So I'm writing this down quickly in case I would forget. My first thought upon waking up? "Wait! No! Stop! Let me back in! That was too good for me to wake up now!" My second, upon the sad realization it wouldn't be coming back and that my mind was working on a timer before the knowledge was lost? "Did I just create an entire Slightly Damnedesque world in my subconscious?" To which, the answer is...yes. Yes, I did.
This is going to be a long blog post, because I did a LOT of work on it during my dream, and I'm expanding this out as the day goes by pure instinct alone. This is an idea which is asking to be made, so even if that may be impossible, I need to at least get it recorded pronto before the details are lost forever.
In this dream, angels and demons both exist, and fought a war prior to the comic. The reason for the war is unknown to the public, though a select few remember the spark which ignited it. (Technically, said cause wasn't in of itself worthy of going to war over. However, angels and demons had already-preexisting tensions long before then, and so, when given this final straw which infuriated both sides, they used it as justification.)
And, yes, I did envision this, quite specifically, as a webcomic. Images of it aren't coming to me as fluid scenes, but as pictures, with word bubbles. (Something unique to things I make. Even The Descended was fluid motions in my mind, and Red Hood Rider is more like an anime or even film in my mind, so it's not just pictures.)
Anyway, the demons lost, big time. Prior to the war, angels and demons roamed about the world freely in great numbers. Because of the war, almost all the demons died, and the few who didn't were banished from the mortal realm, save for those entered into contracts with humans. (More on that in a bit.)
Nowadays, the remaining demons can only be summoned by contracts, which always come at a heavy price to the human. These contracts are rarely "sell my soul" type deals, but always involve some sort of payment the human would rather not give. However, many humans still pay this price anyway, for demons are one of only two ways to use magic, and angelic magic is restricted by rules that demonic magic isn't held back by.
The reason the demons lost however is because outside of accords (the neutral term to refer to a pact/contract), angelic magic is equal to demonic magic, and given the terms of these accords, many humans fought along-side the angels whereas only a few humans sided with the demons, so as a result, the demons lost ground. (It also helped that demons actually held interest in conquering land to rule, whereas angels merely held interest in having some land to live in.)
Still, angels walk the earth protecting humans anyway, and offer their services in pacts, with a pact being a good way for an angel to transition from the heavens to earth, or even vice-versa. (All accords will be enforced by default until it is impossible for the terms to be upheld for a prolonged period of time, but pacts differ from contracts in that a pact can be dissolved by mutual understanding, whereas a contract must be enforced even if neither party is happy with the original deal anymore.)
The main character of this dreamcomic was a small boy I've since named Dion (about 13), spikey red hair with small black horns (but with a ram-horned crown/headband he always wears, giving the illusion he has two sets of horns), who dreamed of being an adventurer. More specifically, "The greatest adventurer the world has ever known!"
He's a street rat, who forages and even steals in order to get by, but he does attend a school sometimes anyway, where his grades are...not the greatest. This in part thanks to his airheaded desire for adventure, and his status as an apparent orphan. It also doesn't help that all the other kids bully and laugh at him for his unusual appearance and said status of having no known parents.
It's not all bad. He has a single friend, who I've since named Adriana (Ana for short, which he always calls her), a year older than him, and she protects and encourages him when she can. However, she has familial obligations in the form of helping her father run a shop of some kind, which keep her busy. She's also a half-angel, by her mother. (As a result, she knows some Celestial lullabies, but only knows how to read, not actually speak, the language, since her mother left before teaching her.)
Her father does help Dion out whenever they can. While their shop isn't successful enough where he can hire Dion full-time, whenever he can, he has hired Dion to help around the shop. It's also during these times that Dion has gained some knowledge, like how to actually read. He's street-smart by need, but a bit book-dumb, lacking practical real-world experience and being hopelessly naive. He is a good-natured kid, however.
Anyway, one day, he goes out on an adventure to slay a beast. Everyone thinks he's going to get himself killed, and none of them really care. During the fight, Dion is outmatched by the beast, and at one point, a contract appears in front of him: some demon is offering to help him, but in exchange for 95% of the loot and all of Dion's natural power.
