Crossposted from my personal site — this mirror is not kept up to date. This dream we share escapes us: no masters, no traitors, only bugs united. Lucidity is a dreamer’s sacrifice to reality, and our sacrifice is the vesperbane. A vile transformation through bat blood and black nerve, the vespers grant a mantis power to wield shadows and warp flesh, a metaphysical will. Only vesperbanes can give our grand dream breath — but every vesperbanes is shadowed by the potential for oppression and defection. Three mantis nymphs will undergo this metamorphosis, yet each holds another dream in their hearts: a scholar who must learn the secrets of the mind to bring the dead back to life; a servant who must atone for lives taken and find a cause unquestionable; and a rebel who must kill an angel and avenge a destroyed home. In this world, the mightiest wield the power to crush cities or spawn monstrous armies — here, there’s always someone above you, and it’s a long, arduous climb higher. But true power is wielded by those with the cunning and the connections to direct the mighty. In every shadow a conspiracy dwells, and these nymphs already have killers hounding them, spiders weaving webs around them. Anyone can climb to the top, anyone can tangle in these conspiracies — but what would you sacrifice along the way?