Spoiler: large images montreal by the weeknd is a post-crisis litai song and i will make a video out of it if it kills me i have a few more frames of these sketched out but only two actually "finished"
HEIGHT CHART HEIGHT CHART the tallest one in blue is estelith. the second tallest one, in tan with the ears swept back, is kophis. the one with the torn ear in front of estel is ferra. the big thick fluffy one in red is tekai. the brown spiny one is litai, and the tiny fluffy one is illva. just for practical purposes illva is probably slightly larger but at least now i have a starting point.
my brain says this would probably never happen but my heart tells me to draw ferra + estelith + illva all together maybe if illva ever gets her shit together this'll be canon
[considers making a trio of magpie mercenaries just so i can make a play on the "one for sorrow, two for mirth, three for a death" poem]
this used to be "mordecai and chaos kid are edge and an angry god fuses them for some reason" which is why it's called caiosverse, that's their fusion fun fact: ferra used to be called flora and she was mordecai's uwu tiny fluffy sister who was actually an Anger Ball. i like this version of her better, and this way the "tiny anger ball" slot is still filled by illva and litai
"but you should develop an actual plot-" what's that. i've never heard of it. now watch these five Sadman Litai Mopes pmvs set to songs by the weeknd
i......broke down and made this super quick sketch pmv, but at least the idea is out of my head let's hope i can finish the other one, hm?
basic butch okay so uhhh basic butch Spoiler: song lyrics: first three stanzas of "you can run" by adam jones Who's that knocking at your door? You've got lots to answer for Who's that sleeping in your bed? Ahh ahh ahhh Cross your heart and hope to die Swear that you won't tell no lie Cross your heart and hope to die Ahh ahh ahhh Every time you fall asleep Pray the lord your soul to keep You got problems now, my friend Ahh ahh ahh You can run You can run You can run I don't mind I don't mind I don't mind basic butch this bit inspired me but like i was wondering! why litai was significant to the plot and also i was kinda :// on a redemption arc for him because i .... don't like him he is sad and bitter and outwardly toxic and vicious, unlike tekai and then i was... hm so in my first incarnation there was some ~evil force~ which killed the gryphs in the first place and i decided to replace that with a plague bc it was.. better. but then okay okay so there are gods, right, and so there's some supernatural sh/t going on but i didn't have anything for antagonist creatures or villains or demons etc this is all connected i promise so i was wondering.......what if basic butch after tekai runs the fuck away into the woods, litai is left behind with no voice, a damaged throat, and a hell of a lot of emotion and he's not good at handling it, like tekai, but unlike tekai he doesn't start to heal, there's no kophis to help him handle it (and his thought process is kinda ?? anyway) he doesn't heal from it bc space from his trauma for whatever reason does not help, and as time passes he starts to hate tekai more and more and. demon comes along. basic butch (something something possession) basic butch he makes a contract, emotionally fucked up but still technically willingly, for the demon to have his body and help to track down tekai (and kophis, although he doesn't know it yet) the contract is until death (or the demon gets his soul after death if you want to be REALLY horrible about this) so kophis and tekai are traveling, and kophis is still ????¿¿¿¿¿¿??¿¿ about having, yknow, an actual physical manifestation, and they're an entity that represents the unyielding force and inherent entropy of the natural world (made even more clear in this universe by the actual literal night/sun court's antagonism), but suddenly they have EMOTIONS and a LIMITED BODY and THOUGHTS and WHAT IS GOING ON basic butch (explanation for why they don't immediately detect what's going on--they're not omnipotent anymore) and their power is still impressive, but waaaay limited. they are comparatively blind and deaf. so they can sense there's something following them, something that (unlike them) is specifically driven to hurt and kill but they don't know where or what and it's putting them on edge, and the demon is cunning and avoids detection finally, after [however long this goes on for], demon/litai confronts them basic butch screwed up, body horror, limbs not where they should be, black blood and saliva and tears and oh god this thing is /wrong/ not like kophis is, but in a more immediately fear-inspiring way (kophis is more.... in an ocean storm realizing you could die in an uncaring expanse of water and clouds, this thing is like facing down a rabid animal with a broken leg and no weapons) but despite all this, despite how thoroughly the demon has screwed up litai's body and mind, two things are true: basic butch -litai recognizes tekai -tekai recognizes litai