#nightjarwip

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Happy Blorbo Blursday! What was your OCs education like? What were the primary things they were learning? How did they do in their education?

Ooh, so I've spoken a bit about education in Postmaster before, so I think I'll talk about Nightjar for this one!

Nightjar was brought up in a merchant family, so had basic home-schooling when she was young, consisting of arithmetic, literacy, history and geography. But, because her uncle Rurik was a well-regarded alchemist in the capital, she was taken under his wing as his apprentice as soon as she was old enough.

Rurik brought her to the Imperial Palace where he taught her alchemy as well as foundational cursebreaking, but the latter was something he considered less prestigious, and certainly not something to be teaching a respectable merchant-class girl. She then takes her alchemy exams and becomes a court alchemist, like her Uncle Rurik. Nightjar was very skilled at alchemy, and never struggled to grasp anything she was taught, but she often flunked her official classes because she was arrogant and believed herself better than her peers, not wanting to put in the effort asked of her by the institution.

When things go pear-shaped for Nightjar and she has to flee the capital, she uses her knowledge as an alchemist to become a travelling cursebreaker, learning from her mistakes as much as anything.

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Please also have a rough map of Avinsgate:

The Imperial District is where the formal Imperial palaces are, the ones that receive commoners, petitioners, dignitaries, etc. It is where the civil servants live and work, and where most of the financial institutions are located.

The Residences are the private palaces of the Emperors' spouses and concubines, siblings, children, and other members of the Imperial household. These are not open to the public in any capacity.

The Old Town is what is says on the tin: the oldest part of the residential town, though the city has long since expanded beyond the confines of its original boundaries. Those who live there now tend to be nobility, preferring the close proximity to both the palaces and the barracks, and the distance from the factories.

The Barracks are exactly what they sound like: the place where the City Guards and the Imperial Guards live.

The Merchants' District is a large part of the city dedicated to shops and market stalls. It is only legal to trade within this district.

The Academic Quarter is reserved for scholars. The schools and living quarters for all students and teachers are in this part of the city. This is also the main hub for alchemists to learn and ply their trade.

The Temple District houses all of the main temples to all of the main gods. There are three large temples, one for each House - Black, White, and Red - and many smaller temples for individual deities to be worshipped.

The Factory District grew out of the necessity of moving production away from both the palaces and the residential parts of the city. This is the district where iron and steel are forged, ceramics and paper are crafted, cloth is woven, but also where alchemical agents are purified. It's not a pleasant place to work, but is essential for the prosperity of Avinsgate and the Empire as a whole.

The Quays are where the city meets the river. This is a place for travel and trade.

The Southern District is where the majority of the city's population live. The Merchants tend to have nicer houses over their shops, but for those who work on the docks and in the factories, the Southern District is home.

The Tangle began as a squatter camp, and has grown to become more of a shanty town within the city walls. Its proximity to the Barracks does not deter criminal activity, in fact it often emboldens it. Home to many dispossessed, and increasingly to refugees fleeing blight and sickness, those who live in the Tangle are known as "knots" and outsiders are known to them as "threads".

[elkieselkiewrites]

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Happy STS! June here!

Since you’re trying to distract yourself from your job, how do your characters feel about their own jobs? You can answer for as many as you’d like 😊❤️

Hey June! Sorry this is late, turns out work was busy 😅

I spoke a bit about the Postmaster lot and their jobs here so I'll maybe talk a bit about Nightjar WIP instead?

Nightjar herself is a cursebreaker, she travels the continent breaking curses and slaying monsters in exchange for money, food and shelter. She is good at what she does, but she was not always a cursebreaker. Before she left the capital to travel, she was an alchemist.

Cursebreakers need to know alchemy, so it was an easy transition in many ways, but alchemists do not need to know how to wield a sword or make split-second decisions without the time to experiment and work through theories first.

She loved her work as an alchemist, and was forced into her work as a cursebreaker, so I couldn't say she loves her job now, but she is good at what she does, it feeds her and her family, and she feels like she is making the world a safer place one person at a time. When she was an alchemist she had prestige and wealth and stability, but she wasn't really making a difference, and that matters to her.

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I've finally returned with a new map! And this time, it's blue...

This is a map of the Bright Lands, ruled over by the Celestial Emperors: god-touched descendants of Avin the Bright, Goddess of the Moon, and her mortal husband. The capital city Avinsgate, home of the palace of the Celestial Emperors, lies on the banks of the largest river in the Bright Lands, and south of the Caul's Spine mountain range. The other main settlements are marked on the map, though only the plot-significant ones are named.

