Lunari

The Black Veil

Down to try something not fantasy-esque again c:

Edit: oop sorry, have to withdraw, too many things to do

What Are You Listening To?

_{loved the movie, a little too much}

In Secret We Lie: False Gods & Human Servants

Character Sheet

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_{MASQUERADE BALL
LOCATION: PALACE OF THE GODS - GARDEN
MENTIONS: @NekoKyu}

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There was a moment of suspenseful silence between the "splash" and Nieve's joyful laughter.
"HAHA- erm, no. Hehehe. Are you- hehe, are you ok?"
Nieve held out her hand, visibly shaking with suppressed giggles.
"I, uhh… I thought I was past my swimming days." Roshan's face was a delight to behold, Nieve thought he was going to cry. "Hehe, deer for legs." she snorted, then coughed apologetically. "Sorry."

"Here," she stood up, clasping her hand around Roshan's arm. "And besides, there's nothing wrong with a little water." Her eyes twinkled with humour, pulling her shoulder and leg back to awkwardly lift Roshan up. "Also you look very pretty." she complimented, looking him up and down. "If I didn't know any better, I'd believe you were beautiful sister version of you." Nieve studied Roshan's face. "Why are you outside during a masquerade ball?" Nieve looked up distantly into the darkening skies. It was a beautiful blend of early sunset, the clouds dappled across the way as if it were painted on a canvas. It briefly reminded her of home, a colourful tango of corals, sea life and water.

"Why do I bother asking, you're always outside." She looked back at Roshan, an understanding crossing her face before a smile, "Are you planning on taking a Chosen this year?" Plucking a few flowers near the fountain, Nieve began weaving them together. She stared at the stoned path that led back to the ballroom, a wistful look flirting her eyes. "Ahh, I need to see if any catches my fancy." Nieve spoke fondly, remembering her last Chosen.

"Mmm, done!" she nodded happily at the flower crown at completion. "To complete your outfit." she motioned Roshan to bend down, placing the crown on his head a bit haphazardly. It sat crooked on his head, but Nieve thought it was a neat look. "Also you're freakishly tall, any ordinary person would notice you." Nieve stuck her tongue out at Roshan.

Nieve suddenly turned her head to the sounds, and lack thereof, that resounded from the palace ballroom. "Hmm..." Nieve's eyes darted between Roshan and the path.

In Secret We Lie: False Gods & Human Servants

Character Sheet

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_{MASQUERADE BALL
LOCATION: PALACE OF THE GODS - MÓR-RÍOGHAN'S ROOM}

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The room was a modest one, themed with decorative butterflies and lined with lights called fairy souls along the cornice. The room scarcely has strong lighting sources, save for the sunlight that spills from the fragmented stained glass window. Servants seldom enjoyed visiting during night hours, calling it a "necropolis", a bit of a running gag between them. Of course, the room's master is highly revered, but she was somewhat of an enigma to the common folk. Some say she has a spectral body. Others say she permanently lives in the other realm. Yet, she still has a personal room in this grand palace, an attestation of her divinity.

Morrígan stared at the clothes. Then at the maids, to the door. Back at the maids. Her violet eyes scanned the outfit. The ladies were looking at each other, "There must be a mistake, Goddess. We can-". Morrígan shook her head. Unexpected, yes. A warranted worry, no, perhaps. There simply wasn't a time to change it, and quite honestly, Morrígan was too lazy to care. In fact, there was a solution right in front of them, "Cloak.", she simply stated while presenting her black cloak already draped around her. Suddenly frantic at this suggestion, the maids protested against the dark goddess.

"Your Holy Majesty! You cannot cover up!"
"At least wear a hood!"
"The newly trained servants must behold your glory!" the three squabbled and fussed, fast pacing towards Morrígan, as if they knew she was about to walk out of the room in her normal outfit. The sparse light in the room hit Morrígan's face in a perfect way that you could make out a scowl. Unknowing and too focused, the maids remained bustling around to prepare her for the masquerade ball this evening.

After a small 'huff', Morrígan gave in quickly. It wasn't worth the hassle, and quite honestly, Morrígan wasn't planning on staying too long. Her outfit didn't matter, much. She eyed it again. Who would be bold enough to play tricks on the death goddess? But the thought quickly disappeared, and while it was a small prank, it remained as that - a small, trifling mess up. Morrígan decided to not think too much about it. Instead, images of all the desserts at the ball floated in her mind. Chocolate treats, hard candy, custard pudding... A sudden tug around her waist snapped her back to reality, stealing the wind out of her chest, "Ffaaaugh...".

"That's not very ladylike.", one maid murmured, pulling it tighter again.

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_{LOCATION: PALACE OF THE GODS - BALLROOM
MENTIONS: @BunniesOfDoom}

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Morrígan stared at the massive double doors that separated her and the ungodly thing called socialisation. She stifled an inner groan as servants weaved around her. There was never a time to rest, which Morrígan sorely needed right now. She pressed her gloved fingers to the body of her mask - a delicate black lace mask that covered the upper half of the face. Her mouth was visible, Morrígan had to be cautious about her lip expressions. Her favourite, of course, was a scowl but none of the humans would take it lightly; least of all, her dear followers. Morrígan mentally smacked her head against the large doors.

With a passing "rather be at home" comment, Morrígan pushed the great doors, revealing herself and the outfit that a jester so kindly picked out. It was a pretty handsome fit, and Morrígan would have appreciated on anyone other than herself. The maids 'kindly' let her keep a large hood on her head, her face barely noticeable, besides her mouth. A silver man's corset - which, by the by, was sucking her soul of her body - paired with a white dress shirt and black suit pants. It was an odd combination one may say; these would end up pioneering modern dressing, but that's a tale for another time. Morrígan stood by the entrance, her gaze swept the room, not meeting a single eye.

A scent caught her attention. It was light enough for it to be far away, but deep enough that she could sense it from inside the palace. Of course he's here, this was the God's Feast after all, though he had a different definition of "feasting". Morrígan began to drift in the opposite direction of the stench, away from the crowd of people. Stealing a longing glance at the food table, Morrígan attached herself to the furthest wall from other gods and goddesses.

Character Sheet

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_{MASQUERADE BALL
LOCATION: PALACE OF THE GODS - NIAMH'S ROOM}

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Nieve was full of energy, humming away, moreso than the maids attending to dressing. Her bright pastel room fit her personality, yet it was displaced by the mountain of documents by her desk and shiny odd-coloured baubles she brought with her. It was a pleasant contradiction to a certain someone's room, or rooms. Everyone's room was inferior to hers, except the Rebirth Goddess'. The thought put a smile on Nieve's face.

"Your Holiness, I'm afraid there's a problem with your clothing.", Nieve turned to face the maid, her smile turning into bewilderment. She pushed up from her seat, taking a closer look at the garments. "Oh, my. This is very interesting.", she mused. "Who organises the outfits?", Nieve questioned the maid. The lady's face turned pale, "T-the event coordinator, Goddess, but-", Nieve pressed a finger lightly to the maid's lips. "It's ok, I think it's amusing.", she giggled, "I don't remember the last time a coordinator had the bal-, I mean grit to pull off something like this." Nieve did a once over the outfits hung before her. "Might need extra material though."

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_{LOCATION: PALACE OF THE GODS - BALLROOM}

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Through her mask, Nieve watched the servants swerve around her with a little bow. Nieve didn't mind, it was always busy during the God's Feast. During her stroll down the halls, she noticed the decorations that haven't changed in a few decades. "How boring.", Nieve pouted. She was hoping that there would be a little bit of extra chaos during the ball, not that she was particularly worried that there isn't. There's always time to have fun, especially when every god and goddess are here.

Speaking of others, a little ways in front of her was one of the worst. Nieve was sick of seeing her cloak whenever death happens to a tidebind contractor. "The souls belong to the opposite party!", so she thinks, but the Goddess of Souls always shakes her head. "Souls are not for trade.", the banshee rebukes Nieve's arguments. Seeing that familiar frame put a damper on her mood. Nieve crossed her arms as she stared at Morrígan pushing the doors open.

Nieve slipped in, past Morrígan and into the ballroom, full of bustling people. Nieve became aware of the glances at her bust. Indeed, her outfit was a little outlandish, she was wearing black wide-legged dress pants with a deep blue deep, open chest shirt. The seams, unfortunately, stopped just underneath her chest. The only saving grace was white ruffles hastily sewn into the neck. After all, she was the Goddess of Purity, not Scandalous. Nieve adjusted the simple white mask - a white lotus attached to a side, scanning the room for faces.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a particular shadhavar slinking out as he usually does during events. Donning a mischievous smile and a glint in her blossom eyes, Nieve made her way out to the garden as well.

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_{LOCATION: PALACE OF THE GODS - GARDEN
MENTIONS: @NekoKyu}

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"Roshi!", Nieve called out over the sound of his... his leafy tunes. "Finally happy for once?", she teased. Nieve placed herself on the fountain's edge, dipping her fingers into its refreshingly cool waters. "Take this!", Nieve gathered water on the tips of her fingers and recoiled her fingers to splash water droplets on Roshan's face.

