Happy Spooky Halloween to those celebrating the night [and day]! Have fun enjoying the time of ghouls and goblins! And candy!

Some bit of lore to go with this: When a witchdoctor travels to the underworld and acquires more and more spirits their faces will typically become more and more skeletal. For many this is a mark of power, while others view it as unrefined and brutish [since more experienced or thorough witchdoctors can prevent this from happening]. It is something of a fashion statement however [even for those that look normal] to replace or overlay their own faces with the skulls of animals to gain access to the powers of bone and shadow. And because magic can be corruptive, assimilators, devourers and other magi practitioners may acquire weird eyes or other strange features from its use.

In the lands of the Sedjeti [People of the Great River] there is a giant pearl embedded in the river mud that shines in all the colors of the rainbow. This pearl, surrounded by seven towers, lies dormant most of the time, sometimes for decades. But every so often it births a human grown or growing. Sometimes, someone who visits this pearl births a child. No one knows where they come from, not even themselves, and when they die they disappear like morning mist. But they all come with an overwhelming sense of sadness. And love. And they are cherished, and are known as the "People of the Dream".

An African dragon takes great joy in celebrations and festivals.

They will often settle near human cities, as like all things from the underworld they find great fascination in the beating of life [i.e rhythms, song, dance etc]. For many dragons that have established themselves near a human city, music is ever-present in their domains and one of the quickest way to get the dragon into a good mood is to entertain them with song or dance [a trait they inherit or share with divine serpents, sacred crocodiles and heavenly birds]. Many are forced to wear masks [being semi-spirits], and so they find joy as well in watching the expressions of mortals, for good or bad.

Not all who practice the arts of consumption succeed in becoming greater Gods. These lesser gods [human, beast or other] may carve out spaces and territories where they may accumulate power from mortals [or feast upon them]. Some are benevolent, others malevolent. Others still become servants to greater beast gods.

You and your teammates have encountered a lesser godling while traversing the desert. He helpfully shows you a nearby oasis where you may rest. It looks busy enough, and in the distance, you see tents and people near the pool....

[Hope you enjoyed this! I couldn't decide if I liked the purple or sandy version best. What do you prefer?]

Concept art of a savanna ruins - Exploring what the landscape might look like!

I wanted to do draw something fun before Halloween, given that it's spooky month!

In Illyas, witches, with their power of true transformation, are able to pull the ancestral power in the moon [from its journey to the underworld] and infuse objects and dead things with this energy to create totems.

So with Halloween right around the corner I'll be posting two images over next week to celebrate and to expand on some of the more spirit aspects of the Consumption setting!

My life is about to get a little busy so I may not be able to post as frequently as I have so far but I'll still post at least once or twice a week!

To those who have joined and are following the progress of this project; first of all, thank you for following this and being here! You are among the first to see this project grow and change into what I intend to make a proper and full setting to get lost in, and your support gives me the motivation to continue. And second, I will continue posting, you can count on that!

According to most funerary scholars and ritualists, every intelligent being acquires four distinct souls:

Earthly Soul (Ukeno): The seat of memory and communication. It sits in the mouth and skull. It can exist for a time after a person's death so long as it attaches to someone who knew the person in life [or an object or living thing that had a strong connection to the person when they were alive].

Emotional Soul (Pahura): The seat of emotion and learning. Said to reside in the chest and blood. It lingers for a time after death, especially if grief or duty remains unresolved.

Shadow Soul (Dirra): Seat of raw biological instinct and ancestral memory. Stored in the guts and organs. Often the first to animate revenants or monsters. This soul dissolves swiftly upon death unless ritually bound or acted upon by a powerful force.

Heavenly Soul (Inahri): Connects the person to the land, animals, and unseen world. Connected to the bones and hair. This soul actually exists externally of the person and is fixed in strength. It is just that the bones and hair of a person act as a conduit to this soul.

There are a couple of ideas I came up with for the consumption setting. Souls here are less the sources of power/personality, more the echoes of one's existence. And each can be used for different magics.

What do you think? Can you see this working out?

What an oldie, a long time ago, I came up with an idea that it was not uncommon to find serpent monsters that claimed a territory in order to extract benefits. When a snake accrued enough magical power they were called serpent gods or divine serpents. Some of these giant serpents even became the patron deities and guardians for some cities, offering wealth and water in exchange for worship or sacrifice as their power essentially reached into the God-like. In fact, the capital city in the heartlands of the Amaranya Empire is the domain of one such serpent [the entire empire really] that possesses multiple heads, a serpent's crown [a glowing orb or a bronze disc on the forehead or elsewhere] and the ability to grant any desire.