Reading the terms, he rips the contract to pieces, says, "To hell with that!", and then breathes fire. (Remember: humans can't use magic. Unless they are in an accord, at least.) He then uses his new-found fire powers to enhance his mace (one of his two weapons of choice, the other being dual daggers) to do some serious damage to the beast, felling it.
And then, to the shock of the entire city, he drags the beast back (he's freakishly strong all of a sudden and able to do that), proud of his achievements but absolutely ignorant to what they mean. This ends the prologue of the story, but I've done a ton of work since then on the details of the story.
The title of the webcomic would be "Our Little Dion", in part because Dion (if you couldn't guess by this point) sounds a lot like demon, and is therefore a bit of a punny name. Dion develops to be a Jack of All Trades fighter: his past experience on the street means he's very, very fast, nimble, and stealthy, able to get up close and deliver a hit. His heritage and aspiration to be an adventurer mean he packs a mean punch and is an incredibly-durable kid, and when he enhances his attacks/defense with his fire magic, it's even better. For some reason, his fire magic doesn't work at night, which is odd, because no form of magic be it demonic or angelic has this limitation; it's just him. Also, for the record: fire magic isn't synonymous with demon magic, it's just the most common type of demonic magic is fire magic.
This gets into spoilers, but his parents are both alive. Damon, his father, was the self-proclaimed Greatest King the world has ever known--sound familiar? Dion inherited most of his looks, personality, and even mannerisms from his father, who is basically a much larger version of Dion, with the ram horns built into him. He is one of the three demon lords, the lord ruling over chaos and the sun. His colors are red and gold, and his demonic symbol is the stereotypical upside-down pentagram.
His mother is the true spoiler. She's Luna, who has many aliases and titles. Queen of the Night, Queen of Dreams, Lady of Darkness, The Peacekeeper, The Lightbringer, Light of the Night, Silver Queen, The Purple Dragon, and many more. She is one of the three demon lords, ruling over order and the moon.
Her colors are purple and silver, and while Damon is considered the greatest king, she is considered to be by far the strongest, most ruthless demon in existence. Her magical symbol is a circle with a smaller circle inside, and then two curved lines forming a stylized V (sort-of like Gazelle horns), with a third much smaller curved line at the top, which doesn't quite meet the ends of the other lines but comes close, forming a ridge of sorts. The reason Dion can't use fire magic during the night is that he wants to use her magic instead, but it's blocked out because her magic is so overwhelmingly powerful that Dion can't control it right now.
The third demon lord, by the way, is Satan. He's basically the demon lord of the leftovers, but while this might make him sound less important, it actually means the majority of demons answer to him. Even Luna and Damon pay respect to him and will follow his requests, even though they're equals. They could, of course, choose not to, especially since together, they'd have enough to topple him, but they actually like him, and consider him a friend, so they follow because they choose to assist him when he needs it.
His colors aren't as set, but I'm thinking Blue and Brown. I'm also not as set on his demonic seal, but I'm thinking it's a pentagon, with a five-pointed star within, each point starting at a corner of the pentagon and continuing to the midway point on the side opposite. (When I drew it, it looked vaguely interesting and mystical, so I'm going with it for now.) He's partially responsible for the war in the first place, and is still bitter about the outcome. (Damon and Luna, not so much. They have plans to undo the damage done by the war, but they have no personal investment aside from not wanting their son to die.)
Adrianna, Dion's friend, ends up eventually protecting Dion's secret. Circumstances have her leave on a quest for her father, relating to business for their shop. This is how the adventure really starts to get going. At some point, she decides to unlock her latent angelic magic (which was previously limited to mostly healing magic with a little bit of defensive magic) by making a pact with Dion: "I'll always be at your side, provided you listen to me and follow my lead."
This gives her access to a lot more defensive magic, some illusionary magic, and a couple basic magical attacks, albeit nothing special, since she's not an experienced user. In turn, Dion makes a contract. His fire powers were always active, but after making this contract, they become vastly amplified. His goes, "I'll be your bodyguard, provided I get the fame and fortune of our adventures." This seemed like a good idea at the time: it was mutually-beneficial, unlocking both of their true potential, and is what their natural dynamic was anyway. Dion wanted to become the greatest adventurer the world has ever known; Ana had no interest in that, basically just wanting to help her father out. She wants to help Dion as well, and does so largely by providing a voice of reason.
