After the Death of the Sky - in which custodians of the planet itself such as the Aquarians and Virgos (including their respective gods) abandoned their duties in protest against relentless pollution - many came to resent the gods. Many Sidereans felt abandoned and feared they were now living in a godless era - and with the planet so devastated already, what would that mean for the future?
A group of Sidereans decided that they needed to take matters into their own hands and begin a conspiracy to gain power from the gods themselves, hoping to channel or outright steal their power. At the center of this conspiracy lied a certain subset of gemstones which, over many years of mortal belief, became associated and thus magically connected to the gods. Usage of a god's respective stone in ceremonies, during prayer, etc. was thought to help mortals draw their attention and borrow their strength, and thus the conspirators saw them as a good enough jumping-off point.
The goal became as such: increase reverence for the Holy Gems - as they would come to be called - find those who were especially attuned to the gods and their respective gems, and figure out how to make one a vessel for the gods using the Holy Gems. It was a slow crawl, with the initial conspirators having to spend their lives simply researching how feasible their plans might even be. Over time, however, the group gained focus and began their plans in earnest.
Sidereans with great magical potential and Blessings were targeted and brought into their cult, which exposed them to the Holy Gems through numerous methods (from as simple as donning to more worrisome methods like ingestion, surgical implantation, and magical rituals). Each candidate would go through relentless training routines customized based on the god they were meant to supplant, preparing them to take over their supposed roles and match their supposed skills. Those who became involved with the cult would find it increasingly difficult to escape as the group suffered from motive drift over the generations, the good intentions of the conspiracy's founders being increasingly replaced by ill intent from the power-hungry. Candidates who became disagreeable would often be killed, worse if they seemed especially promising: if one would not work with them willingly, well, that was nothing a little forbidden magic or illegal soul fuckery couldn't fix.
Though there were naturally special breeding programs designed to create the most effective candidates possible, the conspirators still sought out Sidereans across the world in case there were any uncut gems out there, so to speak. Anyone whose name seemed related to a stone, for instance, likely had great resonance with it - sometimes even rivaling or surpassing those who were specially bred. Those bred to become a Facet had increasingly unnatural and gem-filled anatomy, but those with high enough resonance... well, nothing a little mad science couldn't fix.
As more generations passed, the cult at last had 14 candidates who responded well enough to testing that they felt confident in finally initiating the rite that would channel the gods and turn the Facets into living vessels for their power. The ceremony began, and to their elation it worked! The Facets were indeed drawing in and storing the gods's power!
...However. Let's use an analogy here. The conspirators were essentially trying to create water balloons that could drink up all that divine goodness and have it be released later as needed. However, a water balloon can only expand so much before bursting, and the dilemma in this situation is that the water source never ran out. And the water source in question happened to be funneled through high-power fire horse.
Needless to say, the Facets died instantly and messily. Very, very messily.
The gods naturally sensed the whole "wtf someone's long-distance sucking my metaphorical blood out" thing and quickly ascertained the disturbance's source. Most of the conspirators were scared off by their failure before the gods came knocking, not that it necessarily saved them all. In cleaning up the mess, the gods found something was amiss with the bodies. Namely, that they were no longer bodies at all: the Facets had exploded into piles of gemstones that the other conspirators had intended to make use of as a consolation prize.
Further analysis made it clear that the Facets' souls remained trapped within their newfound prison(s), as did what soul energy was robbed from the gods. A drop in the bucket that was quickly refilled, admittedly, but it was still worth dealing with one way or another. Not to mention, you know. They're moral people who didn't really like the idea of leaving people in such condition.
After a lengthy meeting, the gods came to a conclusion: given the circumstances of the planet and their then-current goals of recompense and understanding, the Facets would be permitted to be the Facets they so planned to be. In part punishment, part reward, the Facets would become aides to the pantheon not unlike the Archangels.
