#moon beasts

[uchihaiyo-fr-blog]

About the Moon Beasts - My main clan.

Siya did by no means found the Moon Beasts - she was simply the last one of her kind. Her clan - once large and feared throughout the land, consisted mainly of former soldiers who deserted their place in the armies. Criminals and refugees joined them, and the Forest of Namida became their territory. They were famous for attacking and robbing everyone who dared cross their path - and because of the wars that threatened to tear Ajito apart, the Clan of the Eternal Flame barely bothered to try and stop them.

Instead, they destroyed themselves. They got too invovled with the battles of the royal clans, were disunited and nobody was able to control them and keep them in check. Siya was born into this clan of criminals, and knew no other life. She was trained to be a hunter, and became famous for her speed and her excellent aim. But like many hatchlings born into this clan, she had little interest in living what others might call an “honest” life - but she did feel responsible for those ofher clan she cared about. Her mother, namely.

What was once a famous clan, turned itself to dust and Siya was one of the only survivors of this tiny civil war. She was a young adult, bitter and cold after losing the only dragon who cared about her. But when she found two abandoned eggs in the ruins of her clan, she couldn’t bring herself to simply abandon them.

And thus, Ilyas and Elysia became a new family to her.  And the family kept growing.

She never really gave a reason as to why she kept the name Moon Beasts for her and her clan. Back then, they named themselves because of how frequently they would attack at night. Now, many guess, she simply uses the name to strike fear into the hearts of any possible enemies.

It took a while, but with time, more and more outlaws and refugees joined the clan - although Siya made sure it would never end up like the original Moon Beasts. Not everybody was accepted - and everyone who defied Siya was thrown out and hunted away. Siya does not tolerate any violence within her own clan. A big help for that is Seth, a former street-fighter who became something akin to friends with Siya. She is extremely strong and can be very intimdating when she wishes to be - a wonderful combination for a guard.

A member who joined soon after was Nezril. He came from a powerful clan of light mages - but he wanted more than to simply use magic. He wanted to understand it. To control it. He deserted his clan and fled, and found his way to the Moon Beast, where he is allowed to continue his, uh, research.

Bucky, who had originally been given the name Souta at birth, was another deserter - once the assassin who worked for the Clan of the Eternal Flame, he was not willing to lose his life when his masters were murdered. So he fled during the revolutions. He was hunted down for it, but Siya found and healed him. And ever since, he’s been working as a nightguard for the young clan.

Eagle, Aelia and Zuko are a young family. Eagle was born without a clan, one of the many lost hatchlings of his time. He made a living by stealing and trading. And he stole one of the ladies in court, too. Aelia was not of royal blood, but closely tied to it. Her mother was a close friend of the King, and her father was in charge of protecting and training the princess Yuurei. When both died protecting her, Aelia was still young and fled the palace and the City of Fire, unable to bear the memories of them. She had met Eagle only once before, but when she left, she seeked him out, and they ran away together, joining Siya in her clan. Their son Zuko was born a few years later, and he’s been stealing and smuggling goods for as long as he can remember.

Another member is Kami, a young dragon who’s made a living by pretending to be a mighty oracle. He’s had a lot of friends who helped him with his scheme, and one of them was Elysia. She was the one who proposed that Kami could join the Moon Beast. He’s still travelling a lot and fooling unsuspecting dragons, but he considers the Forest of Namida his home now.

Roukun is a dragon from very far away. He comes from the land of light, and although he never talks about who he used to be, Siya  is sure he must have been a royal - his manners and his strategic mind are proof enough of that. Siya trusts him a lot, and he organizes hunting trips, battles and every day life within the clan.

The very different brothers Rhaegar and Drogon came from the Riverlands and were on the run from the law when they found and joined the Moon Beasts. Drogon, who was a well-known hitman, and his nestmate Rhaegar, who was more responsible and less violent, have very different views of their position within the clan, and it often ends up in very violent fights. While Rhaegar wants to calls this place a home that he wishes to care for, Drogon seeks... freedom.

Kibou’s parents were both members of the Moon Beast before they died. Nymir was a free-spirited singer who simply wanted some protection and company, while Elsa was quite the frustrated, lonely dragon. She  never knew she was the descendant of the king himself - all she knew that her parents lived a life as lonely and as short as her own ended up to be. Just like his mother before him, Kibou was left an orphan when he was still very young - and even though he found peace in his connections to the Gods, he grew up to be a dragon who despised the rule of kings.

