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!
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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.
Oh hah, Undertale is popular again. Well, er, if you like my art I’ve just started posting a short comic of mine to Tapastic. Click the big raven above.
Also I’m doing a kickstarter for my Graphic Novel. Check that out maybe ;-)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1171352004/garden-a-graphic-novel
I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what the mythical creature valravn from Danish folklore is but after diving deeper it’s more versatile than expected.
The version I was originally told is that a valravn (means “war raven” or more precisely “raven of the fallen” as in fallen people on the battlefield) is a normal raven that gained human intelligence by eating the flesh or brain of dead people after a battle. With the gift of intelligence also came the curse of only being able to fly at night. The only way to gain the ability to move around in daylight was to eat the heart of a young boy. Then the valravn would be able to turn into either a human or a raven/wolf beast and go wherever it wanted whenever it pleased.
But in the most well known song about valravens they’re all human men who were turned into ravens by either a witch or a female troll. A women was told her husband could only turn back if he drank her blood so she asks another valravn for help. It agrees in exchange for the life of her first son as soon as he has spoken his first three words, suggesting an infant would be too young.
In yet another version the valravn is a human who cannibalised dead people on the battlefield and turned into a raven or a human/raven/wolf monster that could only travel at night but would continue the cannibalism until it ate a young boy at which point it would be able to turn back to a human form.
So take your pick. You want a weird creepy raven that has decided it wants to be a human? Or a tragic story of someone who can only turn back by hurting their beloved? Or perhaps a wendigo style creature who became a monster after committing the taboo of cannibalism? Or maybe a mix? Because clearly Danish people in the past weren’t too worried about the valravn canon. The only generally agreed on lore is that they’re always male, can only travel at night and they eat humans or drink human blood to reach their final form or be cured.
“Feathered Dinosaurs aren’t scary,” is false, it’s about how it is presented and nothing is more terrifying than a bitter truth.
by Jayson Duria/WobblyWorks
During my strange quest to draw every valravn/valravn-related character on Art Fight this year, there were several characters I encountered that didn't really fit into either of my mass attacks. Rather than exclude them, I gave them all one-off pieces!
Valerie King - CrystalDisc | Stolas - VRavne | Valravn - @lynndoublelegacy | Týr - @gosilverraven | Quilo - Quarth
a valravn. knight & companion of claire levitt.
LINKS & TAGS.
headcanons | abilities | wolves & crows | image | musings | music | aesthetics | clothing
BASICS.
Name: Aiedail. Preferred name: Dai. Gender: Male. Species: Valravn. Birthday: May 10th. Age: Unknown. Sexuality: Straight. Status: Single. Occupation: Knight. Contracts: None. Location: Second circle of Hell, Paris, France, and wherever else needed.
APPEARANCE.
Hair: Black with an iridescent sheen of blues. Eyes: Like that of ember. Height: 5'7". Body type: Ottermode. Scent: That to whatever attracts those around.
ABOUT.
A lazy valravn currently the companion of Claire Levitt.
He has some past history with Claire’s so called uncle Drago Sinetta and boyfriend Dante Caivano.
Dante being the one who had taken one of his eyes in the past and left the valravn bitter towards the both of them ever since.
Nothing much is known about Aiedail unless you ask him directly.
He might be titled as a knight, but he is far from what you think.
Care for a contract?
"The raven flies in the evening. It will have bad luck, for it can not have good." Dedicated to showcasing everything valravn. (Icon/Header by Zel204)
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