Welcome to the blog! Currently this is work in progress, so not much is here yet. But if you intend to look around, I hope you enjoy your stay regardless!
Since this blog is mainly for archiving, I intend to make it as uncluttered as possible, so the askbox is closed! If you want to send questions, concerns, input, or just general comments, please send them to my OC blog @sillyocblog or main blog @liquidstar. I’m always willing to listen to people or answer questions!
Please click here to see the character guide! (WIP)
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 24-27 (Beginning-Middle), 29-30 (Timeskip-End)
Birthday: October 29th
Height: 6′2″
Weapon: Tekko kagi
Ethos: Cat's grave
Affiliation: Nova Stella
Rank: 4 star (On suspension)
Felis is the current barmaid of Nova Stella. She’s a playful, mischievous woman who loves feline-related wordplay.
Appearance
Felis has tan skin and a slightly thin, tall build. Her golden eyes have pupils like a cat’s. Her hair is a bright orange tone, long and wavy, and a pair of orange cat ears with white tufts at the base. She also has an orange tail tipped in white, tied with a yellow bow. Her outfit features a sleeveless white blouse fastened at the collar with a yellow ribbon, tucked into black shorts. The hemline of her shorts has two triangles peeking out like cat ears. She wears thigh-high white socks and black platform chunky Maryjanes with small yellow triangle buckles. Fingerless gloves cover her hands with the same triangle buckles. The gloves have retractable claws on the back.
Personality
Felis is the guild’s “big sister.” She thrives on banter and bustle, using humor and teasing to keep the bar alive. She lives for momentum and thrives in danger. Adrenaline is her vice. She faces it with a smile- it keeps her morale high and fear low, but it also tempts her to escalate situations. Still, when the room tilts, she’s quick on the grab. She has catlike reflexes, of course, and an instinct for who needs rescuing first (It's hardly ever herself). The most important thing to Felis is those closest to her, and she will do whatever it takes to protect them, and if she fails it will hit her hard. Even if her mask is on most of the time, she’s capable of dropping the silly cat jokes and banter to be serious and somber. It’s important for a bartender to be someone you can confide in, and even more important for a big sister to be someone you can rely on.
History
Felis died for the first time in a train catastrophe that left her with fragmentary memories. She was left alone, withdrawn and speechless in a hospital where the staff didn’t understand what was happening with her. Until she was noticed by Vesta, who brought her to the Nova Stella guild, where she would be raised. Felis grew very close to her younger siblings in the guild, where she would gain the "big sister" label. For a period of time Felis was a little assistant in the infirmary, but she began to go on missions the second she was old enough. She grew to find comfort in gallows humor, and a taste for risk. She would chase danger and tell the stories painting threats as glamor. Beneath the surface she was struggling, and it all culminated in her second death. Venus stripped her of her guild rank, keeping her from going on missions for her own good. Of course, Venus wouldn’t leave Felis jobless, and offered her a job as the barmaid.
Ethos: Cat’s Grave
Felis resurrects from fatal wounds up to eight times, for nine lives in total. Each return is exhausting and offers no undo for collateral damage, making reckless use a moral and tactical liability.
Notes
Felis falls asleep on the bartop on slow days. Especially if it's warm.
Back when she was unable to speak, Vesta taught her to sign. She would go on to teach the basics to the other guild kids too.
She knows all the guild gossip, but she won't tell you. Bartender-Patron confidentiality.
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 18-21 (Beginning-Middle), 23-25 (Timeskip-End)
Birthday: June 15th
Height: 5′4″
Weapon: Emei daggers
Ethos: Careless breeze
Affiliation: Nova Stella
Rank: 2 star
Mira is a cheerful girl from the Nova Stella guild. Whenever she goes out on a mission, her top priority is making sure as many people smile as possible.
Appearance
Mira is fat and round-faced with fair skin and fluffy, dark navy-blue hair that’s cropped at chin length. Her eyes are large and dark, and she wears a small pink star clip. She’s dressed in a soft pastel palette: a sleeveless baby-blue dress with a high collar and flared skirt, decorated with small pink stars along the hem and belted at the waist with a wide white belt. Over this, she wears a light pink off-shoulder cardigan with loose sleeves. She wears scrunched white socks, one of them falling, paired with simple pink slip-on shoes with pale blue soles.