Ramsay is far more carefree and playful. He grew up in a large clan of faes, one who was known within the City of Fire for robbing visitors. He left his own clan for a girl, but when she turned him down for another dragon, he was too embarrassed to go back home. For a while, he lived on his own, before he met Kami. They became friends, and it didn’t take long before Ramsay joined the clan of the Moon Beasts, too. With his skills to sneak into practically every place, he’s been quite the useful addition, too.

The most recent member of the clan is Byron, who was the son of a deserted warrior. He himself was trained to fight, but never joined the armies. Instead, he sold his sword and his strength to whoever offered to pay the most. He was a comrade of Seth, and joined the clan when he was still young. He doesn’t spend too much time with them, though. On one of his long missions, he found company and love in Wintersnow, whose telepathic abilities made her life quite dangerous as she constantly had to flee from various dragons who wanted to use her powers. She spends most of her time in the Forest of Namida, but occasionally joins Byron on his missions, too.

Last Edit:

Added Wintersnow [28/2]

[americaneldritch]

For the Book of Dead Names Project. Story & art by Aladdin Collar. 1500 words, based on details from HP Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. 

IN HER WAKING LIFE, princess Snireth-Ko was kept shuttered in a high tower, protected from all who might want to do her harm. She heard many tales of horrors beyond the castle, stories of cruel men and hungry beasts, and she did not wish to leave her comforts. She was taught to be quiet; to be kind; and always to honor her King.

But in dream, Snireth-Ko was free to wander, and she obeyed no rules at all.

She frequently visited the Temple of the Hushed Bog. There, the butterflies were twice her size; the Hulking Spotted Toads had soft wet pelts like otters, and had tremendous throats that could spit a stone over a mountain. The Priests of the Temple paid Snireth-Ko no mind, so long as she was quiet, and so long as she wore bright colors for to scare away potential predators. The princess was very good at being quiet, and all her silks and dresses were dyed with the most vibrant hues. She spent many dreaming nights in the swamp.

When Snireth-Ko wanted to run and make noise, and went to the Meadows of Rakk, the Golden Hills, where sloped plains of wheat rolled openly for miles. Here lumbered the herds of buopoth, docile creatures with strong hooves and sharp beaks, which paid Snireth-Ko no mind. The Meadows were broken up only by leviathan trees, whose heavy branches dipped down to the ground, from whence Snireth-Ko could climb. At the highest branches, hundreds of feet above the Earth, Snireth-Ko could see the Dreamlands stretch out for many miles. She saw great forests, webs of streams and rivers, treacherous steppes and mountainous juts out stone. The many terrains twisted and changed from valley to valley.

Sometimes, Snireth-Ko wandered along the banks river Skai, and listened to the songs of magah birds at rest in the canopies, and to the mocking fish that whistled the birdsong back to them, in bubbling minor harmonies. The most wonderful vessels would pass; merchants and traders with ornately woven gold through dark oaken boughs; naval ships, carrying armored warriors, and flying intricate coat of arms; even the fisher folk and humble boats and rafts had their own unique designs, carvings, and colorful flags upon the mast.

One day, along the River Skai, Snireth-Ko was amusing herself by focusing light through crystals, for to set dry kindling ablaze. With her intense focus on combustion, she did not notice the approaching merchant vessel - as beautiful and decadent a ship as any that had come before.

The merchant vessel, sighting Snireth on the shore, dispatched a pinnace and two brutish men with long mouths, dressed in dreary brown robes. They captured Snireth-Ko, and brought her aboard their ship.

A horrible greyish white creature emerged from the galley - it was built in stature like the Hulking Spotted Toads, but it was hairless and muculant, with a mass of wriggling tentacles where its face should have been. Snireth-Ko knew that it was called a Moon-Beast - it played a hidious song on a crude pipe, and the ship began to rise out of the water, sailing through the air.

Before long, the ship was higher than the highest Leviathan tree; after several hours of ascension, the whole Dreamlands below were but an distant orb, a shrinking marble wrapped in fog, clutched in the black void of unplumbed space. Above, another cosmic body swelled; the moon, it all its pale illumination, grew huge upon the ship’s approach. All the while, the Moon Beast piped his odious notes.

Snireth-Ko had heard many tales of the Moon-Beast, how they captured slaves from the ranks of men, used them for horrible experiments, and sold the remains to traders on distant worlds.

Snireth-Ko would not be conquerored. As the great port city came into view, red litten by ominous lamps hung through the streets, she slipped out of her shackles, and deftly plucked the Moon-Beast’s pipe from its bulbous paws. She blew one shrill note - and the whole ship heaved, tipped, picking up speed at it careened downwards at a treacherous angle towards the horizon.