In Secret We Lie: False Gods & Human Servants

^{it kinda works on mobile? landscape helps.}

Morrígan || Banshee || Souls and Ruination, Herald of the End

Mór-ríoghan

Mór-ríoghan

Goddess of Souls and Ruination, Herald of the End

Mór-ríoghan commonly known as Morrígan ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Female 𖤍 Banshee ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #7F00FF ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ header img source uncloaked img source ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Species Physiology Muses of the Reincarnation Cycle The Weeping Woman, Reaper's Choir, Ghost of the Mound, banshee. Whatever you decide to call them, know that wherever they go, death follows. The scream that curdles from their mouth only means one thing - a reaper is knocking on your soul's door. They often normally appear as an elegant young woman, dressed in grey cloaks and hidden faces, but their true selves often signals your nearing end. Banshees are not causalities of dying, that is to say they aren't responsible, but rather they smell it on you. After all, death's stench is hard to ignore. A banshee's close relationship with souls and death gifted them with terrifying abilities - a reason of their almost extinction. Their role as an eternal guide means they are immortal. So how do they die? Only by calling out their true soul name five times, can they die. In the past, Records of Souls kept a banshee's true name from their human days, so if a banshee desired eternal rest, they would be sent off in a grand celebration before hearing a choir, singing their death. Besides immortality, banshees are bestowed with the gift of song - not a happy, joyful tune - one where a single note compels one to melancholy and harms the soul, and eventually, the listener's self-death. Known as 'The Last Ballad', requires a string instrument that a banshee begins to master at 'rebirth'. However, the great war caused all knowledge of this skill to be forgotten, leaving it to be a 'Lost Art'. Lastly, the banshee's ability of precognition - an ability to see how and when someone died. In times past, banshees used this ability in their work of caring for those on death beds. During the war, banshees were used a prisoners of war specifically for this ability, letting humans become semi-immortal due to the evasion of their timely deaths. Banshees cannot use this on themselves, or other banshees. In fact, the ability to smell or sense death in themselves doesn't exist, as they're often told to embrace it instead. Banshees are said to be made from human women with deep seated grudges before their deaths, however during the rebirth of their soul, their memories are wiped. Their numbers never grew past a small nation. Before the war, banshees were spread throughout the world, working hard to provide hospice and guide souls to the afterlife, as was their purpose. They were governed in through matriarchal council that monitored the banshees through ethics and laws. Now, only a few lucky remain, most opting to hide in the cradle of shadows, the council long disassembled. Since the mass disappearance of banshees, one could only guess their end and how miserable it would be - if they were unlucky, a banshee's song of death. Mythical Significance It is believed that you accumulate 'mor' (karma) doing good deeds or evil misgivings. At the end of your life, they say that Morrígan appears to guide them to the circle of reincarnation or eternal darkness depending one's mor. When death happens, it is customary to mourn in red for five days straight, each day celebrated in significance to a person's birth, growth, identity, living and final memories. A wreath of blackthorns twigs is placed on the door of the mourning family, and they are to not have any visitors until the wreath is removed. Morrígan doesn't have a organised religion or temple, mostly due to being lazy, however still has a large following spread far and wide across the nation. They simply call themselves 'reincarnators', discarding their human name in order to bring peace to those near death's door. Given their human limitations, they work with secret medicines to let people pass away painlessly, some reincarnators working as wandering apothecaries to heal the sick instead. Relationships Aelia || Aeliana Elidi Aelia ☼ Aelia was one of the first 'goddesses' she encountered as Morrígan began establishing her myth. As such, humans see them as sisters, given their shared reign over the reincarnation cycle. Morrígan's first instinct whenever she sees Aelia is to turn around and pretend she didn't see her - not that it ever works. Morrígan remains cordial, to a degree, for appearances sake. Getsuy || Naxmiig Kun Getsuy Getsuy Morrígan recognises this primal being, someone far ancient and far closer to divinity than other 'gods'. The two are always engaged in a sort of cat-and-mouse game; whoever gets to the human first wins, essentially. On days of better clarity, Getsuy seems to use Morrígan as a beacon to lead him towards food. This greatly disturbs Morrígan, so she tends to avoid places and stenches where he may linger - except during the God's Feast, where interaction may be unavoidable. Melion || Melion Melanthros Melion A fellow practitioner of the natural laws governing the world, Melion and Morrígan never share a word beyond the necessary. Humans retain the misinformation that they are related, given their dominion over life and death. Like the misunderstanding with Aelia, Morrígan doesn't bother to correct them with Melion. She remains civil in his presence and respects his work. Nieve || Niamh Croía Mortimer Nieve 𓆝 Another of Morrígan's colleagues. Morrígan and Nieve are well-acquainted with each other; there have been a few clashes between their followers as some humans have used their souls as tidebinding collaterals. Morrígan tends to keep Nieve at arms length though. Other information • Morrígan really enjoys the sweets that humans make, though she tries to hide that she has a sweet tooth.

Appearance Clad in black, a face hidden in the tall shadows she casts. Standing at a height of 6'3''/192cm, she towers over most humans and other gods/goddesses. She gives off the vibe of a mysterious noble woman, no-one really knows her most defining features other than those who attend to her. They say she's a fair maiden and, sometimes, you could see violet eyes piercing through your soul. When she's without her cloak, you can see her magnificent ram horns crested on top of her long black hair, which runs wildly in the wind. Pointed long ears, with her eyes that transition from violet to red when she's using an ability. Banshees are humanoid monsters, so her uncloaked self is really her true self. Morrígan can get away with hiding her horns and ears under the hood of her cloak, so many haven't had the pleasure of seeing her actual form. Personality If people were to describe Morrígan, it would be that she is a woman of little words. And they'd be right, for the wrong reasons. Morrígan is portrayed as the mysterious, serious and dutiful goddess of death. In reality, Morrígan is a homebody. Morrígan typically keeps to herself, completing her role as expected, but if there is a large gathering, she wants out. If it looks like she's not listening, well you'd be half-right. Interesting chatter is the only thing that wins Morrígan's ear. In a series of misunderstandings, all of her few-worded answers and small gestures are taken as profound by the most asinine believers. When really, she doesn't want to expend energy more than necessary. When she believes it is necessary, well, you'd be running already. History 'Birthed' during the last embers of the war, Morrígan only knew two things: silence and running. The last member of the Council, Aisling, was still alive. Aisling led the banshees into hiding, and since the Ciorcal Anam (place where banshees are 'born') and Schiehallion (central home of the banshees) was destroyed, they lived nomadically, living under the radar and rescuing scattered banshees - new and old. Of course they fought in the war, but when their numbers dwindled to a meagre few, the banshees chose self-preservation over righteousness. Aisling was Morrígan's mentor, teaching her the ways of the banshee. Morrígan wasn't super interested, but ultimately learnt it all - who knew when their last days would be. Aisling taught Morrígan the way of the fist, techniques that were developed during the war. Since humans learnt that hearing was key in countering their 'Last Ballad' - to the point of self-mutilation - banshees had to learn how to fight them physically, using their precognition to predict their opponent's demise. Alas, not all things work out, which is why they still lost. If the banshee could not soul die - the Records of Souls being either lost, stolen or destroyed during the destruction of Schiehallion - they were taken in as prisoners of war, tortured and used until insanity. When Aisling sought death, Morrígan did not object. After all, with so many deaths of your kin and being chased around, it takes a heavy toll on you. Morrígan delivered her name. No grand celebration. No choir. Just a simple, five times, calling. The moment Aisling's eyes closed, the remnants scattered, there was no leader, and Morrígan did not take up that mantle. Many stories depict Morrígan to have existed since creation. In the right, or unfortunate, place she smelt the keen stench of death, her first in a long while since hiding. Since Aisling left her. It was a young child, bright eyed, looking at Morrígan straight in the eyes. At the time, Morrígan wasn't fully covered, so it was a wonder why the child didn't cry or run away. In typical faerie whimsy, Morrígan stayed with that orphan until her death, caring for her until the final breaths. The villagers saw what she did for that child. A benevolent goddess, they said, a gift descended from the heavens to guide us. Morrígan kept the ruse up to this day for reasons unknown.