Personality
Mira walks through life like it’s sunshine and rainbows because she needs the weather to stay good. Anyone would tell you she’s a breath of fresh air. She keeps jokes in her pocket, hums when rooms go tense, and changes the subject with a smile the second the air feels heavy. A little airheadedness creating levity. She’s chatty, curious, and very huggy. There are times her optimism can verge on delusion- she selectively hears what keeps hope intact, mentally rewriting the narrative to match the story she prefers even when a sliver of her knows better. Despite this, or maybe because of this, she’s the group’s emotional glue.Beneath the sunshine is gentle stubbornness. She disarms guarded people without demanding anything back. She overextends, forgets her own needs, and crashes in private; then she gets up, smooths the edges, and tries again, because if she gives up hope, there’s nothing left. Optimism is survival. And she will smile through that too, because she has to.
History
Mira had no memories of a family before Nova Stella; she was found as an infant in a destroyed village, and raised in the guildhall. Though the guild collectively kept her safe, it was Saiph and Felis who most fiercely ring-fenced her world, walking her between rooms, steering her from rough drills, and treating her as something precious to guard. Everything for her was paced to protect rather than test. By adolescence she understood adventure mostly as stories told at the table and missions glimpsed from doorways, and idealized the profession of hunter as something akin to a storybook hero. When her idealized world would be abruptly shattered at age 13, she mentally rewrote it as a fluke. An accident. Mira would continue with life with rose-tinted glasses still on, trying her best to ignore the cracks in them.
Ethos: Careless Breeze
Mira directs airflow, using her emei daggers to create more powerful currents. She performs best in open spaces; indoor turbulence and backwash can complicate precision. Her ethos also allows her to boost her speed, making her the fastest of the core 5.
Notes
Her daggers are named Gale and Gust.
Always knocks before entering a room, no matter what.
Despite ranking below Saiph, Bella, and Al, none of them can beat her in sparring. She's too fast.
Her biggest weakness is that she doesn't pay attention in real fights.
Pronouns: He/him
Age: 19-23 (Beginning-Middle), 24-26 (Timeskip-End)
Birthday: April 19th
Height: 5′11″
Weapon: Nunchucks
Ethos: Umbrage
Affiliation: Nova Stella
Rank: 3 star
Al struggles with his identity as an individual due the pressure of expectations. Despite this, his worth at Nova Stella is not judged by his ability to match them, that he has worth beyond that.
Appearance
Al has tan skin and a slim, athletic build. His hair is short and two-toned, split down the middle with one side black and the other white. He has large, dark gray eyes and wears a sleeveless white crop hoodie layered over a black undershirt with a high neckline. The hoodie has dangling drawstrings ending in black stars. One of his pants legs is black while the other is white, and the asymmetry continues down to his footwear- one sneaker is black with a white sole and laces, while the other is white with a black sole and laces. He wears black fingerless black gloves fastened with a white-buckled straps.
Personality
Al is generally very relaxed and approachable, his outward demeanor is very casual because he puts effort into making others feel comfortable in his presence. He has, on some level, resigned himself to being a supporting character in other people’s lives, so he’s very prone to putting the needs of others before his own.Al reads rooms instinctively, anticipates what people need, and will fit himself into their shadows.Still, he isn’t spineless- at least, when it comes to the well-being of other people. He's willing to argue if he believes it'll keep someone else safe. That's the one time he believes his real opinion matters, and he will fight for it, because he’s more afraid of losing people than disappointing them (Which is still a lot). Still, Al is far harsher on himself than he is on other people, making him somewhat prone to self-deprecation, and he often gets caught in guilt spirals. There are times he can genuinely let his guard down, and in those moments he can show a more “bratty” side- a bit snarky, teasing. If Al is being a little bit of a jerk, that means he’s actually comfortable with you.
