#urban fantasy

[johnny-depp-is-loved]

[possumcollege]

Mare Insularum is a Crittertongue short story first appearing in the 6th edition of the horror anthology comic, Hallowzine.

[devinellekurtz]

The problem with outdoor gas stations From my upcoming artbook, crowdfunding on Kickstarter now!

[relia-robot-writes]

"Imagine," says the voice, "that you were underneath a blanket. It's a little small, so your feet poke out from underneath it, and your arms come out from either side."

"Okay," says the human, dangling upside down, suspended by a group of tentacles. "I got it."

"Right," says the voice, which comes from everywhere and nowhere. "Now consider a cat. The cat thinks you're kind of like a cat, but you're so big, he has some problems understanding that all of your body is really you."

"Am I the-"

"Yes. Now listen. Especially under the blanket, the cat doesn't really know where your body begins and ends. He sees your feet, and decides to attack them. He's only play-fighting, but his claws are real sharp, so it hurts. What would you do?"

"Well," says the human, gently spinning in the tentacle's grasp, "I'd try to tuck my feet under the blanket."

"Ah, but then it's even worse," claims the voice, triumphantly, "because now your cat sees Blanket Monsters and attacks them twice as hard."

"So you have to grab the cat."

"It's either that or burrito her," says the voice, squeezing the human in the grip of its tentacles. "And since in this metaphor the blanket represents the fabric of reality as you know it, I don't think you'd find it very pleasant."

"Fair enough," says the human, blood beginning to pool in her head. "Can you please put me down, now? I promise I won't attack you again."

"That's what the cat says every time, too, and yet..."

[whereserpentswalk]

Select a powerful entity to pledge yourself to who'll cherish you and transform you into something inhuman

Lord of the winter fae whose blood flows with the snow of winter

Angel warlord from a heaven whose creator has long since abandoned

An insectoid scavenger that feeds on dead gods below the sea

An androgynous vampire girl trying to restore the kingdom her brother usurped

A djinn possessing a supercomputer posing as a sentient AI

The lord of all rats who wears a paper crown and weilds a cardboard sword

Lich who controls the largest library in the world

Demon with countless eyes who owns more souls than any other being on earth

Mushroom lord whose power lays deep below the earth

Eyeless witch whose power reaches deep below the sea and into the night sky

Living clothing made of liquid metal that whisper strange secrets into your ears

The abyss at the edge of time and space.

Voting ended onOct 12, 2024

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...

[preservationofnormalcy]

I feel confident enough to post these now. A collection of all the existing posters after some edits from the other post that got 13k notes! These are full size/quality. Go nuts.

You may use them for wallpapers, tabletop campaigns, whatever. Consider tipping me or buying a print or sticker on ko-fi here! If you do use them, let me know what for, or send pictures!

[luna-azzurra]

Types of Magical Healing!! (a guide for your magic system)

⤷ herbal remedy 𓆙 mundane-adjacent, slow but low-risk. requires actual preparation, gathering the right plants, brewing it correctly, timing it right. This is the "grandmother's kitchen" magic, unglamorous but reliable, and a character using this well signals patience and real knowledge, NOT raw power.

⤷ blood healing 𓆙 fast and powerful, but it ties the healer's own vitality directly to the patient's recovery. The faster and more dramatic the healing, the more it costs the healer personally, sometimes literally draining years off their own life. Great for a desperate, last-resort scene where a healer has to decide how much of themselves they're willing to give away.

⤷ restorative rite 𓆙 ceremonial, structured, and usually requires several practitioners working in sync. This one's less about individual skill and more about coordination, timing, and trust between the people performing it, which makes it perfect for group scenes where something can go wrong if even one person breaks focus.

⤷ song healing 𓆙 uses voice or music to mend, and it's genuinely effective, but it demands sustained focus the entire time. The moment the song breaks, the healing stops, so this creates great tension in any scene where something might interrupt the healer mid-note.

⤷ touch healing 𓆙 a direct transfer of energy through physical contact, and it visibly drains the healer while it's happening. This one's intimate by nature, bc it requires actual proximity and contact, so it's great for building tension between two characters who otherwise wouldn't be touching.

⤷ ancestral healing 𓆙 calls on family spirits or bloodline magic, and it only works within that specific lineage. This is a great limiter for plot purposes, bc it means a character can't just heal anyone, only their own blood, which raises the stakes the second an outsider needs help.

⤷ elemental healing 𓆙 channels natural forces like water or earth, and it's location-dependent, meaning a healer's power shifts depending on where they are. A water healer stranded in a desert is suddenly almost powerless, which is a great source of tension in any journey-based plot.

⤷ curse-breaking 𓆙 technically not healing, it's the removal of a magical affliction at its root instead of treating the symptoms. This one's interesting bc it often requires understanding exactly how and why the curse was cast in the first place, which can turn a healing scene into a whole mini-mystery.