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Posted by Meg

Today’s demon comes from Myke Cole, author of Shadow Ops: Control Point.

SHADOW DEMONS:

Shadow Demons are a symbiote. They are beings of pure magic, linked to the darkness of the core, and they have a relationship with their hosts much like beneficial bacteria do for humans. They live on the bodies of the most powerful corelings (Mind Demons and Mimics) and conduct magical energy from the core into their bodies. While Mind Demons are already powerful, their pinnacle of power is due to this function of magical channelling. Without the air of the Shadow Demons colonizing their skins, they would simply be a more powerful breed of coreling.

Shadow Demons are tiny, no bigger than a speck of dust. Because of this, they were never identified by humanity, and no wards exist to combat them. They are stupid, of animal intelligence, like your average coreling. They know only that they are drawn to the warmth and safety of Mind Demons and Mimics, who are equally sensitive to light, and therefore make better hosts for them. Shadow demons never live on the hides of drone corelings, as these creatures are more likely to expose them to star or moonlight, either of which will kill them.

Outside the core, Shadow Demons go unseen, clinging fast to the bodies of Mind Demons and Mimics, acting as magical conduits, strengthening their hosts.

But *inside* the core, where the darkness is absolute, Shadow Demons bask in the magical currents that flow from the their nexus at the center of the earth. Here, in their home, they are a force to be reckoned with. When threatened, or roused to hunger, or in defense of the hive, Shadow Demons will “colonize” into a single form, a towering being of pure blackness, bigger than a rock demon, fanged and clawed and horned. No ward can effect them, no weapon can harm them, all blows pass harmlessly through their liquid black forms. Yet their own teeth and claws cut as surely as any steel.

In the core, in their colonized form, the Shadow Demon is only vulnerable to one thing: light.

And in the core, that is rare thing indeed.

Thanks Myke! Now that I know what’s lurking down there, I won’t be visiting the core anytime soon.

Have an idea for a demon? Want to share it with the world? Check out the contest guidelines and email your coreling by 11:59pm on May 18th, 2012.

Posted on May 12, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Myke, Warded Man
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Posted by Meg

This entry is from Luke Fielding, who has done some stunning fan art in the past. You can check out more of Luke’s work on his website. Here he has painted a demon with his words … and it is just as terrifying as his pictures.

Hive Demons (aka: false demon, the deceiver, snake demons)

These demons go by many names but Hive Demon is one that is widely accepted. This rare humanoid demon, control the breeding within the core. Hive demons rarely come to the surface, as like Mind Demons they cannot abide the false sun (the moon) – hence their name.

Hive demons, although powerful, have no thick protective armour. They have fine light-brown scales, a protection vulnerable to unwarded attacks. Their scales naturally disables offensive warding, making cutting wards and such like it useless. Hive Demons have large lidless onyx eyes and three rows of sharp, small teeth.

Hive demons have been known to come to the surface during the previous Sharak Kar as depicted in the ruins of Anok Sun. Because these demons are human-like in appearance at first sight, they have used this fact to penetrate the human ranks – killing from within. They are slightly taller than an average human, ranging upwards of six feet. Although humanoid in appearance, this demon has a special vertebrae that can help it bend easily in any direction – advantageous as the higher capillaries in the hive have passageways only just big enough for a fire demon. This vertebra extends into an extra, powerful appendage – with the power to hold its own weight. Due to this fact they were nicknamed ‘snake demons’ to those of the old world.

Hive demons have a dislike for human flesh, delighting on vicariously experiencing pain of their ancient enemy – an experience provided for them by Mind Demons. Its meals consist of weak offspring but they do not necessarily need to eat to survive. After the return, Hive demons have kept to the core, concentrating on the breeding within the hive. When the demon lords decide, they will join their kin on the surface – to unleash the dormant combative power of their nature.

Yikes! I wouldn’t want to run into those guys. There is still time to submit your own terrifying coreling. Have your demonic words or pictures in by May 18th, 2012. Check out the guidelines and prizes here.

