SEASON 1 - 𝙉𝙊𝙉-𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙎

[whitechapel]

All NPCs are open for use unless otherwise stated.​

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Name: Carlos Del Campo
Age: 70
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Edward James Olmos
Role: Manager at Krenshaw Hill Trailer Park
Description: Meticulous, organized, and ebullient. Carlos runs a tight ship. Spends most of his time working around the trailer park and taking care of the residents. Irrationally scared of all dogs. Member of the City Council. Widowed, three children who no longer live in Dawn Chorus.
Availability: Available to anyone.

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Name: Father Earl Conley
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Matthew Macfadyen
Role: Resident pastor at His Holy Ghost Tabernacle Church
Description: Deeply religious, laidback, and incorruptible. New in town, recently took over at pastor at His Holy Ghost Church. Aims to be a beacon of good in the community and to spread joy. Allergic to shellfish. Close friends with fellow pastor, George Reed.
Availability: Available to anyone.

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Name: Gilbert Foxworthy
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Chris Farley
Role: The heart of the Foxworthy clan.
Description: Pure of heart, sentimental, and lovable. Gilbert, affectionately referred to as Jill-Bear, is the youngest of The Foxworthy Brothers. Gilbert takes life a day at a time, trying not to let his worries about the future get him down. While somewhat sheltered by his brothers, he's very perceptive and curious about most things, but too shy and polite to ever want to ask too many questions. Television aficionado. Scared of the dark. Has never left Dawn Chorus.
Availability: Conditionally available; ask chap.

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Name: Julius Foxworthy
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Nicolas Cage
Role: The brawn of the Foxworthy clan.
Description: Suave, principled, and gallant. Julius is the middle of The Foxworthy Brothers. Julius has a way with words and a way with the ladies, spending most of his nights in his barn in various fits of passion. Despite his enormous sexual appetite, Julius puts hard work and family first, doing everything he can to contribute to the farm. Has a strong sense of morality and will always fight for what he believes to be right, even if this leads to a certain level of bullheadedness. Wine collector. Only sleeps four hours a night. Once wrestled a bear to protect Gilbert.
Availability: Conditionally available; ask chap.

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Name: Lamar Morell
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Ian Hart
Role: Owner of Lamar's Liquor, Lotto, and Gas
Description: Idiosyncratic, hardworking, and mechanically gifted. Lamar is a jack of all trades and a collector of everything from old transistor radios to decommissioned military memorabilia. Capable of fixing just about anything. Avid lottery player. Alchemy is his passion. Never married, never wants to be.
Availability: Available to anyone.

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Name: Misty Blevins
Age: 59
Gender: Female
Face Claim: Isabella Rossellini
Role: Owner of Juniper Street Diner
Description: Scatterbrained, irritable, and uncooperative. Usually found at The Mothlight when not running the diner. Former goth in her youth with the tattoos still present to prove it. Married to Morris Blevins.
Availability: Available to anyone.

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Name: Pontius Foxworthy
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Richard Petty
Role: The brains of the Foxworthy clan.
Description: Earnest, wise, and stoic. The eldest of The Foxworthy Brothers, Pontius can usually be found on his front porch in his favorite rocking chair, deep in thought while he watches the clouds float by. He places heavy value on the little things and a simple way of life, inspired heavily by Tibetan monks. Smokes Marlboros. Ethical vegan. Wakes up with the birds and drinks his coffee alone.
Availability: Conditionally available; ask chap.

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Name: Quentin Severin
Age: 53
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Thom Yorke
Role: Owner of Ouroboros Metaphysical Shop
Description: Enigmatic, well read, and eloquent. Severin is very rarely in town, more interested in traveling the world in search of ancient treasures and esoteric knowledge. When in town, can be found at his shop. Member of the City Council, though he never attends.

Found dead the morning after the Blizzard of '21.
Availability: Deceased.

