#creature au

+ Jiangshi are also known as hopping Chinese vampires! You can watch a short dubbed clip from a movie right here, which I discovered while I was doing research! Jiangshi are known to wear clothes of the Qing dynasty, hop to move around, and also usually hop with their arms raised like a zombie.

+ Cass is specifically wearing a jifu gua (a type of coat) that is usually worn over a jifu pao (celebratory or festival wear). This type of clothing was worn during the Qing dynasty, when the Manchu people took over. What’s interesting is that most of their clothes were made very practical in order to hunt with arrows and ride horses. Jifu pao are usually considered festive clothing, but I wasn’t sure what funeral clothes they wore during the Qing dynasty, so in the end, I just chose it bc it gave off the same vibes as the official robes that actual jiangshi are usually shown to wear.

+ Cass is also wearing a jifu guan, a type of hat that is worn during the winter. I’ve been looking at pictures and couldn’t figure out what the collar was in paintings of people in winter, so I just gave her a fur collar :/ the world outside is cold, let’s just keep her warm

+ The “embroidery” on Cass’ jifu gua is technically important. She has flowers, ocean waves, lotuses, and bats on them. Some were intentional and others were added later (bc I forgot lmaooo)

+ The yellow thing on Cass’ head is a paper talisman. Depending on what rules/lore you use, it depends on whether or not the talisman is active, but it is generally created by a spiritual master to force the jiangshi back to sleep or weakens it.

+ Jazz is a gytrash, an English spirit that can shapeshift into various creatures and are usually omens, but sometimes are benevolent. As a horse, Jazz has a tricolored pinto coat of red, black, and white, as voted on in this poll!

+ Tbh, I can draw MLP ponies without looking at a reference, but somehow, I couldn’t translate that skill into drawing actual horses :( so I’m not rlly happy with how Jazz looks as a horse, but if I keep drawing the creature AU, I’m just gonna have to start practicing 😔

+ Why is Jazz not wearing a saddle? Uhhhh, bc Cass is so badass that she can ride a horse without one! (I just couldn’t make myself draw a saddle with stirrups 6+ times so I just drew the reins and was done with it)

this is actually fan-art for @vanilkaray s creature au, it's also a redraw(?) of this:

I forgot who posted it, if you know please tell me so I can @ them.