History
Al was born on a coastal island to Poerava and Taurus. Taurus was a renowned knight whose long absences and later promotion left Al in his shadow, known as just “Taurus’s boy.” Though because of his father’s status, Al grew up very well-off. He was homeschooled and habitually compared to his father, Al grew up under a public gaze that praised his promise while eroding his sense of self. He still has fond memories of his early childhood, mostly the quiet days spent with his mother. It ended abruptly- Poerava died shielding him from a monster attack. That event shook Al’s ethos awake, destroying the creature and leaving him alive, with one awful thought: “Taurus could have saved her.” Al was celebrated as a prodigy, yet unconsoled, with Taurus sending him to Nova Stella after the death of his mother. There he spent his teens on missions, learning control and purpose, and formed close bonds with his peers. He’d only see his father once every few months for check-ins, which happen less and less frequently.
Ethos: Umbrage
Al manipulates his shadow, stretching, shaping, and hardening it into tendrils, cover, or restraints. Bright, open light limits his material, while complex, layered lighting expands it. His shadow is noticeably darker than everyone else’s, even when his ethos is not in use.
Notes
His namesake is brightest star in the Taurus constellation, Aldebaran, whose name means “the follower”
He actually hates being called by his full name, he sees it as overly formal and impersonal. The only person who calls him Aldebaran is his father.
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 20-23 (Beginning-Middle), 25-26 (Timeskip-End)
Birthday: November 26th
Height: 5′8″
Weapon: Axe
Ethos: Novocaine
Affiliation: Nova Stella
Rank: 4 star
Bella is the de facto leader of the main team at Nova Stella, due to having the highest rank of the five. Though she may seem like the most serious of the group at first, in reality she’s actually quite sweet.
Appearance
Bella has brown skin and a thin, lean frame. Her long, pink hair is worn in high twintails tied up with black bows with skulls on them. She has brown eyes and wears a sleeveless black top with a fishnet neckline and angular cutout at the waist. It's longer behind, splitting similar to a tailcoat, with a pink lining on the underside. She wears a black skirt, held up by a dark pink belt with a star accent at her hip. Her arms are wrapped in dark pink sleeves that stop at the upper arms and are fastened with white straps. She wears thigh-high socks of the same color, with matching white straps. She wears black high boots with pink soles and three pink buckle straps along the side.
Personality
Bella is elegant and sharp, though a bit standoffish when you first meet her. She’s a girl who learned to be the blade before she could be made the wound. She doesn’t intend to harm, but simply does not know how else to interact with people. She can’t be “soft” because it feels unsafe. She can’t acknowledge her feelings, because that will hurt too much. She is the kind of person who will bury all her emotions. She parses people like puzzles with pieces that never quite fit, so she leans on scripts, dry humor, and a cool demeanor. Deep down, she wishes she understood why there’s a glass wall that separates her from the rest of the world, but she can’t figure out how to cross it. As a leader, she feels immense pressure, because the team deserves precision, but she can’t offer perfection, or understanding of group dynamics. She cares so deeply it scares her, but she can’t allow herself to express it. When she’s misread as cold, she doubles down, because otherwise it feels like losing control. In moments where her control over this mask slips, she’s incredibly sweet, though this side of her is also an extreme vulnerability. For the most part, those close to her understand how much of her edgy act is really her, especially as her “cuter” habits become more apparent.
History
Bella was raised deep in the woods by a mother who trained her as a weapon rather than a daughter. Her childhood was a lesson in enduring pain. At fifteen Bella ran after a final confrontation with her mother, and did not return. She has never described what happened that night. After a week, she reached Nova Stella- A guild that she hears “takes in strays.” Under the guild’s roof, was allowed a late, cautious childhood, where she discovered a love of sweets and soft things. Her plushie collection would grow, and she would begin going on missions herself. The memory of the woods fixed a fierce aversion to killing, even when missions turned dire. Among her peers she gained a reputation for taking on a lot of missions, really fast, and gaining a lot of stars for her age. Sensing Bella’s self-destructive tendencies, Venus forced her to team up with Saiph and Al, to keep them all safe, placing Bella as the leader of their group ever since.
Ethos: Novocaine
Bella can numb physical sensation across her body, ignoring pain to keep moving under duress. The tradeoff is that injury cues can go unnoticed, and she could get severely hurt in a fight without realizing. Additionally, since Bella has a tendency to overuse her ethos, her actual pain tolerance is incredibly low- A papercut would be enough to fold her if she were unable to use her ethos.