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Name: Stanley Ryan III
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Paul Dean
Role: Sheriff of DCPD
Description: Incompetent, lazy, and unwieldy. Stanley's position is purely based on nepotism and family affluence. Heir to the Ryan Family fortune. Often found sleeping at his desk, in his car, or in the storage closet. When he's actually forced to do his job, fails at almost every level. Has the hots for half the women in town, despite his marriage to Greta Ryan. Has three children. Former quarterback for the high school football team. Member of the City Council.
Availability: Conditionally available; ask chap

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Name: Roger Wilco
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Fred Willard
Role: Owner of Tetragrammaton Thrift Store
Description: Kind, determined, and a little bit kooky. Roger Wilco is a former fighter jet pilot who claims to have flown alongside angels. In a book published years after the fact, Roger claimed that the angels were 'malevolent, monstrous things' and that he was visited by Jesus who explained to him the truth about angels; namely, the fact that they wanted to destroy the world. Following Jesus' instructions, Roger opened a thrift store in Dawn Chorus full of what he has once described as 'holy clothing' because angels 'hate deals'. Energetic and an avid runner for his age, he can often be seen early in the morning, jogging alongside Gideon Lake.
Availability: Available to anyone.

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Name: Sergio Ciccarelli
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Kevin James
Role: Owner of the Cheshire Motel
Description: Intense, crass, and easily angered. Sergio Ciccarelli is the owner of the Cheshire Motel. Sergio moved to Dawn Chorus ten years prior and largely keeps to himself, having developed a reputation for being hotheaded and rude. Several people in town believe that he's a former mafia member who relocated to Dawn Chorus as part of a witness protection program, though this has never been confirmed. Single and usually gets upset when questioned about his marital status. Hates dogs, hates kids, loves cocaine.
Availability: Available to anyone.

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Name: Virgil McCormick
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Tunde Adebimpe
Role: Owner of The Mothlight
Description: Iconoclastic, charismatic, and open minded. Virgil is a man of culture and has done his best to put his mark on the tiny little town he calls home. His favorite hobby is painting, but he spends most of his time behind the bar at The Mothlight. Avid music lover and all around appreciator of the arts. Member of the City Council. Closeted homosexual, but it's more of an open secret. Family includes daughter from previous relationship, Carla McCormick, and dog, Cornelius.
Availability: Available to anyone.

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Name: Woodrow Haywood
Age: 63
Gender: Male
Face Claim: Steve Buscemi
Role: Caretaker at Gordon Lake Cemetery
Description: Sensitive, paternalistic, and kind to a fault. Feels in over his head more often than not. Usually far too empathetic for his own good and has been known to cry at the graves of people he doesn't even know. Happily married to his childhood sweetheart. Sterile, but has a lot of cats.
Availability: Available to anyone.

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Name: Zara Whitehall
Age: 42
Gender: Female
Face Claim: Allie McCulloch
Role: Owner of The Blue Rose Bar and Grill
Description: Affluent, self-centered, and outspoken. Former model and daytime soap opera starlet. Current restaurateur (even though she barely has a hand in running the place). Overly concerned about how others see her. Has had a little bit of work done over the years. Member of the City Council. Married to a man half her age, divorced multiple times, no children to speak of. Returned to her hometown of Dawn Chorus after her first leading role in a movie flopped and her career subsequently floundered.
Availability: Available to anyone.
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[whitechapel]

The Missing Four are a group of unrelated townspeople who went missing on the night of October 21st, 2021. Despite a nationwide search, involvement from several agencies,and countless theories on their whereabouts, none were immediately found. Their disappearance remains a mystery and a matter of grave concern for the little town of Dawn Chorus.​

