about (fantasy)

[cynomorpha]

NAVIGATION ☠ MUSIC | VISUALS | ABILITIES WORLDBUILD | ZODIAC | STORY BASICS PERSONALITY An eerie and unkind necromancer. Creeping Dust is usually found wearing a smile, but that smile almost always has a patronizing lull to it. He is not much attached to this world or this life and instead is training his mind and spirit for the long corridors of eternity. Creeping Dust exemplifies his patron zodiac -- the Ghost Dog. He is distant and cagey, mocking and difficult to pin down. Often a portent of death to come. He has little patience or pleasantries for those he views as unworthy or lazy, but is fiercely loyal to those who earn his admiration. IDEALS Knowledge. Agency. The Ghost Dog is patron of the retention of intellect and virtue after death. A High Master of the Ghost Dog spends his days in study so that upon his death he will be more than a mindless ghost. Less concerned with the trivialities of every day life and more concerned with the realities of eternity. His mind is almost always elsewhere. ABILITIES ASSASSIN He's an assassin trained at the Ghost Dog temples. Their primary specialties are an incorporeal ghost form that can be used for stealth, minor shadow manipulation, and an ability to overreach the bounds of their physical form. This allows for inhuman speed and strength, but it causes exhaustion later and can cause severe injury to themselves if not used carefully. NECROMANCER The culmination of all of his years of study into ghosts. Creeping Dust is the preeminent expert on the spectral energies of his world. He can raise the dead straight from the ground, he can call ghosts from across the veil and even force them into corporeal forms. He has also been known to configure various golems and constructs out of body parts for specific purposes. All of these raising activities take time, focus, and the right ritual components. It's not something he does on the fly. He also knows various wards against spectral entities, as well as various curses that take advantage of their energy. I use the Necromancer curses from Diablo 2 as a loose guideline for that spell type: Curses. His spells need a vocal activation, so Mute stops him up in PVP. WORLDBUILD Dark fantasy setting. There is not a total lack of science, but it is generally seen as a physical extension of magic. At this current timeline in the world, they are pre-industrial and lacking in complex machinery. What's there is niche and steampunk. The society has a medieval power structure of Warlord Emperor and High Priest. They are in coalition, in theory, but often in political opposition in practice. People reside in small towns or large trade cities frequently run by corrupt officials. Various supernatural threats and bandit gangs lurk in the wilderness. Ghosts and spirits are a big problem in day to day life. To learn more details, see the Kingdom of Five Beasts. ZODIAC The world has a bespoke zodiac system based around 5 celestial beasts: THE GHOST DOG Loyal but independent, intelligent, prone to loneliness. Patron of the afterlife. THE RAT PRINCE Shrewd, practical, prone to greed and scheming. Patron of money and earthly goods. THE NAKED SWAN Beautiful and charming, prone to vanity and pettiness. Patron of diplomacy. THE CRYING SPIDER Delicate and artistic, prone to tragedy. Patron of the arts. THE DYING CROCODILE Assertive and grounded, but with hearts prone to rage. Patron of war. To learn more details, see Five Celestial Beasts. 15 year cycles, 3 years per zodiac wherein the influence of said zodiac waxes and then wanes. Those born in the high year of their zodiac are expected to be most closely aligned with its tenets, while those in the waxing or waning years may have more personality traits from their neighboring animal. Each beast has a series of temples where their disciplines are taught. Some monks have supernatural powers and may go on to become High Masters in their orders. The temples are always on the lookout for initiates in the arts and they squabble over their acquisition. Aspiring monks can join a temple outside their own zodiac, especially if one was born in a waning year, but those born in the high star year are generally expected to keep with their own. THE BROTHERS Born to an average hunting village, Creeping Dust and Little Brother live out their early years in an idyllic peace. They expect nothing of note in their lives, to follow in the footsteps of their father as a hunter, to perhaps take a wife and start a family. Their simplistic lives are disrupted by the arrival of the recruiters in their village. The emperor's high priest, Sentinel In Darkness, has orchestrated a grand temple building project which requires many able bodied workers. It is grueling work akin to slavery, and those who are taken for the work will never return to their families again. To spare Creeping Dust, Little Brother sneaks off in the night to fulfill their family's quota of conscripts. His brother is emotionally gutted when this sacrifice is discovered. Heart broken, Creeping Dust also leaves the village. He banishes himself to a subterranean academy known as Mountain Twilight, where he intends to spend the rest of his days in study as penitence for failing to protect his younger brother. THE GHOSTS Many years later, Creeping Dust is now the rather infamous 'ghost scholar' of the Mountain Twilight academy. Solitary and pale as a ghost himself, he is known for his macabre areas of study and his rather notorious habit of seducing other scholars for torrid one night stands. He barely acknowledges his lovers afterwards before disappearing back into his workshop. His peers are torn between morbid curiosity and a general fear of him. He doesn't much care, regardless. His patterns go on unchanged for years, until the temple builders arrive at the academy. And behind the builders... the caverns that lead down to the academy have been sealed. Both scholars and workers are to be sacrificed in a grand ceremony as directed by the high priest. The temple builders have no agency in this matter. They have been branded and enchanted to follow the orders that they have been given. With no way to stop themselves, they commence the work of building new structures of wood and paper that will act to trap and amplify spiritual energy. Creeping Dust of all people knows exactly what is being done, but unlike many of his peers he does not look upon the helpless builders with anger. Instead, he approaches them to ask if any have met his brother. He befriends the large and powerful leader of the builders, Savage Hawk. As it usually does with the ghost scholar, the relationship turns sexual but lingering. Creeping Dust finds himself aligned more and more with the stoic temple builders as opposed to his own mewling academic colleagues. Spectral violence increases as the builders continue their work, those willing to listen to Creeping Dust are provided with spells and wards. Still, more and more of the academy becomes inaccessible and the ghosts grow ever larger and more powerful. It is inevitable that they will all be overrun if measures are not taken. Scholars flee into the dark, looking for hidden passages out of the subterranean cavern. Creeping Dust refuses to leave the captive temple builders behind. Eventually, he is forced to propose that the brands controlling the temple builders must be cut off. Not all of the conscripts agree to be maimed in the name of escape, but Savage Hawk does. Now a contingent of one-handed temple builders and a few scholars, they head out into the darkness of the caves to try find an escape. They would not have escaped on their own, but after far too long in the darkness living on moss and bugs they are rescued. Little Brother descends with a crew of collaborators. They have been sent by the emperor to investigate the foul magic his high priest has been gathering here. THE WAR The few survivors of the academy make their way to the capital city where they wait for an audience with the emperor, Left-Handed Master. Creeping Dust lays out the supernatural powers being gathered in the subterranean cavern and warns of their danger. It's clear that the high priest intends a coup, one which he might very well succeed in if drastic steps are not taken. The various temple zodiacs, normally considered well under the high priests domain, are enlisted in the fight. With the charisma of the academy survivors, they are able to recruit temples of the Ghost Dog, Crying Spider, and Dying Crocodile. Only the Rats and Swans hold out against the emperor, to the surprise of perhaps no one. Creeping Dust finds himself training with Ghost Dog assassins, polishing his mastery of spectral arts, and subsequently leading a party of killers. When he gets his hands on high priest Sentinel In Darkness, Creeping Dust makes sure to torture him horribly before returning him to the capital city where the disgraced priest is publicly executed for his abuses of power.