First things first, the gods needed to so something about the... them. With the aid of Saint Karkinos, the Facets had their components recombined and converted into proper bodies again and listen ive had this fucking draft open on and off for like literal months bc i keep getting caught up trying to figure out how to describe anything or connect the logic of things but i don't fucking care anymore okay from here on out no fucking effort!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SOMEHOW all of these shenanigans have led to the gods being able to "upload" their respective facet's soul into their respective gem and thus summon their body at will, although the gods are capable of doing almost literally whatever they want anyway but whatever they're only somewhat cognizant of this and like to have rules for themselves and boring stuff like that. anyway this means they can have multiple copies of a given facet running around at once, and if the facet is "recalled" or gets destroyed they get "uploaded" back into the partition of the god that contains the facet's soul bc that's a thing. the cultists straight up succeeded in a way bc the facets are basically affixed to the gods' souls now but they underestimated the sheer power the gods have bc the gods have all of the power in the relationship. we'll get into this in the abilities section but for now we'll leave it there
with this relationship effectively working as a form of "caging" the gods were able to ensure the facets couldn't engage in any Real overthrowing and the relationship between the gods and facets was extremely uneasy for a while. over time the gods came to trust the facets and vice versa, esp as the facets came to know the gods personally and realized how difficult being a god really is, as they would use the power allotted to them to try and make big changes that they saw the gods as failures for not making, only to have things fall apart because they didn't have the scope to realize how their actions would affect society. the gods kept them from doing anything Too massive but you get the idea.
in modern times the gods trust the facets as much as they do the archangels, and in the event something bad happens to all of the gods somehow the facets are next in line to inherit their power after the archangels. they rely on them as aides and delegate quite a bit to them due to the convenience of being able to have multiple facets up at once + there not really being any consequences to bad things happening to them as potential baddies can't really harvest god energy out of them or whatever. due to this, the facets are the ones who end up on Offworld Peeking Duty most often. they also just appreciate them as foils, helping to keep them humble in contrast to the archangels who were all kinda god stans to begin with.
Characteristics and Abilities
The link between a Facet and their god looks something like this:
Amazing, I know.
By default a Facet doesn't exactly have a body and instead their soul just sort of hangs with their god's soul not entirely unlike a moon revolving around a planet. In this state a Facet is in a state of stasis, sort of conscious but not actively so, somewhere so close to sleep that they liken leaving Soul Form to waking up from a restful sleep. A Facet in this state is said to be in Soul Form. Facets enter Soul Form if their bodies become too damaged, if they are "recalled" by their god, or "retreat" from their bodies of their own will. In this form their "uploaded" memories are consolidated and reorganized chronologically, helping to alleviate the potential psychological burdens that come with having multiple bodies out at once. "Active" Facets can technically "download" the memories of a recently-"deactivated" copy at any time, but doing so can be overwhelming and disorienting.
Actually let's get into all of that stuff before continuing on with the physical forms; the thing with Facets is that they're sort of like computers linked to the server that is their god. The god can essentially copy and paste the Facet's consciousness and memories into whatever they please, which virtually always is the Facet's associated gem. They COULD upload a Facet into a fuckin Funko pop or whatever but their gem is the best conduit for their identity and magic and the Facets note a sort of existential discomfort when summoned through any other conduit.
Related to this is the next stage: Gem Form. In this form the Facet's soul is "downloaded" into a piece of their associated gem, but not used to form a body. In this state the Facet is fully conscious and aware, though their perception is somewhat distorted by their form and they are as capable of "retreating" as ever. Additionally, they become capable of telepathically communicating with their god and responding to telepathic communication from others. Despite their soul energy being present in the gem at this time, the Facet's vibe typically cannot be picked up on due to proximity to their god; the god's vibe simply overwhelms their own.
The gods each keep a piece of their respective Holy Gem somewhere on their person and will always have their Facet in Gem Form when they don't have a proper body active and aren't resting/recuperating in Soul Form, especially if they're on Official God Business. While the gods can "upload" knowledge and memories of their own into the Facets as needed, and can even "stream" things to them if something's really important and it won't be obtrusive to the Facet, but Gem Form's eavesdropping is a nice convenience. Mostly, however, it's useful to have the Facet be aware of an ongoing situation where the god is likely going to convert their gem into human form, allowing them to immediately spring into action.
The gods can give out gems they bless to whoever they please, enabling their Facet to enter Gem Form via that gem as needed. These gems are typically given out to people the gods seek to protect, as well as the archangels. Most of these people are informed of an "activation phrase", which the recipient can use to instantly get "permission" from the god in question to have their Facet pop out in human form.