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Name: Morris Blevins Age: 56 Face Claim: Victor Cassel Description: Shy, helpful, attentive. Married to Misty Blevins. Worked alongside his wife at Juniper Street Diner. Went missing from behind the diner while taking out the trash. Stumbled out of the woods during The Midnight Waltz gravely injured before dying in the middle of Netherland Avenue.	Name: Carla McCormick Age: 17 Face Claim: Amandla Stenberg Description: Intelligent, good natured, addictive personality. Daughter of Virgil McCormick from a previous relationship. Known around town as a good samartian. Went missing while walking home from the Community Center.	Name: George Reed Age: 68 Face Claim: Scott Wilson Description: Gracious, peaceful, forgving. Reed acted as the resident pastor at His Holy Ghost Tabernacle Church for a full decade before opting for retirement and being replaced by Earl Conley. Went missing while fishing on Lake Gordon.	Name: Greta Ryan Age: 33 Face Claim: Cariba Heine Description: Flirtatious, conceited, discreet. Married to Sheriff Stanley Ryan, heir to the Ryan family fortune. Trophy wife. Went missing while tending her garden at the Ryan Family Estate.

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[whitechapel]

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The Ryan Family have a long and storied history in Dawn Chorus. In 1925, business magnate and family patriarch, Felix Ryan, relocated his family to Dawn Chorus, Tennessee following an ongoing scandal in their hometown of New York City. Rumors swirled with stories ranging from everything as mild as Felix’s extramarital affairs and cutthroat tactics to absurd hearsay involving cannibalism, incestuous unions, and Black Masses. Ostensibly a means to retire in peace, Felix established an estate to the southwest of Mount Sanguine and planned to live out the rest of his years there with his wife, Alma Ryan, and their four children; Mallory, Isabel, Luther, and Stanley. The mansion built upon those grounds was nicknamed Birdsong House.

From day one, The Ryans were aloof and distant from the rest of the town. Some blamed their affluence while others claimed they had something to hide. In 1935, Felix Ryan was found dead and stripped of his clothes at the mouth of Five Caves’ southernmost entrance. While his death was investigated and widely reported on during the months to follow, it was ultimately ruled ‘death by misadventure’. The widowed Alma Ryan returned to New York City for a time with her children, but returned to Birdsong House in the Summer of 1936 where she remained until her death by natural causes in 1959.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Luther Ryan became a renowned businessman and settled in Nashville, TN. He went missing at the age of 42 only to be found three weeks later dead and stripped of his clothing at the mouth of Five Caves’ southernmost entrance, just like his father. None of the family reported knowing that he was in town and what brought him back to Dawn Chorus, let alone back to Five Caves. A lifelong bachelor, Luther left behind no children.

The rest of the children remained in Dawn Chorus for the rest of their lives. Stanley worked as an executive for Westland-Kodak, marrying a local girl named Harriet Yearling, and fathered fifteen children over the course of his life, many of whom are still living to this day. Isabel Ryan became a recluse at an early age, very rarely leaving Birdsong House. While a report of her death was never made, it is assumed she passed away some time ago. Mallory married the son of the founder of Westland-Kodak in 1935, two months prior to her father’s death. Her husband, Walter Westland, went missing in 1955 while hiking in the backcountry of current day Dead Horse National Park. After her husband’s disappearance, Mallory Ryan became increasingly eccentric, claiming that her husband had gone to live amongst the stars while also insinuating that he would eventually return. While these stories were largely dismissed as the rantings of a woman in grief, The Ryan Family Observatory was established to the east of Dawn Chorus in 1978. Mallory Ryan passed away of natural causes in 1993 at the age of 78, her husband never having returned.

In current day Dawn Chorus, the Ryan Family has become increasingly elusive and withdrawn from the rest of the town. Not many people know exactly how many of the clan still reside at Birdsong House. Occasionally, the family make their presence known, such as in 1997 when they bought Netherland Inn, but for the most part they keep to themselves. The only exception to this rule is the sheriff of Dawn Chorus, Stanley Ryan III, and his wife, Greta Ryan.

Some still wonder just how much influence the family has over the town...​

 

[whitechapel]

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The Gods of Southern Appalachia
From the journal of Quentin Severin
October 23rd 2021

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I suppose, to begin, I should explain that I've lived in this forlorn place for a number of years now. I believe myself to be intimately familiar with the area, the town, and its people. When I was first assigned here based on whispers and hearsay, I must admit that I scoffed and rolled my eyes. Surely there must be more interesting places in this world, I thought. Surely there is nothing so strange in a town so small that it doesn't even appear on most maps that it would demand my permanent residence.