Posted on May 11, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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Posted by Meg

The contest entries keep flowing in! Here is an account of small but painful coreling created by Alex.

Hey Peat!

Got the idea for this while overhearing a conversation about leeches at school (as you do) and thought it could be a quite cool coreling! Was so excited, I couldn’t wait until I got home and am now currently typing this up in my business class, but shushhhh 😀 Who needs A levels right?

Massive fan of your work, with your books earning a prized place on my bookshelf 🙂 Looking forward to reading the next entries into what is a fantastic series 🙂

Coreling Entry:

It was the darkest of nights, but Arlen could see all. The magical smoke that extended from the core looked almost beautiful in the moonlight. He had set camp and was now out of his circle, Twilight Dancer waiting patiently for his return while he replenished his herb supply, with the knowledge that he would need them soon.

As he reached down to gather a small patch of hogroot, a small sound caught his ear and Arlen whipped round, fury dancing in his eyes. He saw nothing, but his enhanced hearing could still hear the sound of a coreling’s guttural grunts. A movement on the ground caught his eyes and Arlen looked down at the almost pitiful monster.

Almost a foot in length, the pitch black snakelike demon jerked itself forward as it struggled to reach Arlen. Arlen had never even read about this type of coreling before, but he was not impressed. Arlen smirked at the creature’s pathetic squirming that moved the demon ever closer to his flesh. With a deep laugh at the embarrassing coreling, Arlen extended his foot, intending to kick the worm flying over the trees. As his foot connected with the creature, pain suddenly flared within him as the razor sharp miniature fangs sank itself into the small, unwarded section Arlen’s foot.

With a loud curse, Arlen’s eyes flashed with annoyance and then mild panic as the coreling started to swell with his own lifeblood. The creature, in a few short seconds, had almost doubled in size with the contents of Arlen’s blood. With another curse, Arlen reached down and sank his warded fingers into the corelings flesh, watching it part beneath his fingers and the curse of magic drain from its small hateful red eyes.

Despite the creature now sent back Nie’s abyss, the creature remained embedded in Arlen’s skin; Arlen’s own blood leaking out of the hole he had made. Arlen face grew taunt as he reached down and ripped the coreling out of his skin, including a sizeable chunk of his own flesh with it. As he watched, his stored coreling magic started to knit his own skin back together, the pain decreasing with every second. Arlen reached into his herb pouch for a cautionary piece of hogroot he had just gathered and with his other hand, lifted the small coreling in level with his eyes, smoke trailing as his the wards on his hands corroded the dead corelings flesh. He examined it for a moment with a new found respect for the danger such a small creature could possess, his trained eyes surveying and memorising the creature. With a annoyed sigh, Arlen flicked it off into the woods.

A curse followed shortly after. “Fuck, you’re annoying.”

Thank you to Alex for sending in that inventive story! I love the inspiration (I didn’t know leeches were so talked about at school) and the story that grew out of it. The leech demons remind me of little vampires (afraid of the sunlit, love to suck blood). Maybe a garlic-inspired ward would do the trick?

Want to let us know what your most annoying coreling is? Don’t forget to submit to the Create Your Own Coreling Contest by 11:59pm on May 18, 2012. For more details, check out the rules here.

There are some truly fantastic prizes being offered. The grand prize is a copy of the Graphic Audio version of The Warded Man complete with a T-shirt and signed poster featuring Lauren Cannon’s beautiful picture of Renna. The first part of The Desert Spear will be released by Graphic Audio on May 16th, so check back soon for more details.

Posted on May 10, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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Posted by Meg

Here is a second entry from Spencer. This one has a bit more of a humorous twist. You can check out Spencer’s first entry here.

Traveling with the Warded Man was a safe journey for those lost along the roads; they didn’t lack for food or safety. That is, as long as they followed his rules. As the small family huddled in the warded circle, they waited for the mysterious man who enjoyed running around naked save for his small clothes, hoping, praying that he would survive the night. For they knew that local preachers had said that nothing could harm him, and he was the key to them pushing the core out of their world. They hadn’t seen any corelings in quite some time for where the Warded Man was evil seemed to dissipate.

