#mlp stygian

I drew the sketch for this like 4 years ago — Art take time.

Sprites!!

Stygian redesign (+ a little headcanon/rewrite/au ish stuff):

(Rewrite Part 1)

In my rewrite he still seeks a way to help the pillars. He’s a blank flank with a passion for magic and strategy, who often struggles with complex spells. His planning is never really acknowledged as helpful, and he feels distant feels guilty about not being able to do more for his friends.

Im my rewrite, instead of trying to copy the artifacts, Stygian delves into a long forbidden type of magic. Blood magic.

Though it is a complex and difficult magic, Stygian excels. He quickly finds that his skill lies here, in the “darker” side of magic. Though magic itself has no morality, blood magic was often viewed as evil. This was due to its public perception as violent/tabboo and because of its use by a few infamous villians of the past.

Starswirl eventually finds out about this secret when Stygian uses the blood magic to protect the pillars in a difficult battle. Despite Stygian’s good intentions and proficiency, Starswirl is outraged and still banishes him.

Now alone, cast away by those he loved most dearly, he loses his emotional/mental balance. With a powerful and unique magical skill, and no hope left, he is easy prey for the shadows and falls victim to the darkness.

The blood magic:

I haven’t fully detailed the blood magic, but here’s what I have so far! (DND expands very well on ideas for blood magic if you want to know more!)

I think of the blood magic as drawing from a different source. Instead of magical connection within (which some ponies have a large well of to pull from, and others do not), it pulls from life. You could theoretically pull from the life of plants, but it provides very little magic so pulling from living things is more common (hence its name). I’d like to think it’s a little more complex to use safely (draw too much and you’ll deplete yourself), which would make Stygian’s expertise useful later on in mlp.

In good hands (hooves?) it can do incredible things, and with balance it can be used safely! But most often I think it drew in villians who stole from others rather than utilizing themselves.

Hopefully some of this made sense! Ideas are welcome! Not sure if I’ll ever work more on this, but thought I’d share regardless!