I was wrong. Dawn Chorus, Tennessee is like no other place where I've set foot.

The things I've seen and experienced here have rendered me, in a word, awestruck. In my research, I've determined that Dawn Chorus and its surrounding areas act as a sort of… interdimensional crossroads. It is a place where the veil between worlds is at its most thin and frayed. While there are plenty of places on this Earth rife with supernatural activity, none hold even the slightest candle to what is happening here.

I've delved into history books, ancient texts, and all other manner of written word that I've found to shed some light on the many mysteries that exist here and, with any luck, I believe that I've extracted enough truth to make my case. There are, to speak plainly, several entities that inhabit this space. Most have seemingly existed since before recorded history, mentioned in the tales of the indigenous people who preceded the first European settlers. These entities seem to exist beyond our reality, but at the same time, they are all capable of affecting our existence in a variety of ways.

I've compiled a list below of the entities that I've seen mentioned and, in some cases, encountered first hand. I'll do my very best to explain their purpose and motives as we go along…


The Divine Four
Let's start with an explanation of sorts: there are four main entities that are most involved with mankind. They are known as The Elder, The Father, The Mother, and The Stranger. Every few decades, these entities convene to play a vicious game to determine which among them will have the most influence over the others. They operate on a hierarchical structure that also seems to dictate their amount of control over the waking world.

This game involves choosing four 'heralds' from those that reside within their sphere of influence; in this case, that sphere encompasses Dawn Chorus and the surrounding land. As if a lever were pulled, these four 'heralds' drop all they once held dear in their daily lives to lift the banner of their respective entity. This is best explained, by my understanding, as heavy suggestion; being a 'herald' directly changes a person's personality, motivations, and purpose. They become a vessel for their respective entity without being directly possessed. While they have no control over their actions, they're not being controlled.

They then proceed to hunt, maim, and murder one another until only one survivor is left standing. The last 'herald' remaining grants sovereignty to their corresponding entity until the cycle repeats itself years later. Below, I've gathered information on each of what I've come to call The Divine Four…


The Elder

Wrinkling skin and graying hair, crackling bones and eventual death. Of all the entities, The Elder is the most cunning. His designs are Machiavellian in nature; he slinks in the shadows, hiding in the dark, scheming behind closed doors and using his indirect resources to keep himself ahead of the apparent curve. His motives are purely his own: while he craves power and dominion over the world of man, there is an ambivalence there that reveals his concern to mostly be quartered around his own self-preservation. He lays upon an infinite deathbed, cradled between the life and demise, doing what he must to squeeze some small inkling of time.

I believe The Elder to be heavily involved with the Ryan Family, but I'm not entirely sure how or to what end. Like most entities, he is not without his compulsion towards symbology and motifs. In the case of The Elder, these motifs tend to focus on eyes, game pieces, and owls.



The Mother

Benevolence. Beauty. A sense of care and well-being. This is The Mother. Unlike the other entities, The Mother is the only one that I've had direct correspondence with. She presented herself to me late one night with a knock on the door and a smile so lovely that it made my heart quake in my chest. (Note: In hindsight, I believe that there is a level of manipulative suggestion to The Mother's tactics. She presents herself as kind and loving, but I do find myself wondering what exists beneath the facade...) It is through The Mother that I learned of The Divine Four and their game. In that sense, I do host a sense of guilt over not warning others of what was to come, but I digress...

The Mother, by my understanding and from her own explanation, has acted as the head of The Divine Four for centuries. This latest game was brought about when she was challenged by The Stranger. She revealed to me that her 'herald' is local reporter, Julia Whitford. Unlike the other 'heralds', Julia appears to still be active in her day to day life. This is, to my understanding, The Mother's modus operandi. She hides in plain sight. She misdirects and approaches this game as a war of attrition. It was also explained to me, as the current head of The Divine Four, The Mother has a special advantage over the others: while the other 'heralds' are made aware of one another through what can only be described as a sixth sense, The Mother's 'herald' remains anonymous.

