[ooc: this is all IC opinions bc Silent is horrible as usual]

The shafts of moonlight that shot through the interior of the temple and fell across the stage illuminated a figure far different than what was usually seen upon this very stage.

Kydobi did not stand there this night, no instead a far larger and far more sinister being of appearance sat and awaited all those who had heard the call to gather not long ago - for he had sounded it himself.

The Pitt disappointed him,

And he had never been one to let things torpor for the sake of morals or rules, so he didn’t - and he took the crown out of the hands of those to weak to slake a land thirsty for blood and a people growing restless and idle

His people now,

How novel,

”gather Pittians, we’ve languished long enough”

[ I will put all changes here after the second post detailing them is made for an easy recap after everyone is gathered ]

it had only been the other day that jack had spotted kydobi, but here, now the other was absent admitst his own clans meeting; the ardent was gone and it was silent's form wavering through the sun like a great void that ate up the sky- the sun. Jack was amungst the crowd of the others, ice blue eyes looking onwards as his friend- would it be right to call them friends? steped up and took the reigns of once where a bloodless, a peaceful leader stood. for now the other made no move, no motion in defiance against silentgrave.

Worm was there.

Like a snake, he slinks in at Silent's call, and upon seeing Silent posed so above all of the rabble, with no sign of Kydobi, a thrill pulses through him. He does not need Silent to explain to him what has happened, he can feel it in the crowd, the energy, the change. There is a crackle in the air, whimsical, wild. Orange eyes find the massive one he has grown fond of, a smile rippling across his stained maw and he laughs.

Weakness had been ousted, the castle had crumbled, the rabid guards and dogs were unleashed, and they called for blood. He would let Silent speak, and listen carefully, ever so lovingly to his words, let the music of blood and war soothe and whet his appetite.

Where was the body? Could he keep it within his home? Could he watch that great feline skull rot daily, rub his depraved self over the man's decay? He had disgusted Kydobi so, his filthy habits and awful tongue, but what good was his kindness now?

Should they perch it upon their borders and leave it, let the flies breed and eat away at what remained? Prove to the other clans that there was a new regime, a new power? The idea of all of this, well. It was exhilarating. Thrilling, in an acute way he had not yet felt.

His eyes found Atticus in the crowd, and he hoped the boy would know, how kindness dies. How it festers and rots in the sun, how flies and maggots overtake its corpse, how it was ambition and power that drove the world forward, the willingness to cut your teeth on the bones of someone weaker.

Power could not exist, without putting one's whole weight on another's bones.

♛ GAEL Ó BROIN

"ISN'T IT LOVELY?" —-- gael ó broin / faerie / vicar / lamby

a halo of dust in the light shafts flickered around the creature, daring not to touch that pitch dark intent directly as it watched with an eyeless face as they gathered to his call, one of it’s secondary set of forelimbs tucked up underneath it and in the shadows concealing what it had cradled.

It could feel the discontent, the apprehension - the tension, in the air before the skull ornamented throne,

Here below his feet sat skulls carved with the names of leaders past - sought out ones that looked similar to the species or were of the species each leader had been,

And some well-

Silent shifted as his recent acquisition - the pup - climbed from the maw of his ribcage to sit between his forelimbs, amused at her display before his head tilted upwards and the gurgling of the creature before them broke through the silence - that eyeless gaze resting on Gael briefly as the newly dubbed Imperator joined the procession

Then that terrible voice spoke

”far too long have we languished my friends” The whispering below quieted abruptly when Silent began, a voice both creeping and yet silken in a way - meant to persuade yet also to inspire that creeping clutching feeling at your spine.

”when you first joined this land, did you do so knowing it lay itself bare and beaten? A dog bearing it’s throat? Or did you join knowing the shadow of its reputation?” he purred, the shadows shifting behind him as the tendrils that decorated his back writhed in the gloom

”I know I did” it was almost melancholy in its statement and the silence settled ”i joined a land that called for blood in its very own bones - a land built on sacrifice” he hummed ”I can still hear it now”

”that rage, that hunger - yet it was denied!” and with a sudden snap the silence was disturbed as the Silent one’s voice distorted and a hundred angry souls seemed to echo the last line - like the land itself suddenly spoke through the creature - a void into which all those souls had stepped to rage and ruin.

