Rido's limp body lay prone six feet from the wreckage of their ride. Once back on Avishkar, he had decided to go around the other racers by cutting through a market street. Stalls and booths loaded with various wares went flying as Rido hit the accelerator. However, the other end of the street had been blocked off by a security barricade. The next thing he knew, another pair of hands was grappling the steering column and the world twisted violently.
Dwine's parents had always told him he was born on the same day the last drop of water disappeared from their clan's oasis. Born in the final moments of their world, Dwine rarely knew peace or security. Once it was determined their oasis would never hold water again, their clan joined the numbers of nomads seeking that same resource.
Gastal was a burning hot plane prone to dry storms of lightning and dust. Dwine's father died defending the roaming caravan from marauders searching for both water for themselves and fuel for their vehicles. His mother would follow not too long after having refused food or drink for herself, giving what could be found to her only child.
Only when the roaming nomad clans were eventually whittled down to less than a dozen, were they approached by Far Fortune. Her offer was simple - join her crew or die. Dwine and the younger folk took her offer, while their elders did not.
When the Omenpaths opened up across the Multiverse, Far Fortune took her gang of Endriders and they drove as far as those wormholes would take them. They traveled across a number of planes before running out of fuel on Avishkar. One of those was the plane of Alara where the crew ran rampant across Bant and Naya, stockpiling water and food wherever they could fit it into their vehicles.
One day, Dwine happened upon a clutch of eggs in a cliffside nest. The first of these had hatched and was calling out to be fed. A Naya Sojourner told the young man that Scavenger Drakes don't raise their young, they either make it on their own or they die. Dwine couldn't let that happen and took the drakeling with him. The young beast imprinted on Dwine and the man gave him the name Clax.
Dwine had grabbed Rido's steering wheel before he could plow through the Grand Prix's security barricade. He had only been a member of the racing crew once Far Fortune had entered them in the GGP. He had been assigned as Rido's navigator, who hardly listened to his directions on practice runs.
Some would call him soft, but Dwine wasn't into causing pain and misery for the sake of it. He would suffer much haranguing because of his stance. Still he didn't want to see a bunch of bystanders get hurt. So he jerked the steering wheel and their ride swerved, briefly speeding up again until hitting a tree.
Clax, who had been flying alongside them, had lighted upon a market staller's fruit cart and was staring at Rido's motionless body. His master was moving slowly, attempting to climb out his side of the wreck.
Dwine took in the aftermath of their crash. Rido, six feet away, dead or unconscious, he couldn't tell. Some bystanders were angry at the crash and the possibility of what could have happened. Others, clearly witnessing the state the co-driver was in, sought to provide assistance but were too afraid of the drake that had landed.
Dwine took all of it in. He could hear the race as it was being broadcast live. There was no way their ride was going anywhere. Rido, who never listened to his navigator. Rido, who always had a plan. Rido, who took risky shortcuts.
Dwine looked passed the merchants and onlookers, back towards the beginning of the street and saw a familiar light blue shimmer - an Omenpath. The man quickly dusted himself off and straightened his posture. He called out to Clax to come, follow. Let Far Fortune deal with Rido's antics. These two friends were going to explore a while.
A powerful Goldnight battle seraph, Romhilda was the Angel Maris most often called upon to assist in battle on Innistrad. During the events of Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon he summoned her to aid him against a group of cultists burning a small village, where she proceeded to turn against him, forcing Maris to destroy her.
With the debut of "Lorwyn Eclipsed", and when it releases later this month, there are now 13 sets in Standard. They cover expansions 97-109. Matching each set with its corresponding card collector numbers, there are 5 noncreature spells, 3 legendary creatures, and the 5 nonlegendary creatures shown above. I am so thankful that ECL's matching card was revealed on the first day of spoilers.
Anyway, I was thinking, if you out there want a random writing challenge, why not write a story or stories featuring the above going on a trip through the multiverse for as long as nonplaneswalkers are able to do so.