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Nieve || Selkie || Purity and Trust, Keeper of Contracts

Niamh Croía Mortimer

Niamh Croía Mortimer

Goddess of Purity and Trust, Keeper of Contracts

Niamh Croía Mortimer commonly known as Nieve ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Female 𓆝 Selkie ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #FFB7C5 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ header img source ceremonial img source ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Species Physiology Ocean's Beloved Children The dogs of the sea, selkies, or seal folk, see the ocean as their playground and the land as a temporary retreat. They are playful by nature and are receptive to kindness. As such, they lived in pods, tight-knit communities of selkies who share deep ancestral history. "An té a dhéanann fiacha, íocfaidh sé iad." He who makes debts will pay them, the pride of the selkies. Their ability, based on the core value and using the moon as their witness, selkies locked parties into contracts known as the 'tidebinding'. When someone broke the tidebinding, they were called 'saltforsaken', which is said that the sea will always remain your enemy as long as you lived, and the waves would chase you to the ends of the world to drown you in your broken promises. Perhaps due to their deep sense of kinship and compassion, selkies were the ocean's diplomat, able to interpret multiple languages of the deep. Of course, they can't speak other languages naturally. In fact, early depictions of the selkie showed them using wild hand gestures to get the point across. Luckily, they're more sophisticated nowadays, with their school curriculum allowing them to study a wide array of tongues. Selkies are masterful shapeshifters and were often confused for a mermaid, due to similar shape shifting abilities. How they shape shift is key - selkies possess a unique layer of fur, called seal-skin, which once taken off, allows them to assume a full human form - bare as the day they were born though. To don the seal-skin is to transform back into seal form. It is also the seal-skin that lets them live for eons, they say that their longevity is threaded into every piece of fur, which is why if they were stolen or dried out under the sun, a selkie ceased to be. Mythical Significance Humans honour Nieve's soul binding contract, and while they don't have the same power as her (or a selkie, as a matter of fact), they do something similar in accordance with human laws, where punishment is severe and contracts are not taken lightly. To sever or alter the terms, all parties of the contract must agree, or at least acquiesce. In tribute of her pure looks and tidebindings, humans take it a step further and connect together in matrimony - which is called 'moonrite'. Moonrites are conducted in the coldest and darkest times of the year, either near the ocean or a large body of water. They work essentially the same as tidebindings, however they can be broken by only one party. This is called 'skinparting', in accordance to Nieve's religion, and has its own ritual that's done in the brightest time of the day. Nieve's religion is called Nivenor, her followers called nivenari. Currently, no singular congregation exists, but nivenari, particularly the high ranking ones, are the humans who create tidebindings as a neutral third party. More honestly, a merchant's religion is commonly Nivenor, for obvious reasons, so more often than not, if you walk into a merchant's place, chances are they are nivenari and can tidebind or moonrite you. Relationships GODS Aelia || Aeliana Elidi Aelia ☼ Being one of the oldest and someone who fought alongside her uncle, Nieve naturally looks up to Aelia. Whenever Aelia does a rare visit, Nieve gets ridiculously excited and starts yapping Aelia's ears off. Nieve pretty much idolises Aelia, even if she does a lot of funny things. Getsuy || Naxmiig Kun Getsuy Getsuy tbd Melion || Melion Melanthros Melion tbd Morrígan || Mór-ríoghan Morrígan 𖤍 They integrated with humans around the same time, give or take a few decades. Nieve tends to be irritated with Morrígan as they're both stubborn as each other when it comes to their job and stupid humans trading their souls via tidebindings. Morrígan doesn't seem to linger around Nieve, which Nieve is more than happy to oblige. Roshan || Roshan Naveed Roshan A conspirator in arms, Nieve came across an almost drowned shadhavar during one of her brief trips to the sea's edge. She taught him most of what she knew of how to be a 'god' and live among the humans. Since people already had immense trust in Nieve, they eventually came to recognise Roshan as another god. They purely have a business-only relationship, but sometimes Nieve finds it funny to rile him up in one way or another. OTHER Murdock the Selkie Great Commander Murdock Nieve's uncle from her mother's side. Due to her being born after the war and his disapperance, she doesn't really know how he is. Just that he was the best of the best, the bravest selkie who wanted victory for his kin. However, the stories of Murdock that she heard growing up is what eventually led her to walk on land. Other information • Contrary to popular belief, selkies can't sing as well as sirens or banshees. Nieve does have a lovely voice, but she tends to hum instead. She'll usually do it near the ocean edge. • Her seal-skin is hidden very well in a safe place, so it's very unlikely for a human to come across it. • Nieve herself will conduct moonrites between high-ranking humans (like royalty), as her powers guarantee peace and safety - mostly.

Appearance Standing at a height of 5'6''/170cm, Nieve could pass for normal human, if it weren't for her looks. A blinding beauty, with honey flowing from her head, and dazzling blossom gems that spoke of a deep kindness. True to her selkie nature, her enchanting beauty is enough to steal your air in one glance. Nieve prefers to wear light fitting clothing with bright or neutral colours while in human form. She enjoys her jewellery, so you'll often see her don exquisite accessories, most brought to the surface from her pod. During her official duties, she wears a specific ceremonial outfit, clad in white and covered eyes to represent purity. She doesn't really talk or show her seal form. In her own words, she looks like a drenched white dog. Personality If you were to pluck the brightest star from space, Nieve would be the manifestation of that star. Around her, the world is dazzling, which is why she took the risk of rising to the land after generations of staying hidden. She can get a little narcissistic about her looks; after all, who wouldn't? In fact, she was sharing her brightness with the world, so she believes. She still carries the personality of a selkie, although her good intentions can end up being a little misguided. More than just a pretty face, Nieve's cunning match her looks. If you laid a contract riddled with loopholes, Nieve would just pitifully stare at it. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't out-haggle her. Her street smarts were carefully crafted from the centuries she spent wandering markets before she became a 'goddess'. Having a little bit of a rebellious streak in her, she tends to move at her own pace, whether it's her empty mind wandering or a strategic device, no one really knows. What she despises the most though, is tidebindings (oaths) being broken, especially by the most unscrupulous and ugly people. "An té a dhéanann fiacha, íocfaidh sé iad." She remembers her people's sworn oath. If she ever catches wind of saltforsaken (oath breakers), you best believe your end won't be pretty. History Born as one of many to selkie parents, as plentiful reproduction was encouraged to replenish the species, Nieve arrived in the world many centuries after the great war. Murdock, her maternal uncle, had disappeared, leaving the monsters to lose against the humans. The selkies split into numerous pods to increase their chances of survival, since they were still being hunted. Many years passed, the sea being relatively quiet, and Nieve had fully grown. The selkies settlements weren't as numerous as they once were, but they were still abundant. Selkies come and go like the tide, eventually their seal-skin being ceremoniously dried out under the sun to grant them eternal peace. Their greatest secret to their long lives, and also their greatest weakness. There were many unsavoury things humans did to the selkies during the war. Things that Nieve would rather forget ever knowing. Despite that, her curiousity got to the better of her. How were they afraid of powerless humans? Besides the witches, they were basically teethless. In the end, over a course of many, many years, Nieve would sneak out, much to the dismay of her family. Those dark stories of the war still kept her guarded, her seal-skin either kept on her person, or tucked away in a moist environment. She travelled to human markets and cities with a cloak. To most, she's just a slightly tall human woman. She cleverly crafted personalities each time she surfaced. Maybe went on a few adventures. Regardless of her kin's hatred of the humans, Nieve found them endearing. Nieve would sometimes run a business with her power of tidebindings. After all, they were effective, and people rarely broke them. Maybe through the many centuries she spent amongst them, Nieve let her guard down a little. So, in a fit of rage, when a saltforsaken past by her, she let her hood fall free. Only after she punished them did she realise her mistake. A goddess among us, they praised her beauty, she was testing us all along. Now she's fairly stuck, tending to the humans as one would to sheep. Sometimes, you'll find a glimpse of her in markets. Other times, staring out into sea, longing for a visit to her pod. Instead, she ended picking up a lost looking and particularly drowned shadhavar.

^{20.06.25: Migrated CS
27.07.25: Re-organised relationships (added more - most are tbd)
............Updated Morrígan's relationship with Melion}

PROTOCOL Twilight

\\\ File xx3 \\\ THE AETHERIUM HEIST ................ an Arcane and Blade Runner 2049 crossover
KEY CODES: post-apocalypse, urban noir, fantasy, 18+ DESIGNATION: small group FILE DEBRIEF 50 years after the invasion of Xylar - mysterious outer beings that ravaged the earth and left after military stalemate, the remnants of humanity emerged from the rubble and slowly rebuilt civilisation over the bones of old Chicago. It is now 2077 in New Veridia, the city of surviviours are split into two factions: the Conclave and the Iron Guard. The outside, the Wastes, is lawless, crawling with criminals, illegal weaponry and survival is slim. Out of all the Xylar artefacts, the most valuable is aetherium, a finite volatile energy source has the power to mutate the physical world. Surviving in this city is hard. The laws are harshly punitive and justice is a long lost word. In this chaotic civilisation, can you make it out alive? MISSION NOTES [main premise] The centric plot is that the Conclave is hoarding aetherium and its your job to steal, or perhaps protect, the aetherium. [power system] This is in the works, but in summary, aetherium has mutated a select number of humans, which are called the 'Awakened'. Not all humans are 'Awakened' and that goes for characters. There are other ways of power, which include aetherium tech. There are two types of aetherium: raw and refined. The Conclave are the only ones have the means to refine aetherium, which why they have monopoly over it. [roles] This one is also in the works. Since it's dark crime however, there will be roles like 'police officer' or 'investigators' in the Iron Guard and things like 'mage' or 'refiners' in the Conclave.

