Summary

Marigrace, a water demon who used to be a seraph, was incapable of reconciling the hole in her heart where her god used to be, regardless of how much time passed. Year after year, the bitterness never left her heart, as much as her only friend, a demon named Moonfells, tried to distract her with promises of a new uncharted life, free from the gods’ chains. Marigrace really wasn’t a fan of that last part’s wording, but she was pretty sure he was overcompensating since neither of them had fallen by choice. Obviously he was as devastated as she was, even if he didn’t say it. Obviously.

While waiting for him to return one day, she stumbled across a small village and saw a family praying to a small shrine, humble but adorned with flowers and clearly cared for, and got a shiny new idea: what if she made a new god?

As a former seraph, Marigrace was well aware of how the god cycle worked: barring the primordial gods who existed prior to mortals, such as her beloved god of the oceans, new gods were created through the worship and desires of mortals. When they so ardently prayed for love or the desire to save loved ones, the goddess of love was born. When they prayed for inspiration, the goddess of muses was born. The more prayers they received, the stronger the gods became, and the stronger they became, the more angels they could create to spread their influences even further. With such a simple concept shaping the world around them, why couldn’t Marigrace do the same? Why COULDN’T she fill the void in her life with a new being to give her life purpose and direction?

Moonfells acted as if he was disgusted by the idea and was apprehensive about possible fallout if the other gods found out about her blasphemy but obviously (OBVIOUSLY) he was just troubleshooting her plan and worried about her safety even though she was stronger than he could ever be as a mere fallen virtue, sooo many ranks below her. So she ignored his advice and started planning and studying mortals for a god they could create for her, and the answer to that was Vengeance. Was she perhaps influenced a little bit by her own fall from grace when she decided that? Who could say. Don’t ask questions.

It took a long time, but eventually Marigrace was able to gather enough willing mortals in a little secluded hamlet by the ocean who had been wronged by others or by life and prayed for retribution. Eventually, enough prayers were offered that a presence began to waft through the little shrine they had built, but something wasn’t quite right about it. While gods being born out of a desire for something wasn’t new, whether it was for love or protection or whatnot, but those wishes were still normally born out of love for something or had good intentions. A god born of hatred and malice was abnormal and unstable. Marigrace, however, did not care in the slightest and only grew more obsessed with the ill-forming god she named Zaire.

Zaire was despondent and weak, but their tainted aura began to spread corruption across the hamlet and warped not only those who lived there but the land itself into more violent forms, growing slightly more beastly the more lost in the fervor they became. While Zaire was too weak to form angels, the corruption gave birth to weaker spirits that answered the villager's prayers for vengeance and in turn spread their influence further.

Moonfells was properly freaked out by this point and, while he had already long since given up on Marigrace ever seeing reason, had hoped it would fail and collapse in on itself, solving the problem for him. Unfortunately, this corruption was decidedly not the self-destruction kind of collapsing and was instead the spreading kind that was likely going to reach the attention of the other gods at some point and get them all killed, if not worse. He tried to sabotage his dear stupid friend’s plan and kill the still feeble god himself, but Marigrace caught him and, lost in her fury, tried to kill him in turn. Moonfells was able to escape but was grievously wounded and collapsed in a field, right on death’s door.

And death would have answered if he hadn’t been found before he finished bleeding out. Luckily for him, a young woman named Estella who had still been running errands long into the evening stumbled across his unconscious body and, after she finished her initial panicking, promptly began to dress his wounds. She was going to call for help, but he woke up soon enough to stop her (demon bodies heal a liiiiittle different than mortal ones and he’d like to avoid that getting attention, thanks) and Estella reluctantly agreed but refused to leave him alone when he claimed she had done enough. And so she stayed with him until he had recovered enough to be able to move and was able to bring him to her home.

