The Gracious Widow as the Princess of the Fourth City.
("The Silver Tree", obviously.)
edited by JaneAnkhVeos on 6/8/2020
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The Merry Gentleman is coming for you and for diamonds, and I’m all out of diamonds.
[spoiler]
"Eyes in the temple walls. They watch. (…) The walls are wrong. The walls are always wrong."
(ES "My kingdom for a pig")
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"Bequeath your heart", another attempt of translation.
(Here’s my poll if you’d like to help me choose what else I should try.)
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edited by JaneAnkhVeos on 7/16/2020
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The Nocturnal Nostalgist
Factions: Revolutionaries, Bohemians
Profession: Crooked-Cross
Her small curiosity shop is filled with incense smoke, dust and shadows. Visitors are cordially greeted with a cup of tea or coffee, even if they come only to have a look.
By day, it is just a usual place where one can pawn or buy antiquities, exotic rarities, archaeological findings and family relics. By night, it deals in different kind of goods: dreams, secrets and memories.
In order to escape the Bazaar’s control, not a single Echo is involved in her trade; only bartering. The Masters were trying to fix this with suffocating taxes and bans, but stopped bothering her after some unpleasant incident with cards. That’s why this shop is so beloved by Bohemians, many of whom often have nothing to their name but their art. And, of course, by smugglers. After all, secret correspondence may easily pass for a set of postcards, and an Auditor’s memory of a censored book only rises in price when the last typescript gets burned. On top of that, tendencies of the market don’t mean much here: the owner can unexpectedly offer quite a lot for something that has no special value apart from an unusual history or sentimental connection.
The Nocturnal Nostalgist is known for eccentricity. She wears a collection of keys instead of jewellery, keeps moths as pets and adores black roses of Hell. She attends social events in a mask and a funerary frock coat. But the most notorious peculiarity is her penchant for improbable deranged prophecies, and there are rumours about a heretical gnostic cult under her patronage. No wonder that she resides in the Royal Beth. Although fellow traders say that the Manager takes a cut of all dreams and mysteries that come into her possession, as if he doesn’t deem her insane enough to stay there for free as a patient. Or are there more agreements between them than simple rent?..
She is friends with the Honey-Addled Detective, and her selection of belongings and secrets often helps in his investigations. There are also regular customers even from beyond the mirror, judging by raven feathers on her desk. As for non-work-related sides of her social life, sometimes she is seen at the meetings of the Order of Those Who Will Not Be Caught Red-Handed, but its members usually don’t tell much. The only doubtless guess is that she doesn’t go there for chess: her game of choice is the Marvellous.
When she claimed victory, she asked for something nobody expected: to grant the wishes of the rest of the players. It wasn’t just against the rules – it contradicted the nature of the game itself, and the Masters swore to do anything but this. So then the Nocturnal Nostalgist revealed her true heart’s desire: the Liberation of Night.
All their enticing promises were for naught. She longed not for power, but for freedom to choose whom to be and where to seek one’s limits. She wanted not to bask in adoration, but to break the Chain that dictated who was allowed to love whom. She craved not the eternal life of the body, but the abolishment of death of the soul.
Horrified and obviously unable to fulfil it, the Masters had to agree to return to the previous one. They funded an expedition to the Mountain of Light, and at the turn of the century she ventured there with her former rivals.
After the exodus of London, she moved to Eleutheria where her poisonous sermons and blasphemous prophecies about the fall of false gods were much more welcome. Now her curiosity shop is found in Achlys. And what can accompany tea and hookah better than a bit of haggling and gambling?
In Parabola, the Nocturnal Nostalgist is a knight of the king and queen of nightmares. She appears as a rider in a black cape and card epaulettes. Hellish thorny roses grow right through her armour, and she casts a living shadow.
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edited by JaneAnkhVeos on 3/29/2021
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The Grosmeister
Factions: Great Game, Church
Profession: Midnighter
An unpretentious gentleman with greying temples and courteous quiet voice. Usually he wears a simple cassock or a modest but impeccable suit, and prefers not to take off gloves and round dark glasses even when indoors.
An enthusiast of chess and ciphers, he is a consummate priest of the Great Game. As a Midnighter, he is willing to hear the most dreadful confessions, always ready to offer the mercy of oblivion in irrigo. He doesn’t memorize names, believing them to be redeemed, but keeps all the moves in his mind, prepared to pull the strings whenever the need arises.
Professional honour means a great deal to him. He loves animals and children for their innocence and sincerity, and gladly accepts invitations to orphanages. However, he is far from a saint, and more than often relies on assassinations and conspiracies.
He first met the Nocturnal Nostalgist in the Order of Those Who Will Not Be Caught Red-Handed. Later he was sent to spy on meetings of her own Liberationist cult. That night they welcomed a zee-captain who got marked by the Halved, and the divine eye pierced the Grosmeister with its all-seeing gaze, immediately recognizing an intruder. But the Nostalgist, remembering him from the Order, offered him to work for them instead. He agreed; having mastered all the moves and matches of the Game, now he was left with no other ambition than to outplay the White King himself.