Notes
Her namesake, Bellatrix, is a star in Orion, the name means “Female warrior.”
As stated before, she has an incredible sweet-tooth and her favorite food is red velvet cake.
Conversely, she hates seafood, and cannot handle spicy food.
She gets very easily overstimulated by physical sensations. She’s also prone to motion sickness without her ethos activated.
Because of the last few notes, she never takes on maritime missions.
Pronouns: He/him
Age: 19-22 (Beginning-Middle) 24-26 (Timeskip-end)
Birthday: May 2nd
Height: 5′7″
Weapon: Longsword
Ethos: Outburst
Affiliation: Nova Stella
Rank: 3 star
Saiph is a fiery young man who has been in the Nova Stella guild for pretty much his whole life. He was an orphan who was taken in by the guild as a baby, so has a very strong passion for his place in it.
Appearance
Saiph has a pale complexion and a lean, muscular build with defined abs and broad shoulders. His hair is tousled and mostly strawberry blond, with a bold red fringe sweeping slightly over one eye. His eyes are red, matching the dominant color in his outfit. He wears a sleeveless black cropped top with a high collar, and a cropped jacket with a red flame design on the sides. As well as matching, baggy black pants helped up by a red sash with a gold flame-shaped design. His boots are detailed with gold platform soles. His wrists are hidden under a black piece of fabric, and gold spiked cuffs. He wears black huggie earrings.
Personality
Saiph is loud and loyal, the kind of guy who's defined by bravado. Due to his passionate enthusiasm, Saiph can appear to be overwhelmingly friendly, and quite loud. He’s always dialed to 100- incredibly hot-headed and impulsive, quick to jump to extremes and rush into danger. Under the noise, there's an anger he's learned to point inwards- He blames himself for past failures and future ones he hasn’t even made yet, until it all explodes outwards. That self-blame shows up as overtraining, a lack of care for his safety, and a reflex to handle every burden that comes his way. Because he believes that's where proof of his masculinity is. He positions himself as a protector, ashamed to need protection in turn. Behind the theatrics, Saiph is a deeply insecure and troubled person. And he’ll be your best friend, if you let him.
History
Saiph was left at Nova Stella’s doorstep as an infant, and grew up in the guildhall under Venus’s care. He would bond closely with his guild family, especially Mira, who was close in age. Saiph took on the role of a protective older sibling, and a tough, swaggering “tomboy” through childhood. His lack of femininity wasn’t something he questioned as a young kid, it was normal. Though by the time he started to hit puberty, there was a distinct otherness. His tomboyishness was no longer seen as “cute” and he would be teased by other kids in town. His personality back then was quite different- he was mean. Angry and mean, all the time, constantly, and he didn’t know why. He came out as a trans boy at thirteen, backed by the guild’s acceptance, though he avoided the town for a while. Through his later teens he cut his teeth on missions, maturing from scrappy tomboy to Nova Stella’s "Phoenix Sword.”
Ethos: Outburst
When Saiph draws his sword he becomes engulfed in flames, which he is also able to control. Drawing the sword is a trigger that gates both power and risk- this state is volatile and risks his self-control, so he keeps his sword sheathed until it seems absolutely necessary to draw his blade.
Notes
Outside of the guild he’s known by the epithet “The phoenix sword/swordsmen.” It’s a title earned by his reputation of property damage.
He’s incredibly persistent on the notion that 5-foot-seven is NOT short, just below average, and that there’s a difference. He’s constantly one person challenging him on this away from snapping.
He won’t take off those wrist cuffs.
He likes to cook, campfires and grills are his specialty. He’ll also eat pretty much anything.
The name “Saiph” comes from a star in the Orion constellation which literally translates to “sword.”
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 19-22 (Beginning-Middle) 24-25 (Timeskip-End)
Birthday: December 5th
Height: 5′6″
Weapon: Spear
Ethos: Glaciation
Affiliation: Nova Stella
Rank: No star
Polaris is a girl from up north, and the newest member of the Stella Nova guild. Though she has reservations about joining a guild at first she soon starts to grow close to her fellow guildmates.