After a few days, Estella noticed how fast he was recovering and came to the conclusion that since he obviously wasn’t a mortal, he must be an angel instead since he was so nice and not scary at all (???) and she was so honored that she was able to help him and do something good with her life and blah blah blah. Moonfells didn’t catch all of it since he was busy being DEEPLY offended by the angel thing but managed to swallow that indignation as that gave him a new idea. Curious about his almost aggressively helpful caretaker, he had entered her dreams every time she slept to get a better sense of who she was and it didn’t take a former virtue of dreams to glean enough symbolism or just straight up watch enough to tell she was desperate to run herself ragged helping others to make up for her past. Extremely convenient for him when he could already tell his vitality was never going to be the same again. The wounds might have already begun to scar, but they were deep and he was going to be severely weakened for a long time. He wasn’t going to be able to stop Marigrace like this.

When the time seemed right, Moonfells explained a truncated (and slightly edited for his new “angel” title) version of what had happened with Marigrace’s cult and Estella eventually took the bait in wishing there was something she could do to help. From there, they created a pact based on whatever the hell the “magical girls” in her dreams were where Moonfells would grant her his powers to stop the spirits from spreading and causing further damage and save what she could. This technically made Estella a warlock, but that didn’t really sound like an angelic blessing so he instead dubbed her a paladin on a holy quest to stop an evil cult, and so the Moonlight Paladin was born.

Moonfells knew, of course, that the two of them alone were not going to be enough to stop Marigrace, but it was a start.

Characters

Marigrace

Water Demon | Cult Leader

Species: Mutant Peophin
Age: Old
Height: 7'0"
Pronouns: x
Sexuality: Pan
Theme: x

A former seraph of the ocean deity, Nulir, who fell and became a demon for Reason I Don't Know Yet. She never got over it, to put it lightly, and she presides over her cult like as an obsessive guardian. Marigrace is patient and kind to anyone within her cult and an absolute monster to anyone who opposes it. She did once have a more rounded personality and actual hobbies, but all that has been forgotten in the wake of her new god, Zaire, who she dotes on like a parent. She does regret what happened with Moonfells and had been haunted by the idea that she had actually killed him, so seeing him alive again had been a relief, even if that relief had been quickly broken by his continued obstinace. She's tired.

Zaire

(baby) God of Vengeance

Species: Mutant Acara
Age: Young
Height: 5'6"
Pronouns: They/Them
Sexuality: Bi Ace
Theme: x

A shiny new deity. They're too weak to have any angels, so Marigrace is basically acting as their babysitter and teacher and Zaire is... vaguely absorbing her teachings. Maybe. Zaire's not 100% all there yet so they're a little uncanny and have zero focus, switching thought processes and interests in an instant, but give them some time and a lot of prayers and they'll get there. Eventually.

Moonfells

Dream Demon

Species: Pastel Usul
Age: Old
Height: 5'9"
Pronouns: He/Him
Sexuality: Demi bi
Theme: Ghosts -Lord of the Lost

A former angel (virtue) who served under the goddess of dreams, Eladaria, but fell during the period between her being killed during the god war and being reborn. He's still mad about this, by the way, since it was not actually his fault he fell, he just ran out of grace to sustain himself and it's a sure fire way to break his otherwise calm exterior into what could perhaps be considered violent indignation depending on the context. He thought he had found companionship in Marigrace and is taking her betrayal hard, especially since his wound is an active reminder of their last confrontation and hinders everything he does. He feels a little bad about how he's using Estella too, but he's trying to keep an eye on her while he finds a more permanent solution to discreetly destroying Marigrace's cult.

Estella

Moonlight Paladin (Warlock)

Species: Maraquan Vandagyre
Age: 22
Height: 5'7"
Pronouns: She/Her
Sexuality: Bi
Theme: x

Still a bit of a wip, but she used to be part of a thief guild in one of the underwater kingdoms, however, after a heist went horrendously wrong and resulted in casualties, she fled for land to escape, abandoning everyone else to whatever their fates were. She was eventually taken in by [??????], but the guilt continued to eat her alive no matter how much time passed. To try and help mitigate it, she began dedicating all her free time to helping others in whatever way she could and eventually ran into the injured demon, Moonfells, who she mistook for an angel. When he asked for her help to defeat a terrible evil, she immediately agreed and accepted his pact and the Moonlight Paladin was born!! She believes she's a paladin of justice who can finally make a real difference to redeem herself, but she's technically a warlock and Moonfells just alters her appearance and grants her magic similar to match whatever the hell the "magical girls" she dreams about are.

