#and also Wolf holding hatchlings my beloved

[luna-light-eclipse]

YOU SAID YOU HAD NO ASKS AND IM FIXING THIS.

LITTLE TRAVELLER WOLF. remember. I Do. i remember everything, luna. And am i still thinking about the light-suppression cuffs and the moths and the Eliksni and--

Think about it again,,, always bleeding a liquid light, trying to stop the hatchlings from trying to eat it (still crying). the family that basically adopted them while they were out of it, and who they stayed with when they were themself again. the wolf plushie...

I never forget,,,

Saladin watching someone he’s always seen as a powerful warrior deteriorate into something almost akin to a child but it is not quite that either- no it is something else, something wrong. A slow acting poison ending in death set upon Wolf by the people they should have been able to trust the most.

Do you remember Wolf in the wilds? Travelling alone to a destination they don’t remember? Resting in hunter hideouts they had made or been trusted with, admiring the light of the stars, and the moths of course.

The Traveller only wanted its favoured guardian back, taken from it for being too good, too powerful. It can do nothing but give away as much as it can until its power is warping the foundations of Wolf’s body and soul into a form that cannot remember itself. Saladin looks upon Wolf whose arms glow with bright white Light, whose fingertips are ever so slowly beginning to melt into nothing. At the near ever-present liquid Light tears running down one side of their face out from under freshly replaced bandages. Their body is covered in fissures, bodies shouldn’t do that they think- for a moment until the very capability of thought is gone again.

This Light is a gift. Each time Wolf looks upon their wounds they know that they are loved. This Light is a gift that leaves everyone questioning if Wolf is even human anymore. They can see through walls, hear what no one else can. The Traveller speaks, they alone hear it.

Then once they are free from their quite literal shackles they remember the hands that stemmed their bleeding, who cried once their blood stopped running red, who walked them through the city and bought them the one thing they had ever wanted.

Eliksni arrive to the city and Wolf can feel the Traveller welcome them, even if the humans do not. It is awkward, always, for they worship the traveller and it’s Light is Wolf’s body. There is little else left. Though they are not alone in their stilted interactions with Wolf- no one is quite sure about how they are supposed to speak to them, to the one the Traveller loves. Except for the ones who held them together when no one else would, those ones still treated them as human.

The Eliksni endure the animosity thrown at them. Ask for nothing from no one. They have endured, they do not need gifts to survive. But the Traveller still answers their silence, through Wolf’s voice it tells them that they’ve found peace, finally, they’ve done good, they can have the Light now.

…But not in so many words, Wolf has never been one to speak after all. Let everyone decipher their actions instead.

#luna’s brainbox #content box #destiny #destiny 2 #Little Traveller Wolf #HI YES I AM SO SANE ABOUT THIS AU #an ask for me? #:D #all these emotions do no justice to Wolf walking up to Misraaks and giving him a Ghost that they formed IN THEIR HANDS then just leaving. #and also Wolf holding hatchlings my beloved #SO SO SANE ABOUT THIS AU #the weird religious vibes that I adore writing (I know some people would be weirded out by this but I just can’t help myself) #the found family #the guilt for mistakes made and the aftermath of that #the conflict of being loved so earnestly even when that love hurts because the Traveller is far beyond humans and doesn’t quite get it #they’re trying but that disconnect is there and permanent #chews on AU and rotates it in my mind

[shardclan]

1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 17 (cough), 18, 42, 43, 44, 45, 74, 77, 78 :>

1. (Answered Here)

2. What kind of combatdoes your clan specialize in? Physical? Magical? Bit of both? Or are they morefond of subterfuge?

Magical combat is very much the order of the day, but justabout every dragon in the clan is more than capable of throwing a good punch.If they can fight in any capacity, you should be worried about them punchingyou in the throat once all their other options are exhausted.

Subterfuge is the domain of two dragons: Bestealcian, theUmbra Wolf and Actias, the Smoke Gyre. The fore only serves the Queen and thelatter has served the clan and its allies since the days of the old dynasty.Sometimes they are directly at odds in their goals, so it is very difficult forenemies or outsiders to keep up with whether the Smoke Gyre is even a real partof Clan Aphaster. Most of his clan mates don’t even know his real name.

3. What kinds of weaponsdo your dragons use? If your dragons use actual physical weapons how do theyhold them (assuming they don’t use claws/teeth)? If they use magic do they havesome sort of focus like a staff?

It varies from dragon to dragon and by their expertise.Aphaster dragons spend a significant amount of their time in humanoid shapesdue to an agreement with the local beastclans (in short: don’t trample theSummerlands; the Centaurs grow grain there and the Serthis hunt small game thatwould otherwise be pests).