Appearance
Polaris has a light-brown skin tone and a thin build. Her dark brown hair is styled into a thick braid, tied at the end with a red ribbon, and accented near the front with a white snowflake hair clip. She has large brown eyes. Her outfit consists of a sleeveless navy crop top, paired with an asymmetrical navy skirt with a red lining on the inside. The skirt also has a scalloped white hem. She wears white shorts inside, with a compass chain peaking out. A black belt sits at her waist, with a moon buckle. On her arms, she wears matching black armbands with white star patterns. She wears black boots with white soles and white lacing up the sides. The boots are red underneath.
Personality
Polaris is self-sufficient to a fault, and will hesitate to ask for help even when she’s clearly struggling on her own. She avoids messy feelings of attachment as much as possible, because she doesn't want to be bound by bonds. Yet beneath the frost is a girl desperate to connect- Polaris notices the small things others miss. She is surprisingly perceptive of others, and can even be nosy at times, perhaps in lieu of connecting with them personally. She observes other people, and tries her hardest to understand without getting too close. When trust does form, she’s steady and possessive in the gentlest way, and she lets herself be silly, almost childish. Her fear of attachment, however, will not let her outright say that she's made friends. For her, it's easier to pretend it's all business, even when she’s clearly having fun.
History
Polaris grew up in the north, loved by her parents until an unexplained accident left her orphaned- a loss that fixed her early conviction that nothing lasts. She was taken in by a family friend, Thuban, who provided food and quiet stability but little affection. She learned cartography at his elbow and turned it into a passion she could enjoy in solitude. All the while, Thuban’s absences stretched into months, until finally failed to return. At eighteen, Polaris hit a breaking point, and left home. She would travel aimlessly for about a year, mapping every place she could. Eventually, her travels led her to the lost woods, where she would encounter a certain Nova Stella boy. He eventually opens her up to the possibility of joining his guild.
Ethos: Glaciation
Polaris ethos is the ability to freeze water. She can’t create ice from nothing, but she can freeze the moisture in the air to create and shape ice structures. She has a hard time controlling her ethos, which is made more difficult by the fact that she cannot melt what she creates. Only freeze. On top of that, she’s weak in very dry environments
Notes
Polaris’ favorite hobby is cartography, she has a huge fascination with maps and often makes her own when on adventures. She’s incredibly adept at navigation and map reading despite being dyslexic.
Due to her lack of any eccentric physical features (i.e. crazy hair/eye color, horns, animal ears, the works) Polaris is sometimes referred to as “Plain looking” by other characters. This annoys her to no end.
She doesn’t like sweets, unless they're cold.
She’s named after Polaris, the pole star, also known as the north star.
A world where your worst flaw manifests itself as a sort of superpower called an “ethos.” The main story revolves around a guild of people having adventures and making a living with these abilities. If you want to know more, please refer to the Loredump!
If you want to see the characters, here’s a list! Click on any of their names to find out more about them. NOTE: This blog is still a wip! Any character with no link simply hasn’t been added yet.
A power that arises as a personal reflection of the user's worst defect can be awakened within every single person in this universe. This ability is known as one's “Ethos.” A fundamental quality that determines what gives something its identity, the motivation driving one's existence, and the principle that drives all of their actions. The imperfection that individuals try to hide from, fight against, repress, and unleash. The ethos is a defense mechanism that only becomes active when a person is exposed to circumstances that, at least in their eyes, bring out the worst in this perceived defect of theirs. Awakening can be distressing or even traumatic, yet the prevailing belief is that ethos are blessings “from above.” Literally.
The Divine Comet passes over the world roughly once per century, an event celebrated globally. Long ago, a young alchemist- now remembered as the Comet’s First Scholar- learned to draw on the Comet’s enigmatic energy and share it, catalyzing ethos awakenings and elevating the Comet to near-deified status. The Comet’s power behaves less like willful magic and more like a cosmic energy, periodically reinforced with each pass.
This energy has secondary effects. It can subtly (or dramatically) alter human appearance and even genetics, producing distinctive non-human traits that may align with a person’s ethos (Ethos vestiges) and, in some cases, be inherited. Crucially, the Comet’s energy is indifferent: it does not choose targets. Animals, lacking human self-reflection, do not awaken ethos; instead, exposure can produce monsters. Though it’s rarely in a single generation, but increasingly significant across breeding populations over time. As monsters proliferated alongside the spread of ethos, the world sought structured responses.