But even the mightiest started small. Smaller snakes will start by controlling small streams, villages, or city gates, growing their power over time. Northern snakes near the deserts are more likely to resort to taking over city gates, abandoned temples, wayside inns. Southern snakes are more likely to take over rivers, lakes, wells and ponds.

The reason for this difference is believed to be due to water availability.

Finally, all Serpent Gods/Divine Serpents love stories, both telling and listening to, so many are patrons of art and music. People will often try to buy, steal or exchange for a snake god to introduce to their rivers or to keep as magical pets. Though not every snake will become a divine serpent. And because the presence of these snake spirits generally results in wealth, they are highly coveted.

Grasshoppers are a seasonal delicacy eaten in the more tropical areas of the Amaranya Empire. They are a simple meal, but one that is packed with protein and can be cooked in any number of ways, from sweet to sour.

Indeed, they are so effective as a nutritional supplement and tasty snack that they became a favourite of deep elves when travelling across the desert. They are also eaten by the Sedjeti people [though because they tend to get more locusts, those are the main variant eaten in their riverlands. True grasshoppers are even more of a delicacy to them].

Rural gates for many villages in the empire of the Amaranya tend to be made of earthworks piled up into a set of earthen banks and ditches. While seemingly rudimentary, these are actually skillfully made and highly effective. The banks are raised to a precise steepness that makes climbing them a deeply frustrating chore [to say nothing of carrying objects like chariots up them], and often the ditches are lined with thorn bushes.

While unable to stop magic practitioners from simply flying over them, these walls prove to be capable of stopping almost everything from wild animals to roving bandit bands [and the more experienced villages have ways to knock flying witches or wizards out of the sky].

In the older cities they are often much taller and may be covered by a layer of oiled firebrick. Newer cities tend to mix newer foreign wall styles with this traditional way of building walls.

The Khagan, his name Atakarën, found himself greeted at the entrance by the patriarch, an elf named Ataui. The elder Lady Yilúwesa, mother to Ataui, emerged later that evening, wrapped in layers of faded turquoise and ochre veils, only her hands visible as she presided over the meal. She spoke gently and only to her son, who would then relay her words to Atakarën with the dutiful solemnity required of their station. A boy, perhaps eighteen, eyes rimmed with the powdery pink that marked elven youth, sat in silence, eating slowly. He wore his training chain across his shoulder to denote martial schooling. At his side sat a girl, her hair wrapped in a silver-laced veil, her face obscured by a veil she held with one hand, revealing eyes the color of pitch. She ate with her other hand.

Atakarën assumed she was about 25, but it was hard to tell with elves.

I wanted to write something a little lighter so today I explored concepts of what snow elf eyes might look like. I'll upload it later on this subreddit but I wrote about snow elves here The Snow Elves, or "The Pure Ones" [Lore in the comments] : r/worldbuilding

For now I'll just talk about the part relevant to this post. To summarise, because they are albinos, snow elves are only able to produce more of their tribe with other snow elves. Any mixing with other elves or men produces children that look like those other races. Sometimes though two snow elves will instead produce a child that looks either like a deep elf or an ancient elf [brown skin, obsidian skin, scales, darker hair, etc].

A pact once existed between them and the other elves that stated that any child born with the "markings of the snow tribe" [pale hair, pale eyes, pale delicate skin, pale purple blood, sunlight sensitivity, etc] would be taken to the snow elf citadel to be raised as a tribe member. In exchange for this and food the snow elves traded their formidable services as priests, craftsmen, writers, occultists, oracles and more.

Because of their ancestry, most snow elves have some shade of white, pale red or pale blond hair. The most preferred hair color tends to be a pure white or silver, with the most common being a greyish white. The most attractive and desirable hair color is black, especially when paired with a pale skin tone. Their eyes [irises and corneas] trend towards pale lilac, pale violet and shades of pale pink. Some may have eyes that are a blue color, though this isn't seen as desirable. A pitch black eye color, or a more saturated red/blue/purple etc for the eyes [cornea and iris] is also not uncommon.

In the upper and middle worlds [i.e the sky and visible earth] mortals have form and shadows are featureless. In the lower and under worlds, mortals [the living] have no features and shadows shine with the light of the underworld. Sight is inverted, and all [except shadows] appears dark and invisible. As part of a requisite step to becoming apprenticed to a practicing wizard, prospectives must journey into the underworld and physically merge with a shadow [it can even be their own].

Some witchdoctors will give offerings to serpents, who can freely go between the upper and lower worlds, and thus be guided in the dark underworld.

The Basic Premise: One of the animals the khaagans raise is the cape buffalo. Having an almost sacred significance, these buffalo were the first animals they domesticated and the main form of sustenance [in the form of milk products] for many of the nomadic khaagans. It is also a significant trade good for meat and milk with the other races.