A skull thudded down onto the platform, clutched in the serrated claws of Silent - a skull with dried blood still spattered across it,

A skull in the shape of a feline,

”and look what denial has done to you” the anger was replaced with a sickening croon as the creature’s ‘tongues’ flickered at its teeth before receding.

It leaned back and grinned in the moonlit shafts of light, a deathly visage

”he made pigs of you, pigs for slaughter - by your allies, by your enemies or by the very land you tread” and it was true, what did they do but lie around now? Lie around and wait to die under the whims of a leader spoken for by the very ally that had seen fit to try to smite them from existence.

His head tilted, a sickening crack from that disjointed spine ”I would see you wolves - and so I will, no longer is Kydobi your leader” he stood, the former dragon skull that was laced across his neck now stood stark in the moonlight moulded and forged mounted upon his arm just shy of his shoulder with its horns curling upwards and two teeth driven through the eye socket’s brow - one blood red, one carved from blackest obsidian.

”I am”

the abomination tossed his head to Gael ”and Gael is your Imperator - the pitt has no need for Vicars and there is nothing holy to us” it snorted in amusement ”the ibada is now the blooding and each of you yet to prove yourselves will carry an unblemished tooth ready to be dipped into the blood nile when you compete your nights - those of you who have will receive your blooded tooth, for you’ve proven yourselves fine enough”

he motioned to those that had recently completed their ‘blooding’ ”you will have to adjust your trophies and fit them into or as an armour piece, you will be given your teeth once you have - my Imperator will see to the rest of you when you complete your trials”

”the ranks aside from Vicar have also changed - Erudites are now ‘fleshweavers’ and will be situated in the white temple for where the sick, the injured and those requiring check ups will go - Marauders remain Marauders and will host training, spars and the like in the red pyramid, Pittians remain Pittians - Aspirants are now Acolytes just as Edus are now Pitt pups and debutantes are now new bloods.

Alongside this is the reinstatement of a slavery system - the bloodless - they are so named this because those we capture as such will become one of us in time, we need only.. convince them that we are right - they will not have any teeth on them until they know our way is the correct way, do I make myself clear?” he paused, skeletal tail twitching behind him

”yes we are bringing back the slavery system - we are also allowing raids, captures and torture - why you ask? Because the land calls for it! Because it is in. OUR. VERY. BONES! We are the Pitt! All the clans that your former ruler sought to befriend who now mock us for the beaten dogs he made of us! ALL OF THEM. ARE. OUR. ENEMIES!” the last was said with a snarl so vicious the pyramid itself seemed to rattle with the beasts anger.

And yet just like a switch, the creature calmed ”they are open season to you - all of you - take what you want of them, kill them, dance in their viscera, paint yourselves with their blood and eat their hearts if you so desire - but do not let them demean you so anymore” and here came back the croon, the don’t you know I only do this because this is what’s good for you? For us? They laugh at you, will you let them?

”Raids upon them will be bi-monthly, we will make them second guess their own shadows again - and we will take the resources they squander so poorly - we will armour ourselves everytime we are to go to war and we will leave naught but the fire and brimstone that they used when they torched the ashen city of old!” he rumbled, unfettered, unrestrained, no more was he to be held back by moral constraints of a weak leader

”we will have our festivals - because I will not rob you of your respite, we will have our joy as much as we have our battle and our fire and our blood roaring in our veins when the war drums call” his smile - both of them - was all teeth and deathly glory.

”so I ask, do you agree? Do you wish to be more than the beaten husk of a once great clan? The laughing stock of all those that see themselves better? Or will you wear your teeth with pride and lay bear the hypocrisy of all those that stand above us? We who are not afraid of our own shadows - we who do not fear the truth of us?”

I'll come back when you call me

— aine | the pitt | acolyte | fae druid —