Most physical fighters favor swords of some kind, whether it’sQueen Telos’ elegant saber, Arcanus’ unadorned broadsword, or Opalite’s saw-toothedcleaver. But there’s also a pretty lively sect of hand-to-hand fighters thateither use their fists or specialize in claw weapons. (Note: Queen Telostrained with Perilous, the best pugilist in the clan, and while she’s good atwielding her saber, she’s a demon at hook punches). Bestealcian and Actias arealmost never seen in humanoid form. The latter is a tooth and claw fighter whospecializes in quick death and incapacitation. The fore is a proper fighter andutilizes a variety of weapons, from an ice pick to arrows to a bladed alloy fanfrom the Blacksand Annex that also doubles as a shield.

Magic among my clan members is mostly for mundane purposes. Amongcombat magic users there’s Lutia, the aforementioned nuke, and she’s anArchmage so she doesn’t need anything but her will to cast magic. There’s Tawnywho isn’t an Archmage but is a high level pyrokinetic who can burn just aboutanything so long as it’s in his line of vision. Arcanus is a magic knight, hemostly uses enchantments and quick spells with his sword as a focus.

Then there are the witches, who are an entirely differentmatter but are next to harmless given they only use their powers for the spirittheir coven is serving at the time.

4. What or who would bemost likely to attack your clan at this point in time? Is your clan aware ofthis potential threat?

From above: An additional team exists solely to deal withThings trying to come through the place the Chalcedony Seat almost crackedthrough the veils, but they’re not strictly military.

Outsiders are the problem right now. Beings that don’t comefrom Sornieth being attracted to the rift . They don’t know about it yet, butit’s going to be factoring in veeery soon.

13. How “fairly” doesyour clan fight? Are they honorable even when things look grim? Are theywilling to get their hands a little dirty?

The clan is very multi-elemental and the members are allvery different. There’s no one who would say…use a meat shield in a fight. Butthey might throw some pocket sand at you and some of them firmly believe thatblackmail is a useful and perfectly reasonable tool against anyone who has madeit clear they intend to be a problem.

On the macro and in governmental affairs, the clan fightsfairly—very much lawful alignment—but they’re not above finding loopholes orabusing plausible deniability. Example: In the old clan, Actias prevented a warbetween the clan and oncoming harpies by snatching two males from their homeroost and threatening to kill them. This was framed as an independent action todefend his son, Iblis, but really it was so the clan could avoid war, scareaway the harpies, and not damage their reputation with other beastclans theywere friendly with.

Though it helps somewhat more now that unlike then, Telosreally doesn’t know what Actias is doing half the time and has been advised byActias himself to have Bestealcian hunt and kill him if it becomes politicallynecessary.

17. What sort of thingsdoes your clan look for in potential allies? In this case I mean generalattitude and moral code.

They prefer clans that don’t harbor shade creatures,emperors, demons, or more sinister forms of Outsider, but if enough trust isbuilt up it’s easy for them to overlook those things (see: Clan Feldspar).Really so long as your clan isn’t clearly evil or just more trouble than they’reworth, there’s not much in the way of central dogma that will see youautomatically turned away.

The only real dealbreaker is a clan whose overall philosophyinherently involves disharmony with the beastclans. Aphaster has greatrelations with most of the main beastclans save the corven and the harpies, andthey’re trying to keep it that way. A harpy runs the creamery, and she’s one ofthe most beloved members of the clan, local dragons won’t even let people lookat her funny. (This may or may not be because she’s the best friend of possibly the most overtly powerful witch in the Starwood coven)

18. What sort of services or exports does your clan need thatallies can/do provide? Why are they unable to do it/secure these items bythemselves?

Building materials are always going to be a big thing forthe clan. They’re Arcanites who previously lived as dragons with big FocalPoint lairs 100% of the time, they literally don’t trust enclosed structuresthat aren’t massive and made of familiar materials. But Crystalspine graniteonly comes from the Starfall Isles, and despite them having a literal portal tothe Isles they are very much on thin ice with the Arcanist right now. So theywill always need a supply chain from clans who live closer than they do.

For the same reason, they are also always willing to pay topdollar for any items from the Isles, especially Starfall Blossoms and variousfauna (bees from the Starwood Strand in particular are very important for HouseBetelgeuse)

Until previously they also needed quite a lot of Celestine tobe imported, but after the Celestial Vault was built and the Chalcedony Seatwas housed in it, they basically have the only self-replenishing source of highquality Celestine in the entire eastern half of Sornieth, and that’s become abig export.

