Decor Plan:
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Delphinia is born to the Herbalist Princess, Rosalee and the Protector, Monroe, on a rather uneventful night. It is days later when the oddly small cub opens her eyes, that her mother realizes there’s something…special…about her daughter. Delphinia’s gaze seems to look -through- her pride mates, rather than at them, and she sometimes seems to know things she shouldn’t. The young cub starts having odd dreams, though doesn’t think anything of them, until the fateful night where her parents and ‘aunt’, Juliette, are killed. She, luckily, is spared that night, though it is only due to chance, as her sisters, Alchemilla and Helleborine, had asked for her to sleep in their den that night. They are rather close with their tiny sister, and so their parents had allowed them to bring her into their den for the night. Of course, Monroe and Rosalee hadn’t known that, in doing so, they were saving their daughter from the murderous Mage Adalind.
In the aftermath of the attack, Delphinia is, understandably, grieving. She continues to have strange dreams, and even has odd moments when she is awake where she will stare at nothing, but her pride mates think nothing of it, until one morning she—quite seriously—tells her sisters to avoid the mountainous area at the outskirts of their territory. Alchemilla and Helleborine think nothing of it, especially since that area is rather good for hunting, but when the two are caught in a landslide with the rest of their hunting party, they realize something is up.
It is realized then that Delphinia’s dreams are not simply that, they are prophetic. The young cub wrestles with this, as she’s not really sure what to do. She can’t really train to hunt or fight, since when she gets her visions, she can’t respond to anything that is happening in the tangible world. In the meantime, as she tries to figure out who she is, she follows the efforts of Jask III, Trubel, and her sisters in trying to catch the murderer of the trio. They all suspect Adalind. Delphinia does not disagree. There is something…malevolent…surrounding the Mage, the young one can sense it.
Then, one dark night, she recieves the clearest vision she’s ever had. Voices speaking. The acrid tang of blood. The mewls of newborn cubs. The flash of a disfigured face, maw torn open in a snarl. Finally, the voices combine into words Delphinia can understand. A prophecy. Her first, as well.
“The Darkest heart breaks twice tonight,
As the Mage bears new life, just to spite.
If left alone, they’ll surely rise,
To lead the pride with more of her lies.”
The tiny youngster rushes to Jask III, informing them of what she’s just experienced. Her words are enough for the leader to rally the lionesses against Adalind, and the night ends with the death of the murderer. The trio is avenged. It is decided that, instead of training to hunt or fight, Delphinia will take up the position of Oracle, a new role. Seems fitting, as her own mother’s interest in herbalism had prompted her role to be constructed as well.
As Delphinia grows older, passing through adolescent-hood towards adulthood, there is yet another oddity to be discovered. The young lioness stops growing during her adolescent moons. It seems she will remain small. If Delphinia has to have an opinion on that, she realizes she doesn’t really care if she is small. She is not in a role that requires much physical strength, only mental capacity. She also starts to fully consider what her job might actually be for the pride. The young, pink-eyed lioness realizes that she doesn’t care much for herbs, so she can’t combine her prophetic visions with her mother’s role either. So then…who will heal the pride?
Delphinia doesn’t have to worry about that for long, as she thinks about Triteleia, who is slightly older than she is. Triteleia is also the daughter of Delphinia’s sister Helleborine, so she is, therefore, also related to Rosalee. Triteleia seems to have an interest in healing, both spiritual and herbalism, and Delphinia is somewhat close to her already due to essentially being raised by Helleborine and Alchemilla. So, after speaking with the purple-hued lioness several times, Delphinia realizes that they can work together. She can be the Oracle, and Triteleia can perform the more…physical duties. That works better anyways with the personalities of the two lionesses. While Delphinia isn’t unfriendly, she is rather quiet, though gentle. Triteleia, on the other paw, is much more sociable, even having a humorous side to her that might be helpful when tending to patients. The older lioness is also fiercely protective of Delphinia, and it will be helpful to have that protection if Delphinia goes into a vision-state at an inopportune time.