As threats escalated, villages and travelers required help. A new profession emerged: hunters, individuals with powers who fought monsters for a fee. Scarcity and necessity drove prices up; lone hunters or small bands could monopolize regions and extort communities.
To curb abuse and coordinate response, hunters organized into centralized regional hubs: guilds. Over time the kingdom formalized this landscape, promoting guilds as adjuncts to royal defense while regulating them to exert control. Groups that refused compliance were declared dark guilds; pushed outside the law, many accepted unethical work and in some places operated like mafia-style protection rackets. Solo hunting remained legal, but affiliation brought clear advantages, such as steady missions, higher pay, housing, and mutual aid. Guilds also became a pathway to knighthood, even as knights were charged with keeping guilds aligned with royal policy. From the start, the system balanced public safety with suppression and control, a reaction to the unsettling simultaneity of ethos and monsters.
Guild Operations
Guilds serve as regional hubs. Mission requests and rewards flow in from across a territory. Members accept and complete assignments. For persistent hotspots, guilds may station personnel, and smaller satellite guilds now supplement main halls with faster local response, typically avoiding the highest-risk jobs. Many members reside in guild housing, often dormitory-style.
Missions carry a one- to five-star rating: one star for entry-level (sometimes non-combat) tasks, five stars for missions with a high risk of death. Members themselves are ranked by the guildmaster for skill and experience; even a seasoned newcomer must prove capability before advancing. Higher-star missions pay more, and accomplished five-star hunters may be scouted by knights.
Newbies begin as no-star and are expected to shadow senior hunters until earning rank. Sign-up varies by guild: some accept on the spot; others require demonstrations or tests at the guildmaster’s discretion. Becoming a guildmaster typically happens by succession from a predecessor or by founding a new guild- An approval-heavy, kingdom-regulated process that also demands successful recruitment.
Notable Guilds
Nova Stella. Now the principal guild in the story. Nova Stella was a “rising star” generations ago, under Guildmaster Arcturus. Nowadays, Guildmaster Venus runs a precise operation with a people-first ethos and a pragmatic stance toward bureaucracy, occasionally taking requests off the official books and welcoming unconventional members.
Gladiatoria. The current top-ranked guild emphasizes militaristic discipline under Mars, who personally trains members. Founded about thirty years ago, it rose to household prominence in the last decade through performance and strict standards.
Pandemonium. An older guild whose notoriety surged when Saturn became guildmaster. His strategy includes challenging other guilds for territorial control, reviving archaic, questionably-legal turf wars few expected to see again.
Dragon Tree. A respected, smaller, and older guild headquartered within a living tree. The guild is known for a love of peace and nature, led by guildmaster Uranus. It’s a little infamous for having a lot of oddballs.
Owl Feather. Among the earliest guilds, founded by a scholar and dedicated to pairing research with fieldwork. Current guildmaster Mercury aims to maintain this tradition, and spread the message of Minerva in the modern age. The guildhall is also the kingdom’s biggest library.
Lunar Flare. A guild of artists led by Jupiter, grounded in the belief that it’s not enough to just save people- morale is important too, and that can be shared with everyone through art. The guildhall has a stage and hosts exhibitions all the time.
Cobalt Heart. The first officially recognized naval guild, specializing in maritime and coastal missions. Guildmaster Neptune leads a confident, athletic culture and is already preparing a successor in his son Trident.
Other notable factions:
Timber Scouts. A guild youth program akin to scouts. It trains children with ethos interested in guild work. Ceres serves as troupe leader.
The knights. The kingdom’s primary defensive force and the legal overseers of guilds; missions beyond five stars default to the knights. The elite corps includes the Zodiac Knights and the ruler’s official court.
Tartarus- a dark guild. Led by Pluto, Tartarus comprises bandits and outlaws who take jobs across the legal and illicit spectrum. The internal rule is fundamentally individualist, and betrayal is not uncommon.
The Sisters. Not technically a guild (dark or otherwise) but an organization with a shared agenda. They do not accept missions in the guild sense; members address one another as “Sister.”
