#nightmoire

[storriewow]

I'm enjoying making fake items and recolor-edits for my new clan way too much. Vanahal, roughly translated to 'The Bringer of Storms' -- is the name of the grimoire that drew the founding dragons to Lightning in then first place. The Sentinels - the metal tipped wolf statues built in the heart of the territory. The Storm Den - a place within the lair territory, this is home to most of the royal family Summoner's Point - another place within the lair... Stormswept Cove - same as above ;) Squall Wolf familiars - a lightning hybrid of gale and umbra wolves bred over several generation in the Shifting Expanse, these wolves are sheer storm elementals--bigger and far more unpredictable the previous breeds. A pack of these can easily threaten an unsuspecting dragon clan--especially on the night of a storm. Please don't claim as your own. The original art is copyright Flight Rising and I'd appreciate if the edits weren't reused unless you ask because some of these are really really important to my clan.

[t0rschlusspan1k-die-huelse]

Anatomy is a game which explicitly asks its players to think in a poetic, abstract and metaphorical way. And so the emotional journey I personally had through my experience of it naturally inspired me to come to my own conclusions about what one might take from a story like this. One that is so dark, so sad and helpless, and one which firmly refuses a clean closure or resolution. What hope could one possibly find here? Well, I feel it mirrors the reality of emancipating yourself from the structures that once consumed you in that it isn't neat, linear, nor simple. But having lived experience of it myself, there is a lot of hope to be found there. An abandoned home is not worthless, only neglected and unknown. If we have learned anything from the futility of trying to thrive within a house that consumes, it's that the answer to what we might take from Anatomy is something internal, individual, and lies within the player. One of the most hopeful things I personally derive from stories like this is the feeling of being seen. In creating this world, Kitty Horror Show spoke to a feeling and experience I believe most of us will have endured or witnessed to varying degrees throughout life. The experience of being consumed, of being shaped, and the conflict between the loneliness of not being truly known, and the horror that to be known might just mean destruction and rejection.

nightmoire, Anatomy: The House That Eats Itself

[t0rschlusspan1k-die-huelse]

This final speech centers Anatomy's most painful acknowledgement that bodies shaped by conditional worth, abandonment, and isolation will long, and wait, and hunger, until the need itself becomes hollow and destructive.

nightmoire, Anatomy: The House That Eats Itself

[storriewow]

AND. Meet the Three. Wick, the Diviner; Witcher, the Crone; and Wither, the Oracle. 

They are the ones who put every hatchling born into Nightmoire and every dragon seeking entrance to the clan through the Trial of the Three. The Trial defines each dragon in the clan--even Nightmoire’s leader is shown in the choices made in this test. 

The Trial of the Three is said to tell all of the elements of a dragon--their heart's desire, the beast within them, a touch of their future. Every dragon of Nightmoire is judged by the Three--the Diviner, the Crone, and the Oracle. The test takes place over three nights. 

The first test comes at the darkest point of the night, in the darkest room that can be found. There small candles are lit and the Diviner lays out a blanket of midnight blue with objects carefully chosen for the dragon being tested. There, barely able to see, the one on trial must pick their first object. 

The second test comes at dusk on the second night and there is always a sense of wildness in the air. Bare-pawed the dragon in question approached a grove lined with pelts, bones, scales, feathers... There they are told simply by the Crone to pick what calls to them most. 

And on the third night, they are taken to quagmire, where the bog grows so deep that it's almost impossible to walk. There the one under test must wade out into the slop and murk...there they face the final cast of objects, resting on a tattered boat barely still afloat. "Pick the item whose path you follow," the Oracle would whisper.  Each object tells something of the chooser--and each of the Three know their tests better than any other.

[storriewow]

-gnashes teeth- Seriously Styx?

Three egg nest. Surely ONE of them was going to be a girl?

No? No. -headdesk-

What a waste of a boon. But gah, I think the salt in the wound is--any of those three would have been PERFECT for the lore stuff I wanna do. If only they’d been female. Especially that sapphire winged kiddo. -strangled sounds- 

Out of seven hatchlings so far...Styx has mothered seven boys. 

Hnngh. I need to write what happened to get to this point and figure out what to do with these three. For anyone curious... they’re out of Styx (Nox’s oldest daughter) and Sepulchre (Founder of Nocturne and my progenitor)--the first nest from these two. 

And not only is this the first nest from these two...it’s also the first one of Nocturne’s decedents hatched within the ruins of where Nocturne was dragged away into the sea. The first of Nocturne’s legacy hatching in Nightmoire territory. These hatchlings are born with strong affinity for skinwalking, necromancy, and shadow magic.