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anistarrose · 3 years

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Chapter Summary: Why has Kravitz gone unresponsive on all channels? What have Barry and Noelle been planning? Who, if anyone, is left on Taako’s list of people to be trusted? Find out the answers to all these questions and more, right now on Fear The Reaper A Lot, Actually!

Characters: Kravitz, Taako, Barry Bluejeans, Angus McDonald, Magnus Burnsides, Merle Highchurch, Noelle | No-3113, The Raven Queen, The Director | Lucretia, misc. BoB cameos, Julia Burnsides, Garyl

Relationships: Taakitz, Angus McDonald & Taako, Barry Bluejeans & Kravitz, Kravitz & Angus McDonald

(chanting) ghost fight ghost fight ghost fight

***

Kravitz landed ankle-deep in an underground lake, scarcely twenty feet away from the red-robed figure on the shore. Barry’s head was turned, and he gave no sign of noticing Kravitz’s arrival, but it was clear where his focus was directed — a small mob of six freshly animated undead, occupying the full spectrum between zombie and skeleton.

Wasting no time, Kravitz threw himself at the lich, scythe blazing to life with a silent radiance.

Barry had really snapped, if he was out here raising the dead without any wards to hide himself. Even without the summons, this stunt could’ve appeared as a beacon on Kravitz’s radar at any moment, and that wasn’t at all like the Barry he’d known —

Heeding to his nagging suspicions, Kravitz slowed his pace — but Barry still didn’t move, and Kravitz felt his reluctant scythe slice through illusory red cloth, then tangible rotting flesh and brittle bone.

Fuck.

Leaping back from the disguised zombie, he decorporealized as fast as he could — just in time to withstand a light that felt blinding even to his undead senses, burning even to his formless soul. When the sunbursts faded and he returned to his reaper form, dazed, he barely glimpsed a robotic silhouette duck behind a rock formation on the other side of the lake, revealed only by her still-glowing cannon arm.

“Noelle, you backstabber!” Waves of magical force whipped off Kravitz’s scythe, hurtling across the cave and towards her hiding place. “I was rooting for you —”

Jagged spires of ice burst out from the lake, intact for less than a second before intercepting the force wave, and the two spells neutralized each other with an explosion of roaring wind and frozen shrapnel. Before Kravitz could attack again, a skeleton’s clawlike fingers dug deep into his right shoulder, and he launched himself into the air with a flick of his cloak to shake the attacker loose.

But before he could reach his intended altitude, a few yards short of the stalactite-dotted ceiling, something pulled him to a stop — not a bony hand at his shoulder this time, but a fuzzy constricting sensation around his scythe-bearing arm. When he looked down, he saw a web of tangled red threads, impossibly thin yet ensnaring him from wrist to mid-biceps — and every single one of them led back to Barry Bluejeans.

When Kravitz saw the real Barry, floating a few feet above the undead horde on the lake’s near shore, he couldn’t believe he’d fallen for the disguised zombie. This Barry was glowing with power, with desperation, with determination — but his form remained as composed and his expression as unreadable as ever. The only exception was his own right arm, around which his robe had unravelled up to the elbow — not just exposing smoke-black bones, but freeing the threads of that sleeve to go on the offensive, humming with an intensity that made Kravitz’s own bones shake as he tried, unsuccessfully, to decorporealize and escape.

He’d never seen anything like it before — but then again, he’d also never seen Barry come after him, instead of the inverse, and wasn’t that an equally urgent and terrifying mystery to unravel?

“Why, Barry?!” Kravitz shouted. “Why now?!”

Barry narrowed his eyes, and with a flick of a spectral hand, hurtled Kravitz down towards the rocky shore. Channeling another force blast through his free limbs, Kravitz flung himself to the right, but his downward momentum stayed with him, and he plunged into the lake with enough momentum that he hit the bottom with a sickening crunch.

You can give up any time. Barry’s voice echoed inside his head as electricity coursed through the threads, sending both Kravitz’s mind and body reeling. But I never will.

I’m sure you’re right that you won’t give up, Kravitz thought back with all the determination he could muster, still submerged in the lake, but like it or not, that’s one thing we’ve got in common.

Fighting through what must’ve been a potent paralysis spell, he summoned his scythe into his unrestricted hand and swung it at the threads, expecting to slice cleanly through most of them — but his blade was met with a fierce resistance, and though sparks of red and blue magic exploded from the point of contact, he didn’t feel a single thread snap.

He did feel Barry recoil, letting out a psychic scream that would’ve haunted a mortal for months, and drawing the threads back into his robe to let Kravitz free — which would be cause for celebration, if only it wasn’t supposed to be impossible. No part of a lich’s essence should withstand a reaper’s most sacred weapon — it was simply the way the world worked, the way the world was supposed to work.

Barry was stunned and convulsing, true — but the undead that Kravitz knew didn’t go through death throes, either, and Kravitz could only assume that the being he once would’ve called a lich was on the verge of recollecting himself.

What is Barry made of? What is he, and what happens if I try to reap a whole robe’s worth of those threads? Can I even reap him? Do I have any chance of winning this fight?

“Mister Bluejeans!” Noelle shouted from behind some stalagmite, but she was rapidly descending on the list of Kravitz’s top concerns.

As he burst to the surface, seeing Barry regain his composure, Kravitz began to chant as quickly as he could, offering a prayer to the Raven Queen and infusing the water of the lake with her power. When Barry’s eyes — gleaming white within a faint halo of blue — fixated on him again, Kravitz was ready, and he tore open a rift from the bottom of the lake to a point just above Barry’s head.

The ensuing deluge passed straight through Barry’s lich form with the telltale hiss of celestial magic burning away at an undead soul, and Kravitz allowed himself a relieved grin as Barry vanished into the waterfall. No matter how resistant Barry was to his scythe, there were always at least a few tricks that could hurt any lich under Faerun’s sun —

Then the crimson silhouette within the waterfall raised a hand, and the sapphire-blue edges of Kravitz’s portal turned an ashen gray as the rift shriveled and closed with a pop. Barry emerged from the water with hardly a shudder, wisps of magical steam rising off a red robe that was otherwise no worse for wear.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” said Barry, sounding genuinely apologetic, “but I spent the last few cycles building up an immunity to holy water.”

He extended his hands, firing a bolt of necrotic energy from each of his ten fingertips, but Kravitz twirled his scythe with a flick of his hand, reforming it as a shield emblazoned with swooping raven wings. Each bolt ricocheted off it in a different direction, and Barry clenched his hands into fists, channeling the spell’s residual energy into two spheres of consolidated dark magic. He hurled them in mirror-image arcs, both circling back towards Kravitz from behind —

With another flick of Kravitz’s wrist, his shield became two identical lightweight scythes, each intercepting a different sphere before the whirlwind of blades propelled Kravitz towards the ceiling, equal with Barry’s altitude. Expecting Barry to flee, but not about to risk an opening going to waste, Kravitz charged — but Barry snapped his fingers, and two discarded femurs from the bottom of the lake flew to his side, transforming into a pair of crimson scimitars and crossing to catch the blade of Kravitz’s first scythe.

The blow from the second scythe was more precise, and sent the scimitars hurtling across the cave, but Barry clapped his hands together, and they flew back to his defense, exchanging a flurry of increasingly rapid blows with Kravitz. One of them grazed the cuff of his jacket, and as he dove out of the way, he deliberately bashed his sapphire blades together, releasing a sunburst of blue light — and more importantly, a wave of thunderous force to fracture the scimitars, which Kravitz shattered with one final swing of his scythe.

He returned his focus to Barry himself, and realized — too late — that a single red thread of his sleeve had once again unraveled. Kravitz preemptively turned skeletal, surrounding himself with ghostly flames he hoped would make Barry think twice about trying to restrain him — but instead, Barry swung the stray thread towards the ceiling, where it cleaved through stalactites like a red-hot wire through butter, and a barrage of newly-freed spears rained down on Kravitz.

Only one struck him — barely bruising his shoulder in the fraction of a second before he decorporealized, and his soul-light possessed the stalactite itself. Barry summoned two more elongated bones to his side, but before he could transform them into scimitars, Kravitz hurtled his new form at them with such force that they crashed into the damp cave wall, shattering both the bones and stalactite while releasing Kravitz’s soul.

“It’s time to explain yourself!” Kravitz shouted, rematerializing and conjuring a dual-bladed scythe. Explain your lichdom, the Grand Relics, Taako’s unexplained deaths and missing memories —

With both hands, he spun the scythe like a baton, generating a vortex of blue lightning drawn from the essence of the Astral Plane itself. “This ends NOW!”

Undaunted, Barry shrugged. “Y’know, I did try to warn you the apocalypse was imminent,” he said nonchalantly, and melted into the shadows cast upon the wall.

The lightning pulverized stalactites across the cave, rendering even its darkest corners in brilliant blue light, but Barry had retreated too far into the earth for the magic to touch him — and in a way, it was almost reassuring, if only because the rest of this encounter had felt so alien.

This was the Barry that Kravitz knew, the Barry that would casually say something ominous before disengaging and vanishing off the map for the next three to eight months — but the moment of reassurance didn’t last long, because Barry reappeared on the lakeshore with his undead minions a moment later, and no, Kravitz was not falling for that again.

His scythe transformed into a longbow, a sapphire arrow already nocked. When he let it fly, it pierced the illusory red robe without a sound, and Barry’s deception vanished with a puff of smoke.

Where did you really go, Bluejeans?

He glimpsed some kind of shadow at the bottom of the lake, but before he could identify it, the surface froze over — and then, with a mighty creak, it rose, first as rapid-fire spears that Kravitz dodged with ease, but then as staggered subsections that formed a staircase — or as the terrestrial skeletons and zombies saw it, a perfect opportunity to charge at Kravitz.

The three who lead the assault fell in a volley of just as many arrows, but before the rest could arrive, Kravitz swung his bow around himself in an arc, transforming it back into a scythe just in time to strike the staircase with maximum force and shatter the ice. The remaining undead plummeted into the lake of still-blessed water, dissolving in a flash of light and a plume of steam.

