#the black on his dorsal and primary fins has always been there

[greyarts]

its been... awhile. since i’ve uploaded anything, so i did a painting of one of my betta fish, Ghost!

[azvolrien]

Water Horses - Epilogue

C’mon, I wasn’t going to end it on that note.

~~~

           Two Years Later

           News was always slow to filter out to the fringes of the Empire, but even Roan quickly found out when Emperor Kaial passed away in his sleep; it was all they were talking about at the island market.

           “About time,” one trader insisted. “Good riddance to the old bastard.”

           “I don’t know if that’s entirely fair,” said another. “He wasn’t a well man by the end.”

           “He hadn’t been a well man in twenty-odd years – just ask the Falkari.”

           “Speaking of the Falkari,” said yet another trader, “I heard his son’s first act as Emperor was to start making reparations to them.”

           “To the Falkari?” said the first trader. “I thought they were all wiped out.”

           “So did most people, but it seems he found one left to apologise to. Living in Stormhaven, of all places!”

           “Yeah, the new man’s certainly making changes around the place,” said the second trader. She didn’t sound sure how optimistic she should be. “That new slave law he was talking about? Apparently becoming Emperor was the last push he needed to get it through the Senate. They’ve already made a bunch of arrests under it.”

           “What new slave law?” interrupted Roan.

           “Oh, you didn’t hear?” said the first trader, brightening. “They’re calling it the Protection of Slaves Act or something like that. Guaranteed living conditions, setting solid limits to what owners can do, giving them access to legal recourse in case of abuse, total outlaw of crucifixion – of course the Slavers’ League is making some noise about it, but there’s not much they can do. He’s got too much support in other corners.”

           “You said they’ve made arrests?” said Roan, leaning a little closer. “Do you know who?”

           “Well, not everyone,” said Trader Two. “It’s been happening all across the Empire. But our ship was just in Duncraig a couple of days ago – there was definitely some fuss going on at that big estate just outside of town. The MacArrows or something.”

           “MacArra,” said Roan, a slow smile beginning to appear on her face.

           “That’s the one,” said Trader Three. “The oldest son disappeared a couple of years ago – turns out the rest of them had been up to some…” he gulped, “…nasty stuff with their slaves. Evidence for it was overwhelming. Now they’ve been locked up, the whole lot of them.”

           Roan laughed and shook her head. “And all it took was the Emperor dying?”

           “Looks that way. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”

           “Heh. Wish he’d kicked the bucket years ago.”

           “I’ll drink to that,” Trader One enthusiastically agreed. His friends groaned and shushed him as Roan waved herself out of the conversation and went on to the next stall. She was running low on oats.

           Halfway back to the mainland, she gained some company: Riabhach popped his head up out of the water with a bark, his ears fluttering back and forth.

           “What does this mean, with your ears?” asked Roan, mimicking the action with one hand against her head. “I’ve never been sure if that means you’re interested in something or just upset.”

           He gave another bark and swam in a wide circle around Each-Uisge, porpoising in and out of the water. The boat rocked wildly with each enormous splash; as graceful as he was in his element, Riabhach was far bigger than a seal or a dolphin. He didn’t always seem to realise this.

           “Stop, you’ll have the boat over!” said Roan, steadying herself with both hands. He caught her tone if not her words and came to a halt, resting his chin on the prow. “Well, you certainly want something,” said Roan. “I don’t have anything for you to draw on!”

           Riabhach snorted, wrinkling his snout, and grabbed the end of the mooring rope in his jaws.

           “Hey, what are you-”

           Still with the rope clenched in his teeth, Riabhach wheeled around in the water, ducked beneath the surface, and began to swim, towing the little boat back towards the mainland faster than the sail had ever driven it. Soon the rest of the herd had joined him, the mares and their foals swimming alongside the boat.

           “Something’s wrong?” guessed Roan, leaning to one side to see past the sail. “Somebody’s tangled in a net, and you want me to cut them free?” Riabhach’s mane sliced through the water like a dorsal fin, and he gave no sign of stopping his rush or releasing the rope. The sail was just slowing them down; Roan hurried to lower it.

           A distance that normally took an hour to cross in the boat went past in less than half of that. Dun Ardech, barely visible from the island even on the clearest days, quickly took shape up ahead: the wall, the broch, the leviathan bones; then the boat shed on its little beach.

           Somebody was standing on the sand. Roan frowned. Nobody came to her beach. She squinted into the distance, shading her eyes as more details became clear the closer Riabhach towed the boat. A long coat, dyed bottle-green and cut in a common Stormhaven fashion. Golden-brown skin like a Hawk Steppe nomad. Long, straight black hair…

           Recognition clicked into place and she leapt from the boat before it even slid onto the beach, wading the last few steps through the surf. “Asta! Asta!”

           Asta ran to meet her; Roan seized her by the waist and lifted her right off the sand, spinning around where she stood in the shallows. “What are you doing here?” she asked, lowering her back onto her feet but keeping hold of her shoulders in both hands.

           Asta shrugged. “I heard about the MacArras being arrested. I thought it would be safe to come back.”

           “But – that was only a couple of days ago! How did you get here so fast?”

           Asta grinned at that. “I got a friendly wizard to make me a portal to Duncraig. After that, just a straight ride down the lochside.” She pointed behind herself, where Pardus sat beside the boat shed. “Much easier when you’re not being chased.”

           Roan threw her head back and laughed for sheer joy. “A wizard! Gods. You look well! So Stormhaven’s been treating you properly?”

           Asta nodded. “It’s a good place to live. Clean streets; friendly people; nice parks. A fantastic museum. I found work up at their College, where they train the wizards – mostly administration, but I ended up helping the School of Constructs with some theory as well. It’s just…”

           Roan leant down to study her face. “What?”

           She draped her arms over Roan’s shoulders and touched her forehead to hers, closing her eyes. “You weren’t there.” She opened her eyes again and looked up to meet Roan’s. “Can I come home?”

    ��      Roan pulled her in close, one arm cinched tightly around her waist, and gave her a very slow, thorough kiss.

           Asta returned a small, soft smile when it ended. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

                                             The End

