Riven Wight

Rogues and Rulers

Her Character Sheet

Full True Name: Nivara Yasabelle Xonnovan

Age: 21

Name on the Census: Jennifer Elderson
She didn’t want to use Nyx or any other variation of her preferred name/alias in order to avoid the Eldersons getting caught in the cross-fire in the event she gets herself caught. Alas, the wretched census requires her to be registered and present for the bi-annual census. Some old contacts of hers helped her fake all the necessary papers. On the off chance someone looked into the records of Jennifer Elderson, she has a full history detailing her fake past life on file.

Current Residentcy on File: Ragford of the Lanquin Region – Salvolette Territory.
“Jennifer Elderson” is registered as a permanent resident of the Elderson household. The story is that she’s their fourth cousin, originally from Oxdale, a city far to the south, and that she came to them after her parents died in an unfortunate accident involving a poorly-constructed apartment stairwell.
The truth is that the Eldersons are some of the only remaining friends of her parents, and some of the few who had no idea that her parents were the leaders of the Rising Dawn until their death.

Preferred Name: Nyx Noven – Her true initials, paired with a shortening of her adoptive parents’ surname. The infamy of “Xonnovan” forced her to at least shorten it to something not so recognizable.
She uses this whenever she’s abroad, but is careful to use Jennifer Elderson when she’s in Ragford and around anyone besides the Eldersons themselves.

Other Aliases: As a thief, she’s known as the Stardust Phantom.

Race: Human, but she’s been faerie-touched. Or, at least, she suspects she has been.
Thankfully, the effects of it are faint enough for it avoid detection from even most supernatural creatures—fae themselves excluded. While this does give her some abilities and minor resistances that most humans lack, it isn’t enough for her to even pretend to be anything besides human.

Appearance:
Height: 5’4”
Weight: Around 108 lbs.
Build: Though she has some muscles on her from training and spending long nights on the prowl, she is rather thin due to a lack in a steady full diet. She’s no stranger to going hungry.
Eyes: Light brown around her pupil, the color spreads out into a silvery circle.
Hair: Brown and curly, often with a bit of frizz adding extra volume to the already thick locks. She keeps it long whenever possible, though she has cut it short before—which practically turned it into an afro. She always keeps at least one hair tie on her to pull it back when she wants to keep it out of her face.

Distinguishing Marks: She’s been careful to avoid getting any difficult-to-hide scars, and is thankful that she doesn’t have any extremely distinguishable marks on any part of her that isn’t easily covered by clothes. Makes her that much harder to identify in a crowd, which is exactly what she needs as a thief.
She does have a few scars on her arms from mishaps while doing some of the hard labor jobs available to humans, and has one just beneath her ribcage where someone she’d tried to rob had managed to stab her. In her defense, it happened in her earlier thieving days.

Favored Clothes Type: As a human, she can’t afford to be picky, so she’ll take whatever she can get—within reason. Which usually means cheap fabrics, which are often second-hand.
She does prefer more nature–esque colors, finding that she likes how she looks in them, as well as because they’re practical in that they don’t make her stand out in a crowd.

Thief Garb: Though she’d rather have kept it fairly simple and easily replaced, over the years, Edlyn and a ‘friend’ of hers have ultimately collected or made various pieces of garb that make it a bit more unique, adding to the aptness of her epithet.
Innerwear: All in gray, she wears a simple, form-fitting long-sleeved shirt and jeans, both of which are rather worn. Beneath that, she wraps her chest to help disguise her feminine shape, and keeps her hair stuffed beneath a tight cap.
Outerwear:
> Vest – She has a gray leather vest loaded with pockets, both obvious and hidden. It fits her snugly, slimming the possibility of getting caught on anything. It also has a hood, its edges slightly weighted to help keep it in place when she has it up—which is usually whenever she wears it. Her sister used some chameleon thread she’d bartered off of a shapeshifter working with the Rising Dawn to embroider a series of constellations on the entirety of the garment.
A pure, impossibly dark black that stands out against the gray of the coat, the chameleon thread is enchanted to shift from its original color to match the fabric it’s on, making it invisible to the naked eye. When used correctly, it can be used to create shifting designs, alternating between that “invisibility” and its original color. After some trial and error, Edlyn figured it out.
To this day, Nyx isn’t entirely sure how many different constellations the older girl embroidered on it.
> Boots – A dusty, faded black teetering toward gray, her boots rise up to her mid-calf. Each has a sheath for a long, thin throwing dagger attached to it.
> Gloves + Bracers – A bit darker shade of gray than the rest of her outfit, she has a pair of tight-fitting gloves. They go a few inches past her wrist, disappearing into a pair of light brown leather bracers that wrap the sleeves of her shirt. These provide a bit of extra protection as well as housing more throwing daggers. Like her coat, constellations shift over the bracers.
> Mask – Something she got from Arowin, it’s quite the masterpiece. When she’s still hidden, it’s as black as the color can get. It covers her eyes and nose. A few black stars dangle from the curves at her cheeks. However, if she’s spotted, the mask ripples to life. Stars and silver fillagree sprout over the dark surface like living galaxies, and the black dangle stars change to silver. A silvery sheen will glow over the eye holes, concealing her eyes from whoever spotted her while leaving her sight clear, like a one-way mirror.
This enchantment is not just for show; there have been a few times where the shift in it to mask her eyes alerted her that she’d been spotted, before she realized on her own that she’d been seen. This mask doesn’t need any kind of strap to stay in place—it does that all by itself once she puts it to her face.
> Accessories – A belt crowded with a few more weapons and various pouches, some empty for goods and others filled with various tricks of her trade, depending on what she suspects she’d need for her current mission.