Lake of Mirrors

a resident of In Secret We Lie || currently at: Palace of the Gods - Garden

Nieve || Selkie || Purity and Trust, Keeper of Contracts

Niamh Croía Mortimer

Goddess of Purity and Trust, Keeper of Contracts

Source

Name: Niamh Croía Mortimer aka Nieve (in common tongue)
Title: Goddess of Purity and Trust, Keeper of Contracts
Gender/Sex: Female
Age: Approximately 3100+ years old
Species: Selkie
Information: The dogs of the sea, selkies, or seal folk, see the ocean as their playground and the land as a temporary retreat. They are playful by nature and are receptive to kindness. As such, they lived in pods, tight-knit communities of selkies who share deep ancestral history.

"An té a dhéanann fiacha, íocfaidh sé iad." He who makes debts will pay them, a core ideology of the selkies. It was one of their abilities, using the moon as their witness, they locked parties into contracts known as the 'tidebinding'. When someone broke the tidebinding, they were called 'saltforsaken', which is said that the sea will always remain your enemy as long as you lived, and the waves would chase you to the ends of the world to drown you in your broken promises.

Perhaps due to their deep sense of kinship and compassion, selkies were the ocean's diplomat, able to interpret multiple languages of the deep. Of course, they can't speak other languages naturally. In fact, early depictions of the selkie showed them using wild hand gestures to get the point across. Luckily, they're more sophisticated nowadays, with their school curriculum allowing them to study a wide array of tongues.

Selkies are masterful shapeshifters and were often confused for a mermaid, due to similar shape shifting abilities. How they shape shift is key - selkies possess a unique layer of fur, called seal-skin, which once taken off, allows them to assume a full human form - bare as the day they were born though. To don the seal-skin is to transform back into seal form. It is also the seal-skin that lets them live for eons, they say that their longevity is threaded into every piece of fur, which is why if they were stolen or dried out under the sun, a selkie ceased to be.

Appearance: Standing at a height of 5'6''/170cm, Nieve could pass for normal human, if it weren't for her looks. A blinding beauty, with honey flowing from her head, and dazzling blossom gems that spoke of a deep kindness. True to her selkie nature, her enchanting beauty is enough to steal your air in one glance. Nieve prefers to wear light fitting clothing with bright or neutral colours while in human form. She enjoys her jewellery, so you'll often see her don exquisite accessories, most brought to the surface from her pod.

During her official duties, she wears a specific ceremonial outfit ^source, clad in white and covered eyes to represent purity. She doesn't really talk or show her seal form. In her own words, she looks like a drenched white dog.

Personality: If you were to pluck the brightest star from space, Nieve would be the manifestation of that star. Around her, the world is dazzling, which is why she took the risk of rising to the land after generations of staying hidden. She can get a little narcissistic about her looks; after all, who wouldn't? In fact, she was sharing her brightness with the world, so she believes. She still carries the personality of a selkie, although her good intentions can end up being a little misguided.

More than just a pretty face, Nieve's cunning match her looks. In fact, if you laid a contract riddled with loopholes, Nieve would just pitifully stare at it. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't out-haggle her. Her street smarts were carefully crafted from the centuries she spent wandering markets before she became a 'goddess'.

Having a little bit of a rebellious streak in her, she tends to move at her own pace, whether it's her empty mind wandering or a strategic device, no one really knows. What she despises the most though, is tidebindings (oaths) being broken, especially by the most unscrupulous and ugly people. "An té a dhéanann fiacha, íocfaidh sé iad." She remembers her people's sworn oath. If she ever catches wind of saltforsaken (oath breakers), you best believe your end won't be pretty.

History: Born as one of many to selkie parents, as plentiful reproduction was encouraged to replenish the species, Nieve arrived in the world many centuries after the great war. Murdock, her maternal uncle, had disappeared, leaving the monsters to lose against the humans. The selkies split into numerous pods to increase their chances of survival, since they were still being hunted.

Many years passed, the sea being relatively quiet, and Nieve had fully grown. The selkies settlements weren't as numerous as they once were, but they were still abundant. Selkies come and go like the tide, eventually their seal-skin being ceremoniously dried out under the sun to grant them eternal peace. Their greatest secret to their long lives, and also their greatest weakness. There were many unsavoury things humans did to the selkies during the war. Things that Nieve would rather forget ever knowing.

Despite that, her curiousity got to the better of her. How were they afraid of powerless humans? Besides the witches, they were basically teethless. In the end, over a course of many, many years, Nieve would sneak out, much to the dismay of her family. Those dark stories of the war still kept her guarded, her seal-skin either kept on her person, or tucked away in a moist environment. She travelled to human markets and cities with a cloak. To most, she's just a slightly tall human woman. She cleverly crafted personalities each time she surfaced. Maybe went on a few adventures. Regardless of her kin's hatred of the humans, Nieve found them endearing.

Nieve would sometimes run a business with her power of tidebindings. After all, they were effective, and people rarely broke them. Maybe through the many centuries she spent amongst them, Nieve let her guard down a little. So, in a fit of rage, when a saltforsaken past by her, she let her hood fall free. Only after she punished them did she realise her mistake. A goddess among us, they praised her beauty, she was testing us all along. Now she's fairly stuck, tending to the humans as one would to sheep. Sometimes, you'll find a glimpse of her in markets. Other times, staring out into sea, longing for a visit to her pod. Instead, she ended picking up a lost looking and particularly drowned shadhavar.

Mythical Significance: Humans honour Nieve's soul binding contract, and while they don't have the same power as her (or a selkie, as a matter of fact), they do something similar in accordance with human laws, where punishment is severe and contracts are not taken lightly. To sever or alter the terms, all parties of the contract must agree, or at least acquiesce.

In tribute of her pure looks and tidebindings, humans take it a step further and connect together in matrimony - which is called 'moonrite'. Moonrites are conducted in the coldest and darkest times of the year, either near the ocean or a large body of water. They work essentially the same as tidebindings, however they can be broken by only one party. This is called 'skinparting', in accordance to Nieve's religion, and has its own ritual that's done in the brightest time of the day.

Nieve's religion is called Nivenor, her followers called nivenari. Currently, no singular congregation exists, but nivenari, particularly the high ranking ones, are the humans who create tidebindings as a neutral third party. More honestly, a merchant's religion is commonly Nivenor, for obvious reasons, so more often than not, if you walk into a merchant's place, chances are they are nivenari and can tidebind or moonrite you.

Relationships:
Murdock
Nieve's uncle from her mother's side. Due to her being born after the war and his disapperance, she doesn't really know how he is. Just that he was the best of the best, the bravest selkie who wanted victory for his kin. However, the stories of Murdock that she heard growing up is what eventually led her to walk on land.

Roshan
A conspirator in arms, Nieve came across an almost drowned shadhavar during one of her brief trips to the sea's edge. She taught him most of what she knew of how to be a 'god' and live among the humans. Since people already had immense trust in Nieve, they eventually came to recognise Roshan as another god. They purely have a business-only relationship, but sometimes Nieve finds it funny to rile him up in one way or another.

Color: #FFB7C5

Other: Contrary to popular belief, selkies can't sing as well as sirens or banshees. Nieve does have a lovely voice, but she tends to hum instead. She'll usually do it near the ocean edge.

Her seal-skin is hidden very well in a safe place, so it's very unlikely for a human to come across it.

Nieve herself will conduct moonrites between high-ranking humans (like royalty), as her powers guarantee peace and safety - mostly.

