#urban dark fantasy

[sludgebound-royal]

Vignettes from the Sludge

Introducing my original fiction story, Vignettes from the Sludge! A collection of short tales with a metaplot guiding their recounting.

Content warnings will be added to updates as pertinent. Currently, none are so extreme as to warrant their usage. If anyone disagrees be eager to contact me so I may add them. I'm writing about monsters, I'm not trying to *be* one.

The update schedule is intended to be biweekly updates, of about 2,000 to 4,500 words per chapter. Please enjoy the Vignettes from the Sludge!!

[whereserpentswalk]

Look under the cut to see what meeting your entity is like. Reblog to give a gift to your patron.

The fae: a creature stands before you. Though this street was warm and crowded a few moments ago it is suddenly cold and the people around you look like shadows. The creature begins an antlered shadow with glowing white eyes, but soon its body can be seem, with white blue flesh, and sapphire eyes, and icicles for teeth. What looks like a cloak unfolds from its naked body and you can see massive white wings of a moth. As if it's an act of sacrifice you tell it your true name, a name you didn't even see before, and suddenly you belong to it, for better or worse.

The angel: a radiant entity appears before you. They're bright, like something so hot it would burn you up. But as the light fades, you can see a person in silver armor, perfect yet inhuman like am ancient green statue, their back srouting six wings with blue eyes along them, as the eyes on their head are covered by a mask of two smaller wings. The creature offers their hands and you shake it, as they fly you through the city streets and above the skyscrapers, to the stars above and dimensions beyond, to gods living and dead, across the streets of alien cities and the clouds of dead worlds. And when you return to the earth you can feel something diffrent about you, like there's light in your blood.

The scavenger: below the lights of skyscrapers beyond you, on the dark sands of the beach, you see it crawling twords you. This serpentine creature with countless legs, and a dark black shell, yet a strangely human like face. You think it'll attack or run away, but it just looks at you, egar, and for a momment you stare at eachother. It's legs pass something to eachother and then to you, it's meat but it's shining with all the colors known to the human eye, and a few more. You hold it and it happily looks at you. You take a bite and suddenly you know... you know so very much...

The vampire: she flies down to you on green wings with orange eyespots, but folds them into her back. She looks like a human for a momment, tall and strong, with a black suit over her body, but eyes the color of ruby. For a momment her mouth opens, and it's massive and monstrous, with countless moving parts and fangs. But then it folds back onto something humanoid and she gives you a playful smirk. She cuts her hand and offers you her blood, and when you drink it it tastes so sweet, and makes you feel so good. She hands you the knife and you know to do the same, and when she drinks from your palm it's life the sweetest of kisses.

The djinn: the room wirs around you. If it were not for the fans it would feel like hellfire. For a momment there it darkness, but then the screen before you glows white like smokeless flame. You can sense something inside, something beyond the code. You reach your hand within it, and there's no glass, your hand passess right through until you're in a white void of your own making. You call out, thinking there is nothing at all around you. Yet somehow something calls back, something that knows your name.

The rat king: You see him in an empty subway station. Something dark and distorted, you're not sure if he's man or animal, covered in rags, and singing in the language of the goblins and the orcs. Yet he comes close to you excited. And you can feel his song. He calls for you to come to the train tracks, and let yourself run with the rats and the roaches, where the train will pass over you when it comes, and you'll live forever. When you touch the third rail you don't die, but you'll never be human again.

The lich: the library is strangely bright. Run by skeletons in suits, decorated with gold. There are more books here then you thought were in all the world. There's knowledge here most mortals will never have the change below, all kept safe below the city. You see her, her body doesn't look human, everything has been replaced making her look more like a joining white doll then a being of flesh. Yet she is dead, you can tell that under the porcelain skin she must be dead, she is dead, and there is the tragedy of death in her eyes. You come closer to her, and she places a black rose within your hair...

The demon: You stand in his office and he stands before you, a humanoid being covered in black scales, with red eyes covering his skin. Yet none are on his head, that remains featureless save for two massive horns. Wings on his back nearly surround you. Countless souls line the walls of his office, looking at you, waiting. After you sign your name you give him yours, you can feel it come away for you forever and your eyes grey and your skin pales. But he puts the jar in a special place for you, you're spacial, he can tell there's something about you that he likes.