when you hate someone for that long you forget what they look like. and litai sees through eyes that aren't his anymore and he sees.....just..........tekai. smaller than he remembered, cowering, terrified and tekai is. just. horrified beyond words. because now he has to face not only his friend, not only the friend (ex-mate) he nearly killed and ran away from, but a thing wearing litai's body which means him harm basic butch and litai almost wrests back control, determined not to hurt him, but the demon steps toward tekai and he sparks in panic and suddenly Traumatic Flashback (litai fuckin dies lol) tekai is trying to keep his fire under control desperately because he doesn't want to hurt litai (repeat the same mistake again not again not again), kophis is caught off-guard and doesn't understand what's going on with tekai the demon lunges for tekai, who flinches, and there's a flash of off-white fur and when the smoke and confusion and fear clears there's kophis looking down at what used to be a gryphon, before corruption something something demon banishing anyway litai looks up, himself again briefly, with a cut throat he can't talk, but he looks tekai in the eye, regret written all over his face kophis has weak telepathy, places a claw on his shoulder, hears "..m sorry i love you, i'm sorry, i'm sorry" basic butch and then litai fucking. dies. basic butch this is horrifying i love it. basic butch (i'm almost regretful but also I FEAST ON YOUR TEARS,) basic butch oh yeah he's fucked up he has minimal life left and he was dying even before kophis slashed his throat but haha another throat wound it's a metaphor, ANYWAY was inspired by those lines of you can run above
OH night and sun court i didn't mention that here, right i wanted zaliel to be moon aligned but the female alpha goddess to be the actual moon god so now the moon goddess and the sun god are somewhat like the seelie/unseelie court, although.. slightly less capricious than the fae not only are they moon and sun they are also the seasons. the goddess of the chill that creeps into your bones, of sharp ice and cold winds that fracture wings, is also the goddess of the cool autumn and of still water on a hot day. the god of gentle life, of warm soil and spring flowers, is also tekai's patron of uncontrolled fire and the ash it leaves behind. (can you tell i love dual aspects) this takes some inspiration from the pagan view of the year's cycle, the turning wheel
thoughts on zaliel/storyweaver: (alternate name: peregrine?) zaliel is young and a lesser divine, a minor god of love, and prone to rebellion. in their god aspect they're much colder, focused toward unrequited love, but their physical form is more emotional and warmer in this regard The Peregrine, when younger, was very similar. felt trapped in their flock, felt pressured to stay where they were zaliel began visiting them, and the two developed a friendship. though zaliel could only find the time every once in a while, they treasured the time they had together and young peregrine always looked forward to seeing them. ....not sure where the wandering comes in. but it's somewhere. as the year turned, zaliel could spend less and less time, and they eventually told young peregrine they were leaving soon, and couldn't come back. they hadn't touched, the entire time, because zaliel was afraid of losing control and turning peregrine to ash or ice. (and peregrine was in love with them.) and zaliel started running, and peregrine followed them, and they both took off and spiraled into the air, and flew until it was too high for the air to hold them any more and zaliel turned and circled and started to fall and peregrine followed and maybe it was the wind or the warm night or the fact they knew they'd never see zaliel again but they tucked their wings in and dived till they could lock talons and they felt frost creep past their claws but they held on until they lost consciousness a second later, out of nowhere they woke up the next day with the feeling of loss and silver markings instead of gold. and when they looked around them, they knew they had nothing left to stay for. and so they left, they wandered, they told stories for a spot by the fires and they knew they wouldn't return til it was time.
post-meeting with Peregrine/Storyweaver, kophis and tekai meet a strange young gryphon. they state their name as zallí. tekai: friendly to them kophis, off-screen: looks into the camera like they're on the office
the flowers are asphodel. "my regrets follow you to the grave," says the wiki article on plant symbolism
litai fullbody color ref. still doesn't include the inside of the wing but that's okay, it's rough anyway
a couple different varieties of gryphon! the peregrine is from an area populated mostly by sage and grey rock, which explains their blue-gray coloring as opposed to litai (and probably illva's) different shades of brown. kophis's body was mostly cribbed from desert gryphons, but they have a thicker coat on their face and chest and weird supernatural wings.