Nieve || Selkie || Purity and Trust, Keeper of Contracts - FINAL RENDITION

Niamh Croía Mortimer

Niamh Croía Mortimer

Goddess of Purity and Trust, Keeper of Contracts

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Niamh Croía Mortimer commonly known as Nieve ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Female 𓆝 Selkie ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #FFB7C5 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ header img source ceremonial img source ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Species Physiology Ocean's Beloved Children The dogs of the sea, selkies, or seal folk, see the ocean as their playground and the land as a temporary retreat. They are playful by nature and are receptive to kindness. As such, they lived in pods, tight-knit communities of selkies who share deep ancestral history. "An té a dhéanann fiacha, íocfaidh sé iad." He who makes debts will pay them, the pride of the selkies. Their ability, based on the core value and using the moon as their witness, selkies locked parties into contracts known as the 'tidebinding'. When someone broke the tidebinding, they were called 'saltforsaken', which is said that the sea will always remain your enemy as long as you lived, and the waves would chase you to the ends of the world to drown you in your broken promises. Perhaps due to their deep sense of kinship and compassion, selkies were the ocean's diplomat, able to interpret multiple languages of the deep. Of course, they can't speak other languages naturally. In fact, early depictions of the selkie showed them using wild hand gestures to get the point across. Luckily, they're more sophisticated nowadays, with their school curriculum allowing them to study a wide array of tongues. Selkies are masterful shapeshifters and were often confused for a mermaid, due to similar shape shifting abilities. How they shape shift is key - selkies possess a unique layer of fur, called seal-skin, which once taken off, allows them to assume a full human form - bare as the day they were born though. To don the seal-skin is to transform back into seal form. It is also the seal-skin that lets them live for eons, they say that their longevity is threaded into every piece of fur, which is why if they were stolen or dried out under the sun, a selkie ceased to be. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Mythical Significance Humans honour Nieve's soul binding contract, and while they don't have the same power as her (or a selkie, as a matter of fact), they do something similar in accordance with human laws, where punishment is severe and contracts are not taken lightly. To sever or alter the terms, all parties of the contract must agree, or at least acquiesce. In tribute of her pure looks and tidebindings, humans take it a step further and connect together in matrimony - which is called 'moonrite'. Moonrites are conducted in the coldest and darkest times of the year, either near the ocean or a large body of water. They work essentially the same as tidebindings, however they can be broken by only one party. This is called 'skinparting', in accordance to Nieve's religion, and has its own ritual that's done in the brightest time of the day. Nieve's religion is called Nivenor, her followers called nivenari. Currently, no singular congregation exists, but nivenari, particularly the high ranking ones, are the humans who create tidebindings as a neutral third party. More honestly, a merchant's religion is commonly Nivenor, for obvious reasons, so more often than not, if you walk into a merchant's place, chances are they are nivenari and can tidebind or moonrite you. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Relationships Murdock the Selkie Great Commander Murdock Nieve's uncle from her mother's side. Due to her being born after the war and his disapperance, she doesn't really know how he is. Just that he was the best of the best, the bravest selkie who wanted victory for his kin. However, the stories of Murdock that she heard growing up is what eventually led her to walk on land. Morrígan || Mór-ríoghan Morrígan 𖤍 They integrated with humans around the same time, give or take a few decades. Nieve tends to be irritated with Morrígan as they're both stubborn as each other when it comes to their job and stupid humans trading their souls via tidebindings. Morrígan doesn't seem to linger around Nieve, which Nieve is more than happy to oblige. Aelia || Aeliana Elidi Aelia ☼ Being one of the oldest and someone who fought alongside her uncle, Nieve naturally looks up to Aelia. Whenever Aelia does a rare visit, Nieve gets ridiculously excited and starts yapping Aelia's ears off. Nieve pretty much idolises Aelia, even if she does a lot of funny things. Roshan || Roshan Naveed Roshan A conspirator in arms, Nieve came across an almost drowned shadhavar during one of her brief trips to the sea's edge. She taught him most of what she knew of how to be a 'god' and live among the humans. Since people already had immense trust in Nieve, they eventually came to recognise Roshan as another god. They purely have a business-only relationship, but sometimes Nieve finds it funny to rile him up in one way or another. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Other information • Contrary to popular belief, selkies can't sing as well as sirens or banshees. Nieve does have a lovely voice, but she tends to hum instead. She'll usually do it near the ocean edge. • Her seal-skin is hidden very well in a safe place, so it's very unlikely for a human to come across it. • Nieve herself will conduct moonrites between high-ranking humans (like royalty), as her powers guarantee peace and safety - mostly.

Appearance ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Standing at a height of 5'6''/170cm, Nieve could pass for normal human, if it weren't for her looks. A blinding beauty, with honey flowing from her head, and dazzling blossom gems that spoke of a deep kindness. True to her selkie nature, her enchanting beauty is enough to steal your air in one glance. Nieve prefers to wear light fitting clothing with bright or neutral colours while in human form. She enjoys her jewellery, so you'll often see her don exquisite accessories, most brought to the surface from her pod. During her official duties, she wears a specific ceremonial outfit, clad in white and covered eyes to represent purity. She doesn't really talk or show her seal form. In her own words, she looks like a drenched white dog. Personality ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If you were to pluck the brightest star from space, Nieve would be the manifestation of that star. Around her, the world is dazzling, which is why she took the risk of rising to the land after generations of staying hidden. She can get a little narcissistic about her looks; after all, who wouldn't? In fact, she was sharing her brightness with the world, so she believes. She still carries the personality of a selkie, although her good intentions can end up being a little misguided. More than just a pretty face, Nieve's cunning match her looks. If you laid a contract riddled with loopholes, Nieve would just pitifully stare at it. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't out-haggle her. Her street smarts were carefully crafted from the centuries she spent wandering markets before she became a 'goddess'. Having a little bit of a rebellious streak in her, she tends to move at her own pace, whether it's her empty mind wandering or a strategic device, no one really knows. What she despises the most though, is tidebindings (oaths) being broken, especially by the most unscrupulous and ugly people. "An té a dhéanann fiacha, íocfaidh sé iad." She remembers her people's sworn oath. If she ever catches wind of saltforsaken (oath breakers), you best believe your end won't be pretty. History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Born as one of many to selkie parents, as plentiful reproduction was encouraged to replenish the species, Nieve arrived in the world many centuries after the great war. Murdock, her maternal uncle, had disappeared, leaving the monsters to lose against the humans. The selkies split into numerous pods to increase their chances of survival, since they were still being hunted. Many years passed, the sea being relatively quiet, and Nieve had fully grown. The selkies settlements weren't as numerous as they once were, but they were still abundant. Selkies come and go like the tide, eventually their seal-skin being ceremoniously dried out under the sun to grant them eternal peace. Their greatest secret to their long lives, and also their greatest weakness. There were many unsavoury things humans did to the selkies during the war. Things that Nieve would rather forget ever knowing. Despite that, her curiousity got to the better of her. How were they afraid of powerless humans? Besides the witches, they were basically teethless. In the end, over a course of many, many years, Nieve would sneak out, much to the dismay of her family. Those dark stories of the war still kept her guarded, her seal-skin either kept on her person, or tucked away in a moist environment. She travelled to human markets and cities with a cloak. To most, she's just a slightly tall human woman. She cleverly crafted personalities each time she surfaced. Maybe went on a few adventures. Regardless of her kin's hatred of the humans, Nieve found them endearing. Nieve would sometimes run a business with her power of tidebindings. After all, they were effective, and people rarely broke them. Maybe through the many centuries she spent amongst them, Nieve let her guard down a little. So, in a fit of rage, when a saltforsaken past by her, she let her hood fall free. Only after she punished them did she realise her mistake. A goddess among us, they praised her beauty, she was testing us all along. Now she's fairly stuck, tending to the humans as one would to sheep. Sometimes, you'll find a glimpse of her in markets. Other times, staring out into sea, longing for a visit to her pod. Instead, she ended picking up a lost looking and particularly drowned shadhavar.

Lake of Mirrors

a resident of In Secret We Lie || currently at: Palace of the Gods - Ballroom

Morrígan || Banshee || Souls and Ruination, Herald of the End

Mór-ríoghan

Goddess of Souls and Ruination, Herald of the End

Source
Uncloaked Form - Source

Name: Mór-ríoghan aka Morrígan (in common tongue)
Title: Goddess of Souls and Ruination, Herald of the End
Gender/Sex: Female
Age: Approximately 5100+ years old
Species: Banshee
Information: The Weeping Woman, Reaper's Choir, Ghost of the Mound, banshee. Whatever you decide to call them, know that wherever they go, death follows. The scream that curdles from their mouth only means one thing - a reaper is knocking on your soul's door. They often normally appear as an elegant young woman, dressed in grey cloaks and hidden faces, but their true selves often signals your nearing end. Banshees are not causalities of dying, that is to say they aren't responsible, but rather they smell it on you. After all, death's stench is hard to ignore.

A banshee's close relationship with souls and death gifted them with terrifying abilities - a reason of their almost extinction. Their role as an eternal guide means they are immortal. So how do they die? Only by calling out their true soul name five times, can they die. In the past, Records of Souls kept a banshee's true name from their human days, so if a banshee desired eternal rest, they would be sent off in a grand celebration before hearing a choir, singing their death.

Besides immortality, banshees are bestowed with the gift of song - not a happy, joyful tune - one where a single note compels one to melancholy and harms the soul, and eventually, the listener's self-death. Known as 'The Last Ballad', requires a string instrument that a banshee begins to master at 'rebirth'. However, the great war caused all knowledge of this skill to be forgotten, leaving it to be a 'Lost Art'.

Lastly, the banshee's ability of precognition - an ability to see how and when someone died. In times past, banshees used this ability in their work of caring for those on death beds. During the war, banshees were used a prisoners of war specifically for this ability, letting humans become semi-immortal due to the evasion of their timely deaths. Banshees cannot use this on themselves, or other banshees. In fact, the ability to smell or sense death in themselves doesn't exist, as they're often told to embrace it instead.

Banshees are said to be made from human women with deep seated grudges before their deaths, however during the rebirth of their soul, their memories are wiped. Their numbers never grew past a small nation. Before the war, banshees were spread throughout the world, working hard to provide hospice and guide souls to the afterlife, as was their purpose. They were governed in through matriarchal council that monitored the banshees through ethics and laws. Now, only a few lucky remain, most opting to hide in the cradle of shadows, the council long disassembled. Since the mass disappearance of banshees, one could only guess their end and how miserable it would be - if they were unlucky, a banshee's song of death.

Appearance: Clad in black, a face hidden in the tall shadows she casts. Standing at a height of 6'3''/192cm, she towers over most humans and other gods/goddesses. She gives off the vibe of a mysterious noble woman, no-one really knows her most defining features other than those who attend to her. They say she's a fair maiden and, sometimes, you could see violet eyes piercing through your soul.

