#i just realized i forgot to color sashka's shoe. rip

[muddshadow]

Hey! Not sure if you participate in Worldbuilding Wednesday - if not, feel free to ignore this. BUT IF SO.

I'm fairly new to your work - BUT - is there anything about your WIPs you've been working on lately? Anything you want to share? Perhaps a little detail about a character you figured out recently? Or even a little worldbuilding detail you were thinking about and developing recently? Perhaps even a little bit of inspiration you got from reading or art lately?

Wombo serving your needs well? ୧(＾ 〰 ＾)୨

If not, I'd just like to nudge you and say hi :D If so, I look forward to your rambles 🙈✨❤️

@bloodlessheirbyjacques (:

hello !! i love writeblr themed days and thank you DEARLY for the questions, but i tend to participate in a liminal time space where wednesday could also mean friday <3

SO. Despite my best efforts to focus on my primary projects, this little story has swarmed all the useful parts of my brain. It developed out of a very strange dream and a trope I've always loved: monster x monster hunter. Plenty of the world-building and the exact sequence of events is still an exciting fog, but I've mostly riddled out the plot and character arcs. Artwork and information below, and here's a little summary from my WIPs page...

THE HUNGER ROT // dark fantasy, immortal warriors, magic harvested from blood. After several hundred years of fighting together, the death of her sister leaves Peony hollow. Hollow enough to help a vampyric sorceress pursue revenge against her maker.

A lot of my projects have a strong theme of healing and self-discovery, and The Hunger Rot is about the crush of immortality - the regrets that never fade, the loss that never gets easier, and loneliness as the price for power. I'm still tinkering with the world, but the story has a gritty medieval feel where magic is relatively common and effectually versatile - but all magic requires the sacrifice of life. Ripping up some flowers may heal the bruises on your knuckles, and burning a century-old tree could cure plague from an entire village. Aggressive and powerful magic comes from blood - slitting the palm may summon a swirl of fire, and slitting a throat could burn a forest.

As you might expect, this produces some not-so-friendly sorcerers who prefer that others pay the price for their power. But the truly prolific mages are those that make the ultimate sacrifice - their own life. They become vampyr - unaging mages who don't have to burn flowers or slit palms to use magic. They trade that inconvenience for drinking blood. This practice is incredibly controversial; some countries have it outlawed under execution while others encourage their warriors into it. But not everyone can endure the process - some are too weak for the sacrifice and die instead, some are consumed by the ensuing bloodlust and wither into mindless ghouls.

Fugitive sorcerers and bloodthirsty ghouls (and all the other sharp-toothed hungry creatures lurking about the forests) are challenging threats, and most people (even mages) do not survive the experience. So if you have a nasty ghoul problem, you enlist a handy-dandy Marrow! (also called Sourbloods, Red Warriors, pest control, hunters...) Marrows are mercenaries - they can't perform any magic, but they are immortal through the process of drinking vampyr blood. This stalls their aging, heals minor wounds, and grants them relative protection from anything thirsty for blood (no creature wants to drink vampyr blood - it's already been corrupted through the act of sacrifice). But drinking vampyr blood is also a death sentence for most people - Marrows go through years of grueling training and several sacrificial trials before making the final step.

and now the two main characters!! here are some random sketches i mashed together and colored real quick :v

SASHKA is a very old vampyr, at least several centuries, and time has empowered her, numbed her, and rotted her sense of purpose. When Peony first meets her (a hundred years or so before the story begins), Sashka is obsessed with the thrill of power and the independence it allows. She's charming, cunning, and everything she says or does furthers her own ambitions. Peony would trust the manners of a ghoul before closing her eyes in Sashka's presence. But when years pass and Sashka seeks out help for a desperate quest, it becomes clear that the price for true independence is more than the soul can afford.

PEONY isn't quite so old as Sashka, but the years have battered her worse. After losing their father and triplet to ghouls, Peony and her (now twin) sister Rose endure the trials of the Marrow. Peony has always been stern and sullen, her sister an extroverted opposite, their dynamic a perfect balance as they travel and fight across the lands for many centuries - so when Rose dies rather abruptly, Peony is left a ghost of herself. Continuing on feels meaningless after so many lifetimes, but when her old enemy Sashka approaches with a stupidly perilous plan of revenge, Peony agrees to one last adventure. But sometimes deciding to die reveals all our reasons for living.

ok that's all for now :v thanks for reading <3

#thank you for the ask <3 sorry i get to them late #i work late nights so by the time i get home i'm like konking out on the couch and catching up on all the tumblr stuff i missed #i just realized i forgot to color sashka's shoe. rip #also peony's scars oh geez i am a mess #also really need a new name for Hunters. any suggestions? something not so bland but also not too eccentric lol #but anyway thanks to anyone who reads <3 talking about stories helps me sort them out in my head #muddshadow #oc. peony #oc. sashka #wip. the hunger rot #mud draws #mud asks