With that decided, Delphinia continues to adapt to her role. Early one night, she has an odd vision, one with flashes of a pool of water. She awakens, and slips out of the den—Rosalee’s den—quietly. She searches the territory, and as the moon reaches its highest point in the sky, the Oracle spots it. A pool of water, reflecting the beauty of the stars above, and surrounded by protective rocks. This pool is special, Delphinia can sense it. Something, a twinge in the back of her mind, prompts the young lioness to sit down by the pool and touch her nose to it.
It is as if all of her senses have fully opened. Her eyes glow wildly, her fur standing on end as the force of the stars rushes through her. She hears their whispers, but as the moments pass, the whispers grow to loud voices. She can finally hear them clear as day, at the height of the evening. -This- is what her destiny truly is. One voice rises above the rest, greeting the young lioness.
“Little Oracle, we are glad to meet at last,
We are the voices of the stars, the lions of the past.
We are here to guide,
To speak the truth, in you we confide.”
With that, the voices hush, dimming back to the ever-present whispers in her ears. Delphinia’s eyes cease their glowing, and her fur flattens back to its normal state. She is fascinating by her findings, returning to the pride to tell Triteleia. She returns to a very worried group, with her sisters and the Healer at the forefront. Once they spot the tiny lioness, the fear melts off of their faces, only to be replaced with scolding glances. Delphinia is reprimanded by the older lionesses, who had feared something had happened to the young daughter of Rosalee. She tells them of the mystical pool, and apologizes for scaring them. She doesn’t tend to think of matters such as that when in the midst of a vision, or when dealing with the aftermath of one, but she promises that she will try to remember to tell someone if she leaves in the night again.
All is well in the pride, and though Delphinia still gets smaller visions and hears the eternal whispers of the stars, she does not hear a prophecy that carries the same intensity as the one she had recieved the night Adalind was killed for a while. That is, until the death of Trubel. She hears from Achillea, Jask IV, and Gloriosa that the Captain had said something…odd…on her deathbed, and the Oracle promises to listen out for anything from the stars. True to her word, she focuses her attention to the whispers, which seem more frantic than usual, though she cannot pinpoint any understandable speech from them.
Finally, after moons of listening and not recieving any answers, Delphinia returns to the moonlit pool, where she hopes the stars will be able to speak properly. She touches her nose to the water just as she had before, and at once her senses are flooded. While her first time at the pool felt very welcoming, this time the energy was frenetic. The young Oracle is filled with anxiety, wondering what the reason for the shift is. The voices become almost too frantic, and her head starts screaming with pain. She tries to close her eyes, but they won’t shut, the glowing pink aura much stronger than ever before. Finally, it all stops. Silence. Then, all the voices speak, in sync this time. Understandable.
“Keep your pride close, Little Oracle,
To save them all will take a miracle.
The Mage’s wrath, which you’d hoped was done,
Has in fact, only just begun.
The malevolent wraith was simply biding its time,
In fact, it has found another vessel to continue its crime.”
Then, the voices begin their chaos again. Delphinia rushes away from the pool, a splitting headache pounding through her skull. Her heart and mind race. What ‘wraith’? Had there been a spirit allowing Adalind to do what she’d done? And…why has it returned? Who is the vessel that the stars speak of?
She has so many questions. Yet, she only knows one thing for sure. She needs to inform Triteleia, Jask, and Achillea.
Design Progress:
- Jewelry: Moonstone Veiled Circlet (July crafting, nothing else needed; OR 14-15 gb Branches)
- Feather Decor Back Piece [Gray and Purple] (200 sb Monkey Business during Pride; OR 1 gb Branches)
- Iridescent Feather Tail Wrap [Purple] (Crafting, need 10 Scimitarbill Feathers and 10 Herb: Nut Grass; none on Branches)
