𝐧𝐩𝐜 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭

[uruz]

Available NPCs
SLEEP ONE TWO THREE FOUR ESPERA

SLEEP

A manipulative enigma with grand presence and power within The Murmur that rivals that of a god, and many already treat Her as such. She is everywhere and nowhere at once. Call to her, and she may answer you. She may even treat you, if you treat her, but be prepared to sacrifice. Painful offerings and loyalty are her favorite gifts of devotion (She's also a hopeless romantic).

The Numerals and Espera seem to despise Her, and One is inexplicably bound to Her. What Sleep has disclosed about Her intentions seem quite simple: Collect more Vessels to host Her power, expand past the Earth She's tied to, and deliver them all from loneliness and prolonged suffering to a divine eutopia only She can create.

For that, She needs One.

ONE

A somber, shy and elusive individual that better expresses himself through poetry and song. One's past is shrouded in mystery, tragedy and his own amnesia, but hinted to hold an incredible power that not even he is aware of. One has devoted his entirety to Sleep through blood sacrifice in an attempt to skew Her attention from the vessels to himself, but whether that was successful or not has yet to be known.

Vessels have been made recently aware that One has suffered Lunar Exaltation before the world was destroyed: An ascension, from mortal to more, and a beacon of power that remains the reason why Sleep seeks to claim him.

TWO

Not much is known about the Numeral Two, other than he is an expressive and unburdened Token, mute but not idle. He was very close to One before being thrown into a voided plane of existence by Sleep's hand, and scattered into fragments. Espera claims he is essential to returning One to his senses and putting an end to Sleep's reign.

Currently missing, but one fragment has been found.

THREE

An impish Offering of the Trickster variant, the Numeral Three has a playful disposition and colorful means of expression. Rather chaotic but not malicious, he takes the form of three-eyed corvids, cacatuas, and foxes with frequency, while answering riddles fuels his permanance for brief bursts. His connection with the Waking World is stronger than Two's, but in no less need of mending.

Currently his appearances are unreliable; He may be seen in shared dreams or when he has enough power to solidify from the Void's realm.

FOUR

The first Numeral to vanish and the last to be found. Not much is known about Four, other than having a very strong connection with Three.

Currently missing.

ESPERA

Revealed to be Nymphai, The Espera were birthed from One's exaltation and were meant to guide him on his journey from mortal to more before being barred by Sleep. She, (or they), is (are) a singular entity of three bodies, which are missing in a similar manner to the Numerals. She has a stronger presence within the Murmur but too weak to manifest physically, and is always watching to aid the Vessels in any way she can.

NAME5
PB NAME

Info Five Here

© TESSISAMESS

Comments

[longwillows]

[The chancel. Nausea turns her stomach in a wave that rolls all the way up to her chest, her dizzy eyes swimming with wet-paper memories of looking out from the altar of the Temple, the cluster of the singing choir, the brilliant white robes of the clergy and herself, as their leader. It cascades into the tidal wave of pain that sickens her; the crash of it as the binds loosen their hold finally brings her to the ground. Not in worshipful kneeling, but in brittle crumpling.

She flinches as an animal once bitten expecting another strike when Sleep's fingers brush her again, the harsh movement kicking up another wave of nauseous vertigo and cold sweat. But she is in no more position to resist it than she was the first time. In fact, vivisected as she feels by the violent removal of her Tethers, she aches to fill the cavity of her being with something, anything, even the disgusting touch of this god. It is both repulsive and intoxicating to be handled by Sleep in this manner. She is too weakened to do anything but lean into the addictive cradle of her massive palms.

It makes one thing very clear:



she can't go back now.

Not for want of Tethers—not for need of an intimacy that her world cannot provide. She cannot go back because she is blighted. However, it is not an illness born of her own hatred, as Sleep suggests. It is a pathogen of Sleep herself, and so long as Kalmiya carries it, she cannot go back to her world. She cannot risk letting it touch that precious place or spread to the people she cherishes, nor can she leave those she's grown to care about here to succumb to it in her absence. As long as this touch brings her any measure of comfort, there is no place or person that is safe from the blight.

She must clean the infected roots. This world must be rid of Sleep.

Only once it is nursed back to health can Kalmiya return home.

It is an understanding so intuitive as to be unconscious when Sleep strokes her hair, the magical flow of the locks limp and listless in her pain. Every muscle throbs with the ache of solitude and the yearning of the lonely. She can barely focus on the beautiful blooms of Sleep's antlers as she is beseeched to preach the word. To worship.

Never before has biting her tongue tasted so much like blood in her mouth as she gives her word. At the letter, never the spirit. The Fey have taught her well how to twist her tongue and promise what she is not truly willing to give.] I'll tell them.

[She will tell them—warn them. She will learn the ways and the wonders, come to understand why the ancient Vessels and Hosts worship the way they do. And in the end, she will use it all to rip Sleep from the sick loam of this world.

Her plea feels pathetic and small, the words leaving her the way blood seeps from a wound.] Please don't hurt him. It was my fault.

[The ancient Vessel. The choir, the clergy, the high priest. One. If this is how he has ever been made to feel, Kalmiya cannot bear to let it happen again on her account.]

[uruz]

Hush, Little Willow.
I need not hurt him.
Kneel sweetly,
Just as he does.
Yield to me,
Just as he does,
And you will remain forgiven of your tresspasses,
Just as he does.

[ and with a sickening crrrrrk that sounds like bone, sleep is gone. the void undone. kalmiya will find herself on the lower levels of the banquet, and one, high on his pedestal. he dares not look at her. ]

[longwillows]

[Freedom from the void brings no relief, only a fresh wave of pain as the wall of stimuli that is the crowded banquet crashes into her. She chokes on the rich, suffocating aromas of the food, covers her ears with her hands to drown out the drone of the crowd that drills on her eardrums. Immediately she fears, how much did they see, how much do they know—has she been gutted like a fish in front of this entire collection of dreamers? Has she been pruned as an example for the entire garden, or—?

From her crumpled position, she steals a sideways glance up along the pedestal. But she cannot catch a glimpse of One's eyes.

Rocked by another wave of disorientation as she makes to stand, she cannot focus now on how that makes her feel, because she cannot focus on any feeling except the gaping hollowness inside of her, the ragged edges of the wound aglow with rage. Finding privacy is not as easy an ask outside of the basement, but she'll find a spot to curl up and lick her wounds until waking.

Not before whispering to One, though, the quietest of bells carried along the weak breeze from that primal forest:

I understand now, why you're afraid.

But I'm not giving up. You shouldn't, either.]