“Not as resilient as your creator, eh?” Kravitz quipped, but not quite loud enough to miss the crackle of electricity behind him, and he somersaulted in midair to evade a crimson lightning bolt. Undeterred, Barry fired again, then a third time with two bolts at once, but Kravitz had no trouble dodging — though he realized, not a moment too soon, that Barry’s otherwise ineffective spells were driving him backwards and down, towards the rocky shore where Barry had raised the dead.

Not so fast, Kravitz thought, and plunged his scythe into the wall. Halfway across the cave, a massive blue crystal burst out from among the stalactites, missing Barry by a hair — but as he absconded, more sapphires tore through the cave ceiling, cutting him off at every angle until he was trapped in a cage of jagged crystalline fangs. Kravitz trembled from the exertion, bones rattling beneath his skin, but he didn’t have to maintain the spell for long — because through the translucent sapphires, he saw Barry’s silhouette clap two lightning-wreathed hands together, and an explosion of thunder pulverized every crystal in the cave. Kravitz morphed his scythe into a shield just in time to deflect the brunt of it, but the sheer force sent him flying backwards, and he landed on his feet on the lakeshore, exhausted but alert.

“I really am sorry, Kravitz. You seem like a decent guy.” Barry’s words echoed across the cave, making it impossible to tell if the slight distortion was coming from his own voice or simply the acoustics. “I’d always hoped that — that somehow, it wouldn’t turn out like this —”

“Oh, that’s real rich coming from you, Barry J. ‘created the Animus Bell and picked a fight with the Grim Reaper’ Bluejeans,” Kravitz retorted, switching his shield back into a scythe with none of the usual dramatic flourish. “You’re talking like my fate is sealed, but you haven’t won yet —”

Kravitz paused — because for the first time in twelve years of hunting Barry Bluejeans and ten years of knowing him, he could perfectly read the expression on Barry’s cowled semblance of a face. It was triumph, clear as day, and colored mainly by relief…

But not without an edge to it, a telltale hint of smugness.

“No, I think I have won,” Barry said. “Remember — you’re still outnumbered.”

A bolt of scorching light lanced down from above, rupturing the ground before Kravitz’s feet with all the red-hot fury of a meteor impact. He flung himself backwards, trying to escape the brunt of the attack — but the explosion hurtled him to the very back of the cave, where his spine met the cold limestone wall at high velocity, and he toppled to the ground before he could get his bearings.

“No,” he whispered. “No, I’m not outnumbered.” His ears rang, and lights danced across all but the most peripheral corners of his vision, but he still pulled himself to his feet, bracing himself against the wall. “I am the Raven Queen’s champion, and she will not let you escape me again —”

He extended an arm, to summon back the scythe he’d lost his grip on…

But for the first ever time, after more than eight centuries in the Queen’s undead flock, his scythe didn’t heed his call.

He could see it on the ground, barely ten feet away and undamaged as far as he could tell. But it didn’t move an inch, much less spring back into his hand — and only then, for the first time since arriving in the cave, did Kravitz notice the dark gray runes carved all around him, separating him from his weapon.

A trap, which had been Barry’s endgame all along. A trap, which Kravitz had flung himself right into.

Noelle floated to ground-level, hovering next to Barry and exchanging a few words that Kravitz’s ears still rang too much to hear. Making the most of their distraction, Kravitz lunged for his scythe with nothing to lose — but a shimmering, opalescent barrier sprung up from the runes, and he bounced off of it, shoulder first.

Barry glanced at him, and just sighed — which manifested, for a breathless entity made up of pure magic, as something more like a low electric crackle. “This was how I didn’t want it turn out, Kravitz.”

Kravitz ignored him, closing his eyes and raising his fingers to his temples. My Queen, I’m outmatched. I beseech you —

He ceased his prayer, his eyes flying open. It was wrong, all wrong, the terrifying gut-churning kind of wrong — and worst of all, he knew exactly why.

No electric blue buzz had reached him when he’d prayed to his goddess. It would be one thing if the Raven Queen hadn’t replied, but Kravitz hadn’t even been able to open a channel of communication in the first place.

And his scythe, he now realized, was not damaged nor unresponsive. He simply no longer had the ability to summon it — because The Raven Queen, and all the powers she’d graced him with, were completely cut off by Barry’s spell.

For the first time in countless lifetimes, Kravitz was alone.

***

Taako jumped when he heard the second knock of the day, expecting a barrage of accusations from the Director to follow — but it was Angus’s voice, not Lucretia’s, that called out to him a moment later.

“Sir? Do you mind if I come in? There’s something I need to talk to you about!”

Taako pressed his ear to the door. He couldn’t hear anyone else in the hallway, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. “Talk about what, Agnes?”

“Oh, uh… I’d rather not say while I’m standing out here. It’s kinda personal…” Angus lowered his voice. “And you know the drill, prying eyes and ears.”

Taako’s heart skipped a beat — because Angus McDonald, light of his life and the closest thing to a son he could imagine ever having, knowing information too dangerous to speak out loud — was scarier than any apocalyptic nightmares or even malfunctioning arrows.

Pointing his Umbra Staff at the door and tapping his forehead, Taako extended his sense of sight outside, verifying that the hallway was deserted — aside, of course, from one innocent-looking boy detective. With that information confirmed, he cracked the door open and grabbed Angus by the vest, yanking him inside before Angus could even get a protest in edgewise.

“You bring your Stone of Farspeech?” Taako asked, fidgeting with locks both magical and arcane. “Power it down, right now.”

“But — but I’m waiting for a text back from —”

Taako snapped his fingers, silencing the Stone in Angus’s pocket. “Well, suck it up and wait a little longer, kid, because the Director’s listened in on me through those things before and I’m sure she’ll do it again — so how’s that for prying ears? I’m about to be in enough trouble as is, I can’t let you get implicated too —”

Angus glanced around the room, gaze lingering on the ruins of the coffee table and the ashen footprints tread across the rug. “Sir, are you… okay? You’re acting like Caleb Cleveland whenever a case-changing discovery sends him spiraling into paranoia —”

“I — okay, look. The day got off to a rough start, but — but you worry way too much about me, kid.” How had Taako already fucked up this badly, confirming there was a conspiracy afoot and getting the kid invested? He should’ve just begged Angus to stay quiet, to stay away from him.

“I — I just can’t tell you what’s happening, Angus, for your own good! I shouldn’t have even let you in here in the first place, when I don’t know what’s going on or how to protect —”

With a hug, Angus knocked the wind out of Taako’s lungs and the wizard hat off of his head. “Sir, I found something big too! I didn’t know how to face it alone, but I couldn’t find Noelle, and Kravitz hasn’t texted me back —”

He smiled. “And I came to you, because I’m sure we can figure this out together. You just have to trust —”

“I trust you implicitly, Ango. You know this,” Taako blurted out. “I trust you with my life.

“I suspected as much, though it’s nice to hear you say it.” Angus met his eyes. “But I meant that you have to trust yourself with mine.”

Taako closed his eyes, and saw Glamour Springs. Forty people, fatally poisoned.

“I need to know what you know, sir. It might put me in danger — but there’s no one else I’d rather have watching my back. I’ll be okay, I really will — I believe in us!”

Phandalin. Eight-hundred and fifty people, all incinerated.

“And if it helps, sir… I trust you. Both implicitly and rationally.”

The return to Wave Echo Cave in search of liches. Angus imperiled, but alive.

Taako wasn’t sure when he’d first started hugging Angus back, but he hugged a little tighter, just for good measure. “I just don’t want to put any more pressure on you than I already have, little guy. Your job’s hard work, and I keep making it harder —”

“I know my limits better now. Kravitz helped me with that,” Angus assured him. “I’ll tell you if it ever gets to be too much, I promise.”

“Yeah, you better.” Taako took a deep breath, then another, coming a little closer to spilling the truth with each inhale. “So, I guess… I’d better tell you about the second Voidfish.”

“I knew it!” Angus exclaimed, but lowered his voice as he went on, seeing Taako flinch. “I knew the Bureau wasn’t telling us everything! How did you figure it out?”

“Garyl helped — he’s immune, apparently,” Taako whispered. “He was making me paranoid, so I unsummoned him — but earlier today, he said I lost a bunch of my memories twelve years ago, and it might’ve all been Lucretia’s master plan —”

“Twelve years?” Angus echoed. “Kravitz said your bounties showed up twelve years ago, at the same time as Barry and Lup — and believe it or not, also the Director and Davenport, of all people!”

Taako collapsed onto the couch, for what felt like the tenth time that morning. “I don’t think my brain can physically unpack all of this, so I’m just gonna ask — when did Kravitz say this? Have you talked to him recently?”

“This was just earlier this morning! He was the person I was expecting to text me back, actually — but did something happen?”

Taako stomach dropped. “Did — did he tell you anything that showed up as static?”

“He did! Something about your bounties and the relics that I just couldn’t grasp! That was how I figured out there was another —”

“Shit,” Taako muttered. “I hate to break it to you, Angus, but our little rogue detective bureau’s first order of business might be figuring out what the hell happened to Kravitz.”

Angus gasped. “You think some necromancers captured him? Or — or the Director?”

“I don’t know! Maybe both — maybe Lucretia is the evil necromancer behind all of this! Or maybe it’s Davenport, or it’s Barry after all, or whoever the hell Lup is —”

His umbrella unfurled in his lap, its handle swinging up to hit him in the chin before it tumbled to the ground. “Hey, learn to read the room! You think I have time to deal with you causing problems on purpose right now?!”

Angus pursed his lips. “Where did you get that Umbra Staff anyway? Seems like it’s more trouble than it’s worth.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of the trouble this thing has given me, Ango. I found it on the original Wave Echo Cave trip — kinda near the Relic, actually. Former owner was just a skeleton in a… oh shit, that’s right. A skeleton in a fucking red robe.”

Angus just stared at him, dumbfounded, for ten full seconds before he pulled out his notebook and jotted the information down. “You and the other Reclaimers are terrible at passing on relevant information, you know that?”

“In my defense, I have severe undiagnosed memory loss!” Taako shot back. “And it’s been, like, eight months? Ten? See, I can’t even remember how long it’s been!”