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Happy Storyteller Saturday! Fina has 5 eyes and shapeshifts to make himself look human, which begs the question; what does Fina normally look like?

Happy STS (part 2: electric boogaloo)

I have some rough designs for Fina, but he has several forms depending on which one his followers choose to worship. He is more powerful in whichever form is most worshipped.

He is most commonly seen in a humanoid form, far taller than a normal human, with blue skin, five to seven eyes with black sclera and white irises, two to four curling horns, and long, ice-white hair. He looks sharp, he looks cold, he is like a bare tree on a winter night, illuminated by snow and moonlight. There is nothing warm or welcoming about him.

Sometimes he is seen in his human form, which is a pale young man, tall and lean, with black eyes and blue-black hair.

Other times he is seen in an animal form. Namely a giant, leucistic wolverine, usually the size of a wolf, but occasionally up to the size of a brown bear. He can also appear as a white goshawk, but this is very rare (it's the form he would likely have taken over most others if his mother hadn't abandoned him as a child...)

If we are talking literally, though, Fina came into being from the first snowflake that fell on the first full moon. He was not created corporally, his form was taken in response to the forms his parents took. When his mother disappeared and he was taken in by his father, Fina's form settled closer to his, but since there is no love lost between father and son, it's not an important distinction for Fina.

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Snippet Sunday 23/02

Have a little piece from the start of what I'm tentatively calling Nightjar WIP about a travelling cursebreaker, her wife and daughter, and the pantheon of gods she manages to inconvenience along the way.

CW for violence and body horror :)

~*~

It was a grim thing to look at, the creature that had once been a man, slavering as a sinister rumble built up in its throat. Nightjar ran her fingers along the glass bottles strapped to her bandolier, skimming the marks etched into the stoppers for the right concoction.

She had plenty of options to get the job done, but the first port of call was always 'Subdue and Reverse'.

All curses had a source, a tether that could be broken to free a bound soul, she just had to work out how. The easiest and simplest way was to take the gold edged sword from her back and separate the creature's head from its shoulders, but in doing so the Cursed would be lost, mind, body and soul, in their entirety.

The more complicated way was to decipher the symptoms of the curse, trace it back to its origins and sever the tether to reverse the curse.

This creature was animalistic, it prowled on four elongated limbs across the undergrowth, its eyes burning pits filled with a blue flame so hot it was almost white. Taking the third bottle from the bottom, she removed the stopper and poured a handful of small paper parcels into her palm. She whispered a short blessing and felt the parcels grow warm in her hand. Just as they started to smoke, she launched them at the creature, which howled as the smouldering pellets exploded with a series of loud cracks and bright flashes.

At first Nightjar was elated, but as the smoke cleared she could see that despite its vocal reaction, the pellets hadn't left a single mark, not even a singed hair. Swearing under her breath, Nightjar reached for the bottle two up from the previous one, and leaving the waxed stopper in place, whispered another prayer before throwing the entire thing clean across the clearing, the glass shattering against the creature's side with an acidic hiss. The air was suddenly filled with an acrid scent, and Nightjar pulled her bandanna up over her nose as she watched the creature's hide billow with rusty fumes.

The creature released an ear-splitting screech from behind its crooked, broken teeth, and from the rapidly melting hide another two gangling limbs burst forth, accompanied by the wet sound of sloughing flesh.

Swearing again, Nightjar scrabbled backwards and away, towards the treeline. The Fortis had worked better, which ruled out a White House curse, but while she could fairly safely guess at the Red House, there was something wrong the burning in its eyes. Serik's voice griped in the back of her mind, reprimanding her for changing too many variables at once, but in a life or death situation, as this was rapidly becoming, she was starting to question her Uncle's wisdom.

The creature scuttled towards her, faster but more unstable on its new limbs, and took an ungainly swipe at her. Nightjar rolled out of the way, wary of the bandolier of glass strapped across her front. Reaching down she fumbled for the bottle of blue salts by her hip, but the creature lunged again. Just as it was about to strike, there was a loud thunk and it staggered backwards. From her right, Nightjar heard a laughing voice call out to her.

"Humanoid with regenerating limbs, Nightjar? Green Vitriol! You know that!"

Grunting as she got to her feet, Nightjar turned to see a woman emerge from the shadow of the dense forest canopy, crossbow nestled against her shoulder.

"I didn't know it was regenerating until after I'd thrown the Fortis!" She shouted back. "Plus, the eyes are wrong!"

