thoughts on Callum and the 'monster' motif / label that you can read here, what I want to reaffirm here is the way through Ezran's connection with the Dream Warden, we also highlight his understanding of Callum both in the graphic novel and while Rayla was away / in the early days of her return.

Callum as a character has always been a character with a tenuous grasp on his own identity, especially in arc 1. He states in 2x04 that "when I got magic, I finally felt like myself" in trying to explain "how I've lost that. I'm just trying to find my way back". I think we can draw a point of comparison between Callum losing magic and not feeling like himself and Callum losing his mother and not feeling like himself, both in the immediate aftermath and repeatedly on the anniversary of her death. We also see elements Ezran mentions of Callum not feeling like himself (not drawing, his anger) that come out in S4 / 4x01 and 4x02, notably while Rayla was gone. It's only after she returns and they've begun to reconcile that we see Callum draw again (5x02) for example and indeed be more relaxed (somewhat) with his temper.

Through these periods, though, Ezran has been his cornerstone. Callum was lost in grief with Sarai, but finds his way back to Ezran; Ezran guides him out of the tower in 1x03 and into the quest to Xadia; Ezran is there even when Rayla is not, and Ezran encourages him to open up, recognizing there just as he does with the Dream Warden:

But it's easy to lose ourselves if we don't let others in. And I don't think you want to be angry and alone forever.

So Ezran through his assertions and understanding of both his brother in the comic's present, as well as the Dream Warden, takes everything that was previously subtext for Callum in the graphic novel as a character in the context of how he responds to loss (specifically Sarai and Rayla's loss), and makes it text:

DW lost their Moon arcanum connected best friend and fell into a furious sorrow, and that sorrow being disturbed is what brings the angered splintering back in full force. Dreamer's Nightmare ends, of course, with the creature being pacified and presumably going to bond with more new children, rather than just being shut away forever. Since Rayla isn't fully gone, and since she comes back, his tale of moon-friend-disappearing related woe ends differently with the full reconciliation, but the period of processing the grief and anger to "to hope and maybe forgive and love again" (4x03) remains the same.

This bodes well for theories regarding his love for Rayla and despair/desperation over losing her being what turns Callum into a 'monster' in S7, by which I mean Callum believing himself to become a monster through helping Aaravos / dark magic corruption, and believing himself to be something worth killing (4x07, 6x03) should those things transpire. But as Ezran says, all it takes is one (or two) people seeing you through the periods of anger, sadness, or splintered corruption to bring you back to your whole self again. Given the basis for Dreamer's Nightmare, I'm extremely hopeful that both Ezran and Rayla will have their roles to play in bringing Callum back to himself, just as Ezran's bonds with Callum and with Rayla will undeniably play a part in bringing Ezran back to himself, too.

With all this in mind, let's talk about the doll.

The Elf Toy

So the elf doll haunts me, nor is this new, by any means. I posted a bit about it when Dreamer's Nightmare had just come out, but I've had my eye on this thing since I first noticed the game motif some time after S3 aired. While it's since expanded to include Aaravos and his pawns (and dark magic) more directly in arc 2, said game motif in arc 1 mostly referred to the Key of Aaravos, with the motif and key itself being properly introduced in 1x04: "This is the game room, cube should be in there" / "It's a toy. A piece from a children's game."

A game motif oriented episode that then, therefore, likewise introduces a toy Rayla stand in, and one that Dreamer's Nightmare, purposefully being released before S7 for evident reasons for both brothers at least, harkens back to directly.

Like I think I can speak for all of us when I say I never thought we'd see the damn thing again. It's in 1x04 primarily to just emphasize how humans (namely Amaya) have always seen elves as scary monsters, it looks like Rayla to drive that subsequent point home, and yes it's a toy in an episode with the series' core Game Motif being centred for the first time, but that doesn't mean it's automatically connected. I'd like it to be, I think it'd be fun and very on brand for TDP's style of writing if it was.

That's said, let's go over it from various angles, starting with order of events:

Kid has elf toy, is buried under rubble

Callum and Ez pull them out and usher the kid to safety

The boys / Ezran resolve the conflict and defeat the 'monster,' with Ezran realizing it's not a monster, and instead relating it to Callum explicitly

The boys receive the elf toy as a gift

The most direct reasoning here, then, goes twofold:

Placing the toy here adds depth to Ezran thinking back in 1x04 about what makes something/someone a monster, which is the subject of the conversation at hand, and how it was incorrect

It is here in DM because we're revisiting the Banther Lodge next season, and there's going to be an emphasis on seeing people (others towards Callum; Ezran towards Runaan) not as monsters / reminding Ezran of his love for Rayla. We may see the toy, probably not, but that could be the thread

Therefore, that is where I think I'd leave it in terms of being a toy with a deeper purpose... if not for the fact it's referred to as a Gift. I've talked about the gift motif here in TDP and how arc 2 makes it much more of an emphasis, largely in regards to magic and magical sources of power:

However, where it's most notable in the 'gifts' Aaravos gives: his pawns are not just his pawns, but often tethered to him through magical objects. Claudia's current pawn intro has the Sun staff, which was given from Aaravos to Viren to her; Callum has the cube, a similarly ancient relic passed down through generations; "Lay it down? But it was a gift," Ziard says, the Staff clutched in his hand, and Viren later cites it explicitly a toy: "You had a lifetime to play with your toys, but now you hide them all away or destroy them."

To the point that throughout the various gifts given (the moon opal pendant, Rayla's goodbye letter, the sun orb from the Sun, the trio's gifts of sacrifice to Rex Igneous, Janai's sword and Miyana delivering the sun seed, and more I'm sure) the only things referred to as / that are both gifts and toys are the Key of Aaravos and the Relic Staff.

And, now thanks to Dreamer's Nightmare, the Elf (Rayla) doll.

Obviously this doesn't mean the elf doll is an ancient relic, or powerful, or even important, I think. Not on a literal level. But the final pages do tease it's a bringer of misfortune, which Rayla absolutely is (or is supposed to) when she lands on the boys' doorstep 6-5 years later. She's assumed to be a bringer of misfortune at said Banther Lodge where both the toy and cube are found, which is why she's taken captive.

What characters thus far receive things in the graphic novels, too, comes into play later. Claudia's map to the unicorn she acquired in The Puzzle House seemingly fulfilled its purpose pre-series with her tracking one down already, only to have another purpose in mind as of 7x01.

It's not beyond the realm of possibility to me, therefore, with all this in mind:

The doll was included as a throwback to 1x04

It will have importance

This importance will possibly relate to Rayla

If the motif of it being a gift and a toy is relevant, than the objects on par with it are the Relic staff and Key of Aaravos

Something something "Rayla's life is a fair exchange for the Key of Aaravos" because we all know what we're doing here by now

In summary: you lost your Moonshadow elf best friend and that caused you to become a monster / nightmare ("we had to fight our own people, it was a nightmare") and Dreamer's Nightmare just expected me to feel totally normal even before interweaving the gift motif into the game/toy motif with the damn Rayla stand in doll from 1x04 of all episodes. Yeah.

And that's really all I got for this one, but I hoped you enjoyed the allegorical thread break down and the game motif theorizing!