“Wait. Hang on.” Angus sat down his notepad and closed his eyes. “If the Red Robes made the Grand Relics… you told me that Barry has mentioned Lup by name, correct?”

Taako nodded, then upon realizing Angus’s eyes were still closed, he spoke up. “Yeah.”

“So we can reasonably assume Lup’s a Red Robe, too. She’s been missing for ten years, last seen in Wave Echo Cave — and I would hazard a guess, specifically in the part of the cave that housed the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet. The part of the cave where you found your Umbra Staff.”

“And the worst times the umbrella has ever malfunctioned,” Taako realized aloud, heart pounding, “were when either Kravitz or I was about to hurt Barry.”

“Your staff doesn’t just absorb arcane foci, does it?” Angus gasped. “It absorbed an entire lich. We thought we’d never find Lup — but she’s been under our noses all along.”

***

“Barry, how? How did you do this?”

Noelle was still looking at Kravitz, but Barry had turned away, seemingly with no purpose in mind besides cultivating a sullen appearance.

“Took some inspiration from an entity I already knew could cut off planes from each other, and gods from their emissaries,” he muttered after a few seconds. “Not too proud of it, but you forced my hand.”

There was the confirmation Kravitz had been looking for, yet dreading — because Kravitz needed a font of magic, needed the Raven Queen, not just to fight but to exist in any capacity. His soul would burn out, drained by the exertion of maintaining physical form, without a direct line to either her or her dominion of the Astral Plane — gods, his soul should’ve burnt out already, within seconds of being sealed in.

“No, I mean — how am I still here, Barry?” How am I still half-alive?

“Arcane core buried a few feet beneath you.” Barry’s voice was practically monotone, and the concerned frown on Noelle’s display didn’t escape Kravitz’s notice. “Should fuel your soul at least until the end of the world. Maybe longer.”

He shuddered, though he kept it together — and unlikely as he was to admit it, even Kravitz was starting to feel a little worried for the lich who’d just spared his not-quite-life.

“You could’ve killed me like this at any point,” he pointed out. “During any of those ten years. Why didn’t you, if I’ve been such an impediment to your master plan —”

Barry whirled around, teleporting to a spot right outside the barrier with a clap of thunder and a spray of sparks. “You think this was a type of magic I wanted to mess with? You think I did this for my own sake?! I only did this so you wouldn’t kill my family!”

He and Kravitz stood face to face-shaped void — and there was something unsteady about that void and the lights inside, something telling Kravitz that if Barry had a true face at the moment, his expression would’ve just crumpled.

“Your family,” Kravitz echoed. “The other Red Robes. Magnus, Merle, and… Taako.”

“I’d do this all again to protect them,” Barry rasped. “No matter how convinced you are that you’re in the right, I can’t let you reap them —”

“I’m not going to reap them!” Kravitz blurted out, and the threads of Barry’s robe froze in place.

“What?!”

Kravitz raised his hand. “I swear I won’t! On my oath to the Raven Queen!”

Barry went not just perfectly still, but utterly silent, until Noelle spoke up. “Why not?!”

“We worked out a deal! I assumed you heard —” Before Kravitz knew it, he was laughing, even well aware that it made the lich in the room look like the sane one by comparison. “Gods, Barry. I really thought you were some kind of omniscient memory-wiping mastermind, leading a massive conspiracy with informants everywhere — but you didn’t even know I was letting the Reclaimers go! You’re just a family man who happens to be undead and a colossal pain in my ass! I can’t believe this!”

“What — what do you know about the memory wiping?” Barry finally spoke up, softer than Kravitz had ever heard him. “About the Voidfish?”

“Apparently not enough,” Kravitz admitted, lowering himself onto the floor of the cave and crossing his legs. “But… do you think could you tell me about it?”

Barry just stared at him for a few seconds, eventually glancing at Noelle, as if to check that she was just as dumfounded as he was. Then he turned back to Kravitz, and with a shrug, replied: “…I guess?”

Kravitz drummed his fingers on the ground — absorbing and channeling a trace of the arcane core’s aura, all while hoping Barry interpreted it as an absentminded tic, not one of deep and deliberate concentration. “If it’s not too much of a tangent, then literally any information on the apocalypse besides ‘it’s imminent’ would be nice.”

“Well, then,” Barry said slowly, “I guess I should start at the beginning. I wasn’t always a lich — I guess that was obvious, ‘cause that’s just how liches work — but I also wasn’t always a necromancer. I was totally fascinated with death, don’t get me wrong, and sometimes I dabbled in true necromancy against my better judgement, but it was… about as discouraged in my homeworld as it was here. So instead, I dedicated my life to studying interplanar travel.”

“Your homeworld,” Kravitz repeated, “which is… different from the Raven Queen’s domain? Different from this planar system?!”

“Probably shoulda led with that, huh?” Barry muttered. “Yeah, I’m technically an alien, and for a long time, I worked for an alien space agency. We searched for signs of life, or even mere existence, outside our own planar system, but we kept hitting dead ends — until a light we almost mistook for a meteor fell from the sky, and changed everything. We called it the Light of Creation, and it…”

He sighed. “You could say it enthralled us. It illuminated these underlying mechanisms of not just magic, but broadly speaking, interactions — between things, between worlds, between people. We called them bonds, and with the way we were studying them so single-mindedly, it didn’t even take us a year to build a spaceship that could run on the things. Seven of us flew that ship off the material plane on her maiden voyage, and — well, you can read all our names straight from your book of bounties. Our captain was Davenport, and Lucretia was our chronicler, while Merle was the biologist, and Magnus — oh, Magnus was the best security system that a team of five wizards and a cleric could wish for. I was chief science officer, of course, and… Taako and Lup, the twins, were the arcanists.”

“Oh my gods,” Kravitz whispered. “Taako — I had Taako hunting Lup. He thought his life depended on —”

“He didn’t know.” Barry shuddered, red smoke escaping from his mouth as he spoke. “Neither of you did.”

Faced with any other lich, Kravitz would’ve braced himself for a breakdown and ensuing fallout, but today, he stayed seated to watch as calmly as he could — and sure enough, the smoke faded to a few harmless wisps as Barry went on.

“Sorry, I — I’m getting ahead of myself. The mission, the Starblaster mission, it was only supposed to last two months. But in our obsession with the Light, with the spaceship it made possible, we missed… warning signs leading up to our departure. Storm clouds hanging overhead, colors losing their luster, hell, even eyes in the sky and in the Ethereal Plane. When the seven of us took flight, we thought we were explorers — but in the blink of an eye, we became refugees, because right after we took flight, the Hunger descended on our world and devoured it whole.”

He must’ve noticed a shell-shocked expression on Kravitz’s face, because he went on: “Yeah, it’s a lot, even when you’ve had decades to process it. We fled to another planar system, and the Light of Creation followed us there — but so did the Hunger, and a year after arriving, it consumed yet another world without mercy. Magnus died fighting it, but I’m sure you see where this is going — when we materialized in the next planar system, he was as good as new, and the cycle repeated. We figured out that as long as one of us escaped the Hunger on the ship, anyone who died that year would return to life, and that if we could escape with the Light, the Hunger would only damage the plane instead of consuming it — but recovering the Light was about as consistent as rolling a pair of dice you hadn’t rigged, and the Hunger kept gaining on us.”

“And this,” Kravitz assumed, “was when you started practicing necromancy?”

“Yeah. I guess I could play it off as, I dunno, something I studied to understand how we kept getting revived every year, but… I’m not gonna lie to you. I was calling myself a necromancer by the third cycle because it was dangerous, and we needed dangerous magic to stand a chance against the Hunger.” A fondness crept into Barry’s voice, and Kravitz watched a small tear in his robe sew itself back together. “Lup and I didn’t become liches until decades later — just like we took our time with most things, I guess — and that was for power, too. But there weren’t any blood sacrifices, or any of that traditional ‘store your soul in an artifact of dark magic’ stuff — we powered our lich forms with bonds, the same things that powered our spaceship. We did it with the help of our family, to protect our family, and I’d do it all again. And Lup… I know she’d feel the same, if she were here.”

“Were you close? You and Lup, I mean?”

The lights of Barry’s not-quite-face blinked. “Gotta say, bud, after everything I just told you, that is not the question I thought you’d have for me. But… yeah, you could say that. We were in love for the better part of a century, and if you’ve ever seen me… not fall apart when I should have, it was because I was thinking of her. Reminding myself that if I gave up, then everything we’d worked for would be the next to come undone, and even worse, I’d — I’d never have a chance to see her again.”

“You don’t know where she is either,” Kravitz realized, and only noticed he’d spoken out loud when he saw Barry shrink backwards and wrap his arms around his chest, his robe folding in on itself like red light drawn towards a spluttering black hole.

“Wow, Kravitz,” Noelle spoke up, digitized voice dripping with sarcasm as she glared at him. “Way to not ask sensitive questions to the guy you just learned was powered by emotions —”

“I’m sorry!” Kravitz exclaimed, and he honestly meant it. “I wasn’t thinking —”

“No, I’ll be alright,” Barry insisted, with a confidence that suggested he’d survived worse breakdowns. No longer radiating lightning nor anguish, he floated right up to the opalescent barrier, even resting a hand on it. “You know, the Hunger’s kinda like this spell I used to trap you, ‘cept on steroids. It cuts off all the planes in a system before devouring them, but always goes for the Celestial Plane first, rendering the bonds between god and emissary unusable — and it’s done that so many times, Kravitz, it’s consumed so many deities and added them to its number. It’s impossible to defeat that kind of army, that never-ending march of fallen gods from fallen worlds older than memory — but Lup and I, we came up with a new plan. We knew the Hunger needed the Light to persist — so we hid that Light, splitting it in seven, to try and starve the Hunger out.”

He sighed. “And that’s how the refugees of my homeworld nearly destroyed yours with the Grand Relics.”

Though Barry had only confirmed his suspicions, Kravitz’s jaw still dropped. I was right. And Taako still has no idea. I need to tell him —

“We were enthralled, all of us, with the idea of finally stopping the Hunger,” Barry continued, drifting back from the barrier. “Not all of us in the same way — Lucretia had an idea that was different altogether, equally bad as it was — and when we descended from the sky to introduce the Relics, like demigods about to be undone by our hubris, we enthralled your world with conflict and bloodshed. Because the Light of Creation, at least in the form of the Relics we made from it, is a poison disguised as an antidote. It will always be… hungered for.”