Speaking of, next is Facet Form, which is generally considered a Facet's default form despite not literally being such. Nonetheless, it's generally what I'm referring to when talking about Facet physiology. Facets enter Facet Form when their god channels their soul into their gem/Funko pop in such a way that the Facet's body forms. Though the Facet will by default form as an approximation of the Facet's original body, the god is capable of manipulating the size, shape, and appearance of the Facet's Facet Form as needed for a given task. It's pretty rare this is necessary, though, especially since the Facet can simply use magic to change whatever they might need on their own.
While a Facet's body looks indistinguishable from a normal Siderean on the outside - bar maybe an unusual amount of sparkling, but that's not really that weird on Siderea - they are pretty much just a layer of skin atop a structure of what is seemingly their respective gem (even if they were channeled through something that wasn't their gem). They do not bleed when cut, for instance, instead only having their shiny interiors exposed. Despite this, they don't have any issues with mobility, flexibility, volume, or just otherwise seeming like a normal human being. They even themselves just feel "normal", both in terms of feeling just as squishy as any other fleshbag and they themselves not feeling like their bodies are inhuman.
The final form to note before moving on into more general stuff is God Form. God Form is activated when the Facet is in Facet Form and requests so much power from their god that they essentially just invite them inside, the god possessing them to achieve some end that the Facet cannot do on their own or is not willing to do. Typically this occurs when a Facet is doing some sort of incognito investigation and it becomes apparent that the god themselves ought to engage in a little divine wrath. A sort of "surprise! I was a god all along!" sort of thing. In God Form the Facet's vibe is amplified significantly, radiating the god's own on top of it, and the Facet's appearance will change to have a "palette" closer to their god's.
ummm smooth transition goes here
The Facets have very similar abilities to the Archangels. They are capable of teleporting to and from the Cosmos at will, can answer prayers, have a Blessing from their own god at minimum (though given the source of their power it's something of a formality), and can raise and lower their vibe as needed. They are immortal; their bodies do not age and they do not require food or drink. They do, however, seem to require rest to function properly. A Facet who goes too long without retreating into Soul Mode will become increasingly sluggish and disoriented, eventually shutting down entirely as their soul "drains" back into the god. This can take days to transpire, though, and can be significantly delayed through sleeping, meditation, and actively drawing on their god's energy.
Facets vary in hardiness prolly in accordance with the Moh's scale but that's mostly for slicin' so I might need to look into actual toughness but ANYWAY it doesn't matter too much because the nature of a Facet allows them to heal from grievous injuries quite quickly. Facets are masters over their respective gems even if they previously lacked training in earth magic, allowing them to manipulate it with absolute ease. This includes being able to control their own body, creating more of it in order to heal themselves. If not just immediately affixed back on, any detached parts of a Facet will have their flesh disintegrate and the underlying structure fracture and collapse into a pile of ordinary - if not someone divinely-attuned - gems. Likewise, if a Facet abandons a given Facet Form or is killed (typically due to crushing or something else that could cause a catastrophic level of damage to their bodies) their body will "disintegrate" in the same way. This is convenient for avoiding certain opportunists access to free bodies, but has led to a lot of questions about where the hell this pile of rocks came from wtf? For this reason, Facets try and make sure not to die too often.
...Of course, if the god wills it, the Facet can simply "resurrect" from one of the gems they just disintegrated into, making death pretty inconsequential. In fact, if everyone's feeling rather zesty, the whole pile could erupt into a crowd of furries ready to beat the shit out of you.
On that note, it's not clear if there's really any limit to how many of a given Facet can be active at once, though the gods generally don't have more than one running around unless the Facet requests more bodies. A Facet can be active in numerous Gem Forms and Facet Forms at once; they all experience independent consciousnesses that get melded back together whenever a facet of a Facet, so to speak, returns to Soul Form. This can make things awkward when two of them run into each other, but they tend to make efforts not to run into their own "clones" to avoid thinking about complicated questions about qualia and shit like the teletransportation paradox and so on and so forth. (Not that all of them really care about that sort of thing. Some of them like hanging out with themselves!) Either way it's not too hard to avoid each other considering that a Facet won't usually request another body if they didn't, you know. Need to be in two very different places at once.