The Moon-Beast and the Long Faced Men attemped to reclaim the pipe, but Snireth-Ko threw the instrument off the starboard deck, and the vessel could not be rightened.

The ship flew past the red litten city, and on beyond the white dusty hills beyond, and towards the unknown dark of the moon’s far side. As the sailors saw their fate approaching, they threw themselves overboard, rather than endure the horrors of the unknown. The Moon-Beast was last to hop off.

As the ship was cast in shadow, the new terrain could be distinguished. It was a vast swamp of ash and pitch, bubbling craters of oil and tar, surrounded by stony patches and clumbs of brush, scrub, moss, and lichens that held no color at all. There were a few luminations across the landscape; some glowing cat tails; little bursts of electric activity between trees; and a few small, slow burning fires, where the tars and oils were alit in their craters.

As the impact approached, Snireth-Ko felt the flutter in her stomach that typically preceeded a return to waking life - but she did not want to wake, and the ship, it did not crash; it merely skimmed along the muds and wet swamp until it came to a sluggish halt, intact. The oaken vessel then began to sink, the soggy mire below bubbling and releasing long trapped pockets of suphuric gas.

Snireth-Ko hopped off the galley, onto a stone - the first of her kind of set foot upon that dark expanse. Beyond the mineral wastes and pallid vegetation, she saw no signs of movement, no signs of life. She picked up a stone, and threw it as far as she could - when it clattered against the rocks, there arose a command of many hushed voices, as projected from within the moon itself: “Hush.”

Snireth-Ko thought perhaps she’d just imagined it, but, nonetheless, she did her best to walk quietly among the alien landscape.

Then, at the far horizon, from whence she’d come, she saw them - a fleet of silhouettes against the rose glow that hung low in the otherwise blackened sky. They were merchant ships, two dozen of them, in flight - the Moon-Beasts, surely - and their galleys were aglow with red litten lamps that cast focused spotlights down to the craggy terrain below, and the odious piping crescendoed. The song was clear - they were searching for Snireth-Ko.

Again, as if from within the moon itself, came another whispered command: “Hush.”

As the ships barrelled forward, their lights reaching closer and closer,  Snireth-Ko looked for some cover, some saftey, but could find none. The vegetation was not thick enough in which to hide, and she would not submerge herself in the sucking mire.

It was too late; the red light swept over the land faster than any beast, vessel, or messanger of the gods, and Snireth-Ko was spotted in its focus. She felt a warm heat all over her body. All she could see was bright red light, as the piping grew louder. As the notes swelled, the ships drew closer, and each focused their light upon her, increasing the heat.

Like the smouldering tar pits that surrounded her, Snireth-Ko began to slowly boil, blinded and deafened by the assault of the proud Moon-Beasts, who would not be bested on their home world. There was no escape from the light. She fell to her knees, enduring the rays in silence.

Again, Snireth-Ko heard the voices: “Hush,” they commanded, no longer at a whisper. The sound no longer came as if from underground, was  all around her - and the princess saw, from the tar pits, from the oils and mud and clay, hulking spotted figures beginning to to emerge, toadlike, with soft wet pelts like otters.

The spotlights suddenly lost their focus, as Snireth-Ko heard a crash; when she regained her senses, she saw one of the sky ships spinning out of the control, and crashing, with great calamity, upon the rocks. At her side on the ground, a thousand Huking Spotted Toads had revealed themselves, dripping with pitch and mire. They scooped into their mouths great masses of stone and tar, and, like cannons, violently expelled the compounded material from their tremendous throats.

The Moon-Beast fleet was quickly demolished; the wooden planks were shattered, and vast canvas sails torn asunder. The frantic survivors, piping moonbeasts and screaming humans alike, were quickly devoured as they attempted to flee from the wreckages. None of the Toads dared eat Snireth-Ko; even in the dark, the vibrant colors of her dress signaled danger.

When Snireth-Ko awoke the next morning, she was no longer afraid of the world beyond the castle. She packed a bag, and picked out a vibrant dress. Without telling anyone, she took a pony from the stables and left her home and crown behind.

[aladdin]

All things are one, I do attest. And, to the aeons: “Take my flesh.”

All things are none; I do persist. That is not dead which yet resists.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Cthulhu Mythos - art by Jeff Remmer

[wilburwhateley]

Moon Beasts by Jeff Remmer