Descent in Silver and Glass By Cat McDonald
Instruments: Tarot Deck
Game Description
You are weak, you are fragile, you are faltering and there is a Darkness inside of you that you cannot control and can no longer hide. As the Heir Apparent, you are unprepared to rule your people, and should you take the throne as you are now, people will suffer. But you must be made to rule.
Game Content Warnings
These are content warnings that are from the game prompts and are present in all playthroughs.Playthrough Content Warnings
These are content warnings specific to this playthrough only.
Word Count: 1,272 Played: Nov 10, 2023
Title: Throne of Liram
When a Throne has passed the direct descendents of the Throne are put through rigorous testing by a council to determine who is most qualified. Anyone under 20 is automatically disqualified. There must always be a Throne in Liram so if there are no direct descendents, the siblings of the Throne are considered as are their children.
After Throne Asta Oskarchild Runa, The Glorious failed to return from a campaign in the north, his wife Gunnhildrur Luddechild Verner Runa pushed for a new Throne to be crowned.
Signy Astachild Verner is the 6th Child of Asta Oskarchild Runa and Gunnhildrur Luddechild Verner Runa and, according to her mother, must be made ready to rule.
Age: 20
According to the people of Jotford, Liram has extended too far into Jotford and many claim that she does not hold these lands truly. According to Liram, these lands are rightfully hers through older political marriages.
According to the Gods, Liram and its noble line should not exist as its rulers are descendants from those who once defied them.
She loved her father, Asta, and after her mother, Grunnhildrur spirited her and her siblings to the summer palace and forbade him from seeing him, she sent him endless letters and received many in return along with gifts and other tokens of affection.
No matter how much her mother tried to turn her against him, she couldn’t. This turned Signy into a sentimental and wistful person, whereas it turned her older siblings angry and resentful towards their mother. Signy knows that she’s the favorite because she’s the easiest to manipulate.
Her ascension to the throne would mean that she would be a figurehead to her mother. Signy doesn’t really mind though, but she wishes she could be stronger. Most people know this, but they believe that once Signy is older she will stop listening to her mother as much, whereas her siblings are known to burn bridges far too easily and will do things to spite their mother instead of what is good for the country.
Signy is easy to get along with and tends to listen to everyone else for advice before making rash decisions.
Cups: Kind, gentle, beautiful
Page: Limited power with the potential for growth
Do they not see themselves as a monarch?
She believes that she will still be under the control of her mother, and that once she has enough experiences or when her mother has passed or is incapacitated she will finally be able to be a true ruler.
You are led to a bridge and asked to cross. At the midpoint a spirit asks you to jump, telling you your true self lies below.
Do not Jump
Lies, tricks, and illusions; there are no tamed nor enslaved spirits in Liram. We do not deal with the accursed fae and we have been damned by all the gods.
This thing will not make me falter.
I stumble at the edge of a vast cavern and, as if a force has pushed me I fall, but I know it is of my own fault that I found false footing. Through the darkness, plunging I see myself a Throne upon throne, golden crown weaved into hair and chains of office around my shoulders.
I am older, wiser, sadder. I listen as the advisors whisper poisons and plans into my ear but I heed them no mind. I know their trickeries as well as their ambitions and use these to my advantages as I sow discord amongst the court at my leisure.
I have become my mother.
I must not become her.
And I am at the bottom, broken foot, and palms scraped. Shaken, but able to carry on.
Before you is a mirror that will show the inner darkness.
Before I see myself I see the cracks form at the edges of the mirror. They are straining, splintering, and all at once they shatter down, pass the edges of the frame and into the cracks of the tile and up to the ceiling.
And there I see myself, through the violent broken glass. There is no trace of any person I am now in those eyes. She laughs as the broken glass cuts deep into her flesh when she-I move, as if it were razor wire within her world, severing her into pieces and reassembling herself upon a different reflection.
She reaches out through the glass and it severs her further. She does not care. She will be free, and she cuts and scrapes and claws her way through until she is sliced and nothing more than blood and glass.
I can still see her eyes as she laughs at me. The only freedom she has is in destruction and I know I too have the darkness my siblings bear.
And the world has returned to darkness and once again to light. And I stand alone, knowing only one of the people in this mirror remains intact.
Beyond the mirror is a door. Scraping sounds come from behind it and you remember the holy sword on your back
It is you in all aspects, same holy sword, same robes. They do not hesitate.
Fight.
She is on me. Sword in hand, death in eyes, and faster than I could have ever imagined. Her rapier is sharp and she lunges like a fighter not a sportsman.
Her blade binds mine and her shoulder is upon me, corp-a-corp and I am on the ground, where I kick her legs until she too is down.
This holy sword I carry is a burden I discard and my hands are upon her throat.
Destroy the Darkness I hear so clearly in my mind it could be in my ears. Her face is red and the vessels of her eyes have begun to burst.
Destroy the Darkness again as I see the white scars appear on her skin, like someone who has been severed and reassembled.
Destroy the Darkness as I feel her pulse weaken and I notice for the first time just how much I look like my mother.
I let go.
She holds her sword, trembling, and she lunges one last time at me. I feel the cold as it pierces through me, and then nothing.
She is gone.
I am filled with cold and terror, elation, sweat, and I am exhausted. There is nothing but the mirror. There are no others but me. I cannot recall a time before in which I was truly alone. All my life I was surrounded by attendants, servants, family, courtiers.
I have now the time to be no one but myself for no one but myself.
I pause.
I breathe.
And I find my way back to the light.
The Tower - Difficulty 5
Did you struggle against the vision of a Monarch?
No
Count the Wand Cards:
2
Did you draw the Eight of Wands?
No
Total: 2/5 Failure
I return up to the surface where the veiled attendants are waiting. They look at me, through their veils and I can hear faintly on the wind, almost like chimes, the breaking of glass.
My mother is there too, and through the disappointment on her face I can see the faint scars of reassemblance.