Tired Motherfucker

Don't look at me. Love me while you look away for your eyes bore into my soul and I'm afraid of what you'll find there. I'm afraid you'll unravel all of the lies I've told myself and every single one of my scars are too new and too raw for me to confront myself. I beg you to look away, but never to stop loving me because I don't think I could take that either.

Shadow Walkers & Light Shifters

Adoption!?

When adoptions a child of the other species, both SW’s and LS’s have a different approach to it.

For SW's, the adoption usually happens due to extreme circumstances.

If a child is getting hurt or isn't safe in their village, the other species will step in.

If a child is left after a raid, the child will be taken in and integrated into the SW village without hesitation.

LS's tend to be a little more cautious and have a transition period where the kid is slowly integrated into the village instead of the almost instantaneous ways of the SW's.

Both species love children and can not stand the idea of them being hurt or mistreated.

Extra!

Both species gladly take in the children of other species.

They sometimes take in adults too because they only work on their own age system which tends to have hundreds of years before change in maturity.

Houses!

Traditionally, the housing tends to vary depending on each of the species. As the only species to make it to a more modern day, Shadow Walker (what few are left) disregard tradition to survive in human or other animal communities.

Shadow Walkers

Shadow Walkers usually made houses based off of the materials around them. In wood forests, there would be houses made of wood. While in a desert they may be made of sandstone or clay.

They are taught to not waste anything they take from nature, told to always create a cycle for creation to continue.

While they don't particularly like the wastefulness of the modern, a few have admitted to the amenities being nice. Even still, young Shadow Walkers are still taught the same traditions by any elders.

Light Shifters

Light Shifters almost always has houses made of clay. They tended to be close together and well crafted. While the material was the same, the architect and decorations varied greatly between different villages.

Children were often asked to decorate new houses and newer adults were the ones that carved designs into the clay.

They are also taught to not be wasteful, but it's not as ingrained I'm the culture as Shadow Walkers.

Shadow Walkers

Culture!

Shadow Walkers believe that bones are good luck. It would not be unusual to find bones displayed in homes or on their person's at any point!

Their way of proposing is hunting the best prey they can and giving one of the bones to their love interest. It usually is the skull, but it can also be the ribs! As one piece, all of the ribs. Not just a few!

They have gods and myths based around the stars and other celestial bodies. Moths are told to be the messengers of the gods. They have all sorts of constellations with myths based around each.

They are generally less technologically advanced than the Light Shifters ay any time.

It is said that when someone becomes reborn, their past life becomes a star in the sky. If a Shadow Walker is reborn during some sort of shooting star or meteor shower, they tend to be held in higher regards. Treated as some sort of god or prophet.

They have a pretty loose social structure compared to Light Shifters, but the classes are designated based off of the type of stones/gems they have as Family Gems. Each Family has a stone or gem designated to them. If a pack in the same tribe has the same Gem/Stone designated to them, they have different shapes the gems are designated to be.

Traditional, the jewelry or decoration the gems are on tend to be gold. They also traditional wear lighter, more vibrant colors.

Shadow Walkers

Imagine!

Shadow Walkers like to live in different societies. They are particularly interested in the human cities they find themselves in.

Since they can integrate into a society fully, they like to pretend to live out lives based around creatures of higher intelligence. Humans fit the bill perfectly.

A Shadow Walker would absolutely stay in a human society for as long as they can. They appreciate how humans socialize and find their simple worries amusing.

A Shadow Walker would absolutely see how dating or even getting married would be like.

Shadow Walkers & Light Walkers

Lets Talk About Death!

Shadow Walkers can only die under specific circumstances. This applies to Light Walkers as well.

Instead, they reach their "End of Life".

This is when the SW/LS decides they wish to be someone else. They rapidly "die" and the dark matter they leave behind gets turned into a "new" SW/LS.

When they "die" they tend to go to a temporary purgatory to decide whether or not they want to keep their memories. This means they can continue their original life, just as a new form.

Shadow Walkers dark matter can not become Light Shifters and Light Shifters dark matter can not become Shadow Walkers.

These purgatory's are a personal place in between time and space. These are more often than not a memory that the person has or something they find joy in. On the other side of that, they could be trapped in a nightmare or even some traumatic event until they reform.

If a Shadow Walker tries to steal another Shadow Walkers soul, the Shadow Walker that takes the soul will get their dark matter turned stale and their consciousness taken away. This is the only way a Shadow Walker can die permanently. The Shadow Walker that got their soul taken becomes a ghost and they get a purpose. They can not die any longer. No matter what.

More often than not, these Shadow Walkers will be left with a given purpose and will have to fulfill the purpose. If they do not fulfill the purpose enough within a certain time, they are sent to their purgatory for a certain amount of time before being sent back at the exact time they were taken. Nothing changes when they go to purgatory.

The same is for Light Shifters.

However, it only works for same species. If a Light Shifter took a Shadow Walkers soul, the Shadow Walker would cease to exist and the Light Shifter would be able to turn into a Shadow Walker. It works vice versa.

The Light Shifters do not like to shift into Shadow Walkers because they get their instincts and they frown upon the species for that.

In a similar sense, some Shadow Walkers or Light Shifters get sent to their purgatory to choose what they wish to turn into. This is most common for children or those that don't shift very often. Ghosts also go to their purgatory when they want to change into something else. This does not happen for small changes, only large shifts.

Shadow Walkers and Light Shifters

Height Chart!