He chuckled bitterly. “And here I am, confessing my family’s crimes to the one person in this universe who knows the cost of our actions better than anyone. Kravitz, on behalf of all of us — I’m so sorry that you and your world bore the consequences of our mess. I’m sure your job was an awful lot simpler before we showed up —”

“It was,” Kravitz agreed, “but maybe not for the reason you think. You know, before the Relic Wars, souls almost always retired to the Astral Plane without resistance… but victims of the Relics never rested quietly. I’m no stranger to ghosts with unfinished business, of course, but so many of them were still enthralled, as you put it — and before the wars dwindled out, there were constant rebellions and escape attempts that plunged the Astral Plane into chaos.” He paused. “Speaking of which. I always wondered why the Relic Wars ended when they did.”

“Good question.” Barry sighed. “Out of seven explorers, you know how many had the foresight to realize how dangerous the Grand Relics were? It was just one — Lucretia, the youngest, who knew before anyone else that we were about to poison this world. She had an alternate plan to defeat the Hunger, and though its side effects were just as unacceptable, she was in denial of those effects just like I was in denial about the Relics’ consequences. I — I hate talking about her like this, she’s family to me just like the rest of them, but — she needed the Light in one piece for her plan, so not long after Lup went missing trying to bring an end to the Relic Wars, Lucretia went and — she fed our mission archives to the Voidfish. A being that consumes information, and makes it incomprehensible unless you’ve been specifically inoculated… or, unless you’re undead.”

“So your family, and the world, both forgot the Grand Relics,” Kravitz finished. “Except you and me.”

“Exactly. But Lucretia still needed to collect all seven, and… well, there were only seven people in the world who could resist their thrall, and that was because they’d spent a century building up an immunity. And Fischer, that’s what Magnus named the Voidfish, eventually had a kid — or so I assume, because I don’t know where else Lucretia would get a baby alien jellyfish whose home plane was destroyed. Point is, Luce fed the baby certain things she needed kept secret, then inoculated Magnus, Merle, and Taako from the parent, so she could set them up as Reclaimers in her Bureau of Balance —”

“Wait, you mean that — that Lucretia from my list of bounties, and the Director I keep hearing about from Taako, are the same person?!”

“Yeah.” Barry nodded. “Do you know if Davenport’s also with the Bureau, by any chance? I haven’t seen him in — in a really long time.”

“If I’d known where he was, I would’ve arrested him for dying eleven times,” Kravitz replied without thinking, regretting it instantly when Barry glowered at him. “I mean, I would have before having this conversation, but not now! I swear!”

“You’re not bound to your oath while you’re cut off from your goddess,” Barry pointed out. “And I dunno why I just told you that, though I guess you seem like the kinda guy who’d stick to your word anyway —”

“Let’s backtrack to Lucretia,” Kravitz cut in. “What was her plan to stop the Hunger? Why was it so unacceptable, and… and why does she need the Light?”

Barry looked away, answering in a slowly fading voice.“She wanted to starve the Hunger out too, just like Lup and I were thinking. But she wanted to use the Light to create a shield around this planar system — and I know that sounds great in practice, but any barrier strong enough to keep out the Hunger would sever all this world’s extraplanar bonds. It would keep the Hunger out, but everything inside would be reduced to ash, and Lucretia… never wanted to believe that. I have to assume she still doesn’t believe it, and will go ahead with her shield as soon as she reclaims the last two Relics. The Temporal Chalice, and the Animus Bell.”

“Well, shit,” Kravitz muttered, earning a grunt of agreement from Barry. “So our options — our only three options are being turned to ash, fighting a losing battle with an eldritch abomination, and continuing to let the Relics tear this world apart?”

“It’s… a little too late for that last one, actually.” Barry shook his head. “The Hunger’s got a lock on our planar system now — Noelle told me she saw stars disappearing, and that means we’re down to a matter of months.”

“Oh gods, that’s why there’s fewer stars? I thought I was going crazy!” Kravitz gasped, turning to Noelle. “Barry told you all this as well?”

Noelle bobbed up and down slightly, presumably to indicate a nod. “He filled me in on the highlights. Then a bit more detail ‘bout the Hunger, when I asked him just a couple hours ago if he knew why the constellations looked off.”

“I can’t believe this,” Kravitz sighed. “I should’ve just asked you to explain yourself years ago! You could’ve cleared up so much —”

“I should’ve tried to tell you more,” Barry admitted, “but the truth sounds so insane that I didn’t think you’d believe the whole unfiltered thing. Hell, I’m amazed you believe me right now —”

“Uh, actually, about that…” Kravitz smiled sheepishly, instinctively crossing his arms behind his back to hide his soon-to-be-implicated spellcasting hands. “I appreciate you leaving me some magic when you cut me off from the Raven Queen, but in the interest of… honesty, you should know that before I joined the Queen’s retinue, I was a bard. My powers are limited right now, since I don’t have an instrument on me, and even with one I wouldn’t have expected this to work — but a couple minutes ago, I cast Zone of Truth on you.” He shrugged. “Being a last-ditch effort as it was, I kind of assumed you’d notice it —”

Barry threw his head back with a guffaw of laughter, and his hood fell to his shoulders, unveiling a mass of dark smoke that resembled a mullet. “Oh, Merle would be so proud!”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” Noelle wisecracked, and then all of them were laughing at poor Merle’s expense, just like three old friends who’d never, ever tried to kill or imprison or backstab each other.

“Yes, it is a compliment,” Barry chuckled, “but don’t you dare tell him I got got by a Zone of Truth, or I’ll never hear the end of it!”

“I, uh, I’ve got one more backstory question, if you don’t mind,” Kravitz began as his laughter died down, and Barry’s attention immediately returned to him. The lich was easier to read with his cowl down, revealing cues like the quizzical, attentive tilt of his head.

“Yeah? Shoot.”

“I saved this one for last because I’m asking in… well, mostly my own self-interest…” Kravitz took a breath. “But does Taako have any, um, still-relevant love interests he lost his memories of?”

“Oh my gods, Kravitz…”

“I like him a lot, even though it’s still early — but I’d feel awful replacing a partner he was ripped away from, especially under these circumstances —”

“A truce with the Grim Reaper is one thing!” Barry shouted to no one in particular. “But being the Grim Reaper’s brother-in-law? Being Taako’s best man when he and the Grim Reaper get married?!”

Kravitz beamed. “Okay, I’ll take that as a no!”

Still chuckling, Barry silently snapped his fingers. A dozen runes flashed before going dark forever, and a moment later, the opalescent barrier faded away.

“I tell you what, bud,” he said. “You help me save all of reality, and I won’t even give you the shovel talk.”

#taz #taz balance #kravitz taz #barry bluejeans #taako taaco #taakitz #angus mcdonald #no-3113 #taz balance spoilers #fic: ftrala #rosalia writes fic

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chaoswillfallrpg · 3 years

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LARKIN MULCIBER is TWENTY-THREE YEARS OLD and a SOLIDER in THE DARK LORDS ARMY at THE DEATH EATER’S HEADQUARTERS. He looks remarkably like WOO DO-HWAN and considers himself aligned with THE DEATH EATERS. He is currently OPEN.

→ OVERVIEW:

tw: abuse, blood, death, animal death

The king of shadows and gold, Larkin Mulciber is the chilled shiver running down the back of necks, the ominous dread held in unwelcome prying eyes and a manipulative puppeteer toying with his unwilling victims strings. While deemed psychotic by most, he was never always so twisted. Born to KYUNG MULCIBER, a man as hateful as he was cunning, Kyung single handedly raised his youngest in disgrace. Bred a tormented soul, Larkin was branded the Grim Reaper. YEONG YANG, his mother and the light of Kyung’s life, took her last breath at Larkin’s first, casting bitterness into the family's hearts. Without a single word of kindness, Larkin was resented by those supposed to grace him with care. Interactions were met with hostility and volatile anger; even from the likes of the house elves who once idealised their mistress. Growing in the fall of his mother’s glory, hidden in the secluded mountains of the Lake District enchanted barriers kept the Mulciber manor secluded from unwelcome guests. Isolated and with a severe lack of love, Larkin’s youth was spent whispering secrets to spiders dangling off chandeliers; while his father secluded himself to the west wing never to be disturbed. With his father absent and cold, Larkin tried earnestly to grasp onto pieces of a parent. Hours spent by candle light in the family library, from archives detailed in gold and towering family portraits, he formed a fragmented image. A woman once powerful, resilient and beautiful, illuminated in piercing emeralds that matched her eyes; his late mother. Someone he thought could have loved him, if only Morgana had been kind.

With wealth and a line as Pure-Blooded as those belonging to The Sacred-Twenty Eight, the family reveled in a deep rooted sense of entitlement. Renowned for possessing an aptitude for the dark arts, purist rhetoric was laced in their lives from dusk till dawn. Breeding chaos, while Kyung praised ERIS and JAE in glory, Larkin was cursed into darkness and strife. Companion only to those who too grew in neglect, spiders, bats and screeching owls looked upon the bruised boy of woe with sorrow, offering comfort. Just like his siblings Larkin was taught not what beauty magic held, but what power. Growling voices with a tone as sharp as poison scorned him, disapproving glares reflected in the shattered mirrored walls of the Mulciber ballroom turned training arena, distorted and manic as his father’s teachings turned cruel. Harnessing darkness, unregistered Gregorovitch wands concealed their illegal activities from the Ministry of Magic, enabling them to continue their legacy of turmoil and devastation all while slipping through the grasps of the law. The eldest Eris, named after the goddess of chaos and strife herself, channeled internalised anger into the cruel art of the Cruciatus curse. Second born, Jae’s handsome features acted as the perfect deception for the master of death; with Avarda Kavarda being his speciality. Leaving Larkin to master the complexity of the mind and the Imperius curse. Divine and divisive, the family were notorious for playing Merlin himself as they manipulated powers beyond their control. Together, the trio made a master of sin and torment.