The Grosmeister doesn’t share all her views, thinking that the world, like a chessboard, should be both black and white. He would prefer to see the fall of the celestial tyranny not in the extinguishment of light but in its balance with darkness.
His logic and restraint perfectly complement her intuition and passion, helping her to avoid risky decisions. However, it is he whose philosophy of a universal Game inspires her, and this is an infinitely dangerous idea for someone who’s used to challenge and outplay fate itself, weaving chaos and treachery of cards into the strategic order of chess.
In Parabola, he is a living shadow cast by the Nocturnal Nostalgist, able to detach himself to be sent on missions that require his talents in espionage.
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edited by JaneAnkhVeos on 1/28/2021
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Interesting, very interesting indeed.
However, there is only one way to play the Game.
Those who follow the rules will eventually make them.
Those who make the rules will eventually create new Games to play.
And those who break the rules…the less said, the better.
However, in the end, all Games must end, and there can only be one Winner. Anything more or less would be a disgrace to all competitors, and charity an unsalvageable insult to the lives we live.
Regardless, I wish you the best in your endeavors, delicious friend…though not on my expense.
All shall be well,
–Canon
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[quote=The Curious Watcher]Interesting, very interesting indeed.
However, there is only one way to play the Game.
Those who follow the rules will eventually make them.
Those who make the rules will eventually create new Games to play.
And those who break the rules…the less said, the better.
However, in the end, all Games must end, and there can only be one Winner. Anything more or less would be a disgrace to all competitors, and charity an unsalvageable insult to the lives we live.
Regardless, I wish you the best in your endeavors, delicious friend…though not on my expense.
All shall be well,
–Canon[/quote]
"Alas, we follow a different philosophy: the Games never end. They’re only changing. And so do the rules… and stakes, and players. The true winners are the ones who have realized that they should play not against each other, but against the law of losing itself. The true winners are the ones who change the course of changes and put an end to all ends. All shall be well… forever, in the immortal eternal darkness."
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edited by JaneAnkhVeos on 9/18/2020
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April and May.
Guess who’s happy that it will be possible to play multiple Ambitions and that we finally get more of the Calendar Council and their interaction.
Also indirectly inspired by my growing headcanons about these two.
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A few more things about my OCs:
✦ Relationships with different figures/factions of the Neath and beyond
✦ Random facts
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edited by JaneAnkhVeos on 4/12/2021
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"Between Scylla and Charybdis", inspired by the Fidgeting Writer and My Kingdom for a Pig.
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More sketches of the Calendar Council!
Based on Diptych’s models.
January’s double mask has always intrigued me. Hero Forge doesn’t have anything so specific, of course, but it has big guns that look hilarious with the description of February. For her, it is a derringer.
And yes, I know I draw May’s hair and beard longer and longer each time. The model made me realize that it’s exactly where I missed the "former Mesopotamian king" part of the impression (and not in the amount of kohl). Now it actually starts to resemble the image in my head.
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Happy Feast of the Rose, delicious friends!
Viric Dreams still lack two Professions. Hmmm… grinch grin
The Jovial Contrarian
Warning: Hurry up before he buys all samples for himself to argue with his dream-twin.
Beginning: Your delightful wedding is a paragon of a respectable social event. At least before the words "any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony" bring a very familiar smile onto your soon-to-be-husband’s face. Well, perhaps not so soon after all. But you have a great time.
Professional option: For a Correspondent. He once gave you private debating lessons; will you return the favour by teaching him the art of doing it in languages that shape the universe? Will you write down his brilliant and ardent words in starfire?
Ending: You two are on board of the Berrenger, winking to each other from behind your masks. Your marriage may seem as old as this trainwreck, but the secret is that it’s just as intact and ready for new adventures at any time.
The Manager
Warning: He knows what you are doing in your sleep. Yes, including your plans when you’ll get these annoying brass buttons out of your way. Try not to meet his eye afterwards, or that smirk will haunt you for days.
Beginning: You’re his precious chance to let go of the bitter past and allow himself to be happy, and you do your best to make it come true. And as for your own hopes… he sees the depths of your dreams, fears and desires; is it any wonder that he understands what you want without a word, and gives it to you with truly royal generosity?
Professional option: For a Silverer. Join his hunt for nightmares, or invite him to join yours. Chase the runaway minds of his patients across the Is-Not; help soothe and study their dreams. Chart a vast map of millenia of memories together.
Ending: You walk the streets of a golden city. Eyes in the walls are watching you with unmistakable affection. You hear his whisper in the shifting of sand and feel his breath in the warm wind with a note of cedars and incense. Few can find this impossible place, but you will always be welcome here.
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My entry for the "Mask of the Rose" poetry challenge.
(Yes, I have only one brain cell, and it’s occupied.)
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My character, the Nocturnal Nostalgist, as she is reflected in Parabola.
(So glad that the Parabolan War and The Fair Unknown allowed me to roleplay this side of her in-game as well.)
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