#there are only 3 constants in this world: death taxes and xuanxuan raising nathaniels blood pressure

[sarcophagid]

xxv in the tower of babel essence

he looks a bit too much like yuanji with a braid... im sorry

lore:

xxv's name here is jinwu for now. this was originally a time loop thing where jinwu was an oracle with a severed head that nebu reattached every loop. regardless of that detail they used to know each other when they were young prior to nebu's conquest. they separated because nebu wanted power and jinwu got bored of him

jinwu reads nebu's fate and tells him that he'll succeed. however, the new kingdom will also eventually fall to a new insurrection, following a cyclical pattern like the rising and setting of the sun.

nebu calls bullshit and they part ways. years later, he orders to have jinwu executed by beheading, who points at the setting sun before he dies. it ends here!

(or we can keep the deathless looping thing and nebu hangs onto the head so it can't get reattached. also some stuff about haunting and descent into madness but anyways thats just for fun though.)

notes:

elements of the makeup and clothing were inspired by tang dynasty fashion. idk when the story takes place so im not actually sure if thats super accurate 😭

the moon symbolism goes nowhere, the oracle doesn't have an active role in the rebellion, i just wanted to have it match the crescent shaped face markings. main idea is the crow symbol, which goes with the sun bc everyone in the essence has some sort of sun-related symbol in their outfit