When she's without her cloak, you can see her magnificent ram horns crested on top of her long black hair, which runs wildly in the wind. Pointed long ears, with her eyes that transition from violet to red when she's using an ability. Banshees are humanoid monsters, so her uncloaked self is really her true self. Morrígan can get away with hiding her horns and ears under the hood of her cloak, so many haven't had the pleasure of seeing her actual form.

Personality: If people were to describe Morrígan, it would be that she is a woman of little words. And they'd be right, for the wrong reasons. Morrígan is portrayed as the mysterious, serious and dutiful goddess of death. In reality, Morrígan is a homebody. Morrígan typically keeps to herself, completing her role as expected, but if there is a large gathering, she wants out. If it looks like she's not listening, well you'd be half-right. Interesting chatter is the only thing that wins Morrígan's ear.

In a series of misunderstandings, all of her few-worded answers and small gestures are taken as profound by the most asinine believers. When really, she doesn't want to expend energy more than necessary. When she believes it is necessary, well, you'd be running already.

History: "Lamp guides us all into night's eternal cradle."

'Birthed' during the last embers of the war, Morrígan only knew two things: silence and running. The last member of the Council, Aisling, was still alive. Aisling led the banshees into hiding, and since the Ciorcal Anam (place where banshees are 'born') and Schiehallion (central home of the banshees) was destroyed, they lived nomadically, living under the radar and rescuing scattered banshees - new and old. Of course they fought in the war, but when their numbers dwindled to a meagre few, the banshees chose self-preservation over righteousness.

Aisling was Morrígan's mentor, teaching her the ways of the banshee. Morrígan wasn't super interested, but ultimately learnt it all - who knew when their last days would be. Aisling taught Morrígan the way of the fist, techniques that were developed during the war. Since humans learnt that hearing was key in countering their 'Last Ballad' - to the point of self-mutilation - banshees had to learn how to fight them physically, using their precognition to predict their opponent's demise. Alas, not all things work out, which is why they still lost. If the banshee could not soul die - the Records of Souls being either lost, stolen or destroyed during the destruction of Schiehallion - they were taken in as prisoners of war, tortured and used until insanity.

When Aisling sought death, Morrígan did not object. After all, with so many deaths of your kin and being chased around, it takes a heavy toll on you. Morrígan delivered her name. No grand celebration. No choir. Just a simple, five times, calling. The moment Aisling's eyes closed, the remnants scattered, there was no leader, and Morrígan did not take up that mantle.

Many stories depict Morrígan to have existed since creation. In the right, or unfortunate, place she smelt the keen stench of death, her first in a long while since hiding. Since Aisling left her. It was a young child, bright eyed, looking at Morrígan straight in the eyes. At the time, Morrígan wasn't fully covered, so it was a wonder why the child didn't cry or run away. In typical faerie whimsy, Morrígan stayed with that orphan until her death, caring for her until the final breaths. The villagers saw what she did for that child. A benevolent goddess, they said, a gift descended from the heavens to guide us. Morrígan kept the ruse up to this day for reasons unknown.

Mythical Significance: It is believed that you accumulate 'mor' (karma) doing good deeds or evil misgivings. At the end of your life, they say that Morrígan appears to guide them to the circle of reincarnation or eternal darkness depending one's mor.

When death happens, it is customary to mourn in red for five days straight, each day celebrated in significance to a person's birth, growth, identity, living and final memories. A wreath of blackthorns twigs is placed on the door of the mourning family, and they are to not have any visitors until the wreath is removed.

Morrígan doesn't have a organised religion or temple, mostly due to being lazy, however still has a large following spread far and wide across the nation. They simply call themselves 'reincarnators', discarding their human name in order to bring peace to those near death's door. Given their human limitations, they work with secret medicines to let people pass away painlessly, some reincarnators working as wandering apothecaries to heal the sick instead.

Relationships: TBD

Color: #7F00FF

Other: Morrígan really enjoys the sweets that humans make, though she tries to hide that she has a sweet tooth.

Morrígan || Banshee || Souls and Ruination, Herald of the End - FINAL RENDITION

Mór-ríoghan

Mór-ríoghan

Goddess of Souls and Ruination, Herald of the End

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Mór-ríoghan commonly known as Morrígan ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Female 𖤍 Banshee ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #7F00FF ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ header img source uncloaked img source ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Species Physiology Muses of the Reincarnation Cycle The Weeping Woman, Reaper's Choir, Ghost of the Mound, banshee. Whatever you decide to call them, know that wherever they go, death follows. The scream that curdles from their mouth only means one thing - a reaper is knocking on your soul's door. They often normally appear as an elegant young woman, dressed in grey cloaks and hidden faces, but their true selves often signals your nearing end. Banshees are not causalities of dying, that is to say they aren't responsible, but rather they smell it on you. After all, death's stench is hard to ignore. A banshee's close relationship with souls and death gifted them with terrifying abilities - a reason of their almost extinction. Their role as an eternal guide means they are immortal. So how do they die? Only by calling out their true soul name five times, can they die. In the past, Records of Souls kept a banshee's true name from their human days, so if a banshee desired eternal rest, they would be sent off in a grand celebration before hearing a choir, singing their death. Besides immortality, banshees are bestowed with the gift of song - not a happy, joyful tune - one where a single note compels one to melancholy and harms the soul, and eventually, the listener's self-death. Known as 'The Last Ballad', requires a string instrument that a banshee begins to master at 'rebirth'. However, the great war caused all knowledge of this skill to be forgotten, leaving it to be a 'Lost Art'. Lastly, the banshee's ability of precognition - an ability to see how and when someone died. In times past, banshees used this ability in their work of caring for those on death beds. During the war, banshees were used a prisoners of war specifically for this ability, letting humans become semi-immortal due to the evasion of their timely deaths. Banshees cannot use this on themselves, or other banshees. In fact, the ability to smell or sense death in themselves doesn't exist, as they're often told to embrace it instead. Banshees are said to be made from human women with deep seated grudges before their deaths, however during the rebirth of their soul, their memories are wiped. Their numbers never grew past a small nation. Before the war, banshees were spread throughout the world, working hard to provide hospice and guide souls to the afterlife, as was their purpose. They were governed in through matriarchal council that monitored the banshees through ethics and laws. Now, only a few lucky remain, most opting to hide in the cradle of shadows, the council long disassembled. Since the mass disappearance of banshees, one could only guess their end and how miserable it would be - if they were unlucky, a banshee's song of death. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Mythical Significance It is believed that you accumulate 'mor' (karma) doing good deeds or evil misgivings. At the end of your life, they say that Morrígan appears to guide them to the circle of reincarnation or eternal darkness depending one's mor. When death happens, it is customary to mourn in red for five days straight, each day celebrated in significance to a person's birth, growth, identity, living and final memories. A wreath of blackthorns twigs is placed on the door of the mourning family, and they are to not have any visitors until the wreath is removed. Morrígan doesn't have a organised religion or temple, mostly due to being lazy, however still has a large following spread far and wide across the nation. They simply call themselves 'reincarnators', discarding their human name in order to bring peace to those near death's door. Given their human limitations, they work with secret medicines to let people pass away painlessly, some reincarnators working as wandering apothecaries to heal the sick instead. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Relationships Aelia || Aeliana Elidi Aelia ☼ Aelia was one of the first 'goddesses' she encountered as Morrígan began establishing her myth. As such, humans see them as sisters, given their shared reign over the reincarnation cycle. Morrígan's first instinct whenever she sees Aelia is to turn around and pretend she didn't see her - not that it ever works. Morrígan remains cordial, to a degree, for appearances sake. Nieve || Niamh Croía Mortimer Nieve 𓆝 Another of Morrígan's colleagues. Morrígan and Nieve are well-acquainted with each other; there have been a few clashes between their followers as some humans have used their souls as tidebinding collaterals. Morrígan tends to keep Nieve at arms length though. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Other information • Morrígan really enjoys the sweets that humans make, though she tries to hide that she has a sweet tooth.