We have here the:
Rattleback Apothecary, a snake-bodied gorgon warlock from Thunder Junction, who specializes in potions to give anything from liquid courage to liquid murder.
Moonstone Harbinger, a bat warrior from Bloomburrow, whose moonstone weapon can absorb twilight.
Devoted Duelist, a goblin monk from Tarkir, who has no problem deflecting arrows shot in his direction.
Lurking Lizard, a lizard villain from an unknown plane, who arrived on Tarkir via an Omenpath, and came across the goblin monk.
Moonglove Extractor, an elf warlock from Lorwyn who, of course, is carrying moonglove extract.
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These are your characters in this little multiverse-hopping adventure party. The party is obviously not balanced. There is no white cleric or blue wizard here. You have three black-aligned characters plus a red goblin and a green lizard.
This is just something nagging at the back of mind and something I would like to offer all you writers out there for 2026. Remember, it's just a random writing exercise.
How do they all meet? The Gorgon and the Bat first? Then on to Tarkir for the Goblin and the Lizard? And then on to Lorwyn for the Elf? Do they all meet at the same time somewhere?
Make a single story out of it. Make a series of stories out of it. Just try something different by using this and see where it takes you. It's just for fun so why not?
Respite: The Technical Magical Institute of History Chapter Four
Summary: Aquila and Venitaci find their way out of the bowels of the castle.
Warnings: mentions of blood, body horror, exposed bone, mentions of death, graphic depictions of violence.
Word count: 1.4k
Read Snarky slimy sneaking snake from the story Respite: The Institute of Technical Magical History by Moseslikellama w...
Aquila woke sharply, she was on her feet in an instant. How long had they been out for? She didn't carry a watch. Venitaci lay in the same spot he'd been when she'd passed out. It was time to wake him, for better or worse. "Wake." She said and he did. Slowly and with great effort he pulled himself into a sitting position. Aquila wanted to warn him but it was too late. He'd lifted his mangled hand and was examining it. "Where are we?" He croaked. At least he wasn't screaming. Aquila moved closer to him and waved a hand. "Just some room. I've found it once before, could have had a softer landing though." Cracking her head on the ice had made her thoughts slow. She was sure now that it had been sheer adrenaline that allowed her to fix up Venitaci before passing out. "How do you feel?" She almost laughed at that, how preposterous a question to ask when his hand was gone. "Me? What about you?" He staggered to his feet and said, "Your shoulder."
Aquila glanced down to see the flesh and muscle melted away from her shoulder, leaving only the bone. Nausea crawled up and she swayed again for a moment. How had she missed that? The same film-like covering had settled over the bone. The spell had worked on them both. That made her feel a bit better about Venitaci's hand, if she couldn't feel hers it was likely he didn't either. "So that's what I felt burning." They'd truly been moments from death earlier. If she'd been a second longer it could've been his entire arm gone and her neck burned through. "That thing. What does it do?" He was moving around the room, no doubt making note of the peculiar walls. His voice was low and gravelly as he replied. "It sucks out your life force. If you scream, it steals it through your voice. The sounds we heard? Mimicking its victims. Their bones grinding, snapping. Sucks the organs out, throwing the guts."
She had to sit down as he spoke. The sounds had been beyond imagination. She could see the creature ripping and tearing in her mind, though she hadn't glimpsed it. "If it wants your life force, why bother with the body?" The acid seemed overkill in her opinion. She grew colder at his reply. "Some people won't scream. Not for fear or anger. Death or not, they hold out. Staring that thing within its eyes and holding steady." Aquila had refrained through sheer willpower, the hope that she could save them was all that had held her together. In the face of imminent death she wasn't so sure that would be the case. He continued as she grew ever colder. "When they don't scream, it's robbed of a meal. We've just pissed it off beyond belief, escaping relatively unscathed as we have." The last part was said with a bitter laugh. Aquila mentally noted to bring someone along the next time she went out exploring.