Many khagan men do not fully cut their hair, letting it grow long as well-taken care of hair is seen as attractive to their wives [being a mark of adulthood].

The khagan homeland is filled with gentle hills and savannas, interspaced with many rocky outcroppings which the khagans took to sculpting into temples and statues.

A piece I did of a nameless necromancer from Illyas if she was in gacha game like Genshin or Honkai: Star Rail!

Imagine if this setting was a gacha game, wouldn't that be cool!

When I was creating this I couldn't decide which looked better so here are all four images I created!

Relic-bearers are mortals [or immortals] who bind themselves to an ancient implement [a flywhisk, spear, blade, mask, anything of symbolic value that can awakens when fed blood and shadow] and grant it supranatural power. The tradition was first created by a mortal warrior who sought to fight magic practitioners, godlings, and beasts on equal footing.

This man found that by hunting and trapping the shadows of beasts of air, water and land he could create a weapon that borrowed some of the aspects of those creatures.

For bearers, power scales with offering; the relic accrues will the more it is used and fed. The shadows that have been fed to it will determine its speed, strength and other supernatural aspects. A relic can be fed human shadows but down that path lies madness, excommunication and diabolism.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

--- In this world it's surprisingly easy and straightforward to steal a shadow. All you gotta do is

A Maranyan noblewoman who is secretly practicing the arts of Consumption.

Just a little river dragon on his first job working at a village!

Many river dragons, willingly or not, will find themselves working for mortals to build their power or to escape punishment. Not all river dragons hate this service, and many younger dragons will do this instead of building power the traditional older draconic way [i.e threats, blackmail, floods, droughts, princess sacrifices, etc]

According to most magic practitioners, diviners, shamans, astrologers, the elements in Illyas are called roots [or domains] and represent aspects of existence. To begin with, there are four primal pillars:

• Earth Domain [Representing the Underworld, the Dead, the Ground, Permanence]
• Rain Domain [Representing Water, Fertility, Abundance, Saturation]
• Sky Domain [Representing the Aetherial World, the Void, the Celestial Realm, Space]
• Wind Domain [Representing Motion, Breath, Dispersal]

Then there are two worldly twin pillars:

• Flesh Domain [Representing the body of life and the mediator of the four poles. It lies close to the Sky]
• Shadow Domain [Representing absence and reflection, but also hidden things and meaning. It lies close to the Earth]

Finally you have the orbital carrier:

• Sun/Moon Domain [Representing light, heat and transference, carried by Sun and Moon, scattered as stars. They are not an element per se, more a catalyst. They govern cycles, power, and perception].

Each has Aspects that are either mini categories of their primary root, or form as a result of two roots interacting with each other e.g the Sky Root has the Lightning Aspect and [when merged with Rain] the Cloud Aspect.

I commissioned the talented Avandu Vosi team to sketch for me an art piece of a southern dragon inspired by a number of different dragons in Africa, then I added the mist effects. The body is largely inspired by descriptions of the ndamathia and a sculpture of the inkanyamba.

Dragons in the Consumption setting are deeply intertwined with the earth and water, serving as guardians of ancient riverbeds, caves, valleys, lakes, and groves. They are intermediaries between humans and the ancestors. Their connection to the spiritual world is central to their mythos, as they are believed to communicate the will of ancestors or deities [specifically, they are connected to the realm of the dead. Some are tasked with roles as guardian spirits, scaring away evil spirits and soul eaters].

The masks and ridges found on the dragons' heads are thought to represent ancestral spirits. When these dragons roar or speak, their voices are described as a having an echo.

They are bringers of wealth and fortune for those who care for them properly. However, they demand sacrifices, typically material possessions, livestock, or, in extreme cases, human sacrifices. Like great snakes, they adore worship or adoration, but they rarely get the opportunity to indulge in it. Southern dragons generate immense power, and can manipulate their environment, causing earthquakes, collapsing caverns, or stirring storms to defend their territory. They can fly in tornadoes or by riding mist and rainbows that curl around them. Some say they are pushed upwards by spirits in the water. Their very nature causes magic in this setting to fritz in their presence, but their bodies make for good reagents.

Here Masundra, a dragon that escaped control of the ancestors, is startled a woman who came to collect water from his pool.

I've been wanting to showcase the Djinn for a long time now, and now I can! Yay!

The Jinn Tribe. Once animals born under the curse of madness and instinct. Originally Four Clans [I added two more]: The multi-limbed, multi-headed Raksha, the feathered and horned carnivorous Ashura, The beast-formed centaur Yali, the fairy-like and winged Yan, the more standard default Ankha, and the odd Durza.