Desperate for gratification and to be seen in the same glory as his siblings, Larkin’s sensibility grew cruel in a plight to prove his worth. Cursing the house elves with a flick of his finger, he left them dangling on the ceiling with a twisted grin all for a glimmer of respect to flicker in his fathers eyes. The more souls he puppertered, the more praise he received. Forging himself into a sinner in a plea to gain what he could only dream of; acceptance from his father. While his siblings attended Dumstrung, Kyung expressed that Larkin's talents would be better suited to that of Hogwarts. Speaking tales of a heroic wizard whom he had once schooled with know as THE DARK LORD, Kyung spoke of a new world where those inferior would finally know their place. Entrusted on a quest to befriend like minded sorcerers, Larkin vowed to find those as equally wicked. Cunning as the devil, the sorting hat barely graced his head before announcing his rightful place in Slytherin. Strong willed and determined, he basked in the notorious nature of his family's legacy. Gaining respect from the likes of PERSEPHONE, NEPHTHYS and RABASTAN for his damming schemes and competent hexes; Larkin was renowned as the king of chaos. Joint in arms, JASPAR AVERY was from a reputable family, though entitled he held little promise in Larkin’s eyes of matching his wits; but made a reputable ally. Second in their ranks was SEVERUS SNAPE, an odd wizard with an aptitude for potions, despite his scorned Half-Blood status, his intellect was more akin to his own. Donned in their Slytherin uniform, the trio quickly became notoriously known for their vile pranks on those they deemed unworthy to study magic.

Basking in others misfortune and consumed with desire to appease his family, Larkin fell into a suffocating kingdom of darkness. That was, until he met them. MARY MACDONALD was everything he wasn’t. Kind hearted with a warm disposition, if Larkin was the king of the underworld, Mary was the beautiful wix dancing in golden fields above. A Muggle-Born and adored friend of annoyances JAMES, SIRIUS, REMUS and PETER, Jaspar dared him to bring the sweet creature to ruin in their cruelest scheme yet. What had started as a ploy to break the wix’s heart, turned into a secret relationship hidden in the shadows of the clocktower. Despite himself, he fell in love with Mary. Intoxicated by their light and the only person to ever bring warmth to his cold heart, Larkin grew desperate in his attempts to keep their love a secret. Anonymous letters and aloof passings, despite efforts to conceal their passion Nephthys caught a stolen glimpse between the pair one cold December night. Outraged that he’d betrayed the sanctity of magic, she deemed him a blood-traitor for his evident adoration for a filthy mudblood. Threatening to expose his fraternization with her wand pointed to his throat, Larkin became agonisingly aware that even the rumor of affection would leave Mary dead by dawn. Never knowing a monster that they were unable to love, Larkin knew Mary would be obstinate in their belief that love conquered all. But with Nepthys threats lingering over his head, logically he knew the only way to guarantee their safety was to make an example of them.

Plotting in an aid to set them free and comforted in the knowledge it would merely put Mary into a dreamlike state; Larkin encapsulated them in his arms and stole one last kiss before uttering ‘Imperio’. Instantly Mary’s love faded to a vacant expression; leaving them completely at his disposal. Encouraged by Jasper’s twisted grin, they left torment in their wake. Killing Flinch’s cat, Mary’s hands covered in blood, they set to their final destination of The Black Lake. Floating like Ophelia with their lace dress billowing around them, Larkin was moments from sinking Mary briefly into the water’s dark depths when LILY EVANS made her presence known. Concentration broken, Mary’s piercing screams of terror echoed around the grounds cutting Larkin’s heart like a knife. Quickly expelled, he left Hogwarts donned a hero by purists alike. But for once, he didn’t feel pride in his actions, instead, remorsed in sorrow of the consequences. Finishing his final years of education at Durmstrung, Larkin’s dove into his studies with cruel intent. Donned a lone wolf by peers such as MEI-LING FALKOV and JUDAH ILLIOTT, while the school harboured those residing in darkness; none held Larkin’s unique sense of chaos. Wandless magic for unforgivable curses was rare and known by few, including the Muclibers who left many pleading for mercy with a mere curl of their hand. Seeking power in destruction, those that feared him donned him a monster. Stalking dark alleys in his black jacket embossed with scales, Larkin sunk his teeth into the pits of hell daring it to fight back. Gone were the flowers Mary had once laid, left only an empty chasm of a man; unhinged and dangerous with little left to lose.

While his relatives prided their superiority through status, Larkin’s renowned talents made him a vital recruit into The Dark Lord’s army. Graduating, Larkin has become an esteemed member in the fight for the new world. Settling on the outer banks of London with a heart rotted black, darkness swarms like a whirlpool in his chest. His free time spent lingering in the shadows playing with the minds of the undeserving, tarantula resting on his shoulder. Under the orders of CASTOR and BELLATRIX, Larkin is gathering information on those who could cause complications to The Dark Lord’s plans. Sniffing out Blood-Traitors, Larkin is playing the unsuspected in a plight to move up in the ranks. GILFRED ABBOTT, was the perfect victim for his scheme. Suspecting little when questions from Larkin’s lips instead left the young Gryffindor’s; his sweet demeanour acts as the perfect mask to torment. Though as charmed as his antics are, he has his sights set on bigger fish; DOUGAL, COINNEACH, NATHAIR and MARLENE MCKINNON, a family seeking to devalue Pure-Blood legacy by allowing a Muggle-Born into their ranks was the perfect target to finally bring him to glory. Fueled by underlying jealousy at their free love, Larkin is scheming to ruin the family from the inside. Word from REGINA ROWLE, reveals Nathair as the wizard who reported the recent prophecy to the Ministry. While the other McKinnon siblings shout for equality, Larkin has his eyes set on the brother that prefers the shadows than the light. Calculating his plans, he knows Nathair will be the undoing of the family, if only he pulls on the right set of strings.

→ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Blood Status → Pure-Blood

Pronouns → He/Him

Identification → Cis Male

Sexuality → Pansexual

Relationship Status → Single

Previous Education → Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Slytherin) & Durmstrang Institute

Family → Kyung Mulciber (father), Yeong Mulciber (mother), Eris Mulciber (sister), Jae Mulciber (brother), Jieun Mulciber (aunt)

Connections → Jaspar Avery (best friend), Severus Snape (best friend), Castor Wilkes (mentor), Bellatrix Black (friend/colleague), Persephone Wilkes (close friend), Nephthys Nott (close friend/adversary), Rabastan Lestrange (friend) Mary MacDonald (ex-partner/potential love interest/adversary), Mei-Ling Falkov (aquaintance/classmate), Judah Illiott (adversary/classmate), Regina Rowle (informant), Sirius Black (adversary), James Potter (adversary), Remus Lupin (adversary), Peter Pettigrew (adversary), Dougal McKinnon (person of interest), Coinneach McKinnon (person of interest), Nathair McKinnon (aquaintance/person of interest), Marlene McKinnon (adversary/person of interest), Lily Evans (adversary), Dorcas Meadows (adversary),

Future Information → N/A

LARKIN MULCIBER IS A LEVEL 7 WIZARD.

#larkin mulciber #woo do-hwan #marauders rp #marauders rpg #harry potter rp #wizard #magic #death eater #dark #tw: abuse #tw: death #tw: blood #tw: animal death #open #open death eater #open wizard #open lgbtqia+

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nbadrajhiti · 3 years

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Family Feud: Part One (A series of short stories)

On the last moon of the Fifth Umbral Moon (October 31rst) a family tradition that spanned ages and calamities was about to begin. From all over Hydaelyn, those under the Shikaree sect of Hunters would return to the sacred cliff deep in the shifting sands of the Sagolii desert. It was a deep ravine unlike any other that even the very sands of the desert danced through and flickered like small gems during the moonlit night. Though few in number, the Shikaree families had gathered non the less. Not to speak with each other, no.. but to see those that rest beyond the veil. Every year the veil between the spirit realm and Hydaelyn would weaken well enough for those inclined with the knowledge to see their dead relatives. Once the hour of midnight came. An elder amongst the tribes of Shikaree would come forward holding an urn betwixt their shaking hands, dressed from head to toe in shamanistic garb. They walked to the very edge of the sacred cliff, digging a hand into the urn to sprinkle the blessed ashes into the seeming endless void. With a few words in their ancient huntspeak, a distant glow would appear in the darkness. One by one, various spectral animals, insects, and aquatic beings would rise up from the ravine and head towards their families. For each was a deceased loved one’s spirit totem’s form. Something every Shikaree has in both life and death. With the cycle complete, the Shaman takes a final step into the ravine in sacrifice. Willingly. In their beliefs, there is no greater sacrifice then one’s wisdom.. And it was an important part of the ritual itself. With their sacrifice, a glorious dragon rises from the depths of the unknown, soaring high in the sky to preside over the ceremony.

N’badra would wait patiently, peering through the light crowds of tribals and spirits searching and searching for her own parents in all the mix. It would’nt be long before she felt the gentle familiar nudge of a snout upon her palm, bidding her to freeze in place. Smiling and about to cry, she turned around to spot her father in their spiritual form. A tiger. Atop the tiger’s head would be her mom in the form of a beautiful white dove. Kneeling down, the Dancer would embrace them both dearly… much had happened that year and much more in the past month that has had her questioning so many things. “You both found me…” N’badra said amidst choked tears. With a low concerned growl, N’jhiti Nunh the Tiger would respond first. “Do not worrrry, Sunlight. You should know bettterrr then to think otherrrwise.” With a flapping of wings, N’taara the dove would come rest on their daughter’s shoulder. “It is so good to see you again, Sunlight.” The dove cood. Standing, N’badra would wipe at her tears as the emotions started to literally rain down her face. Something about being amongst a loving family in hard times had always gotten to her. Their very presence was doing much to soothe it all out of her in a positive way. “Mom. Dad. I may not be a rrrreal Shikarrree like my brrotherrrs.. And I rrreally hope they forrrrgive me some day as you both have… but I have done something with my life that I hope you both can be prrroud of.” N’badra said with heavy weight upon her voice in uncertainty. Both the Tiger and the Dove look to each other a moment with a seeming smile shared between the two. “We have been watching… howeverrr.. You need not do morre then you alrrready have, Sunlight.” The Tiger said with concern dripping from his tone. The Dove would promptly smack the back of the Tiger’s head with a low growl from the overgrown cat in response. “Forrrgive yourr fatherrr and his… fatherrrly ways.” The dove swiftly corrected before addressing N’badra with full attention. “We love you no matterrr what, Sunlight. And you must always listen to what yourrrr hearrrt tells you is rrrright.” With a nod from their daughter a smile would then come to her features… fading extremely fast when she catches eye of a familiar trio approaching.