Calling Card: One of the two reasons that she’s been dubbed the Stardust Phantom is that she leaves a non-magical version of her “stardust” (see “Weapons” section below) in place of the items she stole. Doing this was actually Edlyn’s idea. What she leaves behind resembles the functional stardust, only the grains are a bit larger (like extra course sand), and lose their glow after about two days if not kept in a sealed pouch. In their pouch or if left in a place where there’s a bit less airflow, they can glow for up to a week. When they lose their pulsing glow, they’re black, but glitter with silver specks, similar to sandstone.

Reputation: Though she never expected to become a famous thief, she’s managed exactly that. She travels often, trying to keep her targets guessing of where she might strike next, as well as keeping them off the scent of her real place of residence. She’s heard rumor that whispers of her have started to make it into regions beyond where she’s thieved in, the stories about her and her conquests getting blown into legendary proportions among the human populus. Needless to say, she’s managed to steal from quite a few notable Noble Houses—none of the Ruling Houses, mind… yet—despite their best spells and defenses.
Because of this, she has quite the significant bounty on her head, and tries to not think about what punishment would await her if she gets caught, especially considering the significance of some of the items she’s ‘traded’ for her worthless stardust.
So far, though, it has been easy for her to evade capture; that everyone still believes the Stardust Phantom is a boy helps quite a bit.
A sort of Robbin Hood among those who whisper her name, she only steals for herself when she absolutely needs to. Any money from selling goods often goes anonymously to human townsfolk in the most need—though some have suspected where it’s come from, and have shared their suspicions often enough for that to also be woven into her legends—or the items get donated to the Diamond Templar—the rebel group that recruited her after discovering her relation to the Xonnovans.
She isn’t just good at thievery; her rebel group often uses her for reconnaissance, and she has also managed to copy various documents detailing different defenses the supernatural nobility they target have employed.
As it is, in the eyes of the authorities and the Houses, it’s unclear whether the Stardust Phantom is actively working with the Diamond Templar, or was simply a hired hand. While some of the goods reported stolen by the Stardust Phantom have been discovered after use in the Templar’s escapades, the Phantom otherwise doesn’t appear to followed the supposed activities of the Diamond Templar.

A Thievery Goal: She someday hopes to be capable of slipping into one of the Ruling Houses in order to hunt for the documentation they keep detailing the many human ‘offerings’ taken over the recent years. She doesn’t know how far back they keep records of them, but she’s hoping that they maintain them as long as the humans are alive—and that her sister is one of them.
It’s that, or have one of her contacts through the Diamond Templar rig it so her name gets drawn for the next living tax offering, and hope that she goes to one of the Ruling Houses, or a prominent enough Noble House. Between the two options, she’d rather risk capture and death from trying to sneak into the headquarters of a Ruling House, than become some pet or personal livestock to a wretched supernatural, but she’s willing to do whatever she needs to if it means she could find and rescue her sister.
Both would mean giving up her life to the monsters she hates. But at least the worst that infiltrating or stealing from a Ruling House would bring is only death.

Weapons + Tools of her Trade: Though not legal for humans to have anything besides practical, everyday use equipment (and even those are regulated), she has managed to procure various knives, daggers, lockpicking tools, and even a couple poisons. When not in use, she keeps these safely hidden along with her thief garb.
Stardust: This is a substance she only uses when she’s out as the Stardust Phantom—and is the second reason she’s acquired this epithet. A substance her brilliant sister originally discovered how to make by complete accident, it isn’t actual stardust, of course.
After it’s been properly treated and processed—a process that also involves a smidge of faerie magic in the form of a potion that Arowin provides—it takes on a granular, sand-like texture. Each fair-sized grain glitters with a slight bioluminescence.
When a handful of the stuff is thrown to the ground with enough force, it creates a sparkling mist that messes with the vision of any onlookers, making them “see stars,” as the phrase goes, allowing her to escape on those now rare occasions when she’s spotted. It works on even a majority of supernatural creatures as well as humans, but she’s found that it doesn’t affect her in the least. Whether that’s due to her being faerie-touched or because of the enchantment on her mask, she’s never been sure, and Arowin is never exactly forthcoming about the how or what of his magic.
Unlike the fake stuff she leaves as a calling card, the soft, pulsing glow on this will only fade once it’s been used.

General Personality: Nyx is disgusted by how complacent so many of the humans have become. While she recognizes that it’s all they’ve ever known, that any attempts at rebellion throughout history have been publicly ended with slaughter (even the supernatural empathizers dying slow, agonizing deaths), it still makes her both sick and sad.
But Nyx is far from content. She longs for the freedom she’s read about in the forbidden books her adoptive parents kept hidden. She wants to see her fellow humans treated feialry. She wants to stop anyone else from having to go through the loss she has.
She harbors a strong hatred and resentment of the Houses, though she’s learned to recognize that not all supernatural beings are bad—after all, plenty of them were partnered with the Rising Dawn, and died for its cause. She’s even friends with a few of them herself.
Since losing most of her family, she cares little for her own life or safety, and jumps on any opportunity to bring chaos to the Houses and other strong supernaturals.
She’s willing to do just about anything as long as it would mean seeing the downfall of the Ruling Houses, and mean she’d get the chance to see her sister—or at least find out if she’s even still alive—again.
She is fierce and protective of those who she’s learned to trust and care for, and is quick to jump into a fight—which is one reason she’s had difficulties holding down any kind of job, especially better servant-type jobs in the larger cities. Her temper has nearly cost her her life on a couple occasions. Since then, she has tried to control it, with varying success. Taking on her alter as the Stardust Phantom does help a bit, since it gives her an outlet to get back at the creatures she sees messing with other humans.

