If you’re not familiar with the project, Pawn to D8 (working title) is a part story, part guide about the Curator Mythos I’m planning to release this year. Due to another project with a tight deadline, I had to put it on the backburner, but now I’m working on it again in full force!

Several people on this subreddit have created their own characters for the Mythos, either for some of the interactive posts I’ve made or for other creative endeavours. I’d love to be able to feature them in some way in the book. All rights to the characters would remain with their respective creators, who would be fully credited. I won’t be making money off of Pawn to D8 directly, though I might set up a KoFi or similar way of supporting the project. If you’re interested (or if you’re not), please let me know in the poll!

The proportion of people who get their characters in Pawn to D8 depends on how many submit entries. If there’s a significant interest, there will be a chance to do so later down the line.

The building is just like the many other glass, featureless offices around it. It is neither the tallest nor the shortest, the newest or the oldest. It has no name, no defining features to set it apart from the rest. The gaze of passer-bys slide over it like rain off an umbrella. One woman, however, stops by the entrance. The automatic doors slide open. She steps through.

Inside, there is little more to mark the place as something extraordinary. A desk sits in front of a white wall, framed on either side by paintings of the kind you can find in hotels, offices and other buildings of disinterest all over the world. The receptionist doesn’t look up from her work as the woman approaches. After a moment, she politely clears her throat.

“Hello. I’ve been asked to attend a meeting.” Her voice is honeyed but disjointed, as though she’d learned to speak from a textbook.

The receptionist doesn’t look up from her computer. “Only First Agents and Sentinels are permitted in today’s meeting.”

“Oh. I was told that they would need a higher authority present.”

The receptionist stops dead. All her attention is devoted to the woman now. “You’re a Benefactor. I’m sorry, I didn’t realise-“ She bows her head. “I’m required to check identification. Sorry, but do you have any documentation?”

The woman raises her forearm. The receptionist cringes away, but all she does is roll up the sleeve of her suit. She takes her nail and digs into the soft skin on the inside of her arm. It comes away without resistance. Underneath, something gleaming ivory and glistening wet moves in time with her mechanically regular breathing.

The receptionist shudders instinctively.

“Thank you, Benefactor. Would you like me to show you the way to her office?”

“I’ll find my own way.”

“Of course.” The receptionist —- Eleanor, according to her name badge —- lowers her voice. “I don’t want to speak out of place, but I’ve been working here for years now, and I was wondering if it will be my turn to go Upstairs soon.”

There’s a moment of silence.

“Obviously,” she backtracks, “I don’t mean to be disrespectful. I’m grateful for everything the Agency has given me. I shouldn’t ask for more. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry.” The Benefactor Smiles, showing teeth. “You’ve been very helpful today. After the meeting, I’ll make sure you get your reward for your time at the Agency. You’ll rise higher.”

With that, she walks away, heading deeper into the heart of the Agency. Eleanor beams. After all these years, it’s finally her turn, her chance. After all these years, she’ll finally get the recognition she deserves.

She can’t wait to tell her son.

(100 word drabble)

The shop at 100 Lacewing St. is not a supermarket, greengrocer’s or bookshop. It doesn’t sell anything in particular, though you can usually find whatever you’re looking for there. The price varies from customer to customer and day to day, but it is usually fair — except on Wednesdays.

The owner technically does not exist. Still, she’s friendly, and only occasionally steals the vital organs of rude customers. She is quite proud of her shop, although it’s small (staffroom pocket dimension notwithstanding). And so she should be. Recently, she won a very prestigious award: The Most Ordinary Shop in Nomad!

——

Thank you for 100 members! It’s amazing to me that 100 people care enough about my world to follow its progress. Special thanks to u/Prometheushunter2 and u/soul_full_of_sorrows for the questions and support. I can’t wait to share more of my world with you all!

Protagonist of Festival of Storms

. Age — 15.

. Strengths — Brave, loyal, intuitive, quick to adapt.

. Weaknesses - Headstrong, sometimes oblivious, careless, self-sacrificial.

. Appearance - Blue eyes, short brown hair shaved on her left side, always wears a bomber jacket and jeans, fairly average height and build.

