vermiform

[vermiform]

These questions are from here , this is a massive wall of text, probably the longest thing I’ve posted here. 

How is it learned and executed? 

Directly manipulating the shadows can be self taught, it can be learned from someone with a specific skill or a way to refine abilities if they’re willing to teach it. Starting out with it is always literally shoving hands into shadows, pulling them out and playing around with them, to see what they do at  first and going from there. The other forms of using the shadows (rituals, sigils, etc.) have more specific things that need to be done and can only be learned from those that are more experienced. The rituals have things that need to be memorized, stuff written and studied since it doesn’t involve direct manipulation. Usualy, only those that are called to be shamans will go through with learning it.

How is it accessed?

It is something only those that the god of Vakkour allows to use, so far, that is only schizoids.

All they have to do is swallow a piece of hematite that calls to them. Other beings have to be given permission and swallow a stone.

Schizoids may learn the ritual magic before they swallow their stone (is is uncommon, they tend to start looking for their rock after they emerge from their host), but until they do, the ritual does nothing.

Does it have a will of its own?

No.

Is it restricted in space and time?

They have no sense of time, they cannot use it to do anything involving that. If they were on the surface of their planet, they would only be able to use it during the daytime.

With space, they could use it anywhere that has shadows they can pull out. The restriction with this is that they couldn’t use it if it’s too bright out and there’s no cover(earth daytime, vakkian nighttime).

What does available magic do?

It can do almost whatever the user wants it to do, it can be used to put things together, make things, heat things up, cool them off. Several schizoids all doing the same thing managed to dig through the rock of the stalagtites and stalagmites to make their nests in the cities. It can be used for healing, destroying, and controlling the dead.

How does it relate to the character, plot, and theme?

The swallowing of hematite is a part of the base of the plot. The manipulating the shadows has allowed the Grudge and Tapeworm to be able to be powerful when they’re not on their planet (the issue with other planetary gods is that they’re completely powerless off their planet). Being able to do stuff on other places allows Tape to learn things he should be for when he returns.

What is the cost of magic?

It can wear the user out depending on how intense their use is. They can do something smaller and won’t usually feel much unless they keep doing it for a long time (using it to hold things for example, that can take forever for someone to feel anything from it). If they do something on a larger scale (engulfing a room with darkness), they’ll get worn out more easily. If someone does something really intense, like if Tape destroys several buildings, he’d probably pass out right after.

The exception to this is controlling the dead, once a corpse is walking again, it’s pretty much self sustaining. The energy used is to raise it and that depends on how rotten it is. If its fresh, the one raising it will feel nothing, if the corpse is just bones and flesh goo, it takes more and the one who raised it will have to nap after.

What can it not do?

They can’t use it to kill, or even severely injure. The Grudge didn’t want them using the shadows for that because they have their teeth and claws. But on the other hand, they can use it to defend themselves and grab others to severely injure them. It also can’t change the landscape no matter how many pitch in to do that (only the god can do that), they also can’t use it to travel or sink into it like the skyggers (unless they have skygger blood of course). The dead that are raised with it are still dead and the living can’t be controlled and neither can beings with skygger blood. And it can’t be used to levitate things.

How long does it last?

Again, depends on the task. Smaller things can be done for longer, larger things for shorter. And once more the exception is the dead. The one controlling the corpse can do so for as long as they want or need. If they’re done doing whatever and still want the corpse around, it’ll just stand or lay there until told to do something .

Who can use it?

Only those that the god of Vakkour allows and have swallowed hematite.

How do others react to it? 

The other species of Vakkour don’t care, its not something that concerns them. Schizoids are so used to it, they think nothing of it. The skyggers tend to be jealous because they think they should be the ones to be able to do that.

Why haven’t people with this power taken over the world? 

Everyone has it and it would be useless to attempt because of that. Schizoids don’t have the same view of their world either, they only know of whatever’s within the individual massive caves and that’s all they think their world is. At best, that’s all any of them would take over.

[vermiform]

Trying to draw stuff, mypaint’s th only thing cooperating right now and this is what spewed out. 

I’ve drawn these every so often, but never really thought about their internal anatomy until now. They’re like weird gilled salamander whales. And look like they could be related to kismüli if you took away all their fat. 

