#skekvar

I did this as a gift to @themosthairiestlobsterintheworld since she loves SkekVar and I decided to post it here as well. Enjoy:)

Thank you! I did! Sorry for not replying for so long, I wanted to add sketches to this post!

Here are some facts about TDC Mermaid AU. Mostly about the Skeksis. Keep in mind: it is not a happy AU and it gets darker near the final. Also! This is a shared AU, belongs to @screeching-raptor too!

The Skeksis live in a huge underwater Castle. The Crystal is a giant pearl hatched by Aughra, who is an ancient oyster, but I have already mentioned it in earlier posts. The Skeksis still use the Podling as slaves, in this AU they are some small species of which no one cares. The eyes of those who serve the Skeksis got used to the darkness, but if they were to visit upper layers, they would be almost blind. Skeksis don't eat them because their meat tastes meh

When the Lords of the Pearl were younger they rose from the depths to the upper layers of the ocean, and the Gelfling remembered them mainly as scary but beautiful. As they got older, they almost stopped doing this, because it meant showing their not so attractive to merfolk eye bodies, so they felt more comfortable in the depths because of the darkness

Now I'm gonna talk about SoVar... Or, to be more precise, about skekSo's fate after skekVar's death. From now on this AU gets darker. I warned you

I talked about how Var died in this post

Also we remember that the Darkening is barrels of radioactive waste on the ocean bottom, and ofc humans are to blame. Quick note: humans don't play any role in the plot apart from this and Var's death. They're non-existant to merfolk. Gelfs never interact with them, nor do the Skeks. Humans know nothing about the ocean creatures... until one moment. And then they get the chance to discover more, but we're slowly getting to this.

After his General was killed, skekSo started "using the Darkening" even more. He thought it makes him more powerful, while it just made him mutate horribly and feel intense pain. His mental illness progressed too, he stopped speaking because his jaw started rotting, and since he was very visibly ill the Skeksis started avoiding him. He's still officially the Emperor, but doesn't care anymore. He started searching for skekVar, hoping he's still out there somewhere, because he never saw the corpse. Some things he hallucinated. Some forgot. He became a rogue, never returned to his race, and the Skeksis decided to move on and choose the new Emperor, thinking that skekSo is dead. He wasn't. Yet. He was in constant search. He started looking for Var near the surface too.

One day the waves throw a body of a mutated deep sea creature onto the shore.

Humans find him, the government is interested, they want to study mermaids after what happened to skekVar. All this takes place in the waters of one country. Dead skekSo ends up in the same very secret high tech laboratory in the next tank to his dead lover, whose corpse was kept in a way it doesn't decompose.

He finally found his General.

Skeks by height based on my hcs and some screenshots + canon facts. No skekSa or skekLi 'cause I have 0 hcs for them

Sketch by me

Relaxing summer nights