While Facets are by far more powerful than normal Sidereans by default, they do need to "ask permission" to draw on more of their god's power when it comes to accessing more powerful magics, requesting an extra body be made for them, etc. This process is near-instantaneous and doesn't require that the Facet call the god up and formally ask; they just sort of desire something, "ping" the ol' god server, and either receive permission to access the allotted amount of power or get denied. Denial pretty much never happens these days, given the levels of trust and experience going on here.
Nonetheless this autonomic communication is a hallmark of Facets, who similarly hold mental connections to their gods that are more vibes than words. The intimate connection the Facets have to the gods' souls forms an understanding between them that the archangels lack. While it's obviously balanced toward the gods in terms of "power" - Facets are incapable of lying to their god or hiding anything from them - the gods find it difficult to keep their true feelings obscured from their Facets. This bond went a long way to helping the two parties come to trust each other fairly quickly when the whole Facet Conspiracy debacle really should have been more of a disaster.
Finally, the Facets have access to the Lustrous Regalia. These aren't exactly physical objects so much as concepts that resonate with the Facet's soul, allowing them to easily summon forth replicas of the Astral Regalia made from their own weird gem bodies. They are in fact no different than any other given part of their body for whackin'... BUT if they attain permission from their god, the Facet can draw upon enough power to make their Lustrous Weapon function identically to its respective Astral Weapon.
ummmmm i feel like i'm forgetting but idk. i've probably covered all of the important things. Donut Time
The Facets
The Facets are currently way less defined than the Archangels are, so things are subject to change and a couple are vague blurs, but nonetheless:
Name: Trepein
Title: Facet of Nobility
Pronouns: she/he/they
Zodiac: Fadelike Aries
Patron God: Arietis
Lustrous Weapon: Sojourner, Hammer of x
Gemstone: Bloodstone
Domains: Nobility, decorum, swordplay, storms, focus, blood, darkness, night.
Born into a strong lineage of bloodstone contenders, Trepein was more or less nobility amidst the Facet candidates. They were carefully groomed to be Arietis' (correctly) assumed opposite: refined, polite, elegant, poised, logical, patient, precise, and focused. Certainly the most brainwashed of the bunch, Trepein had no expectations that they might fail and urged their fellow candidates onward even when things became grim. With their "bosses" no longer relevant, Trepein has become sort of seen as the leader of the Facets and certainly acts as such.
Needless to say, she and Arietis butt heads quite a bit, and by that I mean Trepein is always tearing her hair out at Arietis while Arietis just thinks of them as a cool rival. With Ariel more concerned with Virginis' domains, it's fallen to Trepein to play babysitter to Arietis and do their level best to keep her out of trouble. And fail. Often. In fairness, though, the fact that they have a success rate at all is incredibly impressive given Arietis is... Arietis. Arietis in turn is always trying to get them to loosen up and have fun, with a relatively equal, simultaneously unsurprising and impressive success rate.
Something of note about Trepein is that they are the only other person (en2rety don't interact) to have successfully created an Astral Weapon, which Arietis demanded of them if they really believed they could be a facet of her very existence. Though they didn't have quite as easy of a time, they eventually succeeded in forging Vulcan, Rapier of Actuation. Vulcan has the standard Astral Weapon attribute of being able to pierce through anything and being unbreakable, but also has the bonus flavor attribute of being able to fucking explode (and reform) on demand. It fits well with their agile fencing capabilities, with just a little splash of Arietis. Trepein is also skilled with storm-related magics, using them as a compliment to swordplay.
Arietis doesn't distribute bloodstone too widely and tends to forget the gem she's Supposed to keep on her because she, as we know, has zero brain cells and not a care in the world. Because of Arietis' aptitude for creating things, she probably doesn't exactly have a "signature" piece of jewelry like some of the other gods do and instead just makes something new whenever she feels like it and/or realizes she dropped her Facet in a well again. And by realizes I mean Trepein finally catches up to her to yell at her about it. Oopsie! When she does give out bloodstones, it's virtually always to whatever cute village girl she's smitten with now. Laphystia probably has one, and in En2rety 2lack probably does as well because they're besties!!! Her summoning phrase is "hydra Tropei".
