Renlings are major characters of Miraculous World: Shanghai - The Legend of Ladydragon. They are divine, sprite-like beings who embody human values. They can transform the owner of the Prodigious into any of the animals that they resemble, as long as the Prodigious wearer possesses the values that they respectively embody.[1]
They are cousins of Kwamis, other spirit-like beings who embody abstract concepts.
Generally, Renlings are the same size as the kwamis. They have large heads, big eyes, tails with different sizes, and animalistic bodies, as opposed to kwamis’ humanoid bodies. They are all bright red, with black swirl patterns, and on some, orange undersides. They all have lime green hair as of the concept art, when really they have sunshine yellow hair. They also seem to have purple mouths.
Abilities
Renlings are divine beings capable of levitation and are immortal. They can only be seen by the Renren, the one who possesses the Prodigious, while remaining invisible to everyone else. Unlike their cousins, the kwamis, who grant various powers to their owners, renlings have the ability to transform their owner into the animal they represent, provided that the holder of the Prodigious embodies the values associated with that animal.
"Renling" is a play on the Chinese words "rèn lǐng" (认领/認領), meaning to claim/adopt/accept someone and/or something as their own and the English diminutive -ling, making their name "little people".
This said, originally, Ladydragon had golden hair, just like the renlings.
Their five colors in the concept art (green, red, orange, black, white) fit the five elements of Wu Xing, wood, fire, earth, water and metal.
They are described as the "cousins" of the kwamis.[1]
The renlings seemingly correspond to animals that frequently appear in the imagery of Southern styles of martial arts. The Five Animals are the Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake and Dragon. Alternate sets replace the Leopard and the Dragon with the Monkey and the Mantis. Other animal styles include the Eagle and Bear among others.[2]
Just like the kwamis, renlings are bound or connected to a certain object (kwamis with their Miraculouses and renlings to the Prodigious). However, each of the kwamis have their own miraculous; all the renlings are bound to one object together.
While kwamis can be seen by all human beings, renlings can only be seen by the Renren.
With the kwamis connection to parallel universes it's likely the renlings live in parallel universes too.