Like a storm cloud the three brothers approached their small gathering. N’ekram the oldest took lead, stopping just short of getting into N’badra’s face while the other two lingered off to his side to later circle around the Dancer, weapons in hand. “Mom. Dad. I see you have been speaking with the trraitorrr.” Stated N’ekram to his sister, N’badra with a precise punch to his words. N’badra would scoff and roll her eyes, folding arms across her chest to take a defensive stance. Every year they had to come and ruin the moment with their very presence. “Hahaahahahaahaaa~! Oh yes, oh yes! The trraitorrr rrreturrrns!” N’barkat added onto his eldest brother’s statement with a maniacle flair. The last of the three, stared with a clenched fist as the grip of his scythe only tightened. “I should have yourr head herre and now forr yourr betrrrayal.” Said the youngest, N’asad. Squawking, The mother flies above all four siblings. “I will not have you all rrrruining this day forr us again this yearr! Have you all no rrrespect forr the dead? Let alone each otherr?! You should all be ashamed!” Prowling with a leveled stature the Tiger would make his way over to the brothers. “As much as yourr sisterrrr has done wrrrong. She was forrrrgiven. The rrrrules arre not absolute, my boys. Family, is just as imporrrtant then holding up trrradition.” N’badra crumbles to the ground between her three brothers, shaking her head violently. “Everrryone stop please, please! This is not what I need rrright now at all!” She let out in a panicked voice. N’asad would squat down next to her, whispering tauntingly into her ear. “Just like we did not need you abandoning us afterrrr fatherrr’s death. You rrran away like a cowarrd instead of facing it with the rrest of us… you have some nerrrve even coming to a cerrremony like this.” At this moment, the crowd was gradually levitating away from the feuding family for a new elder to come forward and approach them. His tone was stern as it was shaky with old ripe age. “I am going to have to ask you all to leave. This is not a place forrrr feuding. It is a place forr rrrememberrance and duty. N’jhiti.” He nods to the tiger. “N’taarra”. Then to the dove. “You underrrrstand. Rrrest now beforrrre the morrrtal chill furrtherr disrrrupts yourr eterrnal spirrrrits.” With the words of the elder, the parents start to make their way back to the ravine from whence they came, giving their children one last look. “Do you think they will everr see eye-to-eye my love?” The tiger asked of the Dove. “All we can do is hope, my Nunh. They will need each otherrr in the long rrrun. Even if they hate the thought, it will dawn eventually. Come. Let us go back to rrest, yes?” The Dove cood in response to the Tiger who then took a leap into the ravine with the Dove following soon after; both disappearing into the glowing void of spiritual energy.

Left in tears, N’badra remains on the ground with palms covering her green eyes from the world in both shame and regret. With the departure of the spiritual parents, the Elder would make their way away from the group once the brothers started to depart. However, one remained behind to tower over her with oppressive body language and a mocking tone to match. “You will neverrr be like us. You will neverrr carry on the family’s worrrk. Yourrr parrt in this family was wrrritten out the day you rrran out of ourrr lives. If we will not make surre of it. I will make surre of it.” Threatened N’asad before his scythe came down next to her in the sand with a loud ‘shnk’ then a slow slitting sound as he plucks the blade from the sand to join the departing brothers. Left with even less then she came with having had it torn from her, she clutches the sand between her claws as she watches her brothers leave with hatred boiling away inside her. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. Run after them and talk whatever sense she could into them.. But it was a futile cause. This was a family feud after all.

Thank you for reading! Part two soon!

#character story #ffxiv roleplay #ffxiv writing #ffxiv miqo

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touhou-gensoudairantou · 4 years

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Maria Unleashes her Strength!

Alhough she was one of four girls kidnapped by the Dark Priest Shaft for a ritual to resurrect the nefarious Dracula, Maria Reneard proves to be a valuable ally in Richter’s crusade to save her friends and his girlfriend Annette once rescued. A girl from another family of Vampire Hunters distantly related to the Belmont clan, Maria has a natural affinity with the abilities of animals and acrobatic movements. She may be frailer than Richter, but her speed, striking power, and maneuverability will prove to be the perfect way to style on opponents as either a small anime girl in a pink dress or a confident young vampire hunting woman. Your call, really, but underestimating her either way will cost you dearly. (Requested by @spooner-the-trinity)

Of course, Maria Renard was only playable in a few games, but I happen to love all those games, and the programmers were gracious enough to give her plenty of techniques and abilities to work with. Her techniques are derived from her original appearance in Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine, the Sega Saturn version of Symphony of the Night, and the PSP Dracula X Chronicles’ remakes of both games. Eh? “Judgment”? The hell are you talking about? H-hey, are you trying to make a dumbass outta me!? You bastard, there ain’t no such thing as a Nintendo Wii fighting game released on November 18th, 2008 based on the Castlevania series that had mostly controversial character designs by the artist of Death Note with particularly infamous examples including Buff Light Yagami. And there is c-e-r-t-a-I-n-l-y no incarnation of Maria Renard based on my least favorite character from that series that had all the good of Maria chucked thrown out of the window for this bastardization who obsesses over the figures of the other female characters, making me feel like I just gave up my triple-shot Holy Water for a Dagger that I will then proceed to hack my own head off with and throw at Konami with my post-mortem spasms. And even if there was such a game as this “Castlevania Judgment”, the only good character in it would be Aeon, who has always existed since always and till forever independent of this hypothetical game, thank you very much.

Hrmm-hrmm... anyways...

Jab: Maria sends forth a Dove or Owl that travels a fair distance. Pressing the button mid-flight will have Maria kick in front of her. There’s a 50/50 chance of either bird spawning, but there’s a minuscule difference in damage and speed between them.

Dash-Attack: Maria performs a dashing Drop Kick that can strike short-hopping opponents out of the air if well timed.

F-Tilt: Maria sets loose one of her Cats. It’ll run until it trips up an opponent by clawing their ankles, is knocked away by an attack or it disappears at the edge of the stage.

D-Tilt: Maria encases herself in a rock shell that damages opponents as it is form, which then has a Turtle land on top of it. In this state that lasts for a couple seconds, Maria is resistant to damage, but will be unable to move.

U-Tilt: Maria sends up two Cardinals at a... let’s say, 50-degree angle. They loop back to her after reaching about double her height.

N-Air: Maria does a rolling attack mid-air. Weak and has a small window of damage on its own, but if it hits an opponent, Maria will launch an Energy Ball that hits for big damage.

F-Air: Maria calls forth a Dragon, and holds onto its back as it glides into opponents with its immense weight. It’s slow, but can be quite powerful at the right time.

B-Air: Maria kicks behind her to knock away fighters getting too close.

D-Air: Maria rockets down from the sky in a Jump Kick, spiking opponents.

Side Smash: Maria uses the Sega Saturn version of her Guardian Knuckle attack, a magically charged punch.

Up Smash: Maria gains two flaming wings out of her back that resemble those of the Vermillion Bird Suzaku.

Down Smash: Maria calls upon the Black Tortoise Genbu as it spins around Gamera-style to attack enemies in front of and behind her in a circle.

Neutral B: One Maria's standard attacks in the Sega Saturn version of Symphony of the Night is an Energy Ball which can be charged for up to four levels. This is a very standard Smash Bros. Special, with a whole 4 levels of charge.

Side B: Maria rides the White Tiger Byakko for a short distance, running over enemies as it claws those caught in its path. Dismounting Byakko by jumping with give her a lot of height as it lets out a breath of fire, but be careful! If Maria is knocked off from above, Byakko will just disappear!

Up B: Maria is carried in the talons of the Vermillion Sparrow Suzaku as it rains down fire on opponents below. It may be slower than her standard jumps, but the protection Maria has in its grasp can be very much worth the trade-off.

Down B: Maria calls upon the Azure Dragon Seiryu, who surrounds her in a ring as it chases its own tail to defend her. Tilting the stick while it’s being summoned can have the dragon move to circle in a fixed location either next to or above Maria.

Shield: Maria uses the shell of the Black Tortoise Genbu as a shield that’s... surprisingly quite sturdy against many forms of damage. A perfect shield can outright nullify plenty of low-to-mid power Smash attacks. You can also Dodge using a famous Symphony of the Night-style backdash or a forward roll.

Grab/Pummel: Maria summons a Dragon to grapple the opponent in a bear hug. By pressing the button, the dragon squeezes them.

Back Throw: The Dragon spins around and throws the opponent far behind Maria.

Forward Throw: Genbu appears as the dragon tosses the opponent to the side, whirling the opponent before sending them flying.

Down Throw: The Dragon leans forward and crashes on top of the opponent’s back, causing heavy damage.

Up Throw: The Dragon rises up with the opponent in tow, before slamming them down into the ground, sending them ricocheting back upwards.

Bomb: Maria summons a shadow-like vision of herself that pummels the enemy for her. This Guardian Knuckle is invincible and has incredible attacking speed on top of excellent damage, but its range is quite middling. This is the Rondo of Blood and Dracula X Chronicles Symphony of the Night version of the Guardian Knuckle attack, but it also takes on a minor health drain effect like in her appearance in Portrait of Ruin.

Final Smash: Maria summons all four Holy Beasts at once to gain a state of invincibility and highly enhanced stats for a 10 second duration. After this duration, the beasts charge forward in front of her as they strike opponents with their powerful attacks.

Taunts:

-Up Taunt: Maria holds up a Key and seems to charge up an Item Crash, but pulls it back down, looking perplexed.

-Side Taunt: Maria holds out an egg as a nest’s worth of birds hatch from it and fly away. If they hit an opponent, they will receive 0.1% of damage with minimal knockback.

