#shadowlings

[sleepimali]

Available as a print and sticker set this month only (November 2023) on my Patreon for Professional Napper patrons and above :)<3

As a warning, this month’s lore deals pretty heavily with death and trauma, and has mentions of war (in the past).

Shadowlings and No Magic Zones lore:

If you find yourself in a place where traces of humans are slowly being reclaimed by nature, marked by a glaringly red and yellow coloured sign that says “NO MAGIC” on it, odds are you’re standing at the site of an old battleground from the Long War.

No matter where you go, if there are humans around, you can likely find a no magic zone there too. And the reason magic is disallowed in such places is because they are the dwellings of the Shadowlings, who are said to be soldiers that fell to a curse in the war, and hence harbour very negative emotions towards those who use it. Fear, anger, grief… And all explosive feelings at that. They aren’t exactly capable of rational thinking anymore, so it’s best not to upset them, especially since they tragically harbour a lot of the Wild Magic they resent so much, and can be incredibly dangerous while emotional.

Because of their experiences that live on inside them, it doesn't matter that magic has now become a good and necessary force in human society, or that magic folks and humans have both done equal amounts of good and bad.

Using magic in their presence truly can only be done at the risk of your life for most people, and the exceptions to that rule can be counted on the fingers of just one hand.

However if you do not provoke them, they are completely harmless and very gentle - loving even.

Being a Shadowling is leading an existence that hovers between life and death, unable to participate in life, but also unable to move on from it. And yet a Shadowling is not quite a ghost either.

As newly turned, most Shadowlings retain an almost human shape, but they slowly begin lose their shape and memories with the passage of time, except for a few exceptions who hold onto them as much as possible for the sake of their loved ones.

Still, they know instinctively that they were once humans and therefore tend to seek them and their warmth out as much as possible. In the absence of humans though, they feel the safest around human-made objects that have been left behind in the zone, and with each other. Shadowling are rarely alone, instead they tend to huddle together in big groups where they do their best to comfort each other and help each other hold onto their memories, and dream of the day they’ll be able to return to humanity.

For quite some time after the end of the war, those who lived on would take care of the Shadowlings and the areas in which magic was forbidden. After all, no matter how unrecognisable they had become, they were still people’s beloved family members, lovers, and friends. And if you look into their eyes, regardless of how much they have lost, you can still see and know who they were in life.

But time is ruthless to us all, and the last living generation who survived the horrors of the war has grown old and started to disappear. For some time, their descendants would take care of the no magic zones instead, but the vast majority of these places would slowly become completely abandoned with the introduction of magic in human society.

And so, the Shadowlings kept getting more and more shapeless and wispy, clinging to the traces of humanity they can find in items that were left behind and the occasional visitor.

Few people visit these days. And even fewer still are visitors who still do not have traces of magic on them or aren’t afraid of the Shadowlings.

But maybe one day, as long as there is hope, maybe one day their curse can be lifted.

And until then, the Shadowlings will find ways to keep existing and experience joy and love even with all that they have lost.

[mewwile]

constantly poking myself to make a design document for shadowlings, my homebrew race for our dnd-esque setting... and by design document i mean just infodumping about the extravagantly intricate lore i've been rolling in my head about them and their culture. i know it will take forever because im really out here figuring out what instruments would be common and the political landscape of their species instead of writing things down LOL

anyways, here is a few of them! including my original design guide for them and some i've drawn since

[hailstormchase]

Okay, more ocs of mine-

Ice Floss is a team of 8 stormlings (yeah....they ain't true octolings or inklings. They're just a subspecies variant that looks really close) that's 2 turf war teams combined to watch each other's backs outside of matches ....similar to the best 8 of Splatzville I guess. The 2 teams are Ice Ink in the light blue/cyan, and Sugar Splats in the pink. As for the other pic, Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde are all shadowlings, a fan made species that's rather unique in appearance and the fact they have shadow magic, similar to ghosts. Pak is a stormling.....who happens to take the role of pac man. Pak leads her own team called the Turf Dusters.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 310

Shadow core Danny? Shadow core Danny with Hazmat AU? Indeed, with a hint of a twist. 