“Momma,” said the little boy, no more than a handful of years old, in his urgent voice. “I need to go potty or I’ll pee the bed.”

“Ok sweetheart, go back near the edge of the circle and try and to make it stay inside of the barrier. He said not to let anything go outside of it.”

Timidly, the little boy pulled back his blankets and jumped up running towards the edge, holding himself as if to contain his bodily fluids. As he grew closer to his destination, he realized it wasn’t just his little bladder that was full. Not wanting to upset the legendary man with the stench of his bowels, he, with great caution, dropped his clothes and shoved his little white butt out of the boundary circle to relieve his cramping belly. After finishing his business, the little boy sprinted back to the comfort of his mother’s side to try and return to sleep.

Slowly the gathering mist began to swirl around the moist ground just on the edge of the protection. Arising from the ground a new group of corelings began to form though no one had noticed, at least not anyone human. Twilight Dancer began to stamp at the ground in his circle away from the rest; it could see the new corelings, and his instincts were flaring to protect the little family. With all his vocal power, he began to whinny, calling for his master to return. The sound of the Warded Man’s horse woke the little family and forced them to their feet. In the dying embers of the fire, they could see what had formed on the edge of the circle, a group of two different corelings.

One of the corelings was slightly larger than the rest being about the size of a small child’s hand. Its form being like nothing they had ever seen; short, slightly rounded, peaked towards the top and bottom, crevasses in random areas all around it, and a slight steam rising off it into the brisk morning air. The much smaller pack of four corelings looked nearly as if it was some sort of family member of a water demon, but much smaller and glowing a slight yellowish hue.

Staring down at this group of corelings, the father began to rise and look more closely at them. “Do not worry, the Warded Man is known as the best warder there is. They won’t make it through,” he said, as if to re-assure himself.

Gathering his family in tight to him, they stared at these strange corelings. It didn’t take long for the father to be proven wrong, gingerly the first corbeling started to glide himself past the boundary of the warded circle and into the circle of protection. Seeing that the first coreling had made it through the other ones eagerly jumped right through and ran towards the family.

Reaching one of his arm towards one of the burning logs the father used the other to push his family back behind himself. With some luck he was able to find a log big enough to hold out in front of him but not so large that he needed two hands to control it. He frantically waved the log at the corelings, yelling at them to stay away from his family. “ You can’t have them you damnable creatures,” he bellowed.

The largest of the group advanced towards him unafraid of the burning wood, he was drunk on the anticipation of the kill. With great strength the father struck the first coreling, lifting it into the air. He had hit it but with the part that wasn’t on fire, he had aimed a little too far and the demon had absorbed the hit by shifting that part of his body as if to absorb the impact. Not wanting to repeat his past mistake he shoved the fire straight at the little coreling, to his great delight it lit up on fire. Now on fire, a horrendous smell drifted off the coreling in great wisps.

Running at full speed, the Warded Man jumped into action to smash out the other four corelings. Not fearing for what they were, he flowed into battle. It didn’t take him long to dispatch them with little effort for he knew of their relationship to water demons; it was much easier to know how best to fight.

“What were those ones,” asked the mother. “I’ve never seen ones like that before.”

“Well based of size, color and smell I would say one of you didn’t follow my rules. Do your business in the hole by the edge of the boundary I had told you, not do it outside. Those were a shit coreling and a small group of pisser corelings. They aren’t much to fight. But we will have to move our camp because the smell will become overwhelming.”

Thanks to Spencer for submitting this second entry! Do you have a ridiculous or unique coreling breed no one has discovered yet? Go ahead and submit to the Create Your Own Coreling Contest by 11:59pm on May 18, 2012. For more details, check out the rules here.

Posted on May 9, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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Posted by Meg

Here we have another unique entry coming all the way from Italy! Read on.

Hello there! My name is Nick and I’m a medical student (22 years old), but also a true fan of the Demon Cycle. (I bought from Amazon the original versions of TWM and TDS, to keep my English keen). This contest is a wonderful way to test my knowledge of English and Demon Cycle lore! I managed to create a short tale which could give the same feel of the books, and I had great fun doing it. I’m a poor design artist, but I’ll attach to this mail my creations anyway. Even the chance to be read by Peter would be an amazing accomplishment!

