Endless Realms bestiary - Baku
Bestiary artwork for Endless Realms, a D&D-like "pen and paper" fantasy RPG I'm working for.
Some more dream realm creatures as requested by my art director, who gave me free reign to come up with some additional concepts - the original idea was "Every natural ecosystem has decomposers and scavengers - maybe a creature that feeds off the remnants of half-forgotten dreams and errant emotions?" But then I thought, hmm, maybe it can be summoned or captured, and used as a dream-catcher... or to suppress emotions, eat unwanted dreams?... Perhaps a more powerful, well-fed specimen could be trained to eat memories and other processes as well, even against a person's will? Anyway, that's how this one came about. I ended up calling them baku, despite their appearance, because they fit really well with the lore: they're Japanese spirits that can be summoned to eat nightmares for you, but it sometimes comes at the cost of memories... or your mind.
Also, inspired by Nulls from that old show Reboot XD Energy slugs were cute, except mine have whiskery beards for sensing tasty dream/chaos/emotion energy to feed on :3
Concept & Artwork © 2014-2017 Lunar Games Inc.
Endless Realms FAQ: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5774483/
Some more dream realm creatures as requested by my art director, who gave me free reign to come up with some additional concepts - the original idea was "Every natural ecosystem has decomposers and scavengers - maybe a creature that feeds off the remnants of half-forgotten dreams and errant emotions?" But then I thought, hmm, maybe it can be summoned or captured, and used as a dream-catcher... or to suppress emotions, eat unwanted dreams?... Perhaps a more powerful, well-fed specimen could be trained to eat memories and other processes as well, even against a person's will? Anyway, that's how this one came about. I ended up calling them baku, despite their appearance, because they fit really well with the lore: they're Japanese spirits that can be summoned to eat nightmares for you, but it sometimes comes at the cost of memories... or your mind.
Also, inspired by Nulls from that old show Reboot XD Energy slugs were cute, except mine have whiskery beards for sensing tasty dream/chaos/emotion energy to feed on :3
Concept & Artwork © 2014-2017 Lunar Games Inc.
Endless Realms FAQ: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5774483/
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Exotic (Other)
Size 800 x 800px
File Size 584.2 kB
Listed in Folders
I confess this one is a fascinating concept;
A creature that can be summoned ( if one knows how to) to do just that.. be trained to eat bad memories, trauma's and nightmares.
Going along that line of thought, it strikes me that each memory has a "flavor" to it for this particular creature.. and even tho it might not seem like it to the summoner, the creature should actually be rather intelligent, given that it eats ( or *can eat*) knowledge.
I see it as something that, as you said, can eat bad things.. severe emotional traumas, heartbreaking pitfalls from poor decisions or being deceived by an unfaithful lover to someone who was very naive and innocent ( and thus heavily taken advantage of) as well as one who pines for another lost love for whatever reason, ect.
The downside, as you put it, is that the creature desires different flavors ( I.E. Variety) in its' diet and can, if not taken care of properly, start to eat things that might not be wanted to be taken away from either clients ( as I see a summoner having one or two that they use in the idea of " getting rid of fear or heartache in dreams to paying customers) and the creature gets tired of the same ol fare.. it starts nibbling on other stuff and could, possibly turn on it's summoner if they aren't watchful and then feed off of them.
On a worse case scenario, the summoner could end up ( as you said) loosing primary memories, knowledge and so fourth in such that in the end, they go to sleep and wake up the next day a vegetable.. with no mind at all.
This would, of course break the pact between it and its one time master, thus the creature can go back to its' realm *OR* with the newfound memories ( for as long as they last.. it seems to me that they can't hold onto all of them forever, thus they need regular sustenance), the being could send itself back to wherever it came from.. or possibly even bring over more of it's kind if the food here seems particularly enjoyable
( or just be greedy and elect to "stay" and continue in the rich hunting grounds of other unsuspecting victims' minds.. mm? *grins* )
A creature that can be summoned ( if one knows how to) to do just that.. be trained to eat bad memories, trauma's and nightmares.
Going along that line of thought, it strikes me that each memory has a "flavor" to it for this particular creature.. and even tho it might not seem like it to the summoner, the creature should actually be rather intelligent, given that it eats ( or *can eat*) knowledge.
I see it as something that, as you said, can eat bad things.. severe emotional traumas, heartbreaking pitfalls from poor decisions or being deceived by an unfaithful lover to someone who was very naive and innocent ( and thus heavily taken advantage of) as well as one who pines for another lost love for whatever reason, ect.
The downside, as you put it, is that the creature desires different flavors ( I.E. Variety) in its' diet and can, if not taken care of properly, start to eat things that might not be wanted to be taken away from either clients ( as I see a summoner having one or two that they use in the idea of " getting rid of fear or heartache in dreams to paying customers) and the creature gets tired of the same ol fare.. it starts nibbling on other stuff and could, possibly turn on it's summoner if they aren't watchful and then feed off of them.
On a worse case scenario, the summoner could end up ( as you said) loosing primary memories, knowledge and so fourth in such that in the end, they go to sleep and wake up the next day a vegetable.. with no mind at all.
This would, of course break the pact between it and its one time master, thus the creature can go back to its' realm *OR* with the newfound memories ( for as long as they last.. it seems to me that they can't hold onto all of them forever, thus they need regular sustenance), the being could send itself back to wherever it came from.. or possibly even bring over more of it's kind if the food here seems particularly enjoyable
( or just be greedy and elect to "stay" and continue in the rich hunting grounds of other unsuspecting victims' minds.. mm? *grins* )
Now I remember what they reminded me off. Of the Glaucus atlanticus, the blue angel sea slugs. ^-^
http://beachbaby.net/wp-content/upl.....n-sea-slug.jpg
http://beachbaby.net/wp-content/upl.....n-sea-slug.jpg
FA+

Comments