Twilimew

Ethos of Vengeance (self-proclaimed)

Species: Wraith Acara
Age: uhh
Height: Changes
Pronouns: Any
Sexuality: Whatever
Theme: x

Twilimew was brought to life when some teen in the village dropped her diary in one of the tainted pools at Zaire's shrine or something, idk yet. REGARDLESS, Twilimew emerged as a reflection of both that teen's desires for revenge that they had chronicled and also all the silly giggly parts too because it was, again, a diary. While she was originally driven by revenge, she's already visited it upon everyone who deserved it according to the sacred text of her creation (teenage angst entries) and is now?? A little lost???? On what to do?????? Twilimew is currently trying to figure out an identity for themself while being a horrid shape-shifting shadow monster who is supernaturally vindictive but also has the interests of a like, fourteen year old girl. He tried convincing Marigrace that he could TOTALLY fit as an angel of vengeance but, alas, she is not buying it... Back to the drawing board.

Rose Graves

The Bloody Flower

Species: Wraith Draik
Age: 26
Height: 5'10"
Pronouns: She/Her
Sexuality: Pan
Theme: Preserved Roses -Blackbriar

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Sonata

Living Relic of Purity

Species: Christmas Zafara
Age: Unknown
Height: 5'9"
Pronouns: Any
Sexuality: Unknown
Theme: x

A very, very, very long time ago, the deity of purity, Aravati, created a gaggle of divine relics that were meant to help and/or reward good little mortals and scattered them across Ceres. And then she was later permanently erased for trying to save demons who had fallen from the other deities' graces since that was considered a drastic overstepping of bounds, whoops! Anyway. Sonata was one of these relics whose original purpose I have not decided yet, but eventually became inert since their deity was no longer sustaining her. She was eventually found and revered by a small village since her residual purification powers kept them safe, and their gratitude in turn kept her from fully deactivating. This part is a bit of a wip yet, but there was some horrible omen or something where they turned to an old ritual to give Sonata strength to fully awaken her powers for her protection because some sort of calamity was going to befall them or something. Sure. Anyway, Lucius volunteered to be the catalyst for the ritual and then timeskip. Eventually, the corruption from Marigrace's cult began to spread to them and it was time to activate the catalyst and finally fulfil the ritual, which awakened Sonata but also bound her and Lucius together through their magic where they became more or less mutually parasitic, since they are now basically passing one deteriorating ball of energy back and forth between them. After determining that wards alone were not going to be enough to save the village, let alone anywhere else it was spreading to, Sonata and Lucius set out to find the root cause of the corruption and destroy it.

Lucius Aster

Light Mage | Former Vessel

Species: Desert Kougra
Age: 24
Height: 6'0"
Pronouns: He/Him
Sexuality: Bi
Theme: x

Lucius was born and raised in a tiny and secluded (and currently unnamed) village that treated a sentient but barely conscious relic their ancestors had found as a patron. When things started getting Real dicey for them in some mysterious way I don't know yet, they turned to a ritual to fully awaken their patron and save their village. Lucius volunteered to become the catalyst for it and basically became a vessel for an archaic type of magic that siphoned his vitality and his light magic to grow in power. Eventually, it was time and the magic was more or less ripped from his soul to grant Sonata life, but the action tore out a part of himself as well and he's only becoming more hollow over time. His personality fades in and out and he's losing pieces of his memory and his lifespan every time he uses what remains of his magic, or taps into Sonata's since they're intrinsically tethered to each other now through the ritual. It's totally fine though because Lucius is pretty sure it was all for a good cause, even if he's forgotten who it was all for over time as they've been traveling to stop the catastrophe.

Art