Moon brides are humanoid angels with large feathery and dark black wings. Most moon brides feature raven-black hair, though other dark colors are not entirely unheard of. As befits a companion of the night, moon brides will most often have pale skin that will not tan regardless of how much they are exposed to the sun. A moon bride’s eyes typically range in color from red to black.
In ancient times the first moon brides were crafted from the fear, despair, and anxieties of warriors and soldiers before great battles. The negative emotions experienced by those men gave rise to these warriors in the hope that they might inflict the same fear and despair upon their enemies. Many eons have passed since the crafting of the last moon bride by such means, and in the modern day they are born as any other living and breathing mamono or angel. And yet, though much time has passed since, there are those who still see them as ill omens.
The first moon brides were fearsome scourges of the battlefield. They innately sense the fears and anxieties of all beings that surround them and have an innate ability to exploit and deepen these negative emotions. In that way moon brides once wreaked havoc upon the morale of entire armies. While moon brides proved of great strategic value on the battlefield their own physical abilities are well below average where most mamono are concerned. As such, they rarely took up the mantle of frontline warriors and preferred to work their craft from the back lines or from high above.
In modern times these sinister abilities cause many to look upon moon brides with discomfort and suspicion, and an enduring spell of mental issues might incorrectly and unfairly be attributed to one of their kind. Due to the potentially devastating effects of their abilities moon brides will often find themselves under close scrutiny by the authorities. This leads most of them to live on or in the vicinity of Asgard, where their role in the special forces of the Winged Legion affords them a great deal of respect… though not a lack of scrutiny.
Though people look with trepidation towards a moon bride's ability to deepen chinks in their mental armor, their ability to sense the fears and anxieties in others often makes moon brides excellent counselors, teachers and therapists. These and similar professions are often occupied by such specimens as are not part of the Winged Legion. While their ability might also make them excellent negotiators or businesswomen many people will simply refuse to engage with them in such a capacity.
Such traits are not universal; a moon bride’s partner will most often find her to be a kind and understanding woman who is naturally in tune with their moods and their needs. They are often not readily willing to share their own feelings, which some might regard as frustrating. Moon bride’s often find themselves drawn towards individuals who are hurting or struggling, usually with the desire to help them mend. Due to their propensity to help those who are struggling and their innate understanding of what ails their partners they are sometimes perceived to be domineering in their demeanor. When they believe that they know the way forward towards improvement they tend to be very insistent that they and their partner follow that way. Due to their tendency to not easily share their own feelings with others and them seeking out individuals who are struggling, they are sometimes perceived as gloomy themselves, though that is not necessarily the case.
Name That Mamono: Lilis
Lilis is a moon bride with long, raven hair, a great pair of black wings with soft plumage and skin so pale it almost gives her a deathly pallor. At just nineteen years young she is barely considered an adult by the standards of angels or most mamono, yet she has already flown the proverbial coop in pursuit of her goals.
Lilis considers herself a pacifist. At the same time she is eager to serve her angelic kin. Angels wishing to serve their kin will often choose to become part of the Winged Legion, but due to her pacifistic tendencies it is not a path that Lilis would consider for herself. This aversion to the legion was, from a young age, amplified by the stories her mother told her of her time in the service. Her reluctance does not necessarily result from her disagreeing with the necessity of the legion, but she wishes to serve her kind in a different way.
Lilis has put a great deal of thought into how exactly she would wish to serve her people, but has never quite decided on the best path towards that end. Out of all the paths she considered, motherhood appeared the most obvious. After all, propagation of her angelic kind is the only service objectively greater than serving the legion directly. But Lilis, though her mother has the means, would not consider a purchased husband, nor would she cavort with just any man. A moon bride’s natural gifts have manifested to a very strong extent in Lilis and she desires a partner that needs her help to mend.
Such a partner is not easy to find, though in truth, Lilis has not spent much time searching since she left home at the tender age of just sixteen. Just a few weeks after her departure from home and before she even left the Frosthaven archipelago, she came across a young, recently orphaned child named Elva that she could not abandon. Rather than pursue her path to discover her service, she has taken it upon herself to raise this child and has settled down with her on the Isle of Blue Glass, not far from the Frosthold.
Though most of the mamono were suspicious of her at first she has slowly made herself an integral part of the community. Living with Elva has given her the joy of motherhood, though in a way much different than she had ever anticipated. Her own mother was skeptical of her daughter living among mamono and even raising a mamono, but has ultimately decided to support her daughter. And though the children of the surrounding area once shrank back from the gaze of her gold-in-red eyes, in the three years since she has built a strong rapport with most of the children and parents in the area and often finds her home a place where the children come to play. Somehow, the moon bride always knows just what to say to make them feel better.
As much as Lilis finds contentment in her current life, she knows that it will not last forever and finds herself torn between her responsibility for Elva and her determination to serve her kind.
The qerashim (CARE-ah-shim; singular: qerash [care-OSH]), also known as ice angels or dark sheleim, are martial upper mid-tier members of the angel family. They are the mamono counterpart to the sheleim and in many ways the polar opposites of the shinanim. Qerashim are robust and stand on average at around 180 cm (5’11”) tall. They are easily recognised by their grey, blue, or purple skin, elfin ears, and wings made of dense magical ice. Their blood is thick like an ice slush and can, oddly enough, act as a food preservative. It can also slow a human’s ageing but is less efficient at that than mermaid’s blood, hence more blood is needed to achieve the same effect.