...What they don't know is that, while made innocently enough, what they really did was accidentally make a bond akin to marriage: the last mutual accord is what sparked the celestial war in the first place, rather, more specifically, when the relationship fell apart thanks to unfortunate circumstances, an attempt at a "divorce", so to speak. The end result was Satan's daughter (the demon who made the contract with the angel), their son, and the angel all regrettably died, and the war broke out.
There's more important characters than just those two, however. I also have in mind a third kid for their group, at minimum. (More may join later.) This kid would balance their team out a bit: she's the ranged fighter of the group, using technology rather than magic to fight. She's unable to tap into magic even with an accord, and she's searching for her parents, who she knows are alive, just...somewhere else.
She has a contract with a demon, who is an old friend of Damon's, having fought under him for many, many battles, even before the war. (Because, prior to the war, Damon was a King on earth, akin to the Fate/Zero version of Alexander the Great. With a touch of Lion-O's father thrown in for good measure, too.) His terms involve taking all her energy when fighting, to unleash his full strength (this does not drain her life force, but does leave her physically exhausted), and that all her spare technological inventions get sent to the demon realm: with the reduced demonic population, they need every advantage they can get, in case another war would break out, so harvesting her tech helps prepare them for it.
These two eventually join up with Dion, at the request of the demon, who says he has a feeling traveling along-side those two (well, three) will provide her the path to her answers. (He does this because he recognizes Dion's mannerisms as being the same as Damon's, and deduces Dion's importance from there.)
Another major character is an old friend of Ana's father, a religious scholar who is a pacifist. He travels with the two as a respectable adult to help Ana's father complete his business, in order to help pay off some past favor, though as he points out, he wouldn't need the favor as an excuse to assist anyway. (If you think 'stereotypical clean-shaven Arab', you've probably got what he looks like, though his clothing is a mixture of purples, blues, and whites.)
Of course, there's more to him than meets the eye. He actually has both a contract and a pact. His contract is with a little imp, a small demon who provides massive fire magic power and also makes him more feral. His pact is with an angel capable of shapeshifting into a weapon, usually, a magical wand/staff (shorter than a typical staff, longer than a typical wand). The terms of these accords are why he is the way he is: the contract says that every time the demon is summoned, someone must die.
Understandably, this produces a hesitancy to fight. The terms of the pact are to atone for whatever sins he has committed, and given the terms of his contract, this is why he lives his daily life in such a spiritual manner: as repentance for all the lives he has claimed by using his full power...which is, understandably, a lot; he can curbstomp a ton of people given his strength.
He has a massive scar on a chest, and eventually relays the story of why: when defending Ana's father (it was their first time meeting), he summoned his demon to fight...but every foe managed to flee out of range and left him unable to cause someone to die...except for Ana's father, the guy he just tried to save.
Because his contract compelled him to kill someone, he made the only logical choice he had: he stabbed himself, and literally died, gambiting on Ana's father being able to revive him. He was clinically dead for only a few moments: not long enough where his accords would be terminated, but long enough where the terms of his contract of someone dieing were fulfilled. Him having been saved by Ana's father is the reason why he owes a debt to Ana's father.
The last important character is a demon, introduced as having a contract with someone who has intent to harm Dion. He is, however, first and foremost a servant of Luna, so when Luna possesses Dion, she speaks to him in Celestial, and tells him he is not allowed to harm Dion. The terms of his contract now being impossible, he rips it up, and makes a contract with Dion: a demon making a contract with a demon is in fact just as possible as an angel.
Haven't quite worked out what the terms of his contract with Dion are, but suffice to say: he becomes one of the protagonists. Interestingly enough, he possesses a rare talent among demons: having a shapeshifted form as his default, and his humanoid form as the alternate. His shapeshifted form is fairly dragon-like, and his humanoid form is a teenage-looking smooth, white spikey hair with a few tattoos and purple accents, guy, fairly standard anime character appearance, really.
This is also a story where I could work on a language I've always wanted to: in this case, it's called Celestial. I worked it out, and it's based on English. But it's got 12 vowels and 24 consonants, each with upper and lower case, making 72 total letters I need to work out for their alphabet. I really like the language (it's something I've dabbled with over the years a lot), but I haven't put in the time yet to actually make all the symbols needed. I've established the rules of the language, though. (It's really not that different from English, you just...gotta learn the couple of tricks it has.)