Occupation: She tends to bounce around in her day jobs—which is a nice way to say she has some troubles holding a single steady job. Right now, Mrs. Elderson has her registered as being her assistant to her small seamstress shop.
However, that’s just a cover, and only what’s “on the books.” The reality is that she’s often traveling, moonlighting as a thief and a spy for the Diamond Templar as much as for herself to scratch the rebellious itch for freedom that permeates her soul.

Physical Abilities: Extremely stealthy—if she doesn’t want to be heard, she won’t be. Agile. Fairly strong from spending a lot of time training to fight with blades and bare hands alike. Quick for a human, but not to any supernatural degree. Dexterous. She’s always been good at climbing things.

Magic Abilities: None. Not directly, anyway, as one could argue that her faerie-touched physical abilities come from magic.

Weaknesses + Flaws: Her short fuse. Blunt. Stubborn. Paranoid. Though she has decent muscle, her poor diet of whatever-she-can-get-her-hands-on has made it difficult for her to build any significant muscle.

Family:
> Biological Family – Unknown. Status: Presumed dead.
> Adoptive Parents – Lilith and Elias Xonnovan. Status: Deceased.
> Adoptive Siblings – Edlyn Xonnovan. Status: Unknown. Would be 24 if alive.
> Other –

The Eldersons

Obert Elderson. Status: Living. Age: 40
Ally Elderson. Status: Living. Age: 39
Lulu Elderson. Status: Living. Age: 19.
Trevor Elderson. Status: Living. Age: 10.

Arowin: A 'friend' of hers, Arowin (uh-ROW-in) is one of the fae. She calls him Aro, for short.. She calls him Aro, for short. Though, she uses ‘friend’ rather loosely. She ultimately doesn’t fully trust him, and suspects he’d turn on her in a heartbeat if it meant saving his own skin, but he has been good to her over the years. And I do mean years; she first encountered him when she was seven, and he’s been around ever since.
Though he’s always refused to confirm or deny whether or not Nyx was indeed faerie-touched, that he continues to hang around her only strengthens the belief. She’s always been good with the smaller fae, but he’s the strongest of the ones she’s met, and the only one who has stuck around.
He provides her with the rare potion she needs for her stardust and the occasional other magic item, and in turn she brings him various gifts or steals things for him that he can’t get himself due to wards designed to keep out supernatural beings like him.
Though she’s constantly on the move, the one thing she can trust is that all she needs to do is go into the nearest woods, alone, and she’ll eventually run into him.
Alas, that scar she has beneath her ribcage? It has put her in a life-debt to Arowin, who has yet to cash in. Suspiciously, he hasn’t mentioned it since, but Nyx knows better than to hope that he’s forgotten about it.

Photo Reference

On-Record Bio: As far as the official records know, Nivara Yasabelle Xonnovan died four years ago with her adoptive parents when the headquarters of the Risen Dawn was burned down, its members killed for treason against the Ruling Houses.
The records know that she was an adoptive member of the Xonnovan family, taken in when she was no older than two years old. She, with the Xonnovans, lived in the slums of a city called Ironvale.
It is believed that she worked alongside the Xonnovans’ in the Rising Dawn, and witnesses attest to having seen the teenaged girl enter the building that was their temporary headquarters at the time with her parents on several occasions.
The Xonnovans formed the Rising Dawn not long after the name of their biological daughter, Edlyn Xonnovan, was drawn to be one of their region’s offerings.
Nivara was only fifteen years of age at the time, Edlyn eighteen. As is customary once a human has been Offered and Chosen, Edlyn was forced to cut contact with her family, her fate unknown to them.
Not much else is known about Nivara. She otherwise had a clean record, and had bounced around between different low-paying jobs between attending a local school that admitted only humans.

Rogues and Rulers

@Arista

So, as you'll see, I did add more than what I'd ran by you in the PMs. I also plugged in a name for the world. Let me know if you're okay with the additions! If you aren't okay with something that I put, just let me know.

And, er, I apologize if it needs more editing to be easier to understand. I wanted to get this up here, but it's about four in the morning where I am, and I should probably get ready for bed. I'll try to get my character profile up tomorrow! Er... later today.

Rogues and Rulers

[Reserved]

Rogues and Rulers

Neverterra:
A Hopefully Somewhat Comprehensive Guide

Neverterra is a world filled with awe and wonder, magic and technology—as long as you aren’t a human.
Here, creatures known to us as only myths and legends rule. A world where humans are little more than pack animals, doomed to pay a “tax” of their own kind to the Noble and Ruling Houses consisting of monsters that need to feed on humans to survive.
Or simply for their entertainment, or cruel experiments and magics.
Here, humans are little more than weak, pathetic mice—pets, food, slaves, and laborers.

The Hierarchy

The leaders and governors of this world are known as Houses—the Ruling Houses, and the Noble Houses. Each of them consists of powerful supernaturals who use their strength and prowess to maintain some form of civility in their territories (for the Ruling Houses) and regions (for the Noble Houses).
While a majority of the Ruling Houses are ancient and have been the ruling families/bloodlines as far back as the original Uprising against humanity, there are a select few that have, in fact, changed hands from being challenged by those who proved to be stronger than them.
Each time a House changes hands, the name of the territory/region it had presided over also changes.
When it comes to the Houses, each one has a Head of House—the true ruler or noble. The family or bloodline of that Head of House (if any) are also considered and celebrated as royals or nobles, regardless of their overall strength or if they’re the next in line to take the throne.
Should a Noble or Ruling House’s Head of House die without a direct heir strong enough to take their place, or if someone stronger dethrones the Head of House, all those of the dethroned family lose their status entirely. This loss hits some harder than others—while some integrate back into typical society just fine, others degrade into absolute disgrace.
It also isn’t entirely unheard of for there to be internal wars among the individual Houses themselves, offspring/thralls fighting each other to prove their dominance over each other and even claim the title of Head of House for themselves—or claim the title of True Heir if they don’t dare take on the Head of House directly.