Light Shifters will actively make themselves bigger when near Shadow Walkers because none of them like being smaller

Naturally, they are a few feet smaller than Shadow Walkers

They are the same size as toddlers and start to differ around the age of children

Light Shifters

Some random head canons!

Shadow Walkers are naturally bigger than Light Shifters in their raw forms

Light Walkers will celebrate the end of a species. They make entire festivals about it and even do races on who can hunt the last of the species first.

The Light Walkers will eat the hunted species at the festival.

Shadow Walkers and Light Shifters are technically purely made up of dark matter,

Neither species need to eat or drink, though both very much like to do so

When interacting with the children of the opposite species, they would be treated like one of their own

The hatred does not extend to the children

Shadow Walkers and Light Shifter

Children!

Shadow Walkers :D

As babies, they mimic their parents instinctively.

Babies are given a traditional shawl to grow into

The babies often mimic the shawls colors and patterns

The babies can’t control what they mimic

As toddlers, Shadow Walkers can use their ‘raw form’ but can not give themselves arms

They can mimic colors and patterns at this phase

Toddlers really like to explore and make things

They generally stay around their pack though

Shadow Walker Children can create arms for themselves

They like to play all sorts of games, most of which are made on the spot

Children often like to bother the oldest members of their packs

Light Shifters

As babies, Light Shifters do not mimic their parents.

They sort of just look like smaller toddlers

They can not make their own arms at this point

The parents are traditionally given a set of silk traditional sleeves for the toddler to wear

As toddlers, they are able to create arms for themselves

They like to stay near to their birthers, latching onto them and staying nearby

They like to gather and hoard things they find pretty

Light Shifter children like to explore dark areas like caves or really lit up areas like by a fire

As children, this is when they start to produce natural warmth, unlike Shadow Walkers

Light Shifters start playing with others at the child stage

Both

Children of all ages are considered the best thing to happen to a (pack/colony)

The youth are taken care of by every member of the pack/colony

Generally, Shadow Walkers start to become larger than Light Shifters around the child stages

Children are protected by all members of the packs/colonies

The youth are dressed in traditional dress when going out

Children are seen as gifts to the pack/colonies

Light Shifters

Light Shifters generally see themselves as above the Shadow Walkers, holier than thou attitude and all. They are purely white compared to the Shadow Walkers all black. Their indicators generally tend to be some sort of waist down thing vs the Shadow Walkers waist up indicators.

A few head cannons:

While they all like shiny things, they have a particular affinity to gold.

Their traditional dressings are poofy sleeves that are tied on when they decide to have arms. Technically, they can have the sleeves as a part of them if they don’t constantly have their arms.

Generally, Light Shifters do not like other species. They think they are above any of them due to the fact that none of the beings could kill them.

The only thing that can kill a Light Shifter is either another Light Shifter or a Shadow Walker.

When populations are becoming extinct, they like to celebrate it. Unlike Shadow Walkers, they enjoy watching species they view lesser than themselves fall to time.

Shadow Walkers

Shadow Walkers generally don’t like Light Shifters due to how snooty they tend to be. Technically, Shadow Walkers are more prone to the instincts of the beings of the souls they have consumed. This is why the Light Shifters view them as lesser. Light Shifters have started every war against the Shadow Walkers, though their history books state the Shadow Walkers started every war.

A few head cannons:

Shadow Walkers love gold. They hoard it and can be protective of it. This can cause them to be aggressive to anyone but their pack.

A group/family (anyone close to the beings) of Shadow Walkers is called a pack. Light Shifters are called colonies.

Their traditional dressings are shawls. These shawls can be all sorts of sizes and sometimes are more like cloaks than shawls.

They love all kinds of other species and can pack bond with pretty much any of them.

Their offspring mimic the birthers features and figure as soon as they are born. This is part of the reason that Shadow Walkers can completely integrate into any civilization without detection.

Shadow Walkers

(and Light Shifters)

Something that I’ve been working on for a while now. It’s a species of shapeshifters that have to eat the ‘soul’ of a being to be able to use the attributes of that species. Modern day, they are almost entirely extinct along with their counterparts, Light Shifters. They are rarely seen in what is considered their raw form.

They find human beings interesting, especially considering how far up on the food chain they are given their lack of natural defenses. More often than not, Shadow Walkers can be found in human cities. If you can even tell them apart from a human in the first place.

They are almost extinct because of a continuous war between them and the Light Shifters. This war has been going on for so long that there isn’t any time before the wars are documented.

As shapeshifters, they are compatible with any species they have taken the soul of. When they found a particular species interesting enough and it ended up starting to die out, they would probably step in to help expand the population.

Shadow Walkers and Light Shifters don’t need food. They technically don’t even need souls. It’s just an instinctive thing to have. They both have the instinct to be able to blend in. To look of something they aren’t.

A character who had their legs chopped off and thrown into a lake. They lay at the bottom of the lake until a certain phenomenon happens. Their legs have been replaced with a tail. It was scaled and shimmery, colored like gasoline on water. The lake they were dumped in was filthy, no other living creature resided in the lake. Slowly over the years they grew a sort of mechanism that filters out the water and adds the filtered toxicity into their blood. This made their blood acidic in some areas and poisonous in others.

The world is put on a repeated cycle. The story happens, and then it reverses and happens again. There is always one person at the center of it all. A singular individual that sees every replay, every time the world repeats itself. One day, they decide to change things. Their attempts all fail until they meet the person that's behind it all. A scared little girl who lost her parents and wanted to relive the time she had with them forever.