oh right i invented a whole soul and magic system that're intertwined. i'm not explaining tonight because it's midnight and a half but Soon.

okay so i was sleeping like all of yesterday, it is time for the system explanation

because of the varying nature of both souls and magic, most people that use it will develop affinities for specific kinds of magic. some will be great at healing or boosting physical properties, some can whip up a fire storm and control it to the most minute scale but cannot speed the growth of an apple, etc. etc.

Training magic in this system is not becoming more powerful, but rather honing the skill of using it. most people can throw a fireball, but trained pyromancers are capable of changing the direction it is flying, cause it to stop midair, force it to cease, etc. etc.

souls sent to an energy plane after the death of their material body cannot be reincarnated without interference from outside sources, and cannot fully leave otherwise. they can harvest the infinite energy of the planes, which causes them to be leaps and bounds more powerful than any living being. However, this power has to be focused into a much smaller amount in order to project a portion of the soul into material worlds.

There has been one exception to the rule of the afterlives, and that is Lanuri. this is because very rarely, souls will have a unique property that lets them utilize magic in a way that literally nobody else can. lanuri has the gift of mirroring, which made his soul malleable and gave them the ability to copy his material form to obtain the skills of the connected indivual. it will also change his soul itself to copy that of the other's. and they used it on a ghost, which caused their soul to devour his physical form and take its place. this made them become unbound by all realms, and granted lanuri the capability to freely travel between all planes of reality, as well as being able to utilize his magic to the fullest extent. this came with the drawback of lanuri not having unlimited energy to fuel their soul, and thus still requiring sustenance and inactive periods.

most specifically

"The night is mine, mine, mine
I will worship as I bleed"
which is not the actual lyric but it's what i hear. the wrong part is that bleed is apparently please.

anyways, after her reimprisonment, dd could only worship at night, when the slavers had no use of it, and while recovering from whatever wrathful act they cursed it with during the day. the night became theirs, and she worshipped while it bled.

i should find a way to make ash relevant. is there a plot they can appear in, besides the anatina thing. i have an idea for how ash could be helpful for when the status quo is being debated once more in that kingdom.

semi-related, but if you read this ishmael is there a canon place where orphos gets the masks? because if not, i think it'd be fun if he found the wolf mask embraced in ancient shadows. shadows willed into form by a will far too old to need such a small trinket for devouring, as the shade removed from time does not follow its progression.

Orphos canonically received the key three's masks from The Raccoon, but The Raccoon does not work for Orphos if that makes sense. Raccoon is the one who makes the masks and he happened to sell those ones to Orphos. The Masked Ones picked up The Raccoon and he was just kind of chillin with them as long as they let him make things. With the Masked Ones functionally disbanded/inactive (Jackal ran off with the Eagle to lick his wounds and the Hyena is AWOL), The Raccoon is making Firebeasts for Shiloh on some random chain of volcanic islands, which is something I haven't officially introduced yet but I've mentioned a couple times.

Also sign me up for the Wheel of Horrors!!! Is it like an afterlife thing or just a spooky name?

Shayfer James absolutely slaps btw, I have some of his songs on character playlists all over the place

 

also shadow hell is the only place where dust can be properly killed(when killed elsewhere it will just go back to shadow hell and heal for a couple hours to a few weeks), which means it's very careful to never steal anybody that could threaten it there. which means ark is banned from the hungry hungry darkness

yeah there's three main traits of dust that are always consistent, and they are: hunger, wrath, and darkness

I read that post on characters vs Dust and I though that Crimson definitely is just like a Shonen protag.

Anyways as said before. I'm down for the spooky shadow place, just contemplating who to use. Like the idea a lot as well!

to clarify, dust thinks crimson is lame as in he sucks at actually using what power he has, and ash thinks he's lame because he's a poor guest

om nom nom

my ideas thus far: its blood is like the old wolf of farron's blood, where drinking it is basically being blessed by the god. the only drawback to the consumption would be losing some higher brain functions, and thus magical capabilities, fortunately the beast's blood would grant strength and speed; further sight and teeth and claws.

the beast would be worshipped much like pan in ancient greece, having very few temples constructed; followers finding its sacred halls to be that of caverns and trees. it'd be prayed to for good hunting, to drive beasts from farms, and for strong blood(strong blood basically being stronger resistance to disease and a long lineage/bloodline). i could see a common ceremonial symbol/weapon being a bloodletting knife carved from bones.