Ruling Houses –
With ten of them in total on the main/dominant continent, the Ruling Houses are exactly what they sound like; royals. None of the Ruling Houses share a race, each one representing the strongest of the strong in Neverterra.
These Houses oversee the countries themselves. Their word is law. While they rule each of their territories based on individual needs, they often come together to decide on overarching laws, and to be sure that peace between the different races and territories remains—and to make sure that humans forever remain in check.
Many of those of these houses are old enough to still remember the eras long past when supernatural beings were the ones kept in cages, when they were hunted.
While most of these Houses have been ruled by the same family/line for centuries, there are a select few whose standing have been a bit more tenuous than others, depending on how their strength and powers manifest.

List of Ruling Houses

In Alphabetical Order.

Key:
> House Name - Race - Static (been here since the beginning, no challengers strong enough to dethrone them) or Dynamic (often changes due to the way their powers work, or due to being dethroned)
Other Information regarding both the House and their Territory

> Ba’alinor House - Djinn - Static
Head of House: Irahara
Human Offerings Taken: As slaves, pets, and to feed from.

> Carmine House - Elemental Mage - Dynamic
Head of House: (WIP)
Human Offerings Taken: For sacrifices for their magic, and as slaves.
Other: Full elemental mages are rare, and their powers don't get passed down from generation to generation, causing this House to change families from time to time.

> Elfhame House - Fae - Static, but Complicated
Head of House: Oderion / Mabira
Human Offerings Taken: As pets and entertainment.
Other: Technically Static, this Ruling House echoes its races common lore. During the Spring and Summer, the King of the Seelie Court rules this House, while during the fall and winter, the throne is passed on to the Queen of the Unseelie Court. Since this shifts between them, instead of changing the name of the territory every season, they've decided to dub it the Elfhame House/Territory.
While the entire world is a mix of cities and woodlands, the Elfhame Territory is home to the most woodlands out of all ten of the territories.

> Salvolette House - Werebeasts/Shifters - Dynamic
Head of House: (WIP)
Human Offerings Taken: Reasoning varies. Some Heads have even declined taking them into its House.
Other: Exactly what kind of werebeast or shifter is in control tends to change. While there have been many instances of this House remaining to the same bloodline for a few generations, this House is usually in the most turmoil.

> (WIP) - Vampires - Static
Head of House: (WIP)
Human Offerings Taken: To feed, as pets, as slaves.
Other: This Ruling House consists of the oldest--and thus strongest--of the vampires. There aren't many still alive who remember the last time the Head of House changed hands, but it was to someone in the same blood line. There's even the rumor that it never actually changed, and that the Head is actually the (or at least one of) the first vampires. While there has been attempts to overthrow them, no challenger has lived.

> (WIP) - Giants - Dynamic
Head of House:
Human Offerings Taken: Typically as slaves
Other: Like with the werebeasts, this House has changed hands a few times, going between a few different types of giants, from orcs, trolls, and cyclopses, all depending on who is the strongest, and if anyone is daring enough to challenge the current Head of House.

> (WIP) - Warlock - Dynamic
Head of House:
Human Offerings Taken: Yes. Sacrifices, feeding less-sentient creatures they keep, experiments, slaves.
Other: Another that has changed hands a couple times, though is prone to long periods of staying in the same family. A term used to encompass both male and female practitioners, this house usually consists of the absolutely most powerful magic-users. While some types of magic are banned for civilians, one benefit to being this Ruling House is that they don't have the same restrictions. A lot of the magical conveniences that are distributed throughout the world were discovered and created by this House.

> (WIP) - Dragons - Dynamic
Head of House: (WIP)
Human Offerings Taken: Mostly as slaves, sometimes as a 'rare delicacy.'

> (WIP) - Reapers (or something that feeds off of pain and death) - Static
Head of House: (WIP)
Human Offerings Taken: They feed off of pain--I'll leave what they use and do to them up to your imagination.
Other: Not many dare challenge this House, and any who have, have all died--and it's rumored that they became undead servants to this House after. This house is also among the most feared by its human population--those chosen to be offerings in their territory can only hope that they'll go to a Noble House rather than to this Ruling House.

> (WIP) - (WIP) - (WIP)

Noble Houses –
The Noble Houses are powerful supernatural lines who are initially chosen by the Ruling Houses to govern the smaller cities and towns, and help the Ruling Houses maintain control. Each Noble House is subject to the laws laid by the Ruling Houses, and are required to report to their presiding Ruling House. While the laws for each of their regions must abide by the overall laws laid for the Ruling House’s territory, they do have the ability to lay their own laws as they deem necessary for the denizens of their regions, both human and supernatural alike.
It’s vastly their job to make sure that the human population is kept under control, and that the life ‘tax’ they require of the human inhabitants fits the necessary ratio to how many humans to supernaturals exist in the region.
How many Noble Houses each territory has varies based on the size of the territory, and the strength of the denizens of the region. A select few regions even have two presiding Noble Houses, resulting in regions with names that combine the surnames of both Houses.
While the Head of House in a Noble House can be dethroned, it isn’t as simple as just challenging them. As the Noble Houses are also voted and agreed upon by the various Ruling Houses, if someone wanted to challenge a Noble House, then the Ruling House of territory would have to be willing to allow the change.
After all, the Ruling Houses must be absolutely certain they can trust those of the Noble Houses to oversee their wishes and laws take proper effect.

List of Noble Houses from IC and Character Sheets

> Lanquin – Salvolette Territory – A House consisting of kobolds.