[vermiform]

Schizoids do something similar to bending, but with only the shadows. They can only do this if they have swallowed a piece of hematite that they feel calls to them and is truly theirs. They can turn the shadows into malleable solid things, whatever they need. They also sometimes do forms of ritual magic and are the only ones in the Padran system that can manipulate the shadows The Hazi generally do not use any magic, or try to. If they do, it's more of simple spells and the magic for them works a lot more like here.

“How do people call on, use or invoke magic? Is there more than one method? How are they different?”

Just because it’s one world doesn’t mean everyone has to do things the same way, after all!

[vermiform]

I'm guessing hosting a Schizoid larva isn't pleasant for the host

yeah no one wants to be a host but they don’t get the choice.

I haven’t figured out what fully happens to the host other than the larva taking most of the nutrients and kills them when they’re really close to fully forming and eats the corpse. 

The host also of course gets moments where there’s never enough to eat and then doesn’t even want to think about food the next. The only things that could stand this and survive are skyggers. 

[vermiform]

What does a schizoid parasite form look like?

big weird colorful worms. Kinda like mealworms, but not because their bodies are longer and they have no exoskeleton. 

[vermiform]

Sykalu 

When schizoids fight for mating, it can get to be a large group of them all fighting for a mate and then fighting again to be the active (The one that gets fed and doesn't have to find a host). 

When they're ready for mating, markings will appear, they generally look something like this but will still vary between individuals. They will also become more violent during this time, those that aren't ready for mating completely avoid it if they can help it. When the sykalu starts to appear, they will rub against anything and anyone. Those with constant markings, like the ones that look like livor mortis, the sykalu will appear over it and be significantly darker. 

This can last for a few Vakkian weeks and happen again every few months. 

[vermiform]

SCHIZOIDS in different caves have different cultures, and even with those different ones within the cities there. They vary between the ones living in the wilds and the ones living in the cities. But they all have the same general belief that the Grudge is their God and he is their world. That is because it is learned through their dreams. They have different variations on other things with it.

[vermiform]

Hazi don't have a spoken language. They communicate with various hisses, clicks, body language and color changing.

[vermiform]

schizoids do get nervous when it comes to giving their crush guts. If this is the case, they'll usually run up, shove the guts on them or drop them in front of them and run off to hide.

[vermiform]

There are three ways to planetary gods can die

Their planet gets destroyed somehow, this usually happens when the sun dies. 

When they're killed and they're not  on their planet

when they get separated from their planet, as in having the part of if they have in them torn out. There's an exception to this, if they take another planet before separating from their original one, they live.  

[vermiform]

There's no name for this place. But schizoids tend to avoid it, there's nothing for them anywhere close to it. If they do find themselves here, it's just because they've wandered into it. There's no avoiding it if they do, it goes on for miles and reaches both cave walls. 

There's near constant, intense electrical storms and nothing growing. So when a schizoid does go through, they need to rely completely on their hearing and go through the lower parts. 

It is said that there is a spirit living here. 

[vermiform]

I've probably said before that schizoids are named after various infectious diseases and parasites, but not how they get their names. 

The ones in the cities and the ones that live in groups in the wilds name themselves. Occasionally the social ones in the wilds will name each other, or if the group is small enough, completely ignore the names. 

But the true wild schizoids don't have names of their own at all, they have no concept of a name or need for one. If they venture into the cities, others may decide to give them a nickname. 

[vermiform]

Schizoids can control the dead with using the shadows, but it doesn't give the dead new life or make them conscious. The things are still dead and rotting, unless they're skeletons of course, they're just held together by the shadows and doing whatever the schizoid controlling them wants them to do. This also means they can't be killed unless the schizoid releases control

[vermiform]

Schizoids usually speak with one of two (maybe more) voices when talking to others and use different sounds in their speech.

When they are familiar with someone they will use one that sounds calmer and make more purring and chirping noises. 

When they talk to strangers they tend to use a lower voice and less sounds, when they do make sounds it depends on what they're trying to show. Like if they're wary of the other, they will make soft growling. Or if they would like to be friends they will do their chirp to show they're not a threat.

[vermiform]

When the old beings died off, their spine and ribs became embedded into the rock and the ribs didn't fall when they decomposed. In some places, the limbs can also be found.  The ribs have different meanings to schizoids of different places, but they all seem to carve stories into them or try to climb to the top. 

[vermiform]

Schizoids have three different chirps (that I've figured out, there may be more), when they're happy, when they're showing that they're not a threat and when they're being submissive.

[vermiform]

When it's light out, skyggers need to find a shadow before they can go it. Of course When it's dark, they can seem to just vanish into the air