See that hazmat helmet beneath the hood? Yeah that’s erm, that might be his actual face now. It might be able to split open into a proper maw, as he found out during one of the early fights. He thinks it might be a shadow-core thing though, because Fright Knight has something similar, along with the Keeper. Who's apparently a ghost that keeps track of other shadow-ghosts, which, cool. Cool library covered in flesh, nothing spooky there. 

He mentions this? Because apparently even if all ghosts partially feed on emotions, shadow cores need Fear the most. Which, thankfully shadow cores are apparently more rare than he’d expect, so he’s not going to go into a territorial frenzy or something on a bad day, yay! 

But uh, he might… count as a ghostling since he’s only a year dead- in fact he’ll continue to be as such until he’s at least 100 years dead, since he didn’t die as an adult. Which in turn… means he needs even more fear, at least until he’s old enough to generate it on his own. 

So what’s a ghostling to do? Take a trip to one of the most fear-soaked cities in the world, y’know, just a little weekend trip every month. Gotham isn’t that bad, and he can stay invisible- mostly! What’s going to happen, he run into a vigilante? Ha… oh no.

[loganslowdown4]

The blueberries on Virgil’s birthday cake this year are an ‘extra Virgil-y aesthetic’ yeah I forgot because his jam was a blueberry/cranberry mix!

A little sweet/a little sour

Very him lol 💜🫐 😄

[misunderstood-shadowling]

i'm currently in my bears in trees era

[shaykesqueer]

I want to do a new phantom/rory design that’s just. Theyre just voids.

They’re like black cats with their triangle ears and tiny little mouths and big eyes.

They’re like. Animated pieces of silk.

[shadowsageingempress]

“I got sunburned.”

- basic and unremarkable

- people will think you’re an idiot

- reminds you that you should have reapplied

“I was grievously wounded from exposure to the light.”

- striking and unique

- people will think you narrowly avoided death

- reminds you of Twilight Princess

[lexidio]

Sooooooo couldn't find an Inktober list I liked so I made my own! Feel free to join and use this card as you wish!

Starting off with day one being a Shadowling-sona :3

[uppastthejelliclemoon]

Mistoffelees: I guess there is sort of a dark edginess to this... like one of those Crayola crayon Halloween packs. Tugger: That is your standard for dark edginess? Mistoffelees: I don't know! I'm just trying not to bring the group down here. Victoria: You only help to lift me up, you sweet and sour misunderstood shadowling.

[jay-art-blog]

Jodie: You look so displeased like, "How did I end up with this kid I did not agree to this"

John loves Arum very much. He's just cursed with resting bitch face

[salvaged-the-decaying-one]

Meet the golem once deactivated now reactivated by a foolish demon that he devoured afterwards

[propertyofhog]

| Oswin | Shadowling | They/It | Weird little fella |

OSWIN GETS A NEW REF !!! Well Idk if i can call this a ref or not cus it's just a bunch of doodles I decided to line+color BUT I LIKE IT SO BOOM !!! SILLY SHADOW FRIEND

[misunderstood-shadowling]

my current DnD character fr (except not at all)

This close 🤏 to walking into a mysterious fog and never coming back

[soutsuji]

Idea: Tsujimura as a recovering alcoholic

[misunderstood-shadowling]

ok, y'all just know i had to listen to Sherlock & Co. eventually. so i am just now catching up. and. in episode 12 (the blue carbuncle part one), about 20 minutes in, Sherlock and John are talking about christmas, right? how Sherlock loves it for the lights and structure... and John is saying something about how he wouldn't have planned a trip away had he known... and i didn't quite understand why, but at one point, John starts laughing and Sherlock asks "what's funny?" in such a loving voice that it caught me absolutely off guard and i've listened to these 15 seconds 10 times already. this is the exact point that got me obsessed, i can't escape now.