Appearance ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Clad in black, a face hidden in the tall shadows she casts. Standing at a height of 6'3''/192cm, she towers over most humans and other gods/goddesses. She gives off the vibe of a mysterious noble woman, no-one really knows her most defining features other than those who attend to her. They say she's a fair maiden and, sometimes, you could see violet eyes piercing through your soul. When she's without her cloak, you can see her magnificent ram horns crested on top of her long black hair, which runs wildly in the wind. Pointed long ears, with her eyes that transition from violet to red when she's using an ability. Banshees are humanoid monsters, so her uncloaked self is really her true self. Morrígan can get away with hiding her horns and ears under the hood of her cloak, so many haven't had the pleasure of seeing her actual form. Personality ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If people were to describe Morrígan, it would be that she is a woman of little words. And they'd be right, for the wrong reasons. Morrígan is portrayed as the mysterious, serious and dutiful goddess of death. In reality, Morrígan is a homebody. Morrígan typically keeps to herself, completing her role as expected, but if there is a large gathering, she wants out. If it looks like she's not listening, well you'd be half-right. Interesting chatter is the only thing that wins Morrígan's ear. In a series of misunderstandings, all of her few-worded answers and small gestures are taken as profound by the most asinine believers. When really, she doesn't want to expend energy more than necessary. When she believes it is necessary, well, you'd be running already. History ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 'Birthed' during the last embers of the war, Morrígan only knew two things: silence and running. The last member of the Council, Aisling, was still alive. Aisling led the banshees into hiding, and since the Ciorcal Anam (place where banshees are 'born') and Schiehallion (central home of the banshees) was destroyed, they lived nomadically, living under the radar and rescuing scattered banshees - new and old. Of course they fought in the war, but when their numbers dwindled to a meagre few, the banshees chose self-preservation over righteousness. Aisling was Morrígan's mentor, teaching her the ways of the banshee. Morrígan wasn't super interested, but ultimately learnt it all - who knew when their last days would be. Aisling taught Morrígan the way of the fist, techniques that were developed during the war. Since humans learnt that hearing was key in countering their 'Last Ballad' - to the point of self-mutilation - banshees had to learn how to fight them physically, using their precognition to predict their opponent's demise. Alas, not all things work out, which is why they still lost. If the banshee could not soul die - the Records of Souls being either lost, stolen or destroyed during the destruction of Schiehallion - they were taken in as prisoners of war, tortured and used until insanity. When Aisling sought death, Morrígan did not object. After all, with so many deaths of your kin and being chased around, it takes a heavy toll on you. Morrígan delivered her name. No grand celebration. No choir. Just a simple, five times, calling. The moment Aisling's eyes closed, the remnants scattered, there was no leader, and Morrígan did not take up that mantle. Many stories depict Morrígan to have existed since creation. In the right, or unfortunate, place she smelt the keen stench of death, her first in a long while since hiding. Since Aisling left her. It was a young child, bright eyed, looking at Morrígan straight in the eyes. At the time, Morrígan wasn't fully covered, so it was a wonder why the child didn't cry or run away. In typical faerie whimsy, Morrígan stayed with that orphan until her death, caring for her until the final breaths. The villagers saw what she did for that child. A benevolent goddess, they said, a gift descended from the heavens to guide us. Morrígan kept the ruse up to this day for reasons unknown.

ISWL Retired Thread

^{it kinda works on mobile? landscape helps.}

Morrígan || Banshee || Souls and Ruination, Herald of the End

Mór-ríoghan

Mór-ríoghan

Goddess of Souls and Ruination, Herald of the End

Mór-ríoghan commonly known as Morrígan ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Female 𖤍 Banshee ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #7F00FF ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ header img source uncloaked img source ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Species Physiology Muses of the Reincarnation Cycle The Weeping Woman, Reaper's Choir, Ghost of the Mound, banshee. Whatever you decide to call them, know that wherever they go, death follows. The scream that curdles from their mouth only means one thing - a reaper is knocking on your soul's door. They often normally appear as an elegant young woman, dressed in grey cloaks and hidden faces, but their true selves often signals your nearing end. Banshees are not causalities of dying, that is to say they aren't responsible, but rather they smell it on you. After all, death's stench is hard to ignore. A banshee's close relationship with souls and death gifted them with terrifying abilities - a reason of their almost extinction. Their role as an eternal guide means they are immortal. So how do they die? Only by calling out their true soul name five times, can they die. In the past, Records of Souls kept a banshee's true name from their human days, so if a banshee desired eternal rest, they would be sent off in a grand celebration before hearing a choir, singing their death. Besides immortality, banshees are bestowed with the gift of song - not a happy, joyful tune - one where a single note compels one to melancholy and harms the soul, and eventually, the listener's self-death. Known as 'The Last Ballad', requires a string instrument that a banshee begins to master at 'rebirth'. However, the great war caused all knowledge of this skill to be forgotten, leaving it to be a 'Lost Art'. Lastly, the banshee's ability of precognition - an ability to see how and when someone died. In times past, banshees used this ability in their work of caring for those on death beds. During the war, banshees were used a prisoners of war specifically for this ability, letting humans become semi-immortal due to the evasion of their timely deaths. Banshees cannot use this on themselves, or other banshees. In fact, the ability to smell or sense death in themselves doesn't exist, as they're often told to embrace it instead. Banshees are said to be made from human women with deep seated grudges before their deaths, however during the rebirth of their soul, their memories are wiped. Their numbers never grew past a small nation. Before the war, banshees were spread throughout the world, working hard to provide hospice and guide souls to the afterlife, as was their purpose. They were governed in through matriarchal council that monitored the banshees through ethics and laws. Now, only a few lucky remain, most opting to hide in the cradle of shadows, the council long disassembled. Since the mass disappearance of banshees, one could only guess their end and how miserable it would be - if they were unlucky, a banshee's song of death. Mythical Significance It is believed that you accumulate 'mor' (karma) doing good deeds or evil misgivings. At the end of your life, they say that Morrígan appears to guide them to the circle of reincarnation or eternal darkness depending one's mor. When death happens, it is customary to mourn in red for five days straight, each day celebrated in significance to a person's birth, growth, identity, living and final memories. A wreath of blackthorns twigs is placed on the door of the mourning family, and they are to not have any visitors until the wreath is removed. Morrígan doesn't have a organised religion or temple, mostly due to being lazy, however still has a large following spread far and wide across the nation. They simply call themselves 'reincarnators', discarding their human name in order to bring peace to those near death's door. Given their human limitations, they work with secret medicines to let people pass away painlessly, some reincarnators working as wandering apothecaries to heal the sick instead. Relationships Aelia || Aeliana Elidi Aelia ☼ Aelia was one of the first 'goddesses' she encountered as Morrígan began establishing her myth. As such, humans see them as sisters, given their shared reign over the reincarnation cycle. Morrígan's first instinct whenever she sees Aelia is to turn around and pretend she didn't see her - not that it ever works. Morrígan remains cordial, to a degree, for appearances sake. Nieve || Niamh Croía Mortimer Nieve 𓆝 Another of Morrígan's colleagues. Morrígan and Nieve are well-acquainted with each other; there have been a few clashes between their followers as some humans have used their souls as tidebinding collaterals. Morrígan tends to keep Nieve at arms length though. Other information • Morrígan really enjoys the sweets that humans make, though she tries to hide that she has a sweet tooth.

Appearance Clad in black, a face hidden in the tall shadows she casts. Standing at a height of 6'3''/192cm, she towers over most humans and other gods/goddesses. She gives off the vibe of a mysterious noble woman, no-one really knows her most defining features other than those who attend to her. They say she's a fair maiden and, sometimes, you could see violet eyes piercing through your soul. When she's without her cloak, you can see her magnificent ram horns crested on top of her long black hair, which runs wildly in the wind. Pointed long ears, with her eyes that transition from violet to red when she's using an ability. Banshees are humanoid monsters, so her uncloaked self is really her true self. Morrígan can get away with hiding her horns and ears under the hood of her cloak, so many haven't had the pleasure of seeing her actual form. Personality If people were to describe Morrígan, it would be that she is a woman of little words. And they'd be right, for the wrong reasons. Morrígan is portrayed as the mysterious, serious and dutiful goddess of death. In reality, Morrígan is a homebody. Morrígan typically keeps to herself, completing her role as expected, but if there is a large gathering, she wants out. If it looks like she's not listening, well you'd be half-right. Interesting chatter is the only thing that wins Morrígan's ear. In a series of misunderstandings, all of her few-worded answers and small gestures are taken as profound by the most asinine believers. When really, she doesn't want to expend energy more than necessary. When she believes it is necessary, well, you'd be running already. History 'Birthed' during the last embers of the war, Morrígan only knew two things: silence and running. The last member of the Council, Aisling, was still alive. Aisling led the banshees into hiding, and since the Ciorcal Anam (place where banshees are 'born') and Schiehallion (central home of the banshees) was destroyed, they lived nomadically, living under the radar and rescuing scattered banshees - new and old. Of course they fought in the war, but when their numbers dwindled to a meagre few, the banshees chose self-preservation over righteousness. Aisling was Morrígan's mentor, teaching her the ways of the banshee. Morrígan wasn't super interested, but ultimately learnt it all - who knew when their last days would be. Aisling taught Morrígan the way of the fist, techniques that were developed during the war. Since humans learnt that hearing was key in countering their 'Last Ballad' - to the point of self-mutilation - banshees had to learn how to fight them physically, using their precognition to predict their opponent's demise. Alas, not all things work out, which is why they still lost. If the banshee could not soul die - the Records of Souls being either lost, stolen or destroyed during the destruction of Schiehallion - they were taken in as prisoners of war, tortured and used until insanity. When Aisling sought death, Morrígan did not object. After all, with so many deaths of your kin and being chased around, it takes a heavy toll on you. Morrígan delivered her name. No grand celebration. No choir. Just a simple, five times, calling. The moment Aisling's eyes closed, the remnants scattered, there was no leader, and Morrígan did not take up that mantle. Many stories depict Morrígan to have existed since creation. In the right, or unfortunate, place she smelt the keen stench of death, her first in a long while since hiding. Since Aisling left her. It was a young child, bright eyed, looking at Morrígan straight in the eyes. At the time, Morrígan wasn't fully covered, so it was a wonder why the child didn't cry or run away. In typical faerie whimsy, Morrígan stayed with that orphan until her death, caring for her until the final breaths. The villagers saw what she did for that child. A benevolent goddess, they said, a gift descended from the heavens to guide us. Morrígan kept the ruse up to this day for reasons unknown.