Aquila's cream sweater was half soaked pink and the other half was a dirty rusted color. Holes peppered it where the acid had eaten through her jacket. Venitaci fared better looks wise, as he was wearing black. "What's our story?" She dreaded the walk to the infirmary, there was no telling how long she'd been gone. Venitaci took on the same unbothered air he'd started the night with. Aloof and unassuming. "We're working on a project together, and ran into some trouble on an unknown floor. It happens all the time." Her suspicions came back. "But we're not working on a project together." He gave her an incredulous look. "Obviously, but they don't know that." She rolled her eyes. "Sure and they won't ask any questions because the institution is known for enjoying vague stories." The proposition was stupid, they'd be grilled on the entire encounter.
"That's not going to work." She insisted, now pacing along the frozen floor. She was freezing half soaked with blood. Venitaci sighed dramatically. "Then let me in on what you were doing down there, I'll corroborate." She snapped her head in his direction, a sly grin dusted his face. As if. She thought, shaking her head. "Why don't you tell me what you were doing down there instead." She wasn't giving up her project for anything. He pushed past her, purposely knocking her off balance and making her cease her pacing. You save a man's life and he has the gall, the audacity. "You know I could just take it. Your mental shields are pathetic." Hot, white anger flashed through her at that. Was he looking now? She screams internally as loud as she can. He didn't so much as flinch. "You're disgusting. A vile, pathetic and sneaky rat. I was there first." He turned back to her, knocking into her good shoulder again. "Wrong. I've been looking through that floor for months. And I saved your ass." He held his hand up and shook it at her. The finger bones rattled together as he did.
Her fingers were turning blue. "Whatever! We'll say we were working together on a project about lost entities in the castle. And then you can buzz off to whatever dark corner you came from." His eyes sparkled with mischief at that but he agreed and that was all she cared about at the moment. "Now let's go to the infirmary before your bones fall out." He made no protest, just filed out of the room. "I'd be more concerned about your arm. It's hanging by threads." A fact she had done her best to avoid thinking about since she had looked at the damage. She ignored him and began to lead them out of the blood red, freezing room. The hallway was immediately warmer and she felt the feeling begin to rush back into her fingers.
Venitaci walked silently behind her as she led them out. The odd part was that the room seemed deeper this time. The passages were winding longer than it previously took her to navigate them. The third time they rounded a corner and found a dead end, he took over. "I thought you were famous for knowing the castle?" She scowled at his back. "Rumored to know, not famous. I've been thrown off track recently, a blow to the head will do that you know." The walls around them slowly faded back into familiarity. "Are you sure that's the blow that knocked you off course?" She was beginning to regret not letting him die on the cold, ice floor. "What exactly are you insinuating?" Had he read her mind again? Her resentment for him was growing by the second. "I'm not insinuating anything. Half of the institute heard your argument with Thondren in the courtyard." She clammed up at his admission, embarrassment coloring her face. She hadn't had time to really process the argument. A moment of tense silence passed between them. "Yes, well. Families fight all of the time." He let out a sound of indignation at her response. "That didn't sound like a friendly spat." Her patience had run out. "I'm sure you know about all kinds of spats. As annoying and prone to prying as you are."
The hallway was coming to an end and to her horror light shone at the end. They couldn't have been gone all night could they? The hall dumped them out in a different spot, right off the main entrance. Only this time when she spilled out of the narrow hallway people were milling about. The bell tolled, breakfast. She would've frozen up, stood dumbfounded in front of all the people making their way to Peak Hall but Venitaci had grabbed her good arm and was weaving them through the crowd. It wasn't possible. There was no way she'd spent the entire night down there. It had been three hours from curfew! Curfew began at ten, that meant they'd been down there over twelve hours. A commotion began stirring as more people caught sight of them or specifically her, covered in caked on blood.
