If you wanna get these as a print and sticker set, you can do so until the end of May over on my Patreon by pledging to the Professional Napper tier or above <3
Or if you just wanna read about these little friends, that's more than okay too 🥰
Candlelight Spirits Lore:
First off, don't worry, that mouse can pop in and out of the lantern at will, it's not trapped :)
If there’s one thing candlelight spirits know, it’s that the best stories are the ones told in the light of flickering candles and around campfires. And so fire became the very essence of their being! They burn bright, curious and passionate, with an appetite for good tales.
Back when humans and magic folks were at war, they used to hide to listen to the stories of both sides, which was not always the easiest. As a fire elemental they could hide within the flames themselves, but in the face of interesting stories, it was terribly hard for them to not burst out of their hiding spot and ask a thousand questions.
But alas, that was what they had to do. Humans were wary of magic folks and creatures of any kind, and the magic folks did not like that the candlelight spirits would not disclose information about the humans.
But how could they pick sides when they have hearts that melt as easily as wax, and when they knew that if either side won, millions and millions of stories would be lost forever?
So for them, it was heaven when the Long War finally came to an end. There was an abundance of tales like never before, and they did not need to hide any longer.
However, as society started to advance, the introduction of electricity and magic lights ended up thinning out the opportunities they had in the end. And even more sadly for them, storytelling was no longer the primary method of entertainment, at least not in the same way.
From a time where fire was the source of all light in the night, to one where it’s rarely used at all… The poor spirits are nowhere near as common now, given that their presence is tied to the flames, which act as portals for them to come into the same plane as us.
But they persist! Because as long as there are people, there will be good stories to tell.
And if you want to find them, your best bet is arranging a cosy candlelit dinner or campfire night with loved ones, or you can go to a temple or church, or sometimes even a restaurant – any place where there’s always some kind of fire burning.
However, tragically enough, candlelight spirits are banned from the places they adore the most; libraries. This is for understandable reasons, as they cannot control their flames, unlike other flame elementals such as stove bunnies. After all, they came into existence at a point in history when books had not even been invented yet, and fire was what brought people together. And yes, sadly this ban applies even to candlelight spirits in the protective casing of a lantern.
An endearing fact about the candlelight spirits is that they’re shapeshifters from birth, their forms flickering between different shapes much like the flames themselves, but at some point their bodies become stable and stop shifting. In the end they take on the form of whichever character first truly resonated with them. So for that reason it is very common to see candlelight spirits resemble storybook characters, or a storyteller’s loved one.
Sometimes this can be a little bit strange for those who tell their stories to suddenly come face to face with a tiny version of a member of their family or beloved, but it’s usually strangely soothing.
Some who have had these little spirits take on the appearance of their loved ones who’s passed say that instead of being upset, it makes them cherish the memory of that person even more. After all, they took on that form out of sheer love for the person they were in the storyteller’s heart, rather than being disrespectful to their memory.
The candlelight spirits are also excellent storytellers themselves! Who wouldn’t be after listening to so many tales for decades and even centuries?
And they share those stories with joy, which is why a lot of the time historians in particular love them, even though stories are just stories and may not be entirely truthful. But regardless, they’re a goldmine of information from the past.
However, as much as historians love listening to the tales of the candlelight spirits, the love isn’t always mutual. They’re more than happy to tell their stories, but they’re not as excited to hear what the historians have for them. Why? Because they’ve already heard those stories long ago, over and over again, and more accurately too. So they would rather be somewhere else.
Or at least that’s how it used to be. Because in a plot twist this caused a lot of historians (and academics in general) to turn into absolute party animals and adventurers and extroverts in general to appease the spirits’ appetite for good stories so they’d hang around more.
It’s to the point that the history department in any given university now has a reputation to be the wildest one there is.
(Please note, this is not to imply historians are boring, I know few people who are more interesting than folks with a passion for history😂)