☠✧✶⭘✶❂✶⭘✶✧☠

[ ✧ || ♂️ || ✶ ]

looming overhead, a spaceship comes into view. on it's hull, a golden skull & crossbones

"The Child of Plunder, who rules an expansive nightmare cosmos filled with strange bounty & bustling sub-kingdoms, embodies the branch relating to thieves and treasure. Apparitions of pirates and marauders wander the planets and stars within his realm; in space, on land, or on the sea, with the Pirate King watching over them all."

☠ The Captain ☠
he/him || primordial page || pirate king

Born in an ancient era to the nightmares of piracy and pirates alike, King Lock embodies everything and anything there is in the concept of Plunder. "To plunder", to pillage and steal for treasure, knowledge, and lands, and the "plunder" itself, the mountains of gold, jewels, art, and all other conceivable forms of loot.

As such he can be an egomaniac and a bastard, with a penchant for flair and melodrama, a tendency to reminisce about the "golden age" of piracy, and no hesitation to use shows of force in conflict. His age makes him both wise and over-confident, and causes him to view most other Stygian as children (for better or worse) by comparison. 

He considers himself the king of all pirates and thieves, going so far as to have an ornate throne in his flagship. As a Celestial he wields the title as a form of worship, obtaining followers who call him The Pirate King, inadvertently lending him their strength in doing so.

In spite of all his ego and avarice, however, Lock also embodies another important aspect of the plunderer's lifestyle; brotherhood. 

He is generous and protective when it comes to his followers, and keeps his friends and family very close. He distributes shares of his conquests among his subjects on all the worlds of his Kingdom, and manifests to their aid in times of emergency, or in response to their prayers.

His "family", those Stygian or Treatling alike he has either personally awakened or have joined him willingly, also fall under his protection and can move their kingdoms and castles within the bounds of Lock's, to exist as "planets" in his realm. The nightmare realms of his fellow Stygian orbit just outside his kingdom's usual worlds, while the dreams of Treatlings must circle the very outer border to protect themselves from the powerful nightmare energy at the center of his kingdom. He can freely manifest within these 'sub-kingdoms' to oversee and defend them at any time, the owners of the kingdom can pray for his aid just like his subjects can, and said subjects will actively defend their borders on Lock's behalf.

Those who he awakens as guardians however, regardless of where they choose to reside, will be watched over by some of his ink crew as a direct manifestation of his protective nature.

✶ The guns: 8 golden rifles, capable of being summoned & fired in any order, or all at once. Each has it's own name, and is a prized part of Lock's collection.
✧ Vampire: A slender rifle marked with a strange sigil, and adorned with distinctive gold 'fangs'. 
✧ Priest: A rifle with a sharp hooked sight, marked with an ornate cross.
✧ Six: A heavy gun with a peculiar 'bat wing' design to its trigger guard and rear sight, marked with the number '6'. 
✧ Phoenix: A large double-barelled flintlock, decorated heavily with gold, and engraved with majestic wings.
✧ Razor: Another heavy gun, this one decorated with a golden 'spine' of sharp points.
✧ Drill: A simple rifle, distinguished by it's seashell-like lock plate. 
✧ Gambler: A sleek and deceptively modest revolver rifle, distinguished in it's clean simplicity.
✧ Outlaw: A black rifle with an entirely golden stock, engraved with ornate patterns.

✶ The Vault of Avarice: Lock's pirate ship, a massive black & gold starship, that both roams Lock's kingdom & is a direct manifestation of his sub-Kingdom by the same name. The interior is spacious, dark laquered wood and black iron, decorated with gold trim, sculpted and engraved with dark imagery.
The halls display an absurdly lavish amount of treasures, such as artifacts, weapons, paintings, sculptures, and tapestries. There are hundreds of different rooms spread across multiple floors, with even ballrooms and dining halls among the rooms.
The ship's interior layout is more akin to a luxury cruiseship than a battleship, however plenty of weapon storage, war rooms, and gun decks litter the outer edges of the ship.

✶ The crew: The ship's crew are neither stygian nor treatling, but instead a swarm of hundreds if not thousands of daydreams. They are known as the Ink Crew, and act as either warriors and deckhands, or cooks and housekeepers.
The deckhands man the cannons, go planetside during raids, and use their floating golden hands to grab every precious treasure they can get their four hands on. The housekeepers dust and clean the ship's interior, maintain the treasures, make the beds, and constantly prepare and serve food for the crew and guests in the dining hall.

✶ The Keys to the Kingdom: Lock's golden halo is dotted with 5 planets and a moon, each of which he can call to his hand at will. While holding them, he can observe events within the sub-kingdom each represents, as though looking through a crystal ball.
If he so chooses, he can also use them to teleport himself, with or without his entire ship and crew, into orbit around the corresponding planet.

❂ The King's Orrery ❂
Lock's kingdom, a bubble of cosmic space as wide as a solar system, with glittering facades of multi-colored stars dotting the interior layer of the bubble, painting an illusion of a galaxy like a projection across its gargantuan walls.

There is no sun at the center of the Orrery. Instead, a well of ink-black nightmare energy seethes like a colossal black hole, invisible unless viewed against the backdrop of stars, where it appears like a hole cut out of the stellar sky. All else in the Orrery orbits this ominous sinkhole, like marbles circling a drain.

Although each appears dwarfed by the size of the Orrery, the planets that comprise its various orbits are, in fact, full Nightmare Kingdoms and Dream Castles. Their colors, patterns, and general appearance from the outside reflect their surfaces and skies to some extent, but are merely projections of the full contents of their realms. Passing through their ‘atmosphere’ and into the Realm within is precisely like passing into an ordinary dream or nightmare bubble, and once inside, the glittering stars and distant ‘planets’ of the Orrery can no longer be seen; replaced with the unique sky of that particular Realm.

✶ The five major planets are; Charon, Nix, Styx, Kerberos and Hydra,
while the moon orbiting Charon is known only as Obol.

☠ Curse of the King: When entering the Kingdom of another, Lock's Legendary Branch causes black ink to manifest in any body of water. From these pools of ink, Ink Sprites- Lock's Crew- emerge and begin to autonomously hunt for any and all treasures in the realm; even those worn or carried by dreamers or inhabitants.

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☠✧✶⭘✶❂✶⭘✶✧☠

if you want to make a guardian request, feel free to PM me here!
[14/25 Ink Crew Caretakers Remain]