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Nieve || Selkie || Purity and Trust, Keeper of Contracts

Niamh Croía Mortimer

Niamh Croía Mortimer

Goddess of Purity and Trust, Keeper of Contracts

Niamh Croía Mortimer commonly known as Nieve ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Female 𓆝 Selkie ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #FFB7C5 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ header img source ceremonial img source ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Species Physiology Ocean's Beloved Children The dogs of the sea, selkies, or seal folk, see the ocean as their playground and the land as a temporary retreat. They are playful by nature and are receptive to kindness. As such, they lived in pods, tight-knit communities of selkies who share deep ancestral history. "An té a dhéanann fiacha, íocfaidh sé iad." He who makes debts will pay them, the pride of the selkies. Their ability, based on the core value and using the moon as their witness, selkies locked parties into contracts known as the 'tidebinding'. When someone broke the tidebinding, they were called 'saltforsaken', which is said that the sea will always remain your enemy as long as you lived, and the waves would chase you to the ends of the world to drown you in your broken promises. Perhaps due to their deep sense of kinship and compassion, selkies were the ocean's diplomat, able to interpret multiple languages of the deep. Of course, they can't speak other languages naturally. In fact, early depictions of the selkie showed them using wild hand gestures to get the point across. Luckily, they're more sophisticated nowadays, with their school curriculum allowing them to study a wide array of tongues. Selkies are masterful shapeshifters and were often confused for a mermaid, due to similar shape shifting abilities. How they shape shift is key - selkies possess a unique layer of fur, called seal-skin, which once taken off, allows them to assume a full human form - bare as the day they were born though. To don the seal-skin is to transform back into seal form. It is also the seal-skin that lets them live for eons, they say that their longevity is threaded into every piece of fur, which is why if they were stolen or dried out under the sun, a selkie ceased to be. Mythical Significance Humans honour Nieve's soul binding contract, and while they don't have the same power as her (or a selkie, as a matter of fact), they do something similar in accordance with human laws, where punishment is severe and contracts are not taken lightly. To sever or alter the terms, all parties of the contract must agree, or at least acquiesce. In tribute of her pure looks and tidebindings, humans take it a step further and connect together in matrimony - which is called 'moonrite'. Moonrites are conducted in the coldest and darkest times of the year, either near the ocean or a large body of water. They work essentially the same as tidebindings, however they can be broken by only one party. This is called 'skinparting', in accordance to Nieve's religion, and has its own ritual that's done in the brightest time of the day. Nieve's religion is called Nivenor, her followers called nivenari. Currently, no singular congregation exists, but nivenari, particularly the high ranking ones, are the humans who create tidebindings as a neutral third party. More honestly, a merchant's religion is commonly Nivenor, for obvious reasons, so more often than not, if you walk into a merchant's place, chances are they are nivenari and can tidebind or moonrite you. Relationships Murdock the Selkie Great Commander Murdock Nieve's uncle from her mother's side. Due to her being born after the war and his disapperance, she doesn't really know how he is. Just that he was the best of the best, the bravest selkie who wanted victory for his kin. However, the stories of Murdock that she heard growing up is what eventually led her to walk on land. Morrígan || Mór-ríoghan Morrígan 𖤍 They integrated with humans around the same time, give or take a few decades. Nieve tends to be irritated with Morrígan as they're both stubborn as each other when it comes to their job and stupid humans trading their souls via tidebindings. Morrígan doesn't seem to linger around Nieve, which Nieve is more than happy to oblige. Aelia || Aeliana Elidi Aelia ☼ Being one of the oldest and someone who fought alongside her uncle, Nieve naturally looks up to Aelia. Whenever Aelia does a rare visit, Nieve gets ridiculously excited and starts yapping Aelia's ears off. Nieve pretty much idolises Aelia, even if she does a lot of funny things. Roshan || Roshan Naveed Roshan A conspirator in arms, Nieve came across an almost drowned shadhavar during one of her brief trips to the sea's edge. She taught him most of what she knew of how to be a 'god' and live among the humans. Since people already had immense trust in Nieve, they eventually came to recognise Roshan as another god. They purely have a business-only relationship, but sometimes Nieve finds it funny to rile him up in one way or another. Other information • Contrary to popular belief, selkies can't sing as well as sirens or banshees. Nieve does have a lovely voice, but she tends to hum instead. She'll usually do it near the ocean edge. • Her seal-skin is hidden very well in a safe place, so it's very unlikely for a human to come across it. • Nieve herself will conduct moonrites between high-ranking humans (like royalty), as her powers guarantee peace and safety - mostly.

Appearance Standing at a height of 5'6''/170cm, Nieve could pass for normal human, if it weren't for her looks. A blinding beauty, with honey flowing from her head, and dazzling blossom gems that spoke of a deep kindness. True to her selkie nature, her enchanting beauty is enough to steal your air in one glance. Nieve prefers to wear light fitting clothing with bright or neutral colours while in human form. She enjoys her jewellery, so you'll often see her don exquisite accessories, most brought to the surface from her pod. During her official duties, she wears a specific ceremonial outfit, clad in white and covered eyes to represent purity. She doesn't really talk or show her seal form. In her own words, she looks like a drenched white dog. Personality If you were to pluck the brightest star from space, Nieve would be the manifestation of that star. Around her, the world is dazzling, which is why she took the risk of rising to the land after generations of staying hidden. She can get a little narcissistic about her looks; after all, who wouldn't? In fact, she was sharing her brightness with the world, so she believes. She still carries the personality of a selkie, although her good intentions can end up being a little misguided. More than just a pretty face, Nieve's cunning match her looks. If you laid a contract riddled with loopholes, Nieve would just pitifully stare at it. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't out-haggle her. Her street smarts were carefully crafted from the centuries she spent wandering markets before she became a 'goddess'. Having a little bit of a rebellious streak in her, she tends to move at her own pace, whether it's her empty mind wandering or a strategic device, no one really knows. What she despises the most though, is tidebindings (oaths) being broken, especially by the most unscrupulous and ugly people. "An té a dhéanann fiacha, íocfaidh sé iad." She remembers her people's sworn oath. If she ever catches wind of saltforsaken (oath breakers), you best believe your end won't be pretty. History Born as one of many to selkie parents, as plentiful reproduction was encouraged to replenish the species, Nieve arrived in the world many centuries after the great war. Murdock, her maternal uncle, had disappeared, leaving the monsters to lose against the humans. The selkies split into numerous pods to increase their chances of survival, since they were still being hunted. Many years passed, the sea being relatively quiet, and Nieve had fully grown. The selkies settlements weren't as numerous as they once were, but they were still abundant. Selkies come and go like the tide, eventually their seal-skin being ceremoniously dried out under the sun to grant them eternal peace. Their greatest secret to their long lives, and also their greatest weakness. There were many unsavoury things humans did to the selkies during the war. Things that Nieve would rather forget ever knowing. Despite that, her curiousity got to the better of her. How were they afraid of powerless humans? Besides the witches, they were basically teethless. In the end, over a course of many, many years, Nieve would sneak out, much to the dismay of her family. Those dark stories of the war still kept her guarded, her seal-skin either kept on her person, or tucked away in a moist environment. She travelled to human markets and cities with a cloak. To most, she's just a slightly tall human woman. She cleverly crafted personalities each time she surfaced. Maybe went on a few adventures. Regardless of her kin's hatred of the humans, Nieve found them endearing. Nieve would sometimes run a business with her power of tidebindings. After all, they were effective, and people rarely broke them. Maybe through the many centuries she spent amongst them, Nieve let her guard down a little. So, in a fit of rage, when a saltforsaken past by her, she let her hood fall free. Only after she punished them did she realise her mistake. A goddess among us, they praised her beauty, she was testing us all along. Now she's fairly stuck, tending to the humans as one would to sheep. Sometimes, you'll find a glimpse of her in markets. Other times, staring out into sea, longing for a visit to her pod. Instead, she ended picking up a lost looking and particularly drowned shadhavar.

^{5.6.25 (dd/mm/yy)} add: Nieve added to roster
^{5.6.25 (dd/mm/yy)} edit: limit tested Morrígan's character sheet cause my eyes are as bad as a mole
^{5.6.25 (dd/mm/yy)} edit: did the same for Nieve, lost all braincells, goodbye for now
^{14.6.25 (dd/mm/yy)} add, edit: istg this is the last time I change the cs. updating relationships, not all established

ISWL Retired Thread

honestly idm, I'll post my goddess either way so people can start to brainstorm around her.