What do you get when two ruthless assassins raise their daughter travelling through the wildest reaches of Caido? Take one look at Theea and you'll get a pretty good idea. Cheerful and tenacious in equal measure, and curious beyond all else, she began her journey on a mission to find those her mother once called family. And find them she did, soon rubbing elbows with demigods, leaders and even ghosts from the past. Her determination is resolute, her thirst for knowledge unmatched. We can't wait to see where her next adventure takes her!
Congratulations, Theea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
"Hear one positive and one negative accounts of the Voice, Safrin, Ludo, or Frey from 8 different characters who have met them personally:
? I would like to Skip with MP"
07-26-2025, 01:18 PM (This post was last modified: 07-26-2025, 01:21 PM by Marcus.)
Marcus
Marcus’s fingers trembled as he reached the shrine’s edge, breath misting in the cold air. The sun was bright overhead despite the season, and it was clear all the way until the edge of the fangs. A storm brewed there, and Marcus couldn't help but keep letting his eyes bounce to it -- he felt that same storm brewing in his own heart.
Stopping at the shrine, he took in a deep breath. He looked to Noah beside him, his father tall and sentinel and yet so soft at his side. He swallowed. Then, he took the offering from inside his cloak. The fruit was small for having been grown in the greenhouse--which was always growing peaches, because they were Frey's favorite and Frey had been the one to place the greenhouse--but still sweet and bright.
"Frey," Marcus prayed aloud, voice cracking with youthful nerves, "I wish to see you."
I would like to use my Hybrid Pass on Marcus (and age him up with the process)!
Regional Score bonus: +13 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +13 should be included). Residents cannot be cursed at shrines in this region.
I want you by my side So that I never feel alone again
"Hear one positive and one negative accounts of the Voice, Safrin, Ludo, or Frey from 8 different characters who have met them personally:
? I would like to Skip with MP"
07-26-2025, 01:20 PM (This post was last modified: 07-26-2025, 01:21 PM by Noah.)
Noah
if there's a reason I'm still alive when so many have died
Noah walked in silence with his son, snow and ice crunching beneath his boots.
Noah's heart beat with pride, threatening to burst with every step. He wished, deeply and truly and with every piece of him, that Cordelia were here. He wished his wife was accompanying them for their son to see her herald, to ask to be brought to their side in attunement and a promise to stay on the side of the old gods and their will.
Noah stopped when Marcus did, watching as his son drew out his offering. He had given him guidance on what to bring for the herald, though Marcus had surprised him with what he already knew. The Forsaken placed his hands in his pockets, eyes closing for a moment as he remembered his last encounters with Frey, and he waited. Please, Frey. He needs this. The demigod prayed silently.
Noah won't be posting any more, he's just a supportive dad and a luck enhancer!
Regional Score bonus: +13 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +13 should be included). Residents cannot be cursed at shrines in this region.
Leafchange up in Halo is markedly different to the rest of Caido, and as Frey appears, they embody it entirely. Their body seems to shift in colour constantly, an opalescent spectrum of aurora borealis. With them comes the scent of ozone, of brisk chill and the sense of shifting twilight, and they lean down to grasp the offered peach with the soft fatigue of the season. "A fine time for change, this," they intone softly, shifting to sit before Marcus and taking a bite out of the small fruit.
"There you have it, little one. You have seen me," they say, a slow smile on their lips as they regard the young Abandoned. "Speak. What is it you require of me, out in such a bleak and lonely patch of Halo?" Their expression is patient and yet quietly knowing, though they can't help but flick their attention to Noah, however briefly, before it returns to the boy.
"Hear one positive and one negative accounts of the Voice, Safrin, Ludo, or Frey from 8 different characters who have met them personally:
? I would like to Skip with MP"
The storm within him that matched the storm brewing above the fangs came to a head. His eyes snapped up as Frey appeared and lightning struck in his heart. He couldn’t help the way his jaw hung open, eyes wide as he witnessed Frey’s shifting, beautiful form. He stuttered, ”Uhh—th-thank you,” The worlds felt awkward and almost stuck in his throat and he flicked his gaze — panicked and bright and with another flash of internal lightning— to his father. Frey looked at him, too.
Noah only nodded, and then greeted Frey with a call thanks and a dipping of his head.
Marcus snapped his mouth shut and swallowed hard.
One breath, then another.
He turned his head to look back at the herald, mesmerized. ”I came to ask for your blessing, Frey. To attune me.” Marcus thought he was afraid to ask his dad of the possibility, but asking a god before his eyes brought on another sense of fear he was unfamiliar with.
I want you by my side So that I never feel alone again
"To attune you," Frey repeats, slowly and thoughtfully as they take another bite of the fruit, as if rolling the possibility around in their mind. "Mmm... yes, alright. I think that is something I can do. 'Tis the season for it, after all." They reach out with a long, opalescent finger to prod Marcus gently in the chest. "I cannot take out what is already in here, though," they advise, referring to the curse of his magic. "But we can add to it. We can change you. Do not be surprised if you are altered in other ways, though. Sometimes we have to make room for the new parts of us."