She jumped again, nearly pulling her arm out of Venitaci's grasp when she heard his voice inside her head again. Come on, you'll have time to tell everyone about your heroism later. Her anger returned and she doubled her pace, hoping to reach the infirmary as soon as possible. Like that was what was on her mind, insufferable slimy bastard. His legs were twice as long as hers and she was trying very hard not to trip. One tumble and pain would explode from her shoulder. When he began to slow she prepared to berate him for mind snooping but she saw they'd reached the infirmary.
Respite: The Technical Magical Institute of History Chapter Three
Summary: Aquila sets out to explore the castle and things go terribly wrong
Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, suspense, injury, blood
Word count: 2.5k
{I have the babiest understanding of french so if I've messed it up please let me know. :) Also Venitaci is a play on Venatici which means "Hunting" approximately in Latin. Pronounced Ven•e•tah•see. I also have no basis for the magic I am just making it up as I go. }
Read When a plan goes from bad to worse from the story Respite: The Institute of Technical Magical History by Moseslike...
Aquila swung the portrait open and climbed into the space behind it. The short hallway was small and tight but she knew it let out into a grand staircase that twisted down. As far as she knew it could descend all the way to the bottom of the castle. Time had been scarce lately to sneak off and see the unknown parts of the castle but she had resolved to fix that lack of knowledge. Aquila did not like stairs, any of them but she particularly didn't like these. The stone was old and crumbling, the air damp. With the heat of the castle the stairs remained humid always.
Due to her dislike and mistrust of most of the castle's stairs, Aquila spent time mastering levitation. No person could truly fly without the assistance of some device be it broom or other. But, plenty of people had mastered the art of levitating and Aquila was one of them. She'd worked hard in the unnatural forest outside, figuring out how to make it work best for her needs. She had settled on using her palms as the source of lift. Her arms down straight at the sides with her palms parallel to the ground, she pushed up. It helped that a gentle breeze wafted up from far below her. Wind was a great tool to utilize with levitating, as it could boost one's own ability.
Aquila was skilled in this form of magic but she didn't have a death wish. So instead of jumping straight down, she chose to jump from one level of stairs to the one below it. Using her power to stifle the landing impact. After a while, she could skip two levels before landing. Sometimes it seemed like she could almost hear whispers in the air rushing past her, but she could never decipher them. The stones of the walls and stairs changed as she descended deeper. Sometimes gray or white other times ash or charcoal. During her descent, she was holding the stone Junhin had given her. She was pushing the image of the location through the rock, hoping it would give her some kind of signal. Though it never did, Aquila kept hold of it and decided to stop.
Pausing on the stairs Aquila pulled several stands of her hair out, and conjured a necklace for the stone, tying it around her neck. As she finished, a door materialized. She didn't know how far she'd gone down, only that she'd been jumping down for at least twenty minutes. The door looked nondescript, a bland brown with a bronze knob. She braced herself, having opened far too many doors without acknowledging how old and mysterious Respite actually was. Some things were better left unexplored but Aquila was not one to be cowed by a few bad experiences.
As she opened the door it grew impossibly quiet, like all of the sound was sucked out of the world besides her own beating heart. She closed the door behind her, squinting into the dark corridor. Cursing herself for not grabbing a light source, she whispered a summoning spell. "Icy Star, blackest night lend me a guiding light." Three small twinkling stars appeared above her, bathing the space in a dim white light. Another perk of living in Icy Star, whoever had created it clearly did not like the dark. She hadn't tested its reach that much and preferred to bring her own light source but as far as she could tell, the stars could be summoned anywhere on campus.