42. What would most of your dragons say the biggest threat tothem is right now?

The Chalcedony Seat itself. It was basically meant to be theArcanist’s attempt at an artificial pillar piece, and the Shard Dynasty wasmeant to be its keepers. Only he never told any of them that, so when Lutiaactivated it and drove the old clan out of the territory, it was just out theregrowing increasingly radioactive and unstable. It became a huge problem andturned some non-beastclan creatures into dragons, it quite possibly led to theopal gene since the magical run off from it seeped into local leylines (they’renot hype to tell anyone about that hypothesis), and in the end, they had tobring it to the Sunbeam Ruins.

Despite Light element being highly susceptible to Arcane energy.

So, you know. They’re just…kind of waiting for it toexplode.

43. How competent wouldyour clan say your leader(s) is/are? How competent are they really?

“Extremely” and “she does her best”.

What makes Telos competent isn’t that she inherently knowswhat to do, it’s that she’s good at listening to people who have specializedexperience. Her choosing a council of Five Tribunes when she crowned herself is100% the best thing she could have done. Without them, Aphaster wouldn’t havemade it half so far and she knows it. Like, it’s fine she has about 85% of her ancestor’smemories for the past 5-6 generations of her family, but none of them wererulers. They were all scientists and alchemists from House Xanna. She knewenough to know that their memories wouldn’t help her with ruling a kingdom.

44. When dragons wish tobecome mates, how does that happen? Is there a ceremony? Do they just mutuallyagree to it? Is their mate already chosen for them?

Mate choosing is completely free form, and Clan Aphaster’sgovernment does not require a ceremony of any kind, or even any officialrecord. It used to be there was a Genealogist who handled that once, but shewent to the Arcanist’s service and no one has replaced her. It’s an entirelypersonal decision how or if any celebration or officiation will occur.

As a result, actual wedding ceremonies are major news in theclan and they tend to turn into massive to-dos that even some of the moreelusive members of the clan will turn up for. Without anything else in the wayof officiation or celebration, usually any pairs that have declared themselvesmarried will be mentioned in the local newspaper, the Sunbeam Sentinel.

45. Do the members ofyour clan more or less get along with each other? What would cause them toquarrel if so? Why do they if not?

More or less, yes. There’s a lot of little interconnectingcliques and it’s not necessarily that dragons that don’t hang out might hateeach other, they usually just don’t gravitate toward one another.

Personal beef can be normal, in the old clan Carnelianregular beat the shit out of a paparazzi coatl who caused him to lose the trailon a hatchling kidnapping.

Right now Estevao is largely considered a fool by any clanmember with good sense.

74. Is breeding done onlybetween mates? Freely? For the good of the clan?

All three.

Camellia is big into having kids but has never had a realmate a day in her life (literally her words after a male she had her mostrecent nest with also mated with another dragon from the clan and somebody gotnervous about it: “You know I’ve never kept the males as my own. I just likethe children.”; Haematica had her children because at the time she was the onlyplague dragon in the clan and they needed more; and there are several matedpairs who are exclusive.

77. How religious is thebulk of your clan?

They respect the gods, especially Lightweaver and theArcanist given the circumstances, but there are only a few who are genuinely religious.

Camellia was always very devout to the Arcanist, and afterthe events that destroyed their old dynasty, she was god-touched. She can’treally avoid being religious even if she wanted to.

Fletch is a forge priestess—meaning she’s a devout of theFlamecaller.This served quite well during the clan’s journey to the Sunbeam Ruins, when she pretty much called a lava-spewing fissure into the Carrion Canyon via prayer to escape a local bad news beastclan.

Turan is the Light Liaison, she has to be religious becauseif she isn’t Lightweaver will take it out of all their asses.

Azricai is surprisingly religious, but in a sort of…upsidedown tarot kind of way. She calls on the Windsinger in his capacity for stormsand destruction, protecting her clan by keeping them in the calm eye of thestorm she does her best to embody. It’s part of the reason dragons who know her well call her The Gale Wolf.

Penitence is religious, but it’s to the Icewarden, so. Heconsiders being the clan’s jailer and primary law enforcer a daily act ofworship.

Then there’s Lamium who will soon be in a very complicatedposition where he becomes the devout of the Veiled Moon (meaning the moon that isonly visible in Hewn City) basically under duress.

78. If your clan isreligious, how is worship done? Privately? Is there a large ceremony?

The devouts pray on their own. Ceremonies for the elementsusually only exist during elemental holidays.

#Aphaster Culture #C: Camellia #C: Fletch #C: Azricai #C: Lamium #C: Penitence