The Valravn Breaks Out

Lil title animation practice I've been working on since I came home from this weekend's convention! And ofc needed to see it with an image to really get that title feel!!

Kinda dig it! What do you think?

The Crow King

Print: https://pauhami.bigcartel.com/product/the-crow-kings-bride

My shoulder has been wrecked since christmas so I haven’t been able to draw or write for weeks. But got this one I did earlier in december that I really liked. It’s been quite a while since I allowed myself to do some grittier stuff.

I forgot how fun it was! Being a werebird.. less fun though hah!

Valravns - Behavior

This is just my personal take on valravns. Many elements present here are not found in the source material and instead are inferences or were wholly invented by me. Feel free to use these ideas for your own valravn or valravn-inspired characters!

~~~

By the nature of their existence, valravns are intelligent and dangerous creatures. A hunger for human hearts does not easily lend itself to a charitable personality. Their hunger dictates their every action.

They are experts at fighting in their many forms, striking precisely where and how they need to. Most of the time, however, valravns pick alternatives to outright violence. A clever predator does not need to hunt prey, all it needs to do is trap it.

A valravn always has some sort of deceptive plot in mind. They have a habit of using trickery in their words or only telling half-truths when making deals with mortals. Unlike the fae, this is not a case of magic compelling them to do so. They simply have a sick sense of humor, taking joy in the despair of the mortals they have tricked.

Valravns can either be nomadic or have a set territory. Typically, younger ones are nomadic while older ones settle, but this is by no means definite. Nomadic valravns fly from one bloodied battlefield to the next, something that is easy for their keen senses to find. Settled valravns typically take up some remote locale, like a forest or island, and reign it with iron claws and beak.

Valravns, much like mundane ravens, are mostly solitary. They may take on a mate, typically another valravn, but sometimes some other monster, or rarely even a human. Valravns are fiercely loyal to their mate, to the point of madness. Anything less than perfect for their other half is unacceptable and must be corrected. A valravn separated or, gods forbid, denied their mate would be a truly twisted and insane monster indeed.

Valravns may also be accompanied by their young. These chicks may be naturally born, humans they turned into their own, or even a mix of both. Their young typically accompany their parents until they reach maturity, at which point they leave their parents' side and strike it out on their own.

Happy belated Halloween from my edgiest character :)

Keep reading

We need those tough emotions and feelings to survive life! But.. sometimes it can be a bit hard to control. Especially when ND or struggling with mental illnesses. In Zephyr’s case - some of these feelings triggers something much more … real… that needs to be controlled. And he probably would’ve liked to have avoided it all together.

But does he really?

In Danish folklore, the valravn is a supernatural bird that can take on the form of a knight or a wolf. They were first mentioned in the 1800s, when it was said that ravens who feasted on the bodies of dead kings or chieftains would become valravne.

Valravne are often described as malevolent creatures, leading people astray and causing harm or even death. Some say they are restless souls who can only free themselves from their animal forms by consuming the blood of a child.

Image source.

Monster master list.

Suggest a spook.

Hellblade Screens : 2/∞

#inktober day 21 - #nachtkrapp 🦅 Art by @blaze_acciarini @joyfulshadeofblack #ofmonstersandmyths #inktober2018 #monster #art #arts #arte #illustrator #illustration #sketch #sketchbook #germany #ink #inkart #artist #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #creepy #instaart #halloween #artistic #artwork #creative #instadaily #instacool #pigmamicron #raven #bird #drawing https://www.instagram.com/p/BpNZ7rQBh28/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=yc7i4cs9yezy

Hooooowww did people 1) hear the folksong Valravnen about a knight who's been transformed into a bird (likely an eagle, not a raven) and can only break the curse by killing a baby, 2) see that one (1) now-extinct noble family referred to their heraldic beast, a wolf/bird, as a 'valravn', and 3) read one single 1800s countryboy's explanation that valravnen is like an evil valkyrie, and SOMEHOW extrapolate from those three wildly unrelated sources that "The Valravn" (because it's never a folkloric concept with different interpretations, it's always a single specific creature) is a were-wolf/raven who haunts battlefields to drink the blood of slain warriors????

Please stop depicting 'the' valravn when you don't even know what it is, I'm begging on my fucking knees, I hate the way recent Danish folklore-inspired popculture has latched onto this figure and keeps depicting it in wilder and wilder ways😭😭

If you want a folkloric evil bird creature in your story please just use a fucking dragon or gammen. Use a damn cockatrice or vættehane, idgaf. Please just stop muddying the already-confusing lore of valravnen. The figure has been abused enough already and you are making my hobby as a folklorist very difficult😥