This is going to be a long blog post, because I did a LOT of work on it during my dream, and I'm expanding this out as the day goes by pure instinct alone. This is an idea which is asking to be made, so even if that may be impossible, I need to at least get it recorded pronto before the details are lost forever.
In this dream, angels and demons both exist, and fought a war prior to the comic. The reason for the war is unknown to the public, though a select few remember the spark which ignited it. (Technically, said cause wasn't in of itself worthy of going to war over. However, angels and demons had already-preexisting tensions long before then, and so, when given this final straw which infuriated both sides, they used it as justification.)
And, yes, I did envision this, quite specifically, as a webcomic. Images of it aren't coming to me as fluid scenes, but as pictures, with word bubbles. (Something unique to things I make. Even The Descended was fluid motions in my mind, and Red Hood Rider is more like an anime or even film in my mind, so it's not just pictures.)
Anyway, the demons lost, big time. Prior to the war, angels and demons roamed about the world freely in great numbers. Because of the war, almost all the demons died, and the few who didn't were banished from the mortal realm, save for those entered into contracts with humans. (More on that in a bit.)
Nowadays, the remaining demons can only be summoned by contracts, which always come at a heavy price to the human. These contracts are rarely "sell my soul" type deals, but always involve some sort of payment the human would rather not give. However, many humans still pay this price anyway, for demons are one of only two ways to use magic, and angelic magic is restricted by rules that demonic magic isn't held back by.
The reason the demons lost however is because outside of accords (the neutral term to refer to a pact/contract), angelic magic is equal to demonic magic, and given the terms of these accords, many humans fought along-side the angels whereas only a few humans sided with the demons, so as a result, the demons lost ground. (It also helped that demons actually held interest in conquering land to rule, whereas angels merely held interest in having some land to live in.)
Still, angels walk the earth protecting humans anyway, and offer their services in pacts, with a pact being a good way for an angel to transition from the heavens to earth, or even vice-versa. (All accords will be enforced by default until it is impossible for the terms to be upheld for a prolonged period of time, but pacts differ from contracts in that a pact can be dissolved by mutual understanding, whereas a contract must be enforced even if neither party is happy with the original deal anymore.)
The main character of this dreamcomic was a small boy I've since named Dion (about 13), spikey red hair with small black horns (but with a ram-horned crown/headband he always wears, giving the illusion he has two sets of horns), who dreamed of being an adventurer. More specifically, "The greatest adventurer the world has ever known!"
He's a street rat, who forages and even steals in order to get by, but he does attend a school sometimes anyway, where his grades are...not the greatest. This in part thanks to his airheaded desire for adventure, and his status as an apparent orphan. It also doesn't help that all the other kids bully and laugh at him for his unusual appearance and said status of having no known parents.
It's not all bad. He has a single friend, who I've since named Adriana (Ana for short, which he always calls her), a year older than him, and she protects and encourages him when she can. However, she has familial obligations in the form of helping her father run a shop of some kind, which keep her busy. She's also a half-angel, by her mother. (As a result, she knows some Celestial lullabies, but only knows how to read, not actually speak, the language, since her mother left before teaching her.)
Her father does help Dion out whenever they can. While their shop isn't successful enough where he can hire Dion full-time, whenever he can, he has hired Dion to help around the shop. It's also during these times that Dion has gained some knowledge, like how to actually read. He's street-smart by need, but a bit book-dumb, lacking practical real-world experience and being hopelessly naive. He is a good-natured kid, however.
Anyway, one day, he goes out on an adventure to slay a beast. Everyone thinks he's going to get himself killed, and none of them really care. During the fight, Dion is outmatched by the beast, and at one point, a contract appears in front of him: some demon is offering to help him, but in exchange for 95% of the loot and all of Dion's natural power.
Reading the terms, he rips the contract to pieces, says, "To hell with that!", and then breathes fire. (Remember: humans can't use magic. Unless they are in an accord, at least.) He then uses his new-found fire powers to enhance his mace (one of his two weapons of choice, the other being dual daggers) to do some serious damage to the beast, felling it.