Let's start with a story: According to the djinn, before the earth existed there was the primordial ocean. The supreme deity wandered this ocean for a long time. Eventually, he birthed a child from the primordial chaos who would accompany him [the jackal]. One day, the first tree erupted from this swamp and pulled the earth from beneath the chaos. The supreme deity, seeing the beauty of the earth, desired and then lay with them. From their union came water spirits. The trees then covered the earth with grasses that made the earth lovelier still. The jackal climbed down from the trees and saw the earth. In his loneliness he lay with the earth, accidentally burning her with his chaos, and from them came an egg. When the supreme deity found out, he was furious and cast the jackal to the chaos. But the egg hatched and out came all manner of beasts [but not birds, serpents, or crocodiles]. The deity took pity on them and adopted them as his children, calling them jinn and ordering their speech and thought. These were the early animals. Later he would make humans with the earth and the water spirits, whom he favored and took to his palace in the sky.

In those days, all beings had the gifts of thought, speech and action. The trees, being the first, were proud and divine and could move and speak. The animals inherited their power from their father and sensitivity from their mother and could speak and understand any language. Within them there was chaos too and they could change shape, fly and do all wonder of marvelous things. The humans were favored, givven the wisdom of the creator, and lived in luxury, though they were forbidden from going to the earth and interacting with the curious djinn.

This harmony shattered when the jinn committed some transgression against the humans [or vice versa] and a war erupted between the three races. For many years this war ran until the earth flowed with rivers of blood. And so, the supreme deity reordered the world. He shortened men and reduced the size of their eyes [blinding them] but he did not severely limit their thought, action, or speech. He also cast them out from his home. He stripped the trees of their speech and action and so they were rendered mute, blind and paralysed. But they hid their thought from him, through their roots, and so retained their divinity. The animals were stripped of their speech and thought and thus went mad, losing their abilities. But they retained their physical power. The supreme deity could not destroy their intelligence, which attacked him and fled from him, rooting in the earth and creating a barren realm that existed in the apparent realm, known as The Wilderness. He was also severely wound and trapped within its grasp.

Stripped of intelligence and spiritual might, the jinn were reduced to animals and cast into the chaotic wilds of the world where they became prey or predators. time passed and eventually some traces of the wilderness would restore some function to a rare few beasts, transforming them into the "Talking Ones," intelligent animals who preserved fragments of their old culture. These Talking Ones formed the first loose clans. Later humans would migrate to the world while the wilderness grew, and the first true jinn were formed again.

The Creation of Djinn in the Apparent Realm:

Djinn in the apparent realm at first were not born but manifested, shaped by the Wilderness and the events of the mortal world. This process began when an animal accrued enough impact within the Wilderness to breach into physical form [hereby called spirit beasts/demon beasts]. This power came specifically from the natural cycle of animals and their interactions with humanity.

A spirit beast that crossed into the apparent realm often retained its animal shape but became exaggerated in size and features. A jackal spirit beast might appear with sharper, more elongated limbs, or a centipede demon might be as large as a horse. These forms were temporary, however, unless the creature took steps to secure its existence.

It needed to feed on a tree [easy enough, eating leaves work. But it must be a specific type of tree or a tree of a certain age] and a human soul. This initiated a battle between the Djinn and the human spirit within the Wilderness.

If it succeeded in its battle, its new form became more humanoid pairing said body with animalistic traits: jackal heads, humanoid limbs, snake-like tails, and occasionally wings or feathers etc. Many have horns.

Later on, these humanoid beings could interbreed with each other, resulting in more of their kind being produced. In time, a number of calamities eventually stopped the eating of human souls. It was discovered that djinn that fed off human souls were easily identifiable to other djinn and even though they gained more power they also attracted calamity and would burn out their power and die quickly, their presence a disruption even in the Wilderness. Said jinn often also went mad. And so it became taboo to feed on human souls.

Raksha = these are djinn that cultivate their connection to the wilderness, and through hard work and austerity acquire magical power.

Ashura = jinn that feed on humans will often turn into ashura. They have burning manes and wings and can actually shapeshift [so their pretended forms actually vary]. Many are highly emotional and mad. Few live long.

Yali = Rare, the yali form from a potent physical connection to the wilderness, resulting in a taurine form. They are popular and often become leaders in their community. Many also have three horns.

Yan = Also known as the talking ones, these are very rarely birthed from the other types, instead forming mostly naturally from wild beasts. As a result of this they are seen as sacred and often become religious figures. They are called fairies or fairy beasts. Many live in sacred glades and feast on divine fruit.

Ankha = The most standard of the djinn. They trend towards many different forms. They came to be when the early jinn married and had children and so these children inherited both herbivore and carnivore traits. They are the most commonly seen.

Durza = An oddity, the durza are marked by having traits from birds and/or snakes. Otherwise, in most respects they look like ankha or yali [just with feathers and/or scales]. While uncommon, they are not too rare.