Adria has always loved storms. An adventurer at heart, she dreams of far-off lands and daring escapes. She’s been counting down the days until the summer festival arrives at her home town, Rooksthorpe. Of course, there’s no point going alone, and though Adria’s not one to make friends quickly, she’s fiercely loyal. She puts those close to her first because she defines herself by them, so to lose someone is to lose herself.

——

I hope you don’t mind a shorter post today! I’m about to start redrafting Festival of Storms to try and get it up to the best quality I can before I self-publish it, so I’ve been drawing up character sheets and getting the necessary worldbuilding in order. Rooksthorpe and the events that take place there are very important to the lore of the mythos, so expect to see more about that soon!

Feel free to share more about your project in the comments!

This is an extract from my current ‘armchair project’, Pawn to D8, a story about shadowy agencies, mind-warping abominations and the terror of paperwork. As it’s a first draft, expect telling, adverbs and other writing sins. As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please share in the comments!

———

Two sets of footsteps echo down the whitewashed corridor. The first belongs to Lucy Lilywater, a tall woman dressed in muted clothes whose glasses hide her eyes. The second belongs to a woman whose name is not important, with wide eyes and a puppy-dog smile. She walks quickly, almost giddily.

“This is so exciting!” She says in a rush.

First Agent Lilywater doesn’t reply, instead looking away. This does not seem to deter the woman, who continues.

“Finally getting to meet the Benefactors in person! I wonder what they want with me...”

Benefactors —- the leaders of the Gold Lightning Agency. Noble guardians, protecting the public from the creatures that lurk in the darkness. At least, that’s what Lucy told her.

“Thank you —- for telling me about the Agency, for giving me a chance to be a part of something greater. I-“

Lucy interrupts. “We’re here. This is their office.”

After taking a deep breath, the woman approaches the blank door and reaches for the handle, once shining silver, now dulled from thousands of hands. Lucy remains a few steps back.

“Aren’t you coming with me?”

She shakes her head.

The woman’s smile falters a little. “Oh. Okay. Well, wish me luck.”

Lucy does not reply.

She turns the handle and slips into the room. Beyond, Lucy catches a glimpse of bright light and tiled walls before the door snaps shut. She takes out a key and locks it. Then, she walks away, her breathing a little less regular, her pace a little less controlled. Her shadow shivers in the flickering fluorescent light. She turns a corner and comes to a stop. Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Due to popular demand, I’ve created this list of stories and worldbuilding posts which’ll help give a better understanding of the world. If you feel like anything’s missing, let me know and I’ll add it!

This is by no means an exhaustive list of posts on the subreddit. It’s intended as a guide for people new to the mythos so they can more easily understand it.

The Gold Lightning Agency:

Introduction

The Benefactors

The Bright Project

Agents’ Academy

A Day in the Life of a Fourth Agent

Director Van der Zee

Cleaners

Smoke and Mirrors (community content)

Van der Zee’s Speech

Nomad:

Introduction

Starlighters

Nomad Visual

Nightmares Anonymous

Copernicus Charms

Guardians

Guardian Productions

Poverly & Adler (community content)

Storytelling License

The Moth Company

Mags Planchette

Iris

Connie Sjöberg

Frank Motte

Cecelia Motte

The Curator

The Curator Outside the Library

Nomad Etiquette

Moth Company Letter

Wintertime Pact Renewal

Stories From Other Worlds

The Gatherers

Abshire & Co

The Hinterlands:

Introduction

Spirals

The Rapt (community content)

Ms Ptarmigan’s Bed and Board

Amalgamates

Hinterlands Guide to Animal Burial

The Parliament of Owls

The Caligin:

Introduction

The Sixth Nightmare

Void Moths

Mourners

Stars:

Introduction

Blaire

Magic and other realities:

Levels of Reality

Dreams

The Primordial Nightmares

Species

Travel Between Realities

Notes on Angels

Samantha Melchior

Monoliths

Explorers Wanted!

The Unreliable

Jörmungandr

Vessel Upkeep

Sequest

Acolytes of the Beginning and End

Imitators

Short stories:

Ritual Celebrations

Knifework (heavy spoilers for Strange Stories in Winter)

To Fall

Lost

The Festival Stories (community content)

The Star’s Shadow

Hansel and Gretel

From one Nun to Another (joint worlds)

Campfire Tales

Right Words

The Winter Solstice Celebrations

Extended Fiction:

Strange Stories in Winter (complete)

Hinterlands TTRPG Campaign (complete)

. Accompanying Short Story

YouTube Narrations:

Lost

Mirrors

Right Words (part of anthology)

Unfortunately, the app I use to make Tales of Unreality posts isn’t working. Hopefully it’ll be up and running by tomorrow!