She stepped further into the space noting it was dusty and appeared as if it had been unused for a long time. She was at a fork, a hallway stood to her left and one straight ahead of her. She paused for the briefest of moments before she turned left and began searching. The hallway was eery, no pictures hung on the walls but occasionally a door would pop up or a chair. None of these doors interested Aquila as they weren't the room she was looking for. She walked aimlessly for a while, noting doors and thinking of the room she wanted to find. I'm looking for what I found before she thought, hoping the Tiger's Eye would do something. She began creating tiny wisps that would float ahead to give her eyes ahead of her but the hall remained the same. Silent and lifeless.
She was so focused on seeing ahead that she missed what was behind her until it was upon her. "Fancy meeting a gal like you down here." She spun around so quickly she got off balance and nearly fell. The person before her was wavering and glitching, making it hard to discern who it was in the dim lighting. "Drop your concealment." She demanded, straining her eyes to get a clear view of them. Male by the voice alone but she wanted confirmation. The person scoffed. "After you." Aquila rolled her eyes but allowed the enchantment to drop and the stranger followed. Aquila's shock was evident. "Venitaci? What are you doing here?" Venitaci stood leaning against the wall like he didn't have a care in the world. His hair looked ashen under the stars. "Exploring same as you." He looked around casually, pretending to examine the stone.
Aquila didn't know Venitaci personally, she had never spoken to him before tonight. Their classes didn't overlap and she spent more time in the bowels of the castle or arguing with Thondren than socializing. Ventaci had his own group, unknown to her. After all, the institute is massive, so it was easy to not know a lot of people here. The only thing she did know about him came from Asda who was often a biased narrator. They shared a class on symbols, runes and other magical markings. A class Aquila had been avoiding.
Knowing nothing about him didn't stop Aquila from being suspicious. If anything it raised her hackles more. What were the odds he just happened upon her? It wasn't impossible but it seemed unlikely in her opinion. "Well, I'm exploring this floor. Go somewhere else." Aquila didn't share information with anyone except her tower mates and that wasn't going to change now. He was unperturbed by her remark, he just laughed. "No I don't think I will." And then he pushed past her to forage ahead. Aquila felt frustration well up in her for the second time today. She tore after him with a vengeance. "Hey! You can't just come in here and take over the floor. I was here first!"
He was so quick as he moved down the hall, barely making a sound. As quiet as the hall itself. Aquila resented that as she tried to catch up to him. "I'm being so serious right now. Hey! I said qui-" she didn't get to finish her sentence as he came up short and she ran straight into his back. Rocking backwards she groaned. Reaching up to rub her nose. "What's the big idea?" His hands were on her shoulders and his face had gone white. He began pushing her backwards swiftly. Aquila was even more frustrated at this. He'd barged his way in, ignored her and now was pushing her back the way they'd come. She huffed and pushed back. "Alright enough!" But he wasn't stopped by her pushback and continued shoving her back with haste. Before she could further explode, he yanked a door open with force and brought them both inside.
The room was dark but the stars above her grew brighter, revealing they were in a study. It was covered in dust. He then said, "Put out the lights." She began to protest but he interrupted her harshly. "If you value living, put out the damn lights!" Aquila did value living so she dismissed them. "Icy Star, put back the moon and let darkness once again bloom." The stars vanished and they were alone in the dark. It was deathly silent again and then she heard it. Venitaci had moved behind her standing beside the door. Distantly there was a thump, squelch and then a long screech. Aquila might have gasped if he hadn't grabbed her the moment before she heard it. Her back was pressed against his chest and she could faintly feel him breathing. He whispered quickly, "It's a Stridorli. Do not scream. No matter what you hear, do not make a sound."
Aquila had a vague memory of a magical creatures class but not of the Stridorli. She did know the root Stridor, which meant hiss or scream. It sounded again, closer this time. She heard a crack that cut through the floor, then a ghastly ripping. Splatters could be heard hitting the floor and walls. Without thinking she'd grabbed Venitaci's arm. The sounds grew closer and she tried to slow her breathing. The man behind her was as still and quiet as ever. Another gut wrenching screech filled the air followed by an indescribable abominable thrumming that began to vibrate through the floor. Aquila startled violently when she heard Venitaci in her mind. "It's going to locate us. The vibrations will tell it where we are eventually." Aquila felt dread twofold.