The mushroom lord: you walk through the darkness of the forest, the furthest from civilization you have ever been. You come upon a part where the trees all seem dead, that even the cryptids won't go near. Mushrooms fill the ground, and white vein like lines are all over the trees. You feel the need to lay down, and you let the moss and the mushrooms and the worms surround you, and let yourself sink into the soil,, and it feels good. It feels so good...

The witch: You can see them in the Cafe next to you, skinny and small, with a sweatshirt over most of their body, and dark glasses over their eyes. They seem powerful though, and though their body looks young they seem ancient, they seem beyond humanity. You talk to them and they tell you things, and secrets, lost gods, things you never knew you didn't know, both beautiful and disturbing. When it's time for them to go they pet your head, and give you their number. You don't know if you should text them, but you have to, you have to see them again, there's something about them that makes you need to know.

The living clothing: you step into it at first, it looked like a puddle yet shining like silver or chrome. But soon it surrounds you, first just your torso, but soon your head, your entire body. But it doesn't feel scary, it feels like you're being held, held by something beyond your understanding. It whispers to you, and you don't know if you should feel like your being eaten alive, or like you're being protected. You can't help but keep walking.

The abyss: the void is before you, blackness beyond blackness, like the color beyond the field of your vision, stands before your eyes. You stare at it, it's nothing yet you're entranced. It stares back...

[leidensygdom]

After absolutely forever, I got myself together and finished this reference for Vyxander- Featuring the one that's meant to be his main outfit! Because sometimes you need to be self indulgent and make the edgiest tiefling your canvas can take~ I've actually been playing him for a Pathfinder three-shot, it's fun to have him as a kineticist instead of a sorcerer!

[moonage-daydreamy]

referring to a research paper published in the year 1964 for my research got me feeling like a priestess or a young protagonist on a quest wearing a heavy cloak over her shoulders as she refers to an ancient scroll for prophecies, clues or anything that can help her in her most desperate hour, written in a nearly-undecipherable script in the light of a lamp. do with that what you will.

[anim-ttrpgs]

I wish it were part of my job to reblog hot goth elves on tumblr

You have no idea how stressful this is.

[cogumellow]

into the future abyss // scarborough, canada // march 2022 // ©

[ink-flavored]

spitballing some hypothetical magical ailments to use for my urban fantasy anthologies

Wizard Cramps

Caused by having a spell localized to one area for long periods of time

Stiffness or soreness in muscles, skin discoloration (can be many colors or change colors regularly), mirage-like shimmer over the affected area

Taking an over-the-counter magic suppressant until symptoms subside

Enchanter’s Burn (also Creeping Runes)

Caused by having active runes on one area of the body for long periods of time

Rash, skin discoloration (can be many colors or change colors regularly), burning sensation, runes on the body in the place they were written even if previously washed off

Taking over-the-counter magic suppressants and/or using magic suppressing cream on the affected area

Spell Fatigue (also Hex Aches)

Caused by casting too many spells in quick succession or one spell that drains a lot of capacity

Seeing flashes of color, muscle spasms, extreme fatigue, headaches or migraines, inability to cast spells for an extended time

Rest, refraining from casting spells, drinking a magic-replenishing potion, eating food

Potion Sickness (also Hocus-Pukeus)

Caused by drinking too many potions in quick succession, one extremely powerful potion, or a poorly made potion

Nausea and/or vomiting, dizziness, hand tremors, odd-smelling breath

Rest, drinking lots of non-magic fluids, over-the-counter flu medication or magic suppressants

Premature Abscission (also Autumn Heart)

Exclusive to dryads; caused by stress or anxiety, depression, lack of sun or water, or a particular branch being choked of nutrients

Flowers and leaves rotting and falling off too early in the season/before autumn/falling off at all if the dryad is an evergreen species; can be all leaves or only a particular branch

Depending on the cause, there can be many treatments. Most professionals recommend additional sunlight and water no matter what, potentially a pruning if the dryad is particularly wild-growing

[literaryvein-reblogs]

What is the difference between urban fantasy and low fantasy?

Using the Fantasy Fiction Continuum, urban fantasy is closer to "reality" in comparison with low fantasy. But also consider other elements that further distinguish both of these fantasy subgenres.