The Mother is attached to water, blood, and jewelry. She craves order and her reign comes with a sense of benevolence. The status quo that she enforces is what we see in our day to day lives; imperfect, but bearable.



The Father

The Father is, for lack of a better term, the avatar of failure. Despite an appetite for power similar to the rest of The Divine Four, he traditionally falls short of this desire and instead remains in The Mother's shadow, working alongside her to the extent that she will allow. In this way, he largely acts only as an expansion of The Mother's will.

In my discussions with The Mother, she was largely dismissive of The Father and spoke of him with what I would describe as amusement. She went so far as to reveal to me that his 'herald' would be local restaurateur Morris Blevins. As a side note, I've eaten at his diner on several occasions and have always seen him as a kindhearted man; I dread what may be in store for him.

The Father is, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your stance, simply a footnote to a much larger web being weaved. Even so, he holds a fascination with spirals and bones.



The Stranger

Chaos. That's the word I would choose, I believe; chaos and disarray. That is what The Stranger is made of. Much like Lucifer in Milton's Paradise Lost, The Stranger rebels against the status quo for the sake of his own vanity. While The Mother retains order, The Stranger wishes to set the world aflame for his own perverse pleasure. He is a brash and untameable thing, almost animalistic in his approach to the game. While the others plot and scheme, he attempts to disrupt and overwhelm through brute force. If he were to be successful in his attempts, I fear what may descend upon this little town.

The Stranger seems to hold a deeper fascination with mankind than the other entities, but this fascination is almost certainly malevolent in its scope and reason. In my research, I deciphered what I would label as a certain degree of envy in his views on humans. He wishes to emulate the simplicity of their lives while also scoffing at their inferiority in comparison to his own grandeur. An egotistical twat, to be blunt. Perhaps he's closer to humanity than he might realize.

This fascination with human beings has manifested more motifs than the other entities. There is a fixation with teeth, rabbits, mirrors, and electricity, to name only a few.



The Cowboy

The Cowboy is something of an anomaly and I only include him alongside The Divine Four due to his relation to them. To put it in the simplest terms possible, The Cowboy acts as almost a... 'game master', I would say. He embodies the necessary checks and balances of The Divine Four's game, upholding the agreed upon rules and confirming the current state of their 'heralds'. In most ways, The Cowboy only acts as a safeguard with no motives of his own. He is law and principle given shape and form. Its hard to say whether or not he acts on his own volition or by someone else's command, but it is my understanding that The Divine Four fear him in a way that they fear nothing else. The Cowboy exists during the game and recedes seemingly out of existence soon after its conclusion.

Of interesting note, The Cowboy has not always represented as a cattleman, though it does seem to be his favorite and most common personification. His form seems to be affected and influenced by his time and place. During a game that took place during The Civil War, he was seen as a confederate soldier. When settlers first made this land their own, he came as a pilgrim. The Cherokee even tell stories of a tomahawk-wielding medicine man.

It's said that The Cowboy is largely uninterested in mankind, but wishes to keep his presence a secret. When accidentally seen or confronted, there is a high possibility that he will turn towards hostility to preserve his clandestine nature.



The Others
While The Divine Four are certainly major players and perhaps the most prominent of the entities, they are certainly not the only ones present. While I use the term 'The Others' to explain these entities, that is not meant to imply that they are only auxiliary or to dismiss them. Make no mistake: these are dangerous beings that, if not contained or held in check, will surely bring disastrous consequence.

The Others do not involve themselves in The Divine Four's game. Instead, they act independently. Whereas The Divine Four present themselves with seemingly human qualities, The Others are... primordial, I would say. Ancient. Alien in their motives. They exist both within and beyond our reality. I will do what I can to explain each that I know of.