Every student at the Institution was taught how to block access to their mind. It was a core tenet of Respite. Breaking into someone's mind was a horrible violation and Aquila thought her mental walls impenetrable. But she hadn't even felt him so much as knock upon them, he had simply entered. That fear took a backseat as another horrible scream erupted, closer still. So she thought back, What do we do? The squelching sounds grew wetter. "Unless you've got a sunspear, die." Wonderful, she thought. Dying wasn't an option. No, but I've got something else. She grasped the Tiger's Eye fiercely and thought, it's now or never baby. Taking care to be as quiet as possible she moved away from Venitaci. The stone was cold against her hot skin. I need to find a way not to die. She told the stone, channeling the image of every materializing door she'd ever seen in the castle.
The next scream that sounded stopped her heart, it was outside the door. Venitaci was posed in front of it ready to fight or die trying. He barred the entry with magic as the beast began tearing at the door. Aquila grew desperate, throwing caution to the wind she channeled all of her power through the stone, lighting the room up orange and red. The screams were now deafening as the thing began throwing whatever wet substance it had against the door. Venitaci yelled over the noise, "Figure it out or get over here and help me!" Aquila barely heard him, the sound of her heartbeat was loud in her ears. Agh! Take us down! Down! She screamed at the stone, the thing beyond was beginning to melt the door. Forget this! Was the last thought she had before she ran to grab Venitaci. Pulling him across the room, the thing made its way inside. She grabbed him by the shoulders and began chanting faster than she ever had. He was sending bolts of firelight at the creature. Its screeched louder still and she thought they would surely die as it threw liquid upon them.
It burned with the fury of a thousand suns and she fought not to scream. Still she did not look up, she knew if she did they were dead. It snaked up to them, the ripping and crunching sounds making her lose focus. Venitaci ripped one hand free of her to ward off the beast and blessedly the floor caved in beneath them. Free falling she didn't stop her chant, closing the floor back before the wretched creature could follow them. They landed abruptly, with Venitaci atop of her. Her heart was pounding madly and her head spun from the impact. But Venitaci began to scream and she scrambled up from under him onto her knees. His left hand was gone.
She grabbed his arm, the bones remained but seemed melted in places. Particularly the tips of his finger bones. The sight made her vision go white but she began chanting before she even knew what she was saying. The first put him to sleep. As a long suffering insomniac, Aquila knew that one like the back of her -. Well she knew it well. She then began tearing her jacket apart, ripping the fabric into strands before tying them tightly around his wrist. After that she muttered, "Vie Fidèle, fin de la souffrance. Lie-nous, fil tissé." The wonderful thing about the French was their extensive knowledge on battlefield healing. Remembering an obscure 1700's spell might save his life. She'd never tested the spell, when had there ever been a need? But as the blood stopped pooling and a protective field covered his naked hand like a transparent glove, she let out a sigh.
She slumped down, looking at her blood covered hands and clothes. The stone around her neck was singing to her, buzzing. She grabbed it with her bloody hand and gasped as it strained against her hand. It was absorbing the blood. Aquila marked her first priority when she returned to Icy Tower, to interrogate Junhin on what exactly was in this stone. She pulled her hand away in disgust, planning to clean the large puddle of blood but it was seeping into the floor. That's when she got a good look at the room they were in.
