#the rockdove promise rant

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Hiiii!!!

I’d love a little ramble about anything relating to the rockdove promise if you’re up for it! You got me really curious about it!

i would be honoured to ramble for you, thank you for the ask!!!

the rockdove promise came from a story that didn't pan out a while ago, but i've decided to revive it because i really like the concept :)

the prologue comes from the perspective of a vengeful god, and i wanted it to feel super personal so i used first person and increasingly violent language (honestly bbg needs to chill a bit), but the rest of the story will come from the perspective of another, human character.

the actual rockdove promise is a sort of agreement between humans and the old, eldritch gods, who demanded worship, land, sacrifices, and other tithes in exchange for their peacefulness and magical gifts for the lucky few who pledged themselves to the gods more personally. it's been that way since society existed, too, in and endless struggle to give the gods what they ask each year in a ceremony to honour the promise.

however, by the time the prologue begins, the humans are changing. they aren't as faithful as they once were, and the god speaking to us here is furious. they wish to act outside of what their divine peers are planning and retort against humanity with a more violent approach. but they're somewhat outside the planning, and it's not clear if the other gods even have a plan to begin with.

there are 10 (ten) gods, who are worshipped under epithets, as their true names are not to be spoken by humans, as it is superstition that a god's true name holds their power; and since these gods are eldritch horrors beyond comprehension that's a lot of power. i won't say which god gives the prologue, since they won't appear in the story for a while, but they're very... interesting.

i'd love to give more insight when i release more parts of this story, but i hope that's interesting thus far :)

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Tell me something about The Rockdove Promise then, for the tag game :3

thank you for the ask!!

the rockdove promise was gonna be a team project, but it fell through, so i adapted it again, mostly because of the gods, so i'll focus on them.

there are 10 gods, all are very spooky and very temperamental. they are not referred to by their real names, as it is superstition that their true names hold unimaginable power, and speaking it forces a god to be in debt to you, but not without unfathomable consequences. i'll try to be brief,,

The False King

first and foremost is now known as the false king. god of the sky, justice, and order. he is the oldest god, and used to be the divine king. he's basically an allegory for the divine right of kings, full of spite and rage. he's old news by the time the story rolls around, but he introduced the rockdove promise, and it was his threats of damnation that set the status quo since the beginning. father to the next god...

The Dread Prince

my personal favourite. the dread prince is the god of death, stars, and the home. he is the current king of the gods, but human epithets do not grant him that luxury. a fickle, unpredictable being, but that's to be expected since he's never had to try for anything in his entire existence. younger by god standards, and technically a demigod, he holds a strange, taboo power (mostly the element of death); all the gods are watching him very carefully, and the humans are trying to placate him.

The Usurper Queen

goddess of war, rebirth, and revolutions, the usurper queen is the dread prince's wife, though attained this status without her say. after trying to end her husband-to-be's life, she was married off to him by the false king, partly to show her where she stands in the divine hierarchy, and partly to mellow both of them out. a corrupt and spontaneous king fell madly in love with his, and it kind of worked out for both. she's the one who's pov we see in the prologue (y'know, where she threatens to kill all the humans in increasingly horrible ways?)

The Wave Raiser

god of the ocean, storms, and darkness. quite kind by divine standards, but prone to uncontrollable fits of rage and despair that throw the seas asunder. it's such an issue that sailing is well known as a very dangerous affair. with his twin, they try and abate (or cause, depending on the day) the damage.

The Lamplighter

god of travel, guidance, and light. twin of the wave raiser. those sound like great domains, huh? something an honourable god would have, right? hahahaha... ha. in reality, the lamplighter is incredibly vain and quick-tempered, and it's really a gamble if he guides you somewhere safer than the dark, raging sea.

The Witchdaughter

goddess of magic, family, and healing. relatively reclusive, but treats her closest followers very well. she hides in the cracks of reality, bearing her magical gifts to those who pledge to her name. she's rewards loyalty well, and punishes disobedience with an iron fist. her benevolent nature is not constant, however.

The All Seer

goddess of wisdom, prophecy, and enlightenment. the first seer, she spoke her prophecies to the first humans. but they weren't very positive prophecies, so mortals fear her, even today. she only shares her knowledge with close disciples. and if their minds are destroyed forever, that's really not her fault.

The Lady of The Hollow

goddess of decay, nature, and hunting. her worship is few and far between, due to her nasty habit of rotting the bodies of humans that come to close to her divine presence. she sees that the natural order remains intact, decaying old things and hunting those who defy her. quite fun at parties, though.

The Sculptor of Knights

goddess of strategy, creation, and borders. heralded as the one who cut up the land into nations and territories eons ago, her creations sprung forth knights and warriors fueled by blood. she and the usurper queen are quite close friends, where strategy and creation meets brute force and chaotic revolts.

