What are the animal skull-headed people? You have drawn them before, right?

16th January 2012

Anonymous asked: What are the animal skull-headed people? You have drawn them before, right?

Yes I have!! Way back in March or something. HOW DID YOU REMEMBER THIS…

Those two are minor spirits from an original story. The eyeless twisting wood bodies they have in the newest picture are their “real” ones, the kind they are depicted with in artwork and whatnot, the flesh-and-blood versions are as they appear to the guy who actually sees them. I hesitate to call them characters because they’re really not, the character who interacts with them is schizophrenic and there’s a lot of ambiguity surrounding whether or not he is just hallucinating them and other spirits of their kind. (My bet is on yeah, he is, because this is low fantasy, but I’m not committed to it one way or the other and I don’t want to be.) A lot of them conform to his culture’s mythology but some don’t, or are at least heavily modified, and it’s possible some are fabricated and others aren’t?

Those two in particular are the conforming type, they are mildly mischevious spirits who will make a mess of your pots and pans for the hell of it sometimes but generally speaking they’re harmless/friendly. They’re associated with greater spirits of death and ascension so they like to hang around hospitals, shrines, accident scenes, etc. and they are mostly welcomed in those places because they supposedly help the dead pass on. Clinics and crematoriums have wards on the door to keep them (and other kinds of spirits) out though, to prevent them from screwing up equipment.

As shown in the story they are kind of dickish and wards don’t actually work.

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