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Description
January 1, 2021

Originally I was going do this concept as a Jungle Elf for Inktober 52's "Elf" prompt. Then it morphed into an original character for an original fantasy setting.

In steamy jungles, on humid nights...
The Niasils dance by moon and ghost light.

In the untamed emerald wilderness in the southwestern jungle of Mu, where the air is so thick that you could almost drink it in, where crystal clear waterfalls tumble into tranquil green pools below, where colorful spotted, yellow eels slither through the stinking, black mud of the riverbanks, where bulbous, vermillion slugs inch along the mossy bark of fallen trees...here, here in this seemingly enchanted glade live a race of women veiled by legend.

None living can say with any authority where the legends end and the genuine accounts begin. Are they a flesh and blood race of mortal women? Are they a race of nature spirits that serve as stewards, vassals, or guardians of these tropical groves? Are they the lingering, spectral phantasms of a lost tribe?

These are the common speculations, but as I said, no written record or living word can be taken as fully trustworthy. Some will say that they subside on otherworldly nectars and ambrosia. Others will say that their favorite delight is river prawns infused with the flavorful smoke from a wood fire.

Some accounts would paint them in a more sinister light. In addition to loving tropical fruit and the placing of bamboo wind chimes high on jungle branches, it is said that they revel in getting travelers lost.

It is said that they can control the motions of fireflies and dance between their flickering lights. Similar to that, it is said that they control the ghost lights and lure men into swampy graves.

Description
January 1, 2021

Originally I was going do this concept as a Jungle Elf for Inktober 52's "Elf" prompt. Then it morphed into an original character for an original fantasy setting.

In steamy jungles, on humid nights...
The Niasils dance by moon and ghost light.

In the untamed emerald wilderness in the southwestern jungle of Mu, where the air is so thick that you could almost drink it in, where crystal clear waterfalls tumble into tranquil green pools below, where colorful spotted, yellow eels slither through the stinking, black mud of the riverbanks, where bulbous, vermillion slugs inch along the mossy bark of fallen trees...here, here in this seemingly enchanted glade live a race of women veiled by legend.

None living can say with any authority where the legends end and the genuine accounts begin. Are they a flesh and blood race of mortal women? Are they a race of nature spirits that serve as stewards, vassals, or guardians of these tropical groves? Are they the lingering, spectral phantasms of a lost tribe?

These are the common speculations, but as I said, no written record or living word can be taken as fully trustworthy. Some will say that they subside on otherworldly nectars and ambrosia. Others will say that their favorite delight is river prawns infused with the flavorful smoke from a wood fire.

Some accounts would paint them in a more sinister light. In addition to loving tropical fruit and the placing of bamboo wind chimes high on jungle branches, it is said that they revel in getting travelers lost.

It is said that they can control the motions of fireflies and dance between their flickering lights. Similar to that, it is said that they control the ghost lights and lure men into swampy graves.