She stood abruptly, swaying slightly from the movement. It was the room she'd been looking for. The ice began to shift into a pale pink as it absorbed Venitaci's blood and the fire raged taller than before. She grew closer, determined to make note of the runes along the fireplace. She shivered, now jacketless examining them. They moved and writhed in a way they hadn't the last time she was here. The walls grew dark and deep with blood. She attributed that to the change in the glyphs. Her head felt fuzzy and the cold was further distorting her thoughts. When she turned the lights in the room whirled around even after she stopped moving. She reached up and grabbed her head, trying to stop the swaying. Instead she felt blood and the room began to spin. She dragged her body back to Venitaci's. The spinning grew faster but she knew she couldn't pass out yet. Crawling across the floor she murmured a warming spell across them both. Aquila didn't reach him before her vision went black. The last image she saw was the red ice floor, saturated with their blood.
My fanwalker stuff that I don’t nearly write enough about. - The brothers and the land of five gods. Part 1.
To the point where I don’t know if I have any names for them that I am set on. Also I think this post is going to be fairly stream of consciousness and mostly for me to look at my thoughts but if you read this and get anything from it, cool bonus.
The brothers- There are two brothers from a plane that has giant animal gods, not like anthropomorphic but big ol animals and they are shard aligned but the central Color is actual the left part of the shard. So Bant is centred around green, Naya around white etc. Anyway they are from the most peaceful part of that land that is ruled by a gigantic stag that looks more like Xerneas from Pokémon than the spirit from Mononoke. And everybody gets along. (Sidenote: There is some secret wedge action going on and at least 5 other animal gods but I am not there yet )
The other four gods are an owl that is esper white, a tortoise that is Grixis blue and both of those guys are in fairly remote places, thinking of a set up similar to Esthar in FF8 for the Owlands and a very weird set up for the tortoise, one non negotiable feature of his place though is that there are vicious aven based on Canada Geese. And closer by to the stag lands are rough lands rule by a giant tiger and more settlable valleys ruled by a Wolf god. The Tiger people and wolf guys are pretty much in a constant war with one another. Also the mostly the side of the tiger God is the tiger God itself, maybe elementals bent to its will and some of the local orc tribes , whom he tolerates and uses in a way that most people THOUGHT Bolas was going to use Domri. As for the Wolf side, I am thinking probably generic human faction with that pack mentality a tuallyba capable army that if it ever defeated the tiger might get bored and start looking elsewhere, so the incredible hate on that these two powerful forces have for one other sort of keeps the rest of the land in balance.
Which brings us back to our brothers, who also have a mother and a father and sister. They are a middle class type family . I think the dad those some sort of weights and measures thing for their town and Mom is involved in home making and local neighbourhood politics and stag god related business. All three kids are bright. The sister is a straight arrow. The older brother not so much. And the younger brother is a bookworm.
Anyway because of this aforementioned Jets vs. Sharks thing is part of the reason the Staglands are so peaceful is that they go out of their way to make sure the tiger wolf war stays out of stag territory so there is above board and below board efforts to keep it that way. Older brother volunteers to go join the army and help the wolf. Now older brother likes the martial arts. Not like Ryu from Street Fighter but he is a physical guy and he knows how to swing a sword, he was the sibling who dissuaded other shit kids from being shitty to his brother and sister because he would beat you up. Think of like a fighter character from role playing games. He is my black walker. He wants to be the best fighter, he will get back up if you knock him down, he loves his family but maybe because they are His family but he will fight dirty. This black alignment’s selfishness and incompatibility with overly strict adherence to things of course causes him to wash out of the formal military structure but he is good with a sword which catches the eyes of the mercenary outfits that profit from this.