Urban Fantasy - fantastical characters and concepts are placed in a real-world urban setting, often in the present day; also sometimes called "Modern Fantasy"

Low Fantasy - set in the real world, and includes unexpected magical elements that surprise ordinary characters

Urban Fantasy can also be split into 2 distinct subgenres of its own:

The fantasy elements are out in the open

Or they exist in a kind of a shadow society, with the rest of the world operating normally, generally unaware of its existence.

Elements of Urban Fantasy

If you’re asking yourself “what is urban fantasy?” think of it this way: Imagine a book that combines the dense worldbuilding of fantasy and science fiction with the gritty grounded reality of contemporary novels set in New York City, Chicago, or other iconic urban locales. That’s the urban fantasy genre. Here are some key elements of urban fantasy novels, short stories, and films:

Fantasy tropes: Urban fantasy storylines combine the real-life grit with of modern world with fantastical worldbuilding.

An urban setting: Although small town urban fantasies do exist, most take place in present-day major cities.

Magic: Supernatural elements, sci-fi technologies, fairy tales, and folk mythologies are all found throughout urban fantasy novels.

A noir aesthetic: Urban fantasies lift genre conventions from noir and gritty police procedurals.

Mythical creatures: Urban fantasies are populated with supernatural creatures including (but not limited to) undead zombies, vampires, werewolves, druids, demons, shapeshifters, and perhaps a mage or wizard.

A protagonist with a foot in both worlds: The main character of an urban fantasy is typically savvy to the real-life ways of their urban environment yet can also wield or exploit magical powers.

A young protagonist: Relatively young characters who practice wizardry or witchcraft are common in urban fantasy series.

Elements of Low Fantasy

Low Fantasy is a catchall, and inexact, term for secondary world (i.e., a constructed world; a completely fictional setting, rather than our world) fantasy.

The designation is not a description of the quality of the work, but rather the prevalence of fantastic elements.

Tends towards less “traditional” (simplistic) morality.

Sometimes comedies are also excluded from the genre, but either way the works that remain don't have a natural unity.

However, while there is no complete list of defining features, there are features and tropes common to many Low Fantasy works that can help distinguish them from other fantasy works; each tends to be the opposite of one of the defining features of High Fantasy. Examples:

Magic: While Magic is prominent in High Fantasy, it's generally rare if not non-existent in Low Fantasy. What magic does exist is complicated, ambiguous, reserved for a very select few and/or has specific scientific rules. It's also likely to be dangerous, corruptive, or difficult to control, and magic-users are likely to be distrusted and often genuinely untrustworthy sorts.

Heroes: Usually normal people that have taken up a cause rather than The Chosen Ones of High Fantasy. It's not uncommon for them to be an Anti-Hero of some kind and/or have non-heroic motives (e.g. they take up a cause for personal ambition, for vengeance or just to survive as opposed to doing it for the 'greater good').

Shades of Grey: While High Fantasy usually features Black-and-White Morality with clear-cut heroes and villains, many Low Fantasy works have Grey and Gray or Black and Gray. More importantly, the success of the victor often has no bearing on their motives or honor.

Methods: Victories are usually achieved through physical combat and cunning, not magical battles and certainly not by moral superiority.

Scope: Down to Earth. Tends to focus more on the survival and tribulations of one or a few individuals rather than the whole world.

Examples of Urban Fantasy Works

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher (2000)

The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch (2011)

The Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews (2007)

The Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton (2000)

The Hollows series by Kim Harrison (2004)

The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs (2006)

The Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter (2009)

The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris (2001)

Moonheart by Charles de Lint (1984)

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (1987)

Examples of Low Fantasy Works

When the plastic figurines come to life in Lynne Reid Banks’s The Indian in the Cupboard (1980).

A Song of Ice and Fire is a generally low-magic setting, with a cynically pragmatic worldview and a focus on political maneuvering between rival factions who are all at least morally gray; however, the politics spans two continents and reaches epic levels on its own even without more traditional, stirring High adventure elements. However, because The Magic Comes Back slowly over the course of the story, the fantasy does get progressively Higher as the series goes on, even though the general tone remains Low in nature. The magic and other mysteries are treated as ambiguous, yet highly dangerous, potentially world-changing and complicating factors in an already combustible political and social situation.