Qerashim’s physical strength is comparable to that of dark valkyries. They are innately attuned to cryomancy and can face-tank an incredible amount of punishment -- their wings especially are tough as nails. They can ice-over their wounds to speed up the healing process and freeze their blood to prevent blood loss from deep wounds, but they cannot sculpt and replace whole body parts like the sheleim can except for their wings. Most of their senses are on par with other angels, but they can also see exceptionally well in the infrared.
Qerashim are martially oriented angels who prefer to wield polearms and wear little to no armour. Instead they rely solely on their prowess, toughness, and especially their icy wings, which they can use as shields, for defence. Furthermore they have calm, stoic personalities and put the group before the individual or even themselves, the group being either their local community or their battle sisters. Ironically this willingness to put the group before herself means that qerashim, like the shinanim, have a degree of recklessness to them, though for different reasons.
There are two situations where a qerash’s stoic nature goes out the window. First, they and the shinanim are weirdly adept at ruffling each other’s feathers. Hence, it is common for younger members of the two species to develop fierce rivalries. Yet opposites also attract, so these rivalries are notorious for how often they escalate into spectacularly intense hate sex. Also, despite their rivalry, or perhaps because of it, they often end up sharing husbands, too.
Second, qerashim that have had a taste of nookie will discover that they are a particularly lustful species and are surprisingly passionate during intimacy. A fair few of them would even qualify as nymphomaniacs. Qerashim tend to try and justify their lustful nature by rationalizing that them getting laid is in the best interest of the group, which admittedly is not untrue.
While qerashim make for fairly ordinary partners, as soon as a shinan is inserted into the equation things are about to get spicy, for their passionate side will take over. It is all but inevitable for a fierce rivalry to grow between the two angels as they vie for the human’s affection. While this constant vying for affection can be tiresome if the human is not ready for it this rivalry rarely turns malicious. Even if tensions boil over the angels are most likely to sort things out with a trib fight or a straightforward cat fight rather than scheme or to try and backstab each other.
Once the heat of intimacy seeps into their bodies qerashim temporarily lose their magic and strength. Their wings will melt, though often they violently shatter first sending a flurry of ice feathers in all directions. If an ice feather comes into contact with bare skin it will have similar effects to a raging mushroom, for it acts as a strong aphrodisiac that evaporates inhibitions, flips the power dynamic between mamono and human, and sends the affected party into an aggressive, lustful frenzy. Contact with multiple feathers results in the effects being even more potent and longer lasting. Luckily the qerashim do not lose their toughness, for they bear the brunt of their own aphrodisiacs.
Unable to resist and with a partner who is send into an aggressive lustful frenzy, intimacy for a qerash is often lopsidedly violent and painful. Rarely does she come out unscathed, but this does not deter them. On the contrary, most qerashim believe in the exaltation of pain; they believe it to be the most primal and universal of emotions, the most honest and effective teacher, and the most intense way to reaffirm one’s existence. For a qerash to receive pain is to receive a blessing. Hence most qerashim are deeply masochistic, craving and getting off on intense physical pain during sex. But simultaneously masochism for humiliation is particularly rare among them.
Their masochism goes beyond intimacy. They often let non-crippling battle injuries heal naturally rather than ice them over, just so that they scar. They do this either out of respect for a skilled opponent or to prove their dedication. Furthermore, they consider self-flagellation as the go-to way to atone for missteps and mistakes. As their masochism is one of the few things they have in common with the shinanim, and because of their fierce rivalries, they can be deliberately callous while having hate sex or a catfight with a shinan, but otherwise sadism is not more common among qerashim compared to other species.
Name That Mamono: Ragnhild the Unshattered
Ragnhild is as atypical for a qerash as it gets. As a veteran of the War of the Ancients she is old, ancient even. She is also one of the only one angels to have impressed Brynhild enough to be appointed as her right fist. Ragnhild is not the most attractive angel as her body is scarred and muscular and her face has many masculine features. She is, however, a force to be reckoned with; she wields a glaive with grand master proficiency and has mastered electromancy, aeromancy, and cryomancy.
Despite her skills, nowadays Ragnhild mostly teaches and trains the new recruits for the Winged Legion. It is Ragnhild who gets to assess their prowess and other capabilities to determine where their talents will best serve. Teaching adolescents comes with its own challenges, namely rumours, pranks, and stupid dares. The two main rumours circling around about Ragnhild are that her wings have never been shattered before and that she packs more than just lady bits between her legs. Ragnhild has never bothered to deny or confirm either rumour but has made sure no definitive proof for the rumours can be found either. Almost every generation of angels she has taught has sooner or later taken upon itself to try and get Ragnhild laid. Preferring her students busy themselves with such an inconsequential endeavour over more troublesome scheming, Ragnhild has always feigned ignorance towards their ploys. Needless to say, if what they say about her wings is true, they all have failed… so far.