-Down Taunt: Maria hums a short ditty (a few notes from Bloody Tears, Opus 13 from Rondo of Blood, or The Tragic Prince from Symphony of The Night) as a series of multi-colored music notes appear.

Victory Screen:

Rondo of Blood Maria:

-Maria catches a falling Richter doll, gaining a 1-Up as she holds her Guardian Knuckle Doll in her other arm.

-Maria frolicks about the area and smiles at the camera as her animal friends gather around her.

-Maria celebrates as she sits down on a Magic Jewel, feasting on a Parfait as her Cat watches on.

Symphony of the Night Maria:

-Maria relaxes in front of a Save Polyhedron that’s just... there.

-Maria tries on the Holy Glasses, before removing them with a smile. Ghostly projections of the Four Sacred Beasts are seen around her as the glasses are removed.

-Maria slumps down in a chair, and is given a Heart Vessel that soon disppears as the “Life Up” text appears.

Alt Costumes:

You are free to choose between her original Rondo of Blood design or her older self from Symphony of the Night at your leisure. The former has a couple extra palletes based on the original PC-Engine designs of Iris, Tera, and Annette, while the latter has a couple based on Succubus and Alucard. Or, if you are as fond of the design as I am, you can play as her in her Dracula X Chronicles redesign, which has her use older Maria’s win screens.

#castlevania #maria renard #touhou gensodairantou #super smash bros #moveset

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dea-syria · 4 years

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Now there is in Syria a city known as Ascalon, and not far from it a large and deep lake, full of fish. On its shore is a precinct of a famous goddess whom the Syrians call Derceto; and this goddess has the head of a woman but all the rest of her body is that of a fish, the reason being something like this. The story as given by the most learned of the inhabitants of the region is as follows: Aphrodite, being offended with this goddess, inspired in her a violent passion for a certain handsome youth among her votaries; and Derceto gave herself to the Syrian and bore a daughter, but then, filled with shame of her sinful deed, she killed the youth and exposed the child in a rocky desert region, while as for herself, from shame and grief she threw herself into the lake and was changed as to the form of her body into a fish; and it is for this reason that the Syrians to this day abstain from this animal and honour their fish as gods. But about the region where the babe was exposed a great multitude of doves had their nests, and by them the child was nurtured in an astounding and miraculous manner; for some of the doves kept the body of the babe warm on all sides by covering it with their wings, while others, when they observed that the cowherds and other keepers were absent from the nearby steadings, brought milk therefrom in their beaks and fed the babe by putting it drop by drop between its lips. And when the child was a year old and in need of more solid nourishment, the doves, pecking off bits from the cheeses, supplied it with sufficient nourishment. Now when the keepers returned and saw that the cheeses had been nibbled about the edges, they were astonished at the strange happening; they accordingly kept a look-out, and on discovering the cause found the infant, which was of surpassing beauty. At once, then, bringing it to their steadings they turned it over to the keeper of the royal herds, whose name was Simmas; and Simmas, being childless, gave every care to the rearing of the girl, as his own daughter, and called her Semiramis, a name slightly altered from the word which, in the language of the Syrians, means "doves," birds which since that time all the inhabitants of Syria have continued to honour as goddesses.

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History

Derceto, or Atargatis, was a mermaid-goddess worshipped in Syria, to whom fish were sacred. Here she is supposed to be the mother of Queen Semiramis, and a story is told about Semiramis being raised by doves, a typical symbol of the various Near Eastern Queens of Heaven.

#derceto #atargatis #semiramis #fish #doves #mermaid #aphrodite

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specialgels · 5 years

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List of nicknames and all the meanings I smashed together to make them (or not)

Yuri; Yuuri---how his name was pronounced originally and would be written as, no actual meaning except for lily in Japanese really, should probably change his nickname to fit his border symbol better but I'm attached to Yuuri so whatever.

Estelle; Luna---moon in Latin, she's the Child of the Full Moon which is reflected in her symbol though I couldn't find a good way to add star into the nickname so it stays as Luna.

Repede; Inaken---ina comes from inazuma (lightning in Japanese), and ken comes from tanken (dagger in Japanese, also his symbol), he has lightning motifs in his design as his scar and tail, and is the fastest party member in Vesperia.

Seifer; Mareki---mare is latin for sea and ki comes from kiba (fang in Japanese), he is, after all, a pirate and Aifread’s trusted first mate.

Lyra; Dolgari---dol comes from dolce, which means to play sweetly and softly, and gari comes from fengari (moon in Greek). She’s a Child of the Full Moon and is very sweet and cute with a great love for music.

Luke; Hiyoko---hi can be written in the kanji for fire and his name means "light of the sacred flame", hiyoko by itself is chick in Japanese which he technically is because he's been mother henned and he's also actually seven so he's baby.

Spiritua; Marum---malak (angel in Arabic) and aurum (gold in Greek), her status is of an angel, and the color that her wings take is a beautiful gold color. She will also make sure that justice is served, and would not mind breaking a few laws for that purpose.

Nidhogg; Kairyo---kai comes from kaiju (monster) and ryo is altered from ryuu (dragon), it quite literally is both of these as ruinators are monsters and Nidhogg takes very much after its namesake.

Wilardo; Oplos---gun in Greek without the s, that's literally it, I'm pretty sure the s is just there to make it sound better.

Efina; Ryuusa---ryuu is dragon while usa comes from usagi (rabbit) which her head ribbons resemble, usa is also intended to be altered from uso (lie) like the lies she's born to eat.

Sakura; Yinghua---which is just sakura in Chinese. Though her homeland is based in Japan, her name is already Japanese, so I went for Chinese because it sounds nice and Honkai Impact 3 originated in China anyways.

Bronya; Volk---wolf in Russian, she was born in Russia and had the nickname "Silver Wolf of the Urals" the first time she was a child soldier, but she loves Homu so much that ended up being her symbol instead of a wolf, so she's one of the very few whose nickname has no relation to their symbol.

Mei; Murai---murasaki (purple in Japanese) and raiten (thunder and lightning in Japanese), her color scheme tends to lean towards purple and she is the Herrscher of Lightning. When using her Herrscher powers, the lightning is purple.

Sirin; Tsarian---tsaritsa (queen in Russian) and angel. As a Herrscher, she is effectively God’s angel in her world, and has been given though power by God to boost her ego enough that she calls herself the queen of Honkai.

Froze; Koori---ice in Japanese, fits her name and the fact that her favorite food is frozen yogurt, hence her symbol.

Ruphas; Maftera---comes from mavros (black in Greek), ftero (feather), and pteryga (wing), her black wings are pretty much the best way to identify her.

Ai; Gaifuka---music note in Japanese (gakufu) but altered to sound like a reasonable nickname. If I had another reason for the nickname, I don't remember it.

Akira; Seiki---seishin (spirit in Japanese) and setsueki (blood in Japanese), his power is Bloodmetry, touching blood will allow him to see a vision in the past that caused a strong emotion, and he hunts down spirits in order to purify them and save his sister during the game.

Letty; Ameko---ame is candy in Japanese and ko means child, she loves candy and sweets, it's pretty fitting.

Rick; Shihato---comes from shiro (white) and hato (dove), he sacrifices himself to ensure Letty's safety, a dove's the animal drawn on his rules list in his and Letty's room, and it can also be assumed that he has wondered if he only exists because of Letty's love.

Misane; Nekoro---comes from neko (cat) which is her favorite animal and her BitPhones are shaped like cat ears, and kokoro (heart) which is the kanji that her first name is written as.

Kay; Karasu---crow in Japanese, she's the second-generation Yatagarasu (three-legged crow), the end of her scarf is in the shape of a bird's wing, and she's about as chaotic as a crow.

Ryuuga; Gintatsu---comes from gin (silver) for the color of their hair, and tatsu (dragon) from one of the two symbols they have.

Polka; Theoma---comes from theos (god in Greek), and ptoma (corpse), it's quite literally his title of Corpse God but backwards and mashed together.

Misaki; Aimara---comes from ai (love in Japanese), aima (blood in Greek), and arachni (spider), apparently her assassination target fighting back earns her admiration/love though she still does kill them (or end up getting killed in Polka's case), and her shawl has a spider web print on the back of it.

Kou; Raikotsu---comes from raiten (thunder and lightning) and kotsu-anzen, his exorcist arts activate and look like lightning, and a kotsu-anzen is an omamori for traffic safety, which is the type of omamori that Kou wears as an earring.

Harpae; Argel---haarburste (hairbrush in German) and mirror (spiegel in German), her hairbrush is her Regalia and she dislikes looking into mirror because they reveal her true form, which is also why she went blind. Argel itself is a Welsh name meaning refuge, which is what she tried to be for Goldia.

Kon; Kisai---kitsune and kasai (an alternate world for fire in Japanese), as a kitsune, she’s skilled with both illusions and fire.

Titania; Neraias---neraida (fairy in Greek) and vasilias (king in Greek), though they are called demons by humans, their species were once called fae in the past. Additionally, they hold the position of Demon King within their realm.

Imigo; Nikane---ni (two in Japanese) and kane (bell in Japanese), comes from the fact that he’s a twin and that the bell he has in his hair was what allowed Mai to enter the higanbana garden and find what she needed.

#little prism dragon;; yuki talks #child of the full moon (estelle ;; luna)#guest muse: big bro yuri #scion of lorelei (luke ;; hiyoko)#candy and sweets (letty ;; ameko)#lie eating dragon (efina ;; ryuusa)#detective in training (misane ;; nekoro)#cheerful and deadly smile (misaki ;; aimara)#reborn corpse god (polka ;; theoma)#great thief yatagarasu (kay ;; karasu)#lightning fanged exorcist (kou ;; raikotsu)#black wings of dread (ruphas ;; maftera)#protector and sacrifice (rick ;; shihato)#fiery dragon phoenix (ryuuga ;; gintatsu)#wishes for eternal rest (wilardo ;; oplos)#fox eared miko (sakura ;; yinghua)#energetic idol hero (ai ;; gaifuka)#skilled young angel (froze ;; koori)#silver wolf of urah (bronya ;; volk)#world devouring ruinator (nidhogg ;; kairyo)#structure of a comforting home;; manor headcanons #queen of the void (sirin ;; tsarian)#maiden of pristine eyes (harpae ;; argel)#parental demon king (titania ;; neraias)#protective veiled twin (imigo ;; nikane)#moon's heavenly song (lyra ;; dolgari)#fang of the sea (seifer ;; mareki)#ice cream loving kitsune (kon ;; kisai)#delinquent spirit hunter (akira ;; seiki)#herrscher of lightning (mei ;; murai)

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cishetuppermiddleclasswasp · 7 years

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World Building June #9: Religion & Cosmology

Welp, this is a bigg’un, which is why it’s under a cut! :D (written in collaboration w/ @aitu)

Church of the Hanged

The original major faith in Ortstreit believed that their royal line was descended directly from gods and were, thus, gods themselves. At a certain point, the people forgot their heavenly gods and began to believe that their kings and princes were the only gods worth worshipping. When the army of the Church of the One killed the last King and his son, this was taken as proof to many that they were never gods at all, and maybe the new religion was worth looking into.

