#zerna

Sometimes the best thing in the world is one of those 'cozy book days' where your goal for the day is to read a great new story with a hot drink <3 Featuring Stolas because that poor boi needs some good vibes in his life, and he's clearly a bookworm.

Yes I do!!!

I've actually had a master document that I've been sleeping on for years now because I wanted to accompany it with cool doodles but I suppose I can give a tiny teaser of what the Zerna are x3

The Zerna

The Zerna (plural: Zerna) are a species of semi-solid creatures of all shapes and sizes. They are essentially slime golems of completely artificial origin, and were originally created by an unknown ancient precursor race as a way to safeguard their most powerful Magitech from grave misuse. This unknown race is long gone now, but their Zerna constructs still persist to this day.

Zerna are composed primarily of two parts: a crystalline Magicite core which holds their lifeforce, and the viscous goo-like mass that acts as their main body.

The shape of the crystal is unique to an individual and is determined by the signatures present in their lifeforce (kinda like a fingerprint of sorts!). These crystals grow and shrink depending on how much energy they are storing. Zerna individuals, despite looking like slimefolk, are actually just the crystals themselves. The goo simply acts as an appendage for them!

Zerna goo is made of organic material that is supercritically charged with magic (think of it as like how matter turns into plasma when energized enough). Because Zerna goo is a non-essential body part, Zerna can actually exist purely as a crystal for extended periods of time where they are essentially in a state of suspended animation.

Zerna do not need to eat and sleep in the traditional sense. They consume ambient magic for sustenance, but if they want to increase their gooey mass, they are capable of consuming organic material to assimilate into their goo. This assimilation is a conscious and selective process, and does not automatically occur because of the large amount of energy required to supercharge organic matter into Zerna goo (except in very specific circumstances).

The form that Zerna bodies take depends purely on their lifeforce. Despite being mostly made of amorphous goo, they have limited shapeshifting capabilities. Zerna bodies always want to return to a stable form, and extreme amounts of focus is required when shapeshifting. However, some Zerna (like Cil) can have multiple stable forms, just like how some minerals in real life can take on multiple crystal structures!

That's all I can share for now, have an unfinished Cil sketchpage for all your troubles

Willow: I've learned how your generation communicates with one another to help us both better understand how we feel!

Willow: I'm so sorry! I rizzed too hard! It was a huge L, no cap! You were my one, true goat, bro! You looksmaxxed every part of my heart! You slay kween at everything you've ever done and I'm your ultimate oomf and I respect your main character energy! You take as much time for your POV FYP as you need! I'm working on my vibe check, I promise-

My half of an art trade with Zerna of Stef'n and Prezia (sorta) drunk together! <3

Stef'n doesn't really like alcohol but I imagine Prezia doesn't mind helping him order drinks to try, especially if she gets to drink whatever he doesn't like lol

Played around with watercolor, still learning how to get colors to be...not so splotchy BU