Supernatural Denizens –
This consists of everything from magic-users to trolls, and everything between and beyond.
The supernatural peoples of each territory and region have their own varying hierarchy in the same sense as our modern society—the stronger the supernatural, the higher on the food chain they can climb. Who stands where, however, is constantly changing, and it’s rare to find a supernatural creature and their family (if they have any) living in poverty. They take care of their own…. Usually.
While skirmishes frequently arise, authorities are usually quick to put a stop to anything too rowdy or that disturbs other supernatural beings.

Humans –
Excluding rare half/mixed-breeds, humans are considered the lowest of the low. While you will occasionally find some living in the more supernatural-populated towns and working for supernatural beings, they’re more often found living in the slums of the cities. There are a select few human-only cities/towns in existence, but they’re still just as subject to the laws of the Ruling and Noble Houses as those living in more mixed-race cities.
Over the centuries, after so many deaths from attempted uprisings to take back what was once theirs, most humans have been complacent, too frozen in fear to do more than talk about fighting back.
Now, their numbers are kept in check. In order to help keep them in line, the Houses have created a deal where every region must offer up a ‘tax’ (often referred to as ‘offerings’) of a certain number of their humans to the Houses, be that for them to feed from them, use them as slaves, or anything else their imagination desires. When their local Noble and/or Royal House either don't need any new ones or otherwise don't consist of races that need to feed on humans ), it’s common for them to instead be passed on and bound to a different, well-respected supernatural being who does feed on or wishes to otherwise use/have a human fully bound to them.
These offerings/tax is enforced after each census.
As it is, with so many creatures who do feed on humans, the more desperate humans are known to take actual jobs where they’re paid for blood, marrow, emotions, or whatever else the hiring being needs. While dangerous (there's a good chance the human could die if their 'employer' loses control), it pays better than the hard-labor jobs that most humans take on.

Half-Breeds –
While it was long ago forbidden for supernatural creatures to wed and mate with humans, it does still happen from time to time. There typically isn’t much of a punishment laid out for breaking this law, as it’s quite rare for cross-breeds to survive beyond infancy. When they do, it’s quite common for them to be shunned or even hunted.
With the rare exception, they’re typically much too human for the supernatural communities to look at them as anything more than human or allow them to rise in the ranks, while many humans feel like they’re an abomination, a symbol of betrayal rather than of unity.

Regions and Territories

Neverterra is separated into two major divisions: Regions and territories. These work similarly to the medieval-style kingdoms (territories) and providences (regions).
While region typically has a vast spattering of different types of supernatural beings, it’s not uncommon for the majority of the population to match the race of the presiding Noble Houses.

Territories:
These are the larger sections of land that the Ruling Houses preside over. As there are ten Ruling Houses, so, too, are there ten territories. Each territory is named after the surname of their Ruling House.

Regions:
Regions typically consist of a single large city where the presiding Noble House dwell, and all smaller surrounding cities and towns. There are multiple regions in each territory.

Living Conditions and Technology

Both these aspects depend on where you are in the hierarchy, and how close you live to the royal cities.
The cities where the Ruling Houses live are filled with the finest of everything, their lives filled with an ingenious pairing of both magic and technology. The streets are well-kept, the houses things from storybooks, each city a hodgepodge of sights to cater to the various different races living there. The living conditions of all but those on the absolute outskirts of these cities would fall under “upper class.”
The other cities populated mostly by supernatural beings also have many fineries, though they tend to be more “middle class.”
Then, on the completely opposite of the spectrum, in the communities—rather, the slums where only humans live, they’re barely capable of scraping by. While their presiding Houses make sure they have just enough to live, wanting to be sure that they don’t lose a necessary source of food and labor, it’s usually the bare minimum. Humans are banned from having weapons. Even their kitchen knives are regulated. There can never be more than three children to a household. A census is taken every six months, ensuring that the human-to-supernatural population is within the ratio set by the Ruling Houses.
Regardless of where one lives, there’s one commonality; the exact technologies and magics used depends on what race is in the majority. The cities are careful to cater to the weaknesses and strengths of the various supernatural beings, such as limiting the use of iron or silver.
For what you can see residents dressed in, that varies as widely as the races who live in this world. Someone in medieval-like rags or finery is as commonly seen as someone in a modern-day tank-top or fancy suit.

A Brief History

Supernaturals have ruled this world for many generations, but such an arrangement wasn’t always so. Once, long ago, Neverterra wasn’t too far a cry from the little safe world we have come to know.
Humans thrived. Their technology was more advanced than even ours at the time. But there was one major difference; supernatural beings weren’t shoved into little boxes labeling them as myths and legends. No. Even then, they knew. And they were terrified and cruel.
Ignorant to the true numbers of supernatural beings living among them at the time, they kept the beings they found caged, treating them much the same way that supernatural beings now treat them. They were pets. Creatures to be milked for their magic, then tossed aside and killed.
In many ways, the cruelty of humans toward the supernatural surpassed the cruelties the supernatural has returned upon them.
Then came the Uprising.
Sick of seeing their own tortured and degraded, the supernatural community banded together—enemy races fighting alongside each other for the same cause—rose up against humanity, showing their true powers.
It didn’t take long for humanity to fall.
Now, generations later, only the most ancient of the supernatural races remember a time when humans ruled.
While some select—and forbidden—books still exist, books with stories where humans were weren’t subject to the tyrannies of the supernatural, most humans have long since forgotten what ‘freedom’ truly is.
Over the years, there have been many groups who have tried to overthrow the supernaturals, to reclaim the land and bring equality to humans and supernaturals alike. But none have ever succeeded. Alas, each time they have risen, their efforts have been met with agonizing death.
Now, hope is rare among humans. A majority have begun to slumber, to accept their fate for what it is.
Most.
But not all.

Rogues and Rulers

Rogues and Rulers

In a world where myths rule, while humans exist only to serve and feed,
Who will stand?
In a world where even the Ruling Houses are at war,
Who will win?
In a world where life and death collide,
Who will remain?