The Church of the One, also known as the Church of the Hanged, is founded on one very simple tenant: there is only one god, known as the One, and anyone who claims otherwise are either deluded or lying. Each year, a hundred or so children and young adults come to the independent Holy City at the center of the four states to offer their lives to the Church. There, they might be trained to be priests, sent martyriums to become monks, taught to be scribes, or else enlisted into the Order of the Noose, a holy order of knights and soldiers dedicated to the defense of the Faith and all of Ortstreit. Before the great War of the Faiths ended, the Order of the Noose (whose members are often known as Hangmen while civilians are known as Ropers) had a lot more to do. Nowadays, they are most often sent to the uncertain borders between Yachssid/Altamesa and the Elven Empire to fight off the encroaching elvish threat. They are heavily monitored by local forces because, while the elves are obviously the biggest threat to the various nations on the continent, the War of the Faiths is only barely outside living memory.

There is a little controversy that springs up sometimes; while it is very common for people to beseech their patron martyrs for help in earthly matters, it sometimes comes a little too close to prayer for the comfort of most priests. The martyrs are meant to be intercessors, not gods in their own rights.

Blood Cult

In the northerly snow-covered badlands of Yachssid grows day by day a religion dedicated to their god of blood, Hemos. While they are not of any mind to dismiss other gods outright like the Church of the Hanged does, they do very much believe that Hemos is the one most worth worshiping. They see him as the god of blood, obviously, but attendant to that are other titles: the god of life (including birth and, ahem, menstruation), the god of love, the god of passion, the god of joy, the god of war, god of anything that can even be remotely connected to the very concept of “blood”. Consequently, the members of the Cult of Blood are more well-rounded and well-adjusted than one might think when the phrase “Cult of Blood” is uttered. The priests of their faith are the best medical professionals one can find, especially concerning bloodborne illnesses or problems involving the heart or circulatory systems. The holy texts of the Cult of Blood, the Sancto Sanguinis, is not available to outsiders, and even within the faith priests are the only ones to handle the sacred pages. As such, some skeptics have posited that the texts are in actuality advanced medical tomes, explaining the priests’ high level of medical expertise, though the priests themselves maintain that it is naught but the holy powers of Hemos flowing through their lowly earthly flesh.

Priests of the Cult of Blood are readily identifiable. Each one wears russet-colored plate armor under a surcoat of white with a crimson border around a red teardrop shape. The armor is often covered with large spikes, as deterrence. When asked why a priest would need to be armored, the response is something to the effect of, “to let none of our most holy bodily fluids escape from our imperfect, penetrable skin.”

As a religion centered around blood, they have very strong opinions regarding anything involving blood or bloodshed. Death by exsanguination is the worst way to die, in their view, as those who die of blood loss are cut off from Hemos’ holy fluids; thus, it is often used as a punishment for only the most dire of crimes. And while there has never been a verifiable report of a vampire, the superstitious belief in them is widespread throughout Yacchsid due to Blood Cult priests raising hell over the very concept, seeing evil bloodsuckers around every corner. Though on that note, deaths due to disease carried by parasites such as mosquitos, leeches, or ticks are often much lower in areas with high Blood Cult membership, as vampires aren’t the only bloodsuckers the priests despise.

Death Dyad:

In years gone by, there were probably many, many gods ruling over the Côte d’Rois. However, over time, all were forgotten but two: Lord Warren and Lady Mortimer, the mated god and goddess of death. While they remain primarily death gods, they have each absorbed some aspects of the wider forgotten pantheon as a matter of course. Lord Warren is a bipedal boar-man, like a minotaur in body makeup but with a human torso and arms. His body is battle-scarred and muscular, with one eye clouded over from an old injury. Lady Mortimer is a tall skeletal woman with the head of a vulture. She once had two wings and two arms, but her lover, Warren, tore off one of her wings and arms in a fight; in the same fight, she clawed his eye out. While her body is without flesh, there is some meat within her rib cage, everything else being bare bone. These two gods are paired in that each of them reigns over an afterlife dedicated to a different kind of death. Lord Warren is King of Violent Death. The people of the Côte d’Rois believe that, if one is murdered, a victim of manslaughter, or killed in battle, that person will go to Warren’s afterlife where they are free to fight without consequence or to feast without guilt, warm in eternal sunshine. Lady Mortimer, for her part, is Queen of Nonviolent Death. If a person dies of illness, of old age, in an accident, in childbirth, etc., then they go to Mortimer’s afterlife, where they are given eternal rest and relaxation in cool, comforting darkness.

Though recorded accounts are few and unverifiable, there is a belief among the faithful of the Côte d’Rois that if one dies before their time with an act or work of great import left undone or unfinished, that the god and goddess of death may see fit to grant the deceased a second, temporary lease on life as an undead revenant; this is called “The Last Dance”, because once the revenant has fulfilled their purpose for their undeath, they’ll return to death. Now, this gift is believed only to be granted in extraordinarily special circumstances, and Warren and Mortimer are said to require an agreement between them both that the cause is indeed noble enough to have earned it. While the gods were once deeply in love, it is theorized that the loss of their other godly compatriots, caused by a mortal loss of faith, pulled them apart. Now it is difficult for them to come to a decision together. This means that one ‘trial’ for a soul’s return to earth could, potentially, last years, decades, or, if one legend is to be believed, even centuries. Revenants are, as such, usually depicted as well-dressed skeletons or half-rotted horrors.

Orc Goddess Triad:

The basic tenants of the Threefold Temple are that the earth, sea, and sky are each controlled by and manifested by an orcish goddess with four arms. The earth goddess is eternally pregnant, warm, and maternal; her animal aspects are the cow and the bear. The sea goddess is raucous, playful, and unpredictable; her animal aspects are the dolphin and the shark. The sky goddess is the oldest and wisest of her sisters, but can be stormy and cruel at times; her animal aspects are the dove and the eagle. The Threefold Temple is named thus because each temple is led by three priests, each dedicated to a different goddess. These priests (or priestesses--the triad can come in any combination of genders) are bound together for life as siblings, and romantic/sexual relationships between members of the same triad is strictly forbidden. That being said, if a sea priest from Village A wants to marry a land priestess from Village B, that isn’t a problem. It’s only within an individual triad that these things are problematic. The priests’ main purpose is to intercede between their congregation and the goddesses; they pray to the sky for rain when it is dry; they pray to the earth for a good harvest; they pray to the sea for safe passage across her body.

There is a faction group of the Threefold Temple known as the Elementarians, who abhor the personification of the land, sea, and sky. They believe the faith should go back down to its base elements; rather than worshipping a goddess who CONTROLS the sea, they choose to worship the sea ITSELF, and so on. They are iconoclastic by nature and generally seen as poor sports and wet blankets. While virtue names such as Grace, Chastity, or Service are common enough to most Aetherrackian communities, Elementarian influence can be felt in the more… “unique” names, which often incorporate whole phrases. “Fear-The-Sky’s-Holy-Wrath Smith” is more likely to be from an Elementarian family, than “Charity Jones.”

As previously mentioned, the Threefold Temple (and the Elementarians, as a result) believes in reincarnation. The mainline Temple believes that the cycle of reincarnation can stop if one lives extremely morally; if one does enough good, their chosen patron goddess will select them after death to live forevermore in their respective resplendent queendom. The Elementarians, on the other hand, see an end to the cycle of reincarnation...through sin. If one is immoral, or sinful enough, they shall be plucked from the cycle of reincarnation by the land, sea, or sky and punished accordingly. The sea will make them into a grain of sand at the bottom of the deepest oceanic trench, the pressure of the ocean pressing down upon them. The sky will turn them the sinner into a single droplet of rain, trapped in the water cycle to be endlessly dropped, drunk, pissed out, and evaporated again. The earth will make the sinner into a rock to be trod upon forever. The Elementarians are a rather dour, judgemental folk as a result of this outlook.

Dwarves/Dark Elves

The dwarves say they have a thousand gods. This is inaccurate. They have a god for every kind of rock or mineral, spanning from precious diamond and gold to humble talc and flint. What these gods actually DO is anyone’s guess. Dwarves are a self-sufficient folk. They probably just like being able to say they have a thousand gods.

Elves:

The Elves of Enduria have a somewhat foggy sense of faith. If you asked an elf on the street what elves worship, they might answer, “Elves,” and you still wouldn't know where they stand, exactly. That is because some elves, usually rural or older, practice ancestor worship. This was once the status quo. If your crops wouldn’t sprout or your wife wasn’t becoming pregnant, you would you would pray to those who came before you for guidance, peace of mind, and luck, because they had gone through it all before and had usually survived just fine. Usually you would pray to your grandmother or grandfather, or else to a famous relative in your line. However, more ‘modern’ or city-dwelling don’t see the point in worshipping those who have died because, supposedly, there’s no good reason for elves to die at all. Instead, these elves worship elvishness itself--they see their very being as the utmost of grace, beauty, wisdom, longevity.

Altamesan pantheon that we haven’t covered

Boy. Those Altamesans. They got gods. They’re pretty mysterious, though. So mysterious even we the writers don’t know who/what they are.

General nature worship (fauns and satyrs + nymphs)

#worldbuilding june #world building june #the parkererin dnd project #dungeons & dragons

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