~~~

Roan has been building a closer relationship with the water horses for the last couple of years. They still won’t tolerate her coming close when the new foals are being born, but once they’re a few weeks old they’re happy for her to come and say hi. She probably has the strongest bond with Riabhach, but if he were to be displaced by another male the rest of the herd would bring the new guy up to speed in no uncertain fashion. 

Kiraan as a culture isn’t yet in quite the right mindset for outright abolition of slavery to have much widespread support, but they’ll probably get there one day. Zar’s primary argument for his new law was, in rather more official language, “What the fuck is wrong with you people!?”

[gryffonweald]

Reference Journal for Exalted Secret Santa!

I’m going to be referencing a character “Delphi” a  lot in here! She is my PC, No-Moon Lunar with a Pegasus spirit shape. I didn’t include her here because I draw her a lot though, and I wanted to give some airtime to some of her and my favorite NPC’s: 

Melon 

— Air-Aspected Dragon-Blooded warrior. Skilled with the spear and innuendo.

Melon specializes in languages and cyphers: she can create encoded messages that recipients find intuitive to decode, or learn new languages very quickly (albeit temporarily). She's a close-quarters fighter, specialized in team-fighting. She's also a trained Warstrider pilot. Melon is a Sorceress. She can send Infallible Messengers, and summon Stalwart Servitors (which are strong, dumb servants) Her anima manifests as pulses of electromagnetic energy around her. She does not know about or understand magnetism, and so she simply calls it "Melon Lightning".

Melon is known for having bouts of silliness that will cheer anyone up, but she is a serious fighter, and she has been spending a lot of time training our new recruits! (She even trained Delphi, my Lunar PC)

Her hair is bright orange (It’s how she got her name) and tends to “misbehave”. 

Radulfr

-- Full Moon Lunar, his totem animal/spirit shape is a Snipe

Very androgynous looking (Often mistaken for a girl): thin, pale, long brown hair. Bears a great Moonsilver Daiklave with three cats'-eye hearthstones on it. Captain of the Tzalti Air Boat "Killer Whale". He is impossibly strong, Impossibly fast, and skilled at war! 