Welcome to Neverterra

A Land of Wonder and Nightmare

Elayra startled at Ghent's delayed screech reiterating Drust’s order. She only just managed to resist throwing an irritated punch at his shoulder as they ran.
“Little louder!” she growled, unsure and not really caring if Ghent heard her over the hubbub of their pursuers. “Don’t think the clouds heard!”
She slowed, readying for the turn, when the cry of one of the Cursed grew steadily louder, merging with Ghent’s terrified warning. A warning that followed with him tripping.
“Ghent!” She slid to a stop, silently cursing his clumsiness.
Drust, directly behind Ghent, spat out a wild curse of his own as he danced over Ghent, avoiding tripping over the self-felled teen. Before he could wrench Ghent up or intercept the forgen racing toward them, a Cursed lurched at him from the shadows of another doorway.
An older teenager, chunks of hair were missing from his head. He screeched in eerie tandem with the hoard bottlenecking at the alley’s entrance—a Forsaken, not a forgen.
Despite a few missing or otherwise stubbed fingers, he brandished a meat cleaver in one hand and a large fillet knife in the other. Blood already splattered the tools-turned-weapons and the teenager’s infection-pocked face.
Growling, Drust twisted easily from the raging Forsaken’s path. It stumbled forward between him and Elayra as the forgen-turned-bowling-ball sprung at Ghent.
Elayra raised her sword, ready to drive it into the young butcher, when shattering glass drew her attention upward.
She had just enough time to raise her saber defensively before the forgen that had launched itself from a window landed atop her. She staggered back from its sudden weight, shards of glass scraping against her exposed skin.
The flat side of her saber dug into the child’s midsection, and she gripped it's throat, keeping it far enough from her so it couldn't do the damage it had lusted for. It snarled at its thwarted surprise attack, showing a mouth of rotting teeth. It’s half-missing nostril tried to flair in its anger, but only crumpled oddly.
It grabbed at her shoulders to stay on it's prey, jagged nails gouging into her. It tried for her neck, but, with a guttural shout, she threw it from herself, twisting her sword so its edge drew across the forgen’s stomach as it went. It wailed as it tumbled from her.
Behind her, the butcher boy slashed his fillet knife at her, but Drust gripped the teenager’s wrist and wrenched him away from her. The butcher boy tried to strike at him with the cleaver, but Drust grabbed that wrist as well and snapped both of them with a simple twist.
The butcher boy—and the others growing unnervingly closer—howled. In a single motion, Drust took the fillet knife from the Forsaken and slashed it across the butcher boy’s throat, silencing him in a waterfall of red.
The butcher boy stumbled back, choking and gurgling. He tumbled backwards over the window forgen as it tried to lurch to standing, the younger Cursed grasping at its own bleeding wound. The Forsaken’s weight pinned the dying youth to the ground.
While Drust disposed of the butcher boy, Elayra looked to where Ghent fought against his clingy forgen. She swiftly drew the stiletto from her boot. With the precision of a sniper, she threw it at the forgen’s head sticking out beside Ghent’s.
Too preoccupied with clawing and sinking its teeth into Ghent, it didn’t see the weapon coming. It punctured its skull with a wet shunk.
Before its hold fully loosened, she grabbed Ghent's arm and pulled him forward. This time, she didn’t let him go, not wanting to risk him tripping again.
She locked her gaze on the opening to their destination, trying to not look at the newest corpses as she stepped around them.
Drust lingered behind them only long enough to retrieve the stiletto from the fallen forgen. His long stride caught up to his charges quickly, though he kept a few paces behind.
Ahead, more Curse-ridden had started to trickle out of other doorways.
Elayra tugged Ghent down the right-hand alley Drust had directed them to. Narrower than the first, the path wove in a serpentine wave, the decaying walls of the buildings built to match. Here, thankfully, there were no doors, no windows.
After taking a sharp turn, Elayra skid to a halt, ready to pull Ghent with her if she needed to.
Her eyes widened, and she swore her heart skipped a few beats.
A hodgepodge wall created from a mix of stones and bone blocked their path. Newer than the alleyway’s walls, it rose the full three stories of the buildings hemming them in. Metel poles strewn with netting stuck out of the top. A few dead birds weighted the netting.
The trio had effectively trapped themselves.
“Drust!” she spun toward him, voice quivering with the fear she’d tried so hard to keep hidden.
Drust stopped behind her, snarling, his neck twitching. He glanced at the dead end, then to the walls, then up to the relatively flat roofs, then to Elayra’s blood-stained sword.
“Sheath it!” he snapped.
Elayra stiffened, fitting Drust’s glances to his logic. “I can’t jump that! And Ghent—”
“Sheath. It!” His neck and fingers twitched with each strained word.
Elayra obeyed, some part of her cringing at shoving her soiled sword into its scabbard. Such a small, stupid thing to care about with a hoard of Cursed on their tail, but still.
With the forgen and Forsaken’s cries and gibberish words echoing around them, growing closer, Drust flung Elayra over one shoulder, Ghent over the other, then ran toward the dead end, gathering speed.
Behind them, a man all jutting bone and a woman with more bulk than reasonable for someone living in squaller raced into the narrow space. The spindly man scuttled quickly closer, his movements insectile. He lunged for them just as Drust leapt at one of the alleyway walls.
The Forsaken’s fingers brushed against Drust’s boots, but found no purchase. Thrown off balance from his miss, the Forsaken tumbled to the ground.
Elayra clung to Drust as well and tightly as she could. She silently prayed Ghent would hold still, would avoid knocking Drust off course as the White Knight sprung off one wall, twisted mid-air, and pushed off the opposite wall, kick-climbing to the rooftops.
With a last, calculated leap, he landed deftly and light as a cat on the edge of the rotting roof, and released his charges.
Above the putrid city, the sky shone in the dark pinks and oranges of fading twilight. The sun itself had sunk beneath the horizon in the east, as if even it was tired of bearing witness to what had become of the land it watched. Night chased it’s heels, dark blues slowly consuming the sun’s fire.
Around the trio, the rooftops stretched before them. Narrow gaps showed where one string of buildings ended and the next began. Some roofs were slightly steepled, some flat. Some were rotting away or sagging, others riddled with repairs like a patchwork quilt. Some shingled, others a hodgepodge of supplies like the walls they’d encountered entering the town.
“Town Center! To the north!” Drust ordered with a quick, jerky gesture to indicate north. Elayra glanced behind her as she heard the familiar scrape of him pulling his katana free.
Below them, the Curse-ridden clawed at the walls, trying to find a way up after their prey.