So, I hope you like it!

Greetings from Italy, homeland of Otzi, the original Warded Man!

Nick a.k.a. Nicolò

Year 333 AR, Winter.

Excerpt from the notes of Tender Obert, daemonologist and archivist in the Great Libray of Miln.

Among the unholy abominations spawned from the Core, one of the most dreadful and deadly is the one known as the Silent Reaper or Gloom Demon. The existence of this demon breed was believed to be a myth up to this very year, for no sightings have ever been reported after the Return.

However, the last happenings have shown how much mankind has forgotten, and how much old histories and scrolls, which we should carefully keep on studying, still hold precious truths. The first mention of this breed of demon can be found in the most ancient texts kept in the Holy Library of Miln, penned millennia ago, during the Age of the Deliverer.

This is the original description:

The gloom demon is indeeed a creature born out of the darkness for no other beast is so fit to blend with the utter blackness of the moonless night sky.

Lidless sidelong eyes, casting a pale glow, grant this hovering horror an unrivalled sight. Its pitch-black body resembles the shape of a cone, constantly twirling and trembling like a cloak, made of a substance akin to the wind demons’ wing membranes.

The monster can float silently in the air and strike its prey with blinding speed, using the tentacles on the side of its body. These appendages can dart istantaneously, tearing and piercing flesh with their sharp spear-like tips, instantly killing animals, men and even smaller corelings. This demon does not possess mouths or rows of teeths, just a single long probscis, used to suck dry their victims, feeding just on body fluids, leaving bones and skin to scavengers. The Silent Reaper hunts alone, following the scent of its prey, shunning the company of its own kind and sometimes killing weaker demons. With its ruthless temper and cunning mind, it must never be understimated, for it can float silently over a circle of protection searching for weaknesses in the net and strike from above without emitting a sound.

Messengers recently reported mysterious attacks beyond the Dividing and in the whole duchy, all with the same pattern of events.

During the darkest hours of the night, all the corelings testing the wards fled, apparently for no reason, leaving the messengers’ campsites undisturbed; the night strangely rumorless.

Suddenly, a flurry of blows coming from above activated the wardnet, lighting all the surroundings, and the men spotted a patch of blackness up above in the sky where there seemed to be two dim lights, like a pair of alien eyes gazing coldly below. They could not determine the demon’s size, for it seemed to gorge and deflate alternatilvely, but its diameter was estimated close to six feet.

About the “natural habitat” of this innatural creature, evidence show it hunts far from the forest, favoring tundra and wide open spaces where its floating abilities are not hindered. Creator grant they will never be sighted next to the city walls.

Many scholars worked on a theory concerning the way this kind of demon can fly: its decievingly fragile body may contain a gas bladder which the creature uses to keep floating without need of flapping wings, as wind demons have to do.

Anyone trying to harm gloom demons should therefore aim with a bow straight to the chest of the demon and fire a warded arrow in the hope of piercing this bladder to pull down the beast, but never leaving succour because if unprotected by wards, the would-be-hunter might not live long enough to see the morning sun.

The wards keyed to wind demons seem to be reasonably safe when tested by gloom demons, however, increasing the diameter of the circle seems to weaken the forbiddance effect, as reported by travelers who witnessed the wardnets fail. If the wards recently acquired, thanks to His Grace’s dealings with the so-called Warded Man, will prove effective, all the Milnese warders will be tasked to add the new symbols to the wardposts of the city to prevent future attacks.

Unfourtunately, at the moment, there is shortage of volounteers to test those wards in the wild.

Gloom Demon Ward

Thank you to Nick from Italy for sending in his entry on gloom demons, a particularly spooky creation. Want your own demon featured on Peat’s blog? Then don’t forget to submit to the Create Your Own Coreling Contest by 11:59pm on May 18, 2012. For more details, check out the rules here.

Posted on May 8, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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