The S2 villains redesigned! Bertrand, Darkar and Shadow Bloom. Gaslight Gatekeep and Girlboss respectively
Copypasted info of each below I’m not really going to change much. Also yeah all 3 of the S2 bad guys are or were fairies, because why the fuck not.
DARKAR
The Shadow Phoenix was was once a conqueror from Pyros (Argulus, the Valiantix Fairy of War’s Fire) who waged war against what’s now Domino centuries ago for the land and the “Power of the Dragon” (the name given to Dragon Auras at the time, when it was still believed to be an ancient power and not an unusual condition). While he did won over most of the (then way bigger) territory, he was defeated during the Siege of the Black Sun, where the young Queen Daphne I killed him while on dragonride during the last hours of the conflict, earning Scintil dominion over the now jointed kingdoms. However, he was killed while transformed - and that makes things more complicated.
His spirit remained, and after a few months, he tried to cause mayhem and chaos on the capital via a massive firestorm, in a desperate attempt to also kill the young Queen. While he did cause casualties, the Queen (alongside three other magi) found a ritual to seal the spirit away in an enchanted object, binding it to it and making it impossible for him to escape. They succeded, forcing the spirit to fuse and be sealed into the object, which was a Dragonscale with the power of darkness. While some scholars proposed to make an object or weapon with the Scale, as it would now have the powers of darkness and fire, Daphne I was not an idiot and decided to go into the farthest depths of the land, burying the Scale into some sort of naturally-formed rock sanctuary and sealing the entrance with a defensive ritual to ensure it doesn’t escape.
Decades later, a researcher ex Paladin by the name of Darek found the dragonscale during his quest for Relix (a planetoid that was sealed away by the Order during the First Age of Magic, as they deemed its high energy dangerous to manipulate), and finding no issue in using a potentially cursed object, he embedded the gem into his armor, unleashing Argulus who promptly possesed him, assimilating his mind. The process was too much for both beings, however, and soon enough Darek’s body wasted away into just his armor, fitting his powers over metal. With the Dragonscale maintaining the form via shadows, Argulus giving the power and Darek a drive arose a new being - Darkar, the Shadow Phoenix, and now the Fairy of the Shadow Fire.
He soon searched for both powers (Relix and the Dragon), and caused destruction over the worlds. He was defeated by the newly formed Company of Light, and sealed into the depths of Shadowhaunt “for Eternity”. The seal used this time, however, was not as strong as the one used by Daphne I all those years ago, so the seal started to falter and degrade after a few years, completely breaking around the time the Trix lost the war during the Siege of Alfea. After that, and while having lost some of their memories, Darkar resumes his search for Relix, kidnapping the Pixies and Aisha and kickstarting the plot of S2.
BERTRAND
Bertrand is a gargyole-esque statue given life by Darkar, granting him part of his own power and melded with parts of the real Avalon’s Aura to give him a similar appearance as well as his memories, Source type and basic personality.
Bertrand is as such very similar to Avalon overall, with one difference - Bertrand is cocky, and likes to taunt his opponents. He believes himself superior to Avalon as him being granted life by Darkar, a force far stronger than life itself in its eyes. He starts to tutor Bloom on her political education after finding out she’s a Princess, and slowly starts manipulating her into trusting him with no questions, until he starts drugging her to create Shadow Bloom and carry out his master’s plans. He can change between his real form shown above and his illusory Avalon form at will. I first thought I was going a bit overboard with his physique, but then I had the visual of Darkar making him and going "I'm gonna give him the BIGGEST tits" and it was fucking hilarious. So yeah.
As for his powers, he is technically a Fairy in Valiantix, as he has access to the same transformations Avalon has, but his appearance is closer to his Paladin uniform due to Avalon’s inability to fully transform after an incident years ago. Bertrand calls himself the Fairy of Drought going with his Light Source.
SHADOW BLOOM
Shadow Bloom isn’t really so much a possesion case as is more “Bloom is super high on magic”. Bertrand takes the chance of one of his tutoring classes with Bloom to drug her with corrupted magic, which puts her in a state of euphoria and a lost sense of reality. Fairy magic relies on positive emotions and since she’s like permanently happy in that state she’s insanely strong. The corrupted magic did have a minor memory spell that made her think she was helping Darkar from the start, which is why she does what she does during the finale. Bloom at the start only has a greyed-out sclerae and eye-color change, but the more she stays transformed the more her Glamourix changes until it reaches the black and gold look. Bloom’s fire in this form looks white-yellow, as if it was a flame that ran too hot.
“Hey, hey, Concorda! Do you wanna play Fire Volleyball? Let’s play!”
A small touch-up on Shadow Bloom for the AU! Info on her below:
Shadow Bloom isn’t really so much a possesion case as is more "Bloom is super high on magic". Fake Avalon Who Needs An Actual Name and A Design Still For My AU™️ takes the chance of one of his tutoring classes with Bloom to drug her with corrupted magic, which puts her in a state of euphoria and a lost sense of reality. Fairy magic relies on positive emotions and since she's like permanently happy in that state she's insanely strong. The corrupted magic did have a minor memory spell that made her think she was helping Darkar from the start, which is why she does what she does during the finale. Bloom at the start only has the greyed-out sclerae and eye-color change, but the more she stays transformed the more her Glamourix changes until it reaches the black and gold look. Her eyes in this form seem to shine brightly, which is also a thing I wanted to touch on - if you recall my Campana/Tinkerbell and Acheron designs, their eyes were lit up, and that’s because that’s the clear sign of a magi high on their own magic, their Aura covering their eyes as a physical representation of them being blind to reality or the consequences of their actions. (partially inspired by @emsartwork ‘s concept of magic around the eyes)