A Land of Wonder and Nightmare

As the Cursed duo rushed them, Elayra went for her saber, and Drust met the woman head-on. He gripped the woman’s arms easily, holding them out, making her thrash and kick wildly. Compared to him, she looked like little more than frail doll throwing a tantrum.
Behind him, the forgen was faster than Elayra’s draw. She reached to shove Ghent aside, but she didn’t get the chance.
Ghent’s terrified shriek made Elayra’s ear ring, startling her. Catching his movement, she instinctively ducked.
With a hefty [i[thwak[/i], Ghent’s sword hit the forgen. The creature squealed—a sound more fit for a pig than a human as it tumbled sideways. A claw of one of the paws on the shirt caught on a strand of her hair as it flew past.
Without so much as a glance their way, Drust tossed the Forsaken into the airborne path of the forgen.
The Cursed duo collided. They tangled together in a cacophony of screeches and garbled words as they tumbled and skid over the loose gravel.
“That would’ve been impressive if not for the scream, Featherhead!” Elayra said, as she at last had time to draw her blue-bladed sword. She turned her head to Ghent with a wobbly grin, but even that faded at the sight of the alleyway’s entrance.
The first of the other Forsaken lumbered into the alleyway, a massive, bald man riddled with scars and half-dragging a rusted shovel.
“Run!” Elayra reached for Ghent’s wrist to tug him along with her as she ran deeper into the alley. Hoping he’d stay close, she released him to free her hand.
Drust glanced at the alley’s opening. His neck twitched, scowling at the newcomers. “First right!” he barked, following his charges.
“St-k-iiiig!” The Forsaken untangled herself from the youth just enough to lurch for Elayra as she passed, expression rabid.
Teeth grit, she met the woman with a thrust from her sword. The woman screeched as the blade drove into her arm. The sound cut short as Elayra’s boot slammed into her face. The Forsaken sprawled backward.
The forgen hissed and scuttled away, abandoning its elder to lope back into the building it had originally come from.
Undaunted, face twisted in insanity and pain, the Forsaken lunged yet again at the nearest of the trio.
This time, quick as a blink, Drust snatched the woman by her matted hair before she could reach her target. Without breaking stride, he wrenched her screeching, writhing from into him, then savagely twisted her neck.
His own neck twitched, revulsion and a satisfied grin fighting for dominance on his face.
He tossed the woman’s limp body aside, leaving the new corpse to rot, nameless, with its fellows.

Sacred Sacrifices

Though more or less expected, Nikita had to fight the urge to step away and go for her machete when the elf mimicked her, reaching a hand toward her. Her breath hitched at his hesitation, but then she looked back to the elf’s face. It wasn’t disdain or suspicion that gave him pause, but genuine confusion.
Apparently, elves didn’t shake hands.
She gave a small breath of a chuckle. Before she could explain, he lowered his hand and stepped away. Her amusement slipped away, heart skipping in her uncertainty to whether that was bad sign.
But the elf only nodded his understanding. Though it did little to put her fully at ease, but a truce was a truce, no matter how questionable it may be.
All the same, she took what she hoped was a subtle, nonchalant step further from him. She returned her hand to her side, habitually moving to rest it at the hilt of her machete, but thought better of it.
“Nikita,” she answered reflexively. “Or Kita, if you’d rather.”
She’d barely finished speaking before Illion shifted back into his childlike glee and rapid-fire inquiries.
“Whoa, whoa!” She raised her hands and patted at the air, trying to stem the flow of questions. “Don’t forget to breathe!” Despite herself, one corner of her lips quirked up in amusement.
She took a deep breath, biding her time for a moment longer, unsure how much she could safely tell him. Though, if she played her cards right, maybe she could get some answers of her own. Answers she’d wanted about them since she was a child.
Though, alas, now probably wasn’t quite the right time to ask, ‘Why do your kind like to hurt us so much? What did my parents ever do to you?’
“I live in the town nearby, so no, not too far,” she said instead. Though there wasn’t any other village or town for miles, if Illion was as clueless about humans as he acted, she hoped that wouldn’t mean much to him.
“The others in town…” She shifted her weight awkwardly, incapable of hiding a scowl at the thought of the citizens of Baxtree. “No,” she admitted sourly. “They aren’t like me. There might be elsewhere, but not there.” Not anymore.
With that thought tainting her emotions, she glanced toward her machete as she came to the last of Illion’s latest string of questions. She looked him over yet again, noting his lack of visible weaponry. Though, perhaps one didn’t need to rely on such primitive protective measures when you could just curse anything that tried to harm you.
“This”—she patted its sheath—“is for protection and practicality, not picking berries.
“What about you, then?” she went on carefully, doing her best to maintain a genial tone. “I thought the elven city was supposed to be further out. This is rather close to town for your kind, isn’t it? Why come all the way out here if that’s the case?”
Why not just leave us well enough alone? she added to herself, bitterly.
“And you don’t exactly match up with what I know about elves.” Despite her best efforts, her suspicion leaked into her voice, the question of whether or not he was playing her for some devious purpose still niggling at the back of her mind. She left it at that, not wanting to risk insulting him by elaborating about how, exactly, he differed.

