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Hiatus - Worldbuilding - The Parasite 1

Posted by Claine May 18th 2023, 12:15pm
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At the time I did these worldbuilding comics, the concept of a Ziran Spirit hadn't even been introduced into the story, so I thought providing this information was preemptive.

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An informational comic - there is a large amount of text and only a few images.
The Parasite (also known as the Ziran Spirit) is one of the only spirits capable of being summoned and long-term survival in Zira.
Since ancient times, scholars have noticed the flow of magic differed on the island nation. After a time, they discovered that this irregularity followed specific rules and through decades of calculations, created a spell to summon a being from within the distorted magical energy.

There is an image of a complex magical circle.

What is known of the first attempt can only be surmised by notes and what we know of the Parasite today. It is assumed that the spirit was first summoned without binding it to a physical object. like a fish out of water, it was immediately overcome by confusion and agony. It devoured all it could - all the scholars who partook in the summoning and all the villagers in the surrounding towns. Reports of that era describe the population of entire villages simply vanishing. The few survivors describe people being pulled into the darkness of the night. It can be assumed that eventually, the atmosphere of the mortal plane destroyed the summoned spirit, and it perished.

There is an image on yellowing paper of a Ziran Spirit. It appears to be a black cloud-like creature with many yellow eyes and multiple mouths full of sharp teeth.

Despite the destruction it wasn't long until other magicians scavenged the research notes. In the next attempt, the Summoner took two precautions. Firstly, she attempted her summoning in a highly warded room so in the case of failure, the spirit would be held within its confines. Secondly, she trapped a stray dog and bound the spirit to it. The animal's mortal flesh should act as a protective barrier against the ravishes of the physical plane. In her notes, the summoner imagined a creature that could be trained with simple commands, only unleashing the spirit when desired.

There is an image of a dog with black smoke billowing from its eyes and cracks on its body. We have seen a similar affect coming from Adael in previous pages.

However, when the spirit was brought into the world, the dog immediately began to combust from the inside out. When the body was destroyed, the spirit was set free and, as expected was restrained within the confines of the room. This is when we get the first written description of the Parasite. "A horrid, cloud-like creature of pitch black. It is naught but eyes and teeth. It speaks words of language incomprehensible in many voices all at once. Other than for scientific curiosity I do not know if it has any practical use - excluding perhaps mass extermination. Due to its insane and unpredictable nature, it would just as likely destroy friend as foe. Only the most remorseless or desperate would have any use for such a being."

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