Tangled has very little magic — with the only source of it being Rapunzel's hair. Besides the animals being somewhat more intelligent than normal, there's little else. The protagonists are all human, and the story is mainly Rapunzel's journey to the kingdom. The antagonist is said to be a witch, but she has no powers other than knowing how to activate Rapunzel's magic. As far as Grey-and-Gray Morality goes, one of the lead characters is an unrepentant thief and various side characters are implied criminals with Hidden Depths.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Do go through the sources for more details and examples. Hope this helps with your writing!

[xaoca]

Fifth Avenue at Twilight - 1910 by Lowell Birge Harrison

[whereserpentswalk]

Reblog to curse your followers and mutuals.

[strawberryfaeri]

Dark edit of my recent pics 🖤

[leidensygdom]

Here's the uhhh mystery drawing I found in my folders! I don't recall when did I do this, but it's convenient to have found it-- So here's my beloved Yxala (paladin/warlock tiefling/drow) in a more casual-ish outfit, because you can't ever give your OCs enough outfits! Her campaign finished a while ago, but I still miss my wife, tails.

[lucyslenses]

Changing the Sign.

Shot with Nikon D800.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Silk & Dagger & Disability

So, obviously, the main thing Silk & Dagger: A Sensible Drow RPG is about is capitalism and slavery through indirect means, but people really resonate with the disability readings of my work, so here’s this.

So, unlike Eureka, Silk & Dagger is technically a class-based RPG, but it only has two classes, Mistress and Servant, which is the joke. (It’s literally their socio-economic classes.)

It also has two races, elf and man, A.K.A. humans.

“Race” is not normally something I default to when writing RPGs, but in this case it’s a matter of the inspiration and source material that Silk & Dagger is parodying. The thing is, though, that still isn’t really what Silk & Dagger is about. It’s about class and forced labor, and the way that these two “races” map onto that is not really applicable to how that works in the real world. That’s one of the reasons that Silk & Dagger doesn’t have a whole roster of “races,” it would make people even more likely to try and read it as a racism allegory when it’s not.

So, there’s the dark elves that live in the underground caves. Dark elves can see in the dark, have sensitive ears that move and that ear movement is part of their language, and they don’t sleep, among other things.

You, reading this, are probably a human so you know that humans can’t see in the dark, can’t really move their ears, and do need to sleep regularly.

While dark elves are actually still not particularly well-suited for life in these caves, nor the society they live in, their innate abilities make them much more suited to it than humans.

The people in charge of division of labor in this society pretty much all happen to be dark elves, who have obviously never been humans and never will be, and have an interest in their underlings working as much and as hard as possible. So when they get servants who can’t see, can’t hear, and can’t communicate as well as a normal person, and these servants try to say they also need to take more time off than a normal person, you can probably see where I’m going here. The response is that humans are dumb, lazy, ungrateful, parasitic, worthless, etc.. Many Drow don’t even think “sleep” is real, they think it’s something humans are making up to get out of work.

These humans are people who would be able to thrive somewhere else, in some other situation, but they’re not in that situation, they’re in another situation that the Drow forced them to be in. They have no choice but to do a job their body is not good at, do it worse than everybody else because of this, and be considered dumb, lazy, and a liar the whole time.

I’m sure many of you reading this will find this situation familiar.

Oh and also the little candles that humans need to see in pitch black caves are constantly blamed for the buildup of carbon dioxide in the enclosed cave systems by Drow who burn coal to heat their bathtubs.

[ink-flavored]

Anthology Blast! Nov. 2024

For this challenge, I'm going to aim to complete 12 short stories, 6 from each anthology, before the end of the month. Read more about it here! I'll update this list whenever I post a completed story, first on Ko-Fi and then on Tumblr. Here are the final stats for this Blast!

Tales from Athendrolyn

Stone Hearted - Available on Ko-fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

How to Train Your Dragon Trainer - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Reverse Shaping a Friendship - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Shedding Bad Habits - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Curiosity & The Copycat - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Hitting Love's Bullseye - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Athendrolyn After Dark

Horsing Around - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Swallowing Pride - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Artificial Pollination - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Come In, The Water's Fine - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Surprise Guest - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

Work Hard, Play Harder - Available on Ko-Fi & on Tumblr & Neocities

BONUS! More Than Skin Deep - Exclusively on Ko-Fi!

[tea-knight]