A Land of Wonder and Nightmare

With Ghent firmly in his hold, Drust started to take slow, silent steps away from the entrance of the alley.
Feeling the movement, Elayra shifted to follow his lead. Her gaze slid toward Ghent when the other teen tried to conceal his eyes with his hood.
She gave a soft snort; with his shouted accusation of her being insane, she could only hope they’d be lucky enough that hiding their eyes would be enough now. If any of the Cursed had heard that—a voice and words not corroded by insanity—it was over.
The thought had barely flit through her head when a dry hiss came from behind them.
“In… hhhhsss-k-k-k…ane,” it tried to mimic, sounding like it had something lodged in its throat.
Drust released his charges and spun toward the voice, one hand out in gesture for the teens to stay behind him. Elayra stumbled slightly from the sudden release.
Holding her breath from more than just the stench, she turned so her back faced the wall, giving her easy sight down both sides of the alley.
Movement caught Elayra’s eye. Further down, she noticed a recessed entryway partially hidden by stone shards sticking out of its frame.
A figure lurched out from the recess, body moving in odd jerks as if its muscles weren’t all quite in-sync. A woman, if its tattered skirt was anything to judge by, it staggered toward the center of the alley, and stopped. Grime and blood masked her gaunt face and matted her hair
If that was what—who, Elayra reminded herself—had spoken, at least it—she—was only one of the Forsaken. There was still a chance of skirting by.
As if some cruel entity had heard the thought and laughed, a second figure scuttled after the first. Ungainly and almost spider-like, it nearly rammed into the woman’s legs. The thing—the child, judging by its size, crouched low, its bony fingers dragging in the fouled gravel beside it.
As dirty as its companion, he—or she, it was impossible to tell—was clad in tattered clothes made from a hound; lupine paws protruded from the sides of its shirt. The child’s real arms and legs looked more like something from a corpse than something belonging to the living.
The woman had a forgen with her.
It noticed where its elder’s attention was pointed. It wheezed a whining hiss, baring a mix of normal teeth and pointed bits of rock or bone shoved into previous gaps.
It looked to the intruders. In eerie unison, both Forsaken and forgen’s heads flopped to one side. Their eyes, red veined with black from corner to corner, seemed to almost glow in the dimness.
Elayra swallowed back her panic. She twitched her head so her hair better fell over her face, and jerked her stance wide, trying to mirror both Drust and the child’s demeanor and expressions. She glanced to Ghent, subtly gesturing for him to do the same, but paused. Her gaze flicked toward the alleyway’s opening.
The Cursed on the main road had gone eerily silent.
“Oo-ich-k-k-k?” The woman’s whole body shuddered as her voice stuck on the choking sound.
Drust gave a warning growl, his own stance low and threatening. Thankfully, he didn’t speak.
The forgen hissed again, fingers digging agitatedly into the ground.
“Sp-e-k-k ool!” The woman’s eyes narrowed, the exact direction of her gaze impossible to gage. “Ne… Cur-en-k-k-SHEEEEE!”
The child joined in on the woman’s high-pitched screech. The sound echoed from the opposite direction as those who had fallen silent picked up the cry.
Fingers curled like claws at her side, the woman rushed for the trio, but the forgen was quicker. Its bare feet kicking up the gravel, it rushed them with wild speed, jumped to the wall, and kicked off, flinging itself at Ghent and Elayra, cracked nails splayed and mismatched teeth bared murderously.

A Land of Wonder and Nightmare

Snarling, Drust reached out to catch himself on the wall as he stumbled. Finding no purchase, he thumped down near the remnants of the stray corpse.
Elayra’s gaze barely flicked to Ghent as the other teen moved to her side, her attention locked on Drust. She pushed from the wall as the Knight swiftly turned to get back to his feet. She angled herself between him and Ghent.
“Don’t lose to it, Dru—!” she started, ignoring Ghent’s first order. But, instead of using her as a shield as she’d expected, Ghent grabbed her arm, his last demand echoing in the alleyway as he tugged at her.
She lurched after him, momentarily too surprised to resist. Heat radiated in her chest. Anger fully drowned out her fear, a new kind of disgust filling the space of her revulsion of the town. It was his mess she was cleaning up.
She clenched her teeth, got her footing, and yanked her arm from him. “Then leave!”
She moved to shove Ghent’s back, but a familiar hand clamped around her mouth from behind and pulled her away. With his other, Drust snatched at Ghent’s hood again to wrench the teen back and silence him as he’d done with Elayra.
Elayra stumbled back into Drust, trapped against his chest. Trying to not inhale the now foul odor clinging to his glove, she reached for the hand to pry it off and slip out beneath his hold.
“Quiet!” he snapped, the word a gravely hush near her ear. A glance at Drust’s face—closer to her in his half-crouch—stilled her.
Drust’s pupils fought for more real estate in the black-veined red of his irises. But, more importantly, he wasn’t focused on his charges. Instead, he stared, hard, at the alley’s opening.
She stiffened and eyes widened as she heard what the Knight had caught well before her: conversing voices.
Or, rather, a poor simulation of a conversation. First two voices, then three, then four. They echoed around the trio, their exact direction impossible for Elayra to pinpoint. Each of them was not quite right for a human voice, yet still undeniably human. Their ‘words’ jerked about in snippets, general sounds shoved together into a near incomprehensible mush.
The broken language of broken minds.
They had drawn the attention of the Cursed.