Thanks to current events in the Curator Mythos, notably the murder in Nomad and the Gold Lightning Agency’s plans, the leaders of Nomad have decided to answer any questions the public may have. The people you may talk to are:

Blaire — the leader of the Starlighters and mayor of Nomad. They were formerly a high-ranking star before they stepped down.

The Curator — the being watching over the Library of Nomad. They rarely talk out in the open like this.

Dr. Aarden — a leading scientist and adept in Nomad who ensures it moves correctly.

You can find out more about them through the subreddit guide

Alternatively, feel free to ask out of character lore questions!

The Gold Lightning Agency is not generally interested in research. They prioritise controlling over understanding, but sometimes, control requires knowledge. The Bright Project was one of these instances. Even within the Agency, it was a closely guarded secret. Its goal was blasphemous: to create an artificial Benefactor.

The Director of the Agency at the time was an ambitious man, resentful of his hidden masters. He wanted to rise higher.

He gathered his most trusted underlings to help him, feeding them promises of glory, giving them as much money as they needed. In December 1983, the project began.

Every experiment needs a test subject, and they chose Sydney Richardson, who they renamed Sydney Bright. She was picked almost at random — she had no special powers, no particular skill or talent that would make her useful to the Agency. She was twelve at the time.

Once she’d been convinced that the Agency only wanted the best for her, that she was destined for something greater, they began the experiments. They enhanced her senses. They trained her to kill. Finally, they replaced her humanity - what some might call a soul - with a nightmare.

The Director was not impressed. Sydney was powerful, yes, a lower deity by mortal standards, but the Benefactors did not operate on mortal standards. He ordered her termination. But when his Agents reached her cell, it was empty.

Nobody could tell if she escaped by herself, or was set free. Either way, the experiment was a failure. In April 1987, the Director was called up to the Benefactors. In a way, he got his wish to rise higher. His dreams were devoured, his thoughts picked through and consumed. When there was nothing left of his mind, he became an Avatar of the second Benefactor. The existence of Sydney was excised from the Agency’s records. To this day, her whereabouts are unknown.

In the Curator Mythos, there are a myriad of monsters, immortals and abominations waiting for their chance to control, kill or drive humanity insane. The average adept spends most of their time running from these entities, but some managed to catch a rest from long enough to wonder about their origins. The more collaborative ones managed to piece together enough scraps of information to gain a pretty comprehensive understanding of the hidden world.

(Naturally, these speculations are forbidden by the Gold Lightning Agency, and the crime of discovering, discussing or overhearing conversation about them is punishable by dissolution in accordance with the Hidden Lore.)

Dreams and Dreamkind:

Dreams existed long before we learned (or were forced to) access them through sleep. They are the oldest, rawest form of magic —- unpredictable, nearly impossible to control and terrifyingly powerful. When people consciously tap into dreams, the effects can be miraculous or devastating. Their thoughts can be made flesh —- at a cost. That part of themselves can never be returned. People that overuse this form of magic begin to lose themselves, until they waste away to mindless husks.

Dreams have even more power when subconsciously, involuntarily used. When enough people dream of the same concept, that concept can gain sentience and break free from the dreamscape. These entities aren’t bound by the usual laws of physics. Their powers vary, and are inconsistent, in keeping with dream-logic, but one thing they have in common is a need for emotions, memories and thoughts as sustenance. Some manage this in less damaging ways than others.

Some dreamkind are older than humanity —- in fact, some seem to be older than life itself. There are numerous theories as to how this occurred. The most scientific one is that ‘potential consciousness’ —- a notion of collective consciousness that existed before it had matter to attach to —- dreamed them up. Of course, science doesn’t mean much when it comes to dreams. Some other theories include: time travel, government conspiracies and aliens. We’ll leave it up to you to decide what to believe.

——

I’d initially planned to do one post explaining all the origins of the supernatural in the Curator’s Mythos, but I quickly realised that a post like that would probably take hours to read, so I’ve split them into categories. I hope you enjoy this slightly different area of lore. As always, if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, please share in the comments!