The Deep

Imagine, momentarily, that you're in your house or your workplace or any other place that you frequent on a near daily basis. Imagine that you're intimately familiar with this place; you're comfortable there. Now, imagine if one day you turn a corner or enter a room only to find a door built into the wall that wasn't there before. It's never been there. You've never seen it before and you're as confused as you are horrified. In some cases, this door defies the spatial logic of the room. Sometimes, this door is completely out of place and not in a room at all, instead appearing in the middle of the woods or in the depths of a cave. Regardless, it's there. Do you turn the knob to see what's on the other side?

This is The Deep and it manifests as a series of improbable or illogical doorways throughout Dawn Chorus and the surrounding areas. These doorways appear out of the blue and disappear as quickly as they came. If one is brave enough to open the door and step inside, they'll find a seemingly endless labyrinth of other doors, hallways, rooms, and staircases. While this may appear as a strange, but an ultimately inanimate phenomenon, these doors and their inner chambers are very much sentient and conscious of your presence within them.

The Deep's only desire is to grow and spread. It only wants to consume space and replace it with itself. Each door opened and each new experience gained within its walls is only more for it to devour, more room for it to manifest.




The Bliss

Did you know that, in a state plagued by addiction, that Dawn Chorus has one of the lowest rates of opioid abuse in the whole of Tennessee? Did you know that, despite scant social programs and rehabilitation options, that Dawn Chorus has one of the most successful relapse rates of anywhere in the country? Both of these facts are true and, under normal circumstances, should absolutely be cause for celebration. However, like most things in this town, there is far more to this story than what meets the eye.

In the sprawling forests that make up Dead Horse National Park, in its most remote regions, a white-capped mushroom grows that, to my knowledge, has never been named or recorded by the mycological community. It most often presents itself with a pink blush atop its cap and gold speckles beneath its gills. In the tradition of the local indigenous people, it was seen as a sacred sacrament that, when ingested, would provide a sense of euphoria and help one break through to the realm of spirits. It would seem, in our modern age, this mushroom has been cultivated by traditionalists and enthusiasts alike in basements, cellars, and anywhere else where it might thrive. In most cases, it has been grown to be more potent than it would be in its natural state.

These mushrooms are in fact the physical manifestation of an entity known as The Bliss. The Bliss is most commonly eaten raw, ground and smoked in makeshift pipes, or in rare cases, pressed to a powder and nasally ingested. Once consumed, the user is put into a state of transcendental peace with the self. Unlike psilocybin, The Bliss holds few hallucinogenic properties and instead acts as a genuine gateway between our world and the world in which the true form of The Bliss resides. Users often come down in a seemingly brainwashed state, wanting nothing more than to further assist The Bliss in proliferating our world. I've yet to discover The Bliss' true nature or motives, but if it is anything like The Deep, it wishes to grow and prosper.




The Mire

I must admit, I laughed and scoffed when I first heard reports of apparent 'mud men' wandering the streets of Dawn Chorus by night. It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Literal men made of soil and sludge living their lives beneath a veil of darkness, gone by morning with nothing more than muddy footprints left in their wake. It's a preposterous idea to be sure, and yet... The Mire.

Perhaps the most bizarre of all the entities, The Mire is mud given life and sentience. Myths and stories tell that The Mire resides underground in a vast subterranean city called 'Malimoure' where it sits upon a throne of earth and bone. In most of these stories, The Mire is biding its time and building an army of mud men to wage war on the world above. I've even read ancient tales of a war between The Mire and the people who originally inhabited this land. Since then, The Mire has held humanity in deep contempt, wanting nothing more than revenge.

To be blunt, I would normally dismiss such tales as nothing more than Tolkien-esque fantasies. In most cases, this sounds like nothing more than a hoax or a farce meant for nothing more than to gain a few laughs. However, one night many months ago, I awoke from my sleep to hear a calamitous noise outside of my home. Upon checking outside, I found a message scrawled across my front porch in mud: THE MIRE SEES ALL. Needles to say, I've been somewhat cautious on rainy days ever since...




The Drowned

I never learned how to properly swim and that fact has instilled a deep fear of large bodies of water within my very being. Even though I've made several trips across Gideon Lake to convene with The Mother, it is always with a feeling of trepidation and even panic gnawing at my brain. This feeling has only grown exponentially since I first learned of The Drowned.