And then, to the shock of the entire city, he drags the beast back (he's freakishly strong all of a sudden and able to do that), proud of his achievements but absolutely ignorant to what they mean. This ends the prologue of the story, but I've done a ton of work since then on the details of the story.
The title of the webcomic would be "Our Little Dion", in part because Dion (if you couldn't guess by this point) sounds a lot like demon, and is therefore a bit of a punny name. Dion develops to be a Jack of All Trades fighter: his past experience on the street means he's very, very fast, nimble, and stealthy, able to get up close and deliver a hit. His heritage and aspiration to be an adventurer mean he packs a mean punch and is an incredibly-durable kid, and when he enhances his attacks/defense with his fire magic, it's even better. For some reason, his fire magic doesn't work at night, which is odd, because no form of magic be it demonic or angelic has this limitation; it's just him. Also, for the record: fire magic isn't synonymous with demon magic, it's just the most common type of demonic magic is fire magic.
This gets into spoilers, but his parents are both alive. Damon, his father, was the self-proclaimed Greatest King the world has ever known--sound familiar? Dion inherited most of his looks, personality, and even mannerisms from his father, who is basically a much larger version of Dion, with the ram horns built into him. He is one of the three demon lords, the lord ruling over chaos and the sun. His colors are red and gold, and his demonic symbol is the stereotypical upside-down pentagram.
His mother is the true spoiler. She's Luna, who has many aliases and titles. Queen of the Night, Queen of Dreams, Lady of Darkness, The Peacekeeper, The Lightbringer, Light of the Night, Silver Queen, The Purple Dragon, and many more. She is one of the three demon lords, ruling over order and the moon.
Her colors are purple and silver, and while Damon is considered the greatest king, she is considered to be by far the strongest, most ruthless demon in existence. Her magical symbol is a circle with a smaller circle inside, and then two curved lines forming a stylized V (sort-of like Gazelle horns), with a third much smaller curved line at the top, which doesn't quite meet the ends of the other lines but comes close, forming a ridge of sorts. The reason Dion can't use fire magic during the night is that he wants to use her magic instead, but it's blocked out because her magic is so overwhelmingly powerful that Dion can't control it right now.
The third demon lord, by the way, is Satan. He's basically the demon lord of the leftovers, but while this might make him sound less important, it actually means the majority of demons answer to him. Even Luna and Damon pay respect to him and will follow his requests, even though they're equals. They could, of course, choose not to, especially since together, they'd have enough to topple him, but they actually like him, and consider him a friend, so they follow because they choose to assist him when he needs it.
His colors aren't as set, but I'm thinking Blue and Brown. I'm also not as set on his demonic seal, but I'm thinking it's a pentagon, with a five-pointed star within, each point starting at a corner of the pentagon and continuing to the midway point on the side opposite. (When I drew it, it looked vaguely interesting and mystical, so I'm going with it for now.) He's partially responsible for the war in the first place, and is still bitter about the outcome. (Damon and Luna, not so much. They have plans to undo the damage done by the war, but they have no personal investment aside from not wanting their son to die.)
Adrianna, Dion's friend, ends up eventually protecting Dion's secret. Circumstances have her leave on a quest for her father, relating to business for their shop. This is how the adventure really starts to get going. At some point, she decides to unlock her latent angelic magic (which was previously limited to mostly healing magic with a little bit of defensive magic) by making a pact with Dion: "I'll always be at your side, provided you listen to me and follow my lead."
This gives her access to a lot more defensive magic, some illusionary magic, and a couple basic magical attacks, albeit nothing special, since she's not an experienced user. In turn, Dion makes a contract. His fire powers were always active, but after making this contract, they become vastly amplified. His goes, "I'll be your bodyguard, provided I get the fame and fortune of our adventures." This seemed like a good idea at the time: it was mutually-beneficial, unlocking both of their true potential, and is what their natural dynamic was anyway. Dion wanted to become the greatest adventurer the world has ever known; Ana had no interest in that, basically just wanting to help her father out. She wants to help Dion as well, and does so largely by providing a voice of reason.