I have described Radulfr as the serious figure to balance out Delphi’s wild energy. He is practical, punctual, and skilled as a commander.  But hes still a little soft on the inside, and he keeps falling in love with people. Delphi is the only one that has stuck so far!

“ He has a -really- girlish face Smooth, thin eyebrows, long eyelashes. Just very feminine proportions all over. His skin is pale and smooth, which is unusual for his people. His hair is -super- long (like, longer than waist-long) and he mostly wears it loose. It's smooth but thin and wispy so the wind blows it around easily. He usually wears a headband to keep it from going onto his face. “

“ Radulfr's eyes are really light brown, almost yellow “

(This second picture is my rendition, but I think he’s technically a little too masculine in it.)

Walks In Circles

--No Moon Lunar, Totem/Spirit-shape is a River Dragon

Master of shapeshifting, Circles can adopt an amazing variety of shapes, ranging from tiny insects to enormous elephant-sized monstrosities. She takes special pride in her ability to carry groups of people at high speed across long distances. This competence tends to be overshadowed by travel Sorcery. Circles is tasked by the Silver Pact to locate, rescue, tattoo and train young Lunar Exalts.  

By profession, Circles is a Spirit Guide- she negotiates agreements between men and gods, and gives advice to humans on how to handle supernatural powers. Circles is a skilled crafter and physician, but she is often overshadowed by Solar Exalted who specialize in the same fields. As a combatant, Circles has had many years of specialized martial arts training, but she tends to panic in dangerous situation and revert to instinctive attempts to overpower her opposition with great size and muscle mass. Circles is a Sorceress. She can summon and bind elementals, but has not demonstrated knowledge of other spells. Her anima is a River Dragon- a rhinoceros-sized lizard with great claws and jaws and a great dorsal fin. Her Tell is said fin from the back of her neck to the base of her spine.

She is Delphi’s Lunar Mentor. She taught her how to improve her shape-shifting and gives her advice on general Lunar Matters. Shes known for showing that she needs affection by pulling shape-shifting pranks. Most famously: Camel in the Closet. Circles is also known for rarely being in her true shape. She attends meetings in animal shapes, and she even has other human and dragonborn shapes that she takes on missions.

Something that is hard to provide reference for is that she is short. She also doesn’t have an official outfit really, but she tends to wear loose and comfortable dresses and the like. 

(I will try to add more references of her as I get them! This is the one I have for now!)

The Shoat of the Mire

-- Abyssal Midnight Caste

Small, Cute, and Tragic! Shoat has long white hair, and always dresses like she is attending a funeral. She wears all black and white with plenty of lace, ruffles, and ribbons. Shoat is a social exalt with a skill for getting people (especially ghosts) to like and listen to her on account of her being so cute. She has been described as “More Round and Cute and Elegant. Her hair is kind of fluffy, and her dresses look like she might float like princess peach.” Her style is rather Gothic-Lolita, but with more white than you would expect. Delphi recently made an Ivory Butterfly Artifact, which is a white butterfly streaked with black abyssal energy. Delphi often puts it on Shoat like a hair-clip. 

She speaks Forest-tongue primarily which gives her a bit of a speech impediment. Her anima appears to manifest as an evil pig, but it mostly follows her as a shadow. This shadow reacts negatively to her forming bonds, and will lash out at those she cares about if she doesn't devote time to appeasing it. It also passively spawns Zombies. Her primary weapon is Brother which is either a scythe or a rifle that transforms into a convenient if heavy box backpack.

She’s Delphi’s best friend, and they entered the campaign together shortly after the first met. They hardly leave each others side, and there has been suspicion that they might be Mates. Shoat likes being comfortable, and can often be found lounging with a Delphi-Dog, Delphi-Fox, or another Delphi-Animal cuddled up with her. 

(I have been struggling for so long to get her Cute Enough. I struggle ;-;) 

Reference Art by our lovely ST @gaussrik (twitter) and yours truly.