The woman released another bolt and cocked her head to the side as the beast stumbled again, its head whipping round to finally focus on its newest assailant.

"Huh," She began. "You're right. Blue is new."

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Snippet Sunday 23/03

Have a little bit of Nightjar WIP for your Sunday evening.

~*~

"Let me speak to the child."

Introduce yourself, Pip, Nightjar signed.

Pipit’s hands flitted deftly in introduction but the Princess merely turned to Nightjar with some confusion. “What is wrong with the child?”

Nightjar bristled. “There’s nothing wrong with her, she’s hard of hearing and uses signs to communicate. She can speak if you wish.”

When the Princess nodded Nightjar turned to Pipit again. Use your words this time, Pip.

Pipit frowned. Why should I speak to someone like her?

She is the Great … Nightjar paused, wincing a little as she brought her hands in an arc above her head … Sky Princess.

Pipit wrinkled her nose. Sky?

Nightjar shook her head and signed again. Gods’ Sky?

“Heavenly”

Gods’ Sky, Pipit mimicked. Heavenly

This is the Great Heavenly Princess Dea, sister to the Emperor. Please show her some respect and introduce yourself.

Why should I show her respect? She has done nothing to deserve it. Pipit signed resolutely, crossing her arms as an end to the matter.

“She does have a point.” Siskin said.

Sighing, Nightjar turned back to the Princess. “Please excuse my daughter, she was raised out in the world and doesn’t understand deference.”

Fine. I'll have to translate, but don't think we won't be discussing this later. Nightjar gestured to Pip, before speaking the words out loud for the Princess to hear.

"I suppose we will have to accept." The Princess replied coolly. "She doesn't have the right colouring, for a start. Ask her to come close, I wish to see her face."

After a flutter of communication Pipit walked towards the Princess, her head held defiantly high. The Princess parted the beads on her headdress to reveal a sharp-angled face and pale eyes, everything about her the colour of a snowdrift under a full moon. She bent fluidly at the waist until her face was in line with Pipit's, and for the first time Nightjar felt certain of her daughter's blood. It was as though the Princess was looking into bronzed glass; the same aquiline nose, the same severe brows and high cheekbones. They were different shades of the same face, and Nightjar could tell that the Princess could see it too.

"How old are you?" She said at last and Pipit frowned for a moment before speaking aloud.

"Eleven summers."

The Princess closed her eyes in silent prayer and sighed heavily. She waved the guards out of the room before returning to the throne to sit heavily.

"If she's not my brother's then it appears I have birthed a child without knowing it. She has his features as much as I do."

"Will you hear me out, then?" Nightjar asked. "Will you entertain the chance that I am who I say I am, or will I have to bring up that time when we were twelve and snuck into your uncle's private library to look at his anatomy scrolls, broke a vial of vermilion ink, and then had to play it off like we'd got our courses together."

The Princess looked up, and the cold mask of her distant expression shattered. "Aunt Jena forced us to sit through hours of reproductive education classes after that. I'd never been more mortified."

Nightjar squeezed her daughter's hand briefly before kneeling at the foot of the throne. "Dea, I never wanted you to think I was dead, even after everything that happened between us."

The Princess studied Nightjar's face intently and with a furious swirl of emotions. "I don't understand why he lied to me. How he could let me believe you were dead if he knew you weren't."

"We didn't part as pleasantly as we could have done. He came after me not because he loved me, but because he was running from his responsibilities here. I told him as much and he wasn't happy."

"Did he have any idea of the predicament he left you in?"

"He was forced to sit in Aunt Jena's classes too, he had to have known there was a chance, but it wasn't an outcome we ever discussed. I knew there was a chance she was his, but when she was born all autumn colours I thought, at least she won't be dragged into that mess."

"I don't understand why she isn't like her siblings and cousins. All of our children are pale as winter."

There was a gasp from behind them, and Nightjar turned to see Pipit furiously gesturing about siblings and cousins.

I don't know if you'll be allowed to meet them, but it seems your blood father had other children. Nightjar replied.

Pipit frowned. I always wanted siblings, it isn't fair to tell me I have them now and not let me meet them.

"Perhaps you might meet your cousins first?" Nightjar said out loud, looking up at the Princess whose smile was small and tight, but genuine.

"It would be an honour to have you meet my children, all three of you. Though I cannot introduce you as a cousin quite yet. I think I need to discuss the implications of this with my brother. He ought to know he has another daughter."