...What they don't know is that, while made innocently enough, what they really did was accidentally make a bond akin to marriage: the last mutual accord is what sparked the celestial war in the first place, rather, more specifically, when the relationship fell apart thanks to unfortunate circumstances, an attempt at a "divorce", so to speak. The end result was Satan's daughter (the demon who made the contract with the angel), their son, and the angel all regrettably died, and the war broke out.
There's more important characters than just those two, however. I also have in mind a third kid for their group, at minimum. (More may join later.) This kid would balance their team out a bit: she's the ranged fighter of the group, using technology rather than magic to fight. She's unable to tap into magic even with an accord, and she's searching for her parents, who she knows are alive, just...somewhere else.
She has a contract with a demon, who is an old friend of Damon's, having fought under him for many, many battles, even before the war. (Because, prior to the war, Damon was a King on earth, akin to the Fate/Zero version of Alexander the Great. With a touch of Lion-O's father thrown in for good measure, too.) His terms involve taking all her energy when fighting, to unleash his full strength (this does not drain her life force, but does leave her physically exhausted), and that all her spare technological inventions get sent to the demon realm: with the reduced demonic population, they need every advantage they can get, in case another war would break out, so harvesting her tech helps prepare them for it.
These two eventually join up with Dion, at the request of the demon, who says he has a feeling traveling along-side those two (well, three) will provide her the path to her answers. (He does this because he recognizes Dion's mannerisms as being the same as Damon's, and deduces Dion's importance from there.)
Another major character is an old friend of Ana's father, a religious scholar who is a pacifist. He travels with the two as a respectable adult to help Ana's father complete his business, in order to help pay off some past favor, though as he points out, he wouldn't need the favor as an excuse to assist anyway. (If you think 'stereotypical clean-shaven Arab', you've probably got what he looks like, though his clothing is a mixture of purples, blues, and whites.)
Of course, there's more to him than meets the eye. He actually has both a contract and a pact. His contract is with a little imp, a small demon who provides massive fire magic power and also makes him more feral. His pact is with an angel capable of shapeshifting into a weapon, usually, a magical wand/staff (shorter than a typical staff, longer than a typical wand). The terms of these accords are why he is the way he is: the contract says that every time the demon is summoned, someone must die.
Understandably, this produces a hesitancy to fight. The terms of the pact are to atone for whatever sins he has committed, and given the terms of his contract, this is why he lives his daily life in such a spiritual manner: as repentance for all the lives he has claimed by using his full power...which is, understandably, a lot; he can curbstomp a ton of people given his strength.
He has a massive scar on a chest, and eventually relays the story of why: when defending Ana's father (it was their first time meeting), he summoned his demon to fight...but every foe managed to flee out of range and left him unable to cause someone to die...except for Ana's father, the guy he just tried to save.
Because his contract compelled him to kill someone, he made the only logical choice he had: he stabbed himself, and literally died, gambiting on Ana's father being able to revive him. He was clinically dead for only a few moments: not long enough where his accords would be terminated, but long enough where the terms of his contract of someone dieing were fulfilled. Him having been saved by Ana's father is the reason why he owes a debt to Ana's father.
The last important character is a demon, introduced as having a contract with someone who has intent to harm Dion. He is, however, first and foremost a servant of Luna, so when Luna possesses Dion, she speaks to him in Celestial, and tells him he is not allowed to harm Dion. The terms of his contract now being impossible, he rips it up, and makes a contract with Dion: a demon making a contract with a demon is in fact just as possible as an angel.
Haven't quite worked out what the terms of his contract with Dion are, but suffice to say: he becomes one of the protagonists. Interestingly enough, he possesses a rare talent among demons: having a shapeshifted form as his default, and his humanoid form as the alternate. His shapeshifted form is fairly dragon-like, and his humanoid form is a teenage-looking smooth, white spikey hair with a few tattoos and purple accents, guy, fairly standard anime character appearance, really.
This is also a story where I could work on a language I've always wanted to: in this case, it's called Celestial. I worked it out, and it's based on English. But it's got 12 vowels and 24 consonants, each with upper and lower case, making 72 total letters I need to work out for their alphabet. I really like the language (it's something I've dabbled with over the years a lot), but I haven't put in the time yet to actually make all the symbols needed. I've established the rules of the language, though. (It's really not that different from English, you just...gotta learn the couple of tricks it has.)
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