Name: Sapphica
Title: Facet of Insight
Pronouns: she/her
Zodiac: Taurus
Patron God: Tauri
Lustrous Weapon: Venera, Axe of x
Gemstone: Sapphire
Domains: Magic, technology, mathematics, science, logic, stars, astrology, divination, memory, education.
Another member of Facet Nobility:tm: and something of a prodigy. Excelling not only in magic, but in matters of math and science as well, Sapphica's lone competition - Padparadscha - was little more than an understudy not expected to need calling. With so much pressure heaped upon her, Sapphica gained a sort of gifted kid complex where her talents became her enemies and shame marred not only her few failures, but also her successes, constantly left wondering if she was overshadowing someone who deserved her position more.
Sapphica was "designed" to address Tauri's perceived failures in her more "logically-inclined" domains, primarily economics and growth, completely unaware that Tauri practically runs Siderean society from her little gay cottage and simply has tried to stifle capitalism and the existence of billionaires on purpose. While Sapphica excels in mathematics and financial theory, her true interest is astrology - something which is a pseudoscience even on the literal zodiac planet, not to mention thoroughly obtuse given that Siderea's stars are dead souls that space whales mess around with. Nonetheless, she would much rather read the stars than the stock market and is quietly grateful the whole Facet thing didn't turn out exactly as planned.
With her self-consciousness having filled her with doubt, it was of little surprise that Sapphica came to quietly doubt the Facets' goals and wondered if the greater world and the gods were really all that bad. Though she continued the Facet process obediently due to the lack of other sapphire candidates and her attachment to her peers, unsurprisingly she was quick to get along with the gods and fall in line upon becoming a Facet. She considers herself quite devout and has a deep respect for Tauri even though she spent a while with the sense that Tauri didn't take her job seriously enough after all. She's come to understand how Tauri works, though, and is happy to serve in her wide-spanning network of peacemakers.
Combat-wise, Sapphica is primarily a mage and a master of air, water, ice, and celestial magics. She is considered to be the most powerful Facet magically, with Ruby being her physical equivalent. On that note, true to her name Sapphica is extremely sapphic and has kind of a Thing going on. Which is to say Ruby will insist that they're girlfriends, while Sapphica is like "ohhhh no I'm not good enough for her she's probably just being nice to me" even though they're basically married. She's afraid of spiders and snakes, even finding herself a bit skittish around Ophiuchi and especially Araneans. Finally, she's interested in technology and is one of the few in the pantheon who keeps up on it, even going so far as to use the internet whoa!!! But she's too mental illness to make the posts F
Tauri is somewhat liberal with sapphire distribution, giving them to important members of the Mayblossom Society: her little group of subtle-machination-enactors. She keeps her own signature gem on a necklace, and giving a matching one to her girlfriend of the moment is standard fare. A sapphire ring, of course, is practically mandatory when it's wifin' time. Sapphica become adept at "networking" with her various active forms, allowing for efficient transmission of information. Her summoning phrase is "hydra Sapphica".
Name: Agate
Title: Facet of Stability
Pronouns: they/them
Zodiac: Gemini
Patron God: Geminorum
Lustrous Weapon: Colombo, Spear of x
Gemstone: Agate
Domains: Stability, relationships, peace, understanding, earth, potion-making, adjustment.
The agate slot had numerous contenders thanks to the sheer amount of agate varieties making for a variety of ways to resonate with it. There were so many promising candidates, in fact, that they decided that their best course of action was to REALLY Geminorum it up and fuse into one Facet. This technically succeeded, but didn't go quite as well as Geminorum's fusion did; the resulting fusion, Agate (uh-gah-tay, they insist), was missing the bulk of their memories, only remembering things directly related to their Facet training. With the hindsight of retrospect the Facets figure their superiors somehow deliberately sabotaged the fusion to ensure Agate was sufficiently stable and pliable, but in the moment Agate was only concerned with faking it 'till they made it, aware something was wrong but that there would be consequences if they let it bother them much.
Agate is a bit of a nervous character, mostly stemming from their lack of clear memories and desire not to be found out for the wreck they are. They're a peacemaker above all else, busying themselves with trying to mediate for