So he gets good at sneaking around and fighting dirty but he still benefits from being a naive kid from a bubble place so he doesn’t realize that the enemy is full of people just trying to get by themselves. He sparks when he takes part in a tragedy that slaughters many in a neutral village full of humans and orcs because people, not necessarily the Gods on the wolf and tiger sides view the others as traitors while the stag officials don’t like the idea of people there getting along suddenly because that might begin to end that war and maybe both tiger and old will get a taste for venison. The older brother sparks off to what is essentially a home base of an Abzan coloured walker who was once a king who betrayed his people to save them from an unwinable war but in doing so granting them a death none the less, something that basically eats at him constantly but something he escapes from in being a ruler of a place full of people who surrendered to this greater evil quite some time ago but have all but forgotten that and it is a peaceful medieval kingdom for the most part full of farmers and fiefdoms. Meanwhile this king only occasionally walks away from his call and mostly trains people in fighting. He takes our older brother on as a pupil for both of his talents. The fighting and the walking. One of the takeaways the older brother gets is that maybe he didn’t break the rules enough, or maybe he needed his own rules to measure up other rules. He eventually becomes an interplanar mercenary. On a walker card he probably has terror abilities -X/-X abilities and summons black orc and human tokens with combos of first strike, death touch and menace maybe some howl from beyond type stuff too.
Our blue brother is studious and gifted in magic, not the law magics like his sister -who is going places in local government and may also have a spark but we’re not there yet in my head cannon- but something else of interest to the Stag government but also to he church and the church shelters him from the state because he has been called to study at the hoof of the Stag itself. While the older brother fights the wars of the Tiger and wolf, the younger brother learns more about the greater world through the Stag’s private book stash which extends far beyond the local stuff... there are first hand accounts of the tiger and wolf war from non stag citizens as well as books and tomes and grimoires from lands of the owl and the tortoise.
The intrinsic nature of Godhood is weird, at least on this plane. Limitless power but only because your followers believe that you do. So the stag in their wisdom has this kid read books for him and give them book reports in doing so, it grants them an independent agency of sorts. Which probably does not jive wth some ambitious local villain type but there isn’t much they can do about it for now. Anyway on the day of the older brother’s sparking the stag god is like ‘oh. Your brother’s gone.’ And it is one of those moments where it isn’t ‘dead’ but ‘gone’. The rest of the family treats it like dead, both the older brother and the father had issues with one another because of course they did since dad was an authority figure. So after some mourning the Stag is like ‘I’m a god. I know when my people die. He isn’t dead. He’s gone, I don’t know what that means. Read more books. But less war books , read owl books and turtle books they seem to deal with more mysterious things. So in reading our younger brother begins to discover more about the larger world itself and it results in some traveling because he discovered that while accounts of people in their own words are good, there may be something to be gained from accounts of yourself from others.
Since the Wolflandand Tigerland are busy staring each other down that leaves the Owl and Tortoise. They are more likely to have their own books about the world at large anyway. Owl seems like the best bet because not much seems to make it back from the Tortoise land and the ‘winged chaos perched on all corners’ is children’s nightmare fairytale that even gives the Stag God pause. So the Stag sends our younger brother and a trade delegation to the windswept tundras of the Owl where lo and behold there is a secretely booming city very much interested in its own thing but also spying on everybody else. For educational purposes. And Gods being Gods the Owl recognizes the imprint of the Stag on the younger brother but also its God sibling’s curiosity. Which speaks to his own blue alignment. There are mainly vedalken here. And some humans because humans are like weeds. So the Owl let’s our guy read their stuff in exchange for some of the stag’s works. The owl literature of course is more critical of everything of course and it points out the fragile nature of the mainland with wolf being too focused on how much it hates the tiger to notice how much the staglands benefit from this. And while the Stag might not realize this maybe some of its followers do. Which begins to speak to the ‘do the needlful’ tendencies of the Stag but also piques the interest of the Tortoise god on its isolated island to the East of the Owl lands. The Owl lets the younger brother use a ship which has a magical engine to sail to the neutral port of the Tortoise isle, the carefully travel through the Aven settlements and the ruins of what looked to be a grand clash of great beasts long long ago. The tortoise God knows too many great and ineffable secrets, it knows what many others have forgotten and it longs for more mundane things, like the tinkering of Owl artificers , the crop rotations of Stag and Wolf and tiger farmers, even the delightfully pedantic skirmishes of the tiger and wolf war... which it knows some of.