Change. Again, that sentiment crawls through the ice and shivers through the veins - and for the boy, that second part is anything but metaphorical.
Finishing the peach and setting the pit down nearby where it desperately tries to take root in the ice, before decaying into moss and mulch and soil instead, Frey reaches out to cup Marcus's cheeks, as if to fill him with the glittering chill of Leafchange in Halo by simply staring it into him.
And whilst it won't hurt, it will feel nothing like anything the boy has experienced before. His bones sing and stretch and grow hollow; his form warps and shrinks, his flesh exchanges fabric for feathers until, when Frey lifts his hands as if to cast Marcus into the air, it's in the form of a white-tailed eagle. The deity releases him to let him soar, to taste the sky for the very first time and for as long as he wishes.
When he lands, however - and when he shifts back, more noticeably - the true extent of the change will be revealed.
Marcus is now a Level 0 hybrid with a white tailed eagle shift!
"Hear one positive and one negative accounts of the Voice, Safrin, Ludo, or Frey from 8 different characters who have met them personally:
? I would like to Skip with MP"
a silent film he'd watched a thousand times before
As Frey’s hands cupped his cheeks, Marcus froze. Even if the herald had received him quite positively up to this point, he wasn’t stupid enough not to have a reverent fear bubbling beneath his skin in Frey’s presence. The herald’s touch sank into him like snowfall sinking into soil, silent and absolute. His breath cracked, and caught in his throat. Light danced behind his eyes, strange and warm and endless. He felt the edges of himself blur like skin wasn’t enough to hold all that was waking inside him. For a heartbeat, he thought he might break. Tears pricked his lashes—not from pain, but awe. He didn’t pull away. He let it happen.
The sky was vast and bright and it called to him. When Frey released him, he went. He flew. Wind curled beneath his wings, stronger than he’d imagined, sharper than breath. Marcus rose with it, climbed into the wild cold and let out a cry—high and piercing, all instinct and joy and awe. The world fell away below him: the gleam of the Sea of Glass, the quiet shrine, the shape of Frey looking up, his father waiting with held breath. He didn’t think. He felt. He flew.
He didn’t want to land.
But eventually, when the ache of wonder grew too big for even his wings to hold, Marcus circled lower. His talons touched down on the ice, and the shift came swiftly with bones crackling inward, feathers curling to skin, until he stood upright once more.
And different.
Taller. Broader. His clothes strained, tight now now on limbs that weren’t a child’s anymore. His voice, when it came, was deeper. Not unrecognizable, but older. Wiser…yet to be determined. He stared down at his hands. The angles were longer now, the magic in him humming like a fresh heartbeat.
He looked up at Frey, breath catching. “You really changed me.” Not just a new shape. Not just wings. Not just age. Something deeper, broader, wilder.
Frey watches the eagle take wing and soar overhead, tracks him with ease through the sky with little more than a smile on their lips, their hands linking behind their back as the opalescence continues to dance and swirl within their form. When Marcus lands at last, and in a shape that will no doubt have his father doing several doubletakes, the deity does little more than smile.
"We change or we die, sugarplum," they tell him. "Not that I think you are at risk of that any time soon. You are touched by nature, now, as well as cursed by magic. You have inherited a gift that few have ever earned - and you wear it well, if I do say so myself." Frey settles to sit now in the snow, fingers dancing across the little shrine at the Sea of Glass.
"Now, that has left me in need of a nap, if you'd be so kind...?" So kind as to gently take their leave, they mean.
"Hear one positive and one negative accounts of the Voice, Safrin, Ludo, or Frey from 8 different characters who have met them personally:
? I would like to Skip with MP"
a silent film he'd watched a thousand times before
Marcus stood there, taller than he had been minutes ago. His chest still heaved from the flight, his mind catching up to what his body had become. Frey’s words landed with weight, and he swallowed hard, gaze flicking from the herald to the glittering expanse of the Sea of Glass.
Touched by nature. Cursed by magic. Both truths hummed in him now, neither feeling like a burden in this moment. He wanted to thank them, to speak something worthy of the gift, but all that came out was a quiet, “I’ll use it well.”
When Frey sat, the casual grace of it felt almost unreal after what had just transpired. Marcus hesitated, then gave a small nod, understanding the dismissal. He stepped back, letting the wind bite at his new height, his new strength.
Turning from the shrine, Marcus let his eyes lock on his father’s, and his heart lurched with the way he didn’t have to look up to the demigod. Noah’s eyes swept over him—older now, different—but there was no mistaking the glint of pride there. The pull of the sky thrummed in Marcus’s bones, and when Noah’s brow lifted in silent question, he didn’t need words. It’ll be cold in those clothes Noah murmured, and that was all Marcus needed.
The shift came as easily as breathing this time—bones hollowing, feathers spilling over skin—until the white-tailed eagle stood where Marcus had been. Beside him, Noah took his own shift as a griffin.
With a single beat, they rose together, climbing into the endless winter sky.
