sphere of the sacred worm

And so it was,

• Alcor, while tending to Almeisan's wounds, pounced upon her and pinned her down before running away in shame as her fellow exorcists discovered them; later, she was comforted by Etzlitotec, the Princess of Spring, who gifted her a flower as Almeisan found Alcor's hiding spot. She danced with her, and destroyed the flower in horror.
• Capella defended their choices with Alcor to their friend Cursa, and discussed her partnership with Almeisan. This was interrupted by Lilii Borea of Southwatch bearing a symbol of a blood debt in the name of Capella's disgraced House Horologii. She wished her to slay the woman Lerna, who she believed to be a Mistaken who was seducing her son Izar; Capella was skeptical but honor-bound to aid her, if not for her traitorous parents, then for her beloved sister.
• Almeisan performed a new dance with her rival, Kerhah, of light and shadows, and moved the crowds with her performance of the shadow. Her success was soured by learning that her childhood friend Eltanin had grown closer to Kerhah in her absences as a knight of the stars, and that they too had heard the same intruding song during the performance- a song sung by Etzlitotec, who haunts Almeisan with her voice and now possibly Eltanin as well, who was driven to cry at its beauty and in fear on hearing it.
• Sadal Melik hunted a burning-hot Mistaken in the city of Tallstar, slaying it yet setting fire to the homes of the nobility in the process. On the final blow, the demon wished them to tell Al Nair, their daughter, that it yet loved her. Later, they intruded on a fashionable party to speak with their daughter as the nobility showed their disdain for them, and spoke to Al Nair of the Mistaken. Al Nair admitted to nothing, but will not forgive her mother for their deeds.

We've learned that the treachery of Capella's parents may have involved the invention of time itself; that the exorcists of the people are also a manner of medical doctor and not a part of the knighthood; that Eltanin has a twinkgender; that Alcor has toebeans on her hindlegs; and that Sadal Melik doesn't have dad energies but that Capella does.

In me there is a Spring
That lasts forever
Such is the warmth I bring
To all who shiver

To those the stars have crossed
I bid you to come forth
To those who are lost
Look to the north…

The night may be long
But don’t despair my friends
The sun will rise again

The dark cold of winter
May seem to not relent
But Spring will always come in the end

and so it was

• The exorcist Alcor met with the knight Cursa at the gates of Tallstar, who wished to turn her away from the city and slay her as a mistaken. Their mentor Rasalas interceded, shaming Cursa in the eyes of her fellows, and told them of Almeisan's well being. In sorrow, they joined the Knights of the Order of the Stars and trained under Capella
• Capella pursued Mistaken quarry into the dark southern forests of the taiga at the edge of the people's lands, and met a mysterious traveler. They spoke, and the traveler offered them the taste of bread for the first time, and the glimpse of the wider world corrupted their zeal
• Almeisan hunted a demon with a face like the people's alongside Cursa, slaying it, only to be injured as she was overwhelmed by its progeny. She cast them the body of the beast that they may mourn, and Cursa tended to her. All the while, a formless presence spoke to her and only her with her lost voice. Her zeal is shaken as she finds herself listening for the voice.
• Sadal Melik sought the support of the noble Pleione to search another noble's tower for a demon. Their meeting was interrupted by one of the other noble's servants, Merope, bearing incontrovertible evidence of monsters living amongst the people. Sadal Melik rooted out two demons, only to earn the ire of the nobility and to mistakenly put their trust with Merope, who is truly the demon general Etzlitotec in disguise.

Other details: Cursa's shikai for her starlight sword is to turn it into a starlight greatbow. Cursa used to have feelings for Alcor and feels a number of negative things now that they have returned as part Mistaken. The people have never invented bread. It's insulting to some to ask about linear calendar time.

We're having fun so far! We're interested to see how things go as we get more familiar with the language of the game, and to see how we try to work in more intimate or lower stakes scenes with the sensibilities of the game wanting big and forward-moving moments in scenes.

While I'm having fun getting ready to play Polaris I think it does warrant mentioning that holy shit are the politics of the setting a mess. It aged really really poorly in that regard. Just super conservative at its core. There's a reason I keep joking about us doing an any% betrayal speedrun.
This isn't a new issue for tabletop games but it really does bear stating.

We make our doomed knights! Featuring:

• Capella (she/they, played by myself), the child of a traitor and horse¹ user. The horse's name is Aberax.
• Sadal Malik (they/them, played by carly), a former advisor to the king and otherwise politically messy bitch
• Alcor (she/her, played by jesse), a famed exorcist of demons who, during an exorcism, was swallowed by the exorcised demon but then burst out of its mouth and is as a result some kind of fucked up monster taur using the demon for their lower half
• Almeisan ( she/her , played by degen), the mute dancer who Alcor exorcised that fateful night, who is doomed to one day go Monstrously Ape Shit (affectionate)

All together, they've got a bunch of weird ties with each other, their shitty friends, their hopeful superiors, and their various rivals, demons, and haters.

Also, they're all in some kind of love/hate relationship with the demon princess Etzlitotec, the Princess of Spring, who is alternately tempting, helping, hanging out with, and singing whispered songs to us. Normal girl stuff.

1. pictured: a horse