The Shepherd of Lost Things

god of trickery, theft, and oaths. all in all, a very silly guy, they have a bad habit of stealing mortal goods and never returning them. this facade makes them seem inoffensive in comparison to their peers, but they have some more bad traits, to the detrement of humankind.

these are the gods who demand the divine tithes every year, that the usurper queen believes the humans are trying to dispute, and that laszlo is constantly thinking about, despite almost dying (whoops). and it turns out i was not brief. oh well, at least the archives are a little less stuffed..

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۶ tag game: behind character names ৎ

a tag game? in my archives??

thank you so much @moltenwrites for the tag! the original question was about character names and personalities, namely how they were invented. i might update this when i do more of tdfah and rockdove, but for now i'll talk about the current rockdove characters!!

Prince Laszlo Kriska

ah, yes. the rockdove promise's one and only mc, the 16 y/o prince of mikoyav and heir to the throne.

my naming process is on a metronome of "extensive research into etomology, syllable structure, unique letters and structure" to "i like this one :)" and for laslzo it was indeed the second. i such at getting masc names, but laszlo is just a personal favourite of mine, and i thought the name's vibes matched the kind of character i wanted. pair it with a nice, vaguely slavic name as a family name and there ya go!

i envisioned laszlo as a very driven, meticulous, not at all traumatised person who's very set on making his country the best it can be and being a viable heir to the throne. simply put, he always acts like he's in a competition to succeed, but he's not competing against anyone. right now i like where he's at; smart enough to be logical and make the right choice when it matters, but ambitious and stupid enough to make the wrong choice when it matters more. can't wait to unravel all his issues :)

King Yaromyr Kriska

sad dad says what-

keeping up with the sort-of slavic names of mikoyav, i piggybacked off laszlo's name and found another that sounded more mature, more empowering, and overall more befitting of a king, while still keeping his family in mind. a pretty simple process, but honestly, his name is probably my favourite out of all of them, which says a lot because this lot have the first fantasy names i've really liked.

yaromyr was actually a lot more complicated for me to put together, he didn't come into fruition until i started chapter 1. in my earliest ideas, he was an awful dad that constantly fueled the fire of laszlo's crippling anxiety and was all around a scumbag. but that just didn't fit after a bit of thinking. i wanted laszlo to have a more nuanced mentor, someone who he still did pick up bad traits from/in response to, but someone who truly loved him. so he changed into more of a sad dad type, which i think works better (he's still a king though, and he doesn't fuck around in that regard).

Danareth

the gayest man i've ever seen (ok, that's not true, but he's trying)

i'll be honest, i dropped the mikoyav naming conventions with danareth, so right now it's entirely ambiguous where he's from. it's a super english-sounding name, and kind of feels out of place, which i think adds to his vibes. he calls the king by his first name while whispering sweet nothings into his ear, man was made to stand out. i can't remember how this name came to be, but i know i nabbed a part of two english-sounding words from some fantasy name blog/post/generator/website and mashed them together (either "dana-" and "-reth" or "danar-" and "-eth").

personality wise, i just wanted a weird little guy. it sounds a bit redundant when i say it like that, but danareth was made to foil yaromyr's noble demeanour and laszlo's calculated personality. not informal, exactly, but not strict in the same way. while the kriskas are more fixated by political disputes (for yaromyr) and the renewal (for laszlo), danareth is more concerned with internal affairs. combine that with a little dash of general bastard-ness and you have royal advisor danareth!

Ezune

ezune penderghast, the silly!!

since they're from karazun, which is further west than mikoyav, i wanted a slightly different feel for ezune's name than the more slavic-sounding names of the kriskas. while i don't know much about karazun in the same way as miyokav, since i doubt i'll ever visit there in the story, i know the naming conventions have a lot of consonants like "z," "r," "x," stuff that makes it feel that much more modern. it's similar to laszlo in that regard, but overall carries a different feeling, especially from a lower-born person like ezune. it almost feels trashy, unfit for the medieval society they exist in (since ezune sounds more anglo-saxon as it dips into modernity, while the slavic feel of laszlo grounds it in sounding more formal and thus medieval in this context, imo). the surname penderghast is not from karazun, however (dr. penderghast's first name is more fitting for karazun).

as for their personality, it isn't as fleshed out because i haven't decided how relevant they'll be going forward, so i went for a simple approach; curious, impressionable, younger, less fortunate, low ranking. it all amounts to them feeling even more out of place and both not easily forgotten and not easily assimilated. they're a lot of fun to write, i like combining inquisitive and awkward traits into one character.

Other Projects??

that's right, you get a tales from a dying heart spoiler too, how lucky :D

all the main characters in the tfadh anthologies have had their names replaced by our narrator, the heart. as such, the heart picks names for the protagonists that reflect a part of their personality or presence, which the heart does explain, thankfully. it's pretty important lore-wise, since the heart is a - not to mince words - little bitch and does whatever it pleases with whoever enters its folds, including stripping them of their entire identities.

tagging @introchasingstars, @the-ellia-west, @bloodmoonloveletter, and anyone who wants to join!