The Drowned extracts a great deal of pleasure from ordinary suffering and fear. There have been, by my estimation, over one-hundred-and-fifty people who have met their end at the bottom of Gideon Lake. Of those, unfortunately, several have been children. Most religions in human history have a god of death and, if we view the entities through that same lens, then its nearly impossible not to see The Drowned in that same light. While some bloated corpses have washed up on the shores, most of those who have perished in the lake have never been found. In the 1980s, the lake was drained in the search for a 13-year-old boy who had been submerged days prior. While the boy wasn't found, workers did uncover what appeared to be an rudimentary altar made from rock embedded in the lake bed. This altar bore a stone carving of a colossal leviathan resembling a coiled snake not unlike the sea monsters of yore.

There's not much to go off of in my research to decipher The Drowned's motives or purpose aside from taking life, but I did find a passage in the form of a poem written by a settler named Finnley Lee that spoke of a great beast residing beneath the waters of Gideon Lake. The poem goes on to describe that, when the beast's hunger for flesh is satiated, it will rise from beneath the waves to lay waste to everything and all. How much of this is simple inspiration derived from The Book of Revelations, I cannot say, but if there is any truth to Mr. Lee's poem, one must hope that The Drowned's stomach is never quite full for quite some time.




The Queen and The King

Allow me to tell you a story, if I may. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young woman; so beautiful, in fact, that suitors traveled from miles away in the hopes of making her their wife. She had so many suitors that the local leaders decided it best to hold a tournament to determine who was most deserving of her hand. Men came from far and wide to test their mettle in the hopes of winning her favor, but what they didn't know was that she already had a paramour in the form of a young man who hailed from a family of outcasts. Knowing that her lover stood no chance against her suitors, the young woman devised a plan to make sure her man would win the contest and that they would live happily ever after.

The contest was to test the men through feats of strength and matters of wit. In the days that followed, many of the contestants fell ill after their breakfasts and others convulsed in their sleep. As the number of suitors fell and the final days of the tourney drew closer, several of the suitors were found with slit throats and others were not found at all. When the day of the final game arrived, the young woman's lover stood alone, triumphant.

The marriage took place that very same day, but as the bride and her new groom sat with their hands entwined, rumors swirled among the guests; rumors of bloodshed and poisoning, of murder and betrayal. In the end, three men snuck into the young woman's hut while she celebrated her marriage in The Great Hall. It was there that they found a poisonous concoction in an unlabeled bottle and a blade sullied with dried blood amongst her belongings.

The reveal of these findings worked the guests, family and friends alike, into a frenzy. They called the young woman a murderous beast in sheep's clothing and her groom a foul fiend for going along with the plan. They were banished from the village, but not before a local shaman placed a pox and curse upon them both. The young woman and her husband departed by morning's light and, by nightfall, were both covered in hideous rashes and blisters.

As they arrived at the base of what is now known as Mount Sanguine, the woman's beauty was stolen, but her husband suffered a far worse face. The pustules on his skin opened wide to reveal eyes beneath. His gums receded to expose his teeth in a permanent grimace. His head expanded and grew, ballooning as new eyes formed. Worse yet, he screamed in terror as he saw the history of the world; everything that had ever happened and everything that ever would happen.

They ascended the mountain and lay their claim on its peak. The woman soothed the man even as her skin hatched and her flesh fell from its bone. She told him they were destined for great things and that, if their sins were too great for the world of man, they'd make their own kingdom comprised entirely of themselves.

Stories tell of the couple still residing inside Mount Sanguine, eternal and undying. Occasionally, if you look up towards the peak in the early morning hours, you can see a glow emanating. This glow is said to be when The Queen and The King make love and give birth to new terrors.

While this all may sound like folklore and legend, I've seen this glow myself and have found evidence that I've already forwarded to London that lend credence to their existence. I've no knowledge of their motives, their purpose, or their place in the grand scheme, but I believe they may be the root of the evil that plagues this land.

I'll investigate more in the coming months.


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