Sketch Saturday: Scatheleech – Worldbuilding Creature Art
Sketch Saturday: Scatheleech
For this Sketch Saturday, I’m sharing another creature from Lunaaris (also seen in Viridorn). It is small, strange and a little bit of a sucker, so to speak.
It’s the third entry in my creature sketches, and I was pleasantly pleased to create it despite its form. I didn’t want this to simply be a leech and decided. I wanted him to have a curled-arched spine, many-legged movements and a feeding disc. I didn’t include the reproductive with this one because it’s much the same as other creatures in appearance in graphite. I had a lot of fun working with the shadows of him!
The design is drawn in graphite on toned paper with soft shading, and I’m slowly trying to capture the way this creature drinks in the light around it. It’s not quite there yet, but I hope to return to it in colour someday, especially to show the rippling effect of its bioluminescent pulse. Also, ignore the staining; I still haven’t gotten used to using the fixative spray.
SCATHELEECH
(Pronounced something like “SKATH-leech”)
Scatheleeches are parasitic creatures that siphon magic rather than blood. They’re often found clinging to magically charged hosts, such as Myreornewts and Cewlmoths. Gradually, they siphon and weaken their host over time. Their feeding disc leaves no mark, and their numbing secretion makes them almost undetectable. When fully engorged, faint rings of bioluminescence ripple along their bodies.
Reproduction Cycle
Eggs – “Noxseeds”
Pebble-like black eggs that are hidden beneath riverbeds and rotting logs. These hatch only when exposed to residual magic or bioluminescence.
Larval Stage – “Scathethreads”
Translucent worm-like hatchlings that cling to damp cave walls or drift in swamp water, seeking magical vibrations from passing creatures.
Mature Scatheleech
Once developed, they attach to more complex hosts and live for years, feeding on latent magic and releasing it as a cold mist when threatened.
Scatheleeches are part of the ecological balance in magical regions draining excess dark energy, softening overgrowth, and, in some places, preserving a kind of shadowy equilibrium. Though feared by many, they’re also studied and even used in healing and alchemical rituals.
Some say that if one clings to your shadow, you’ll soon be forgotten by someone who once knew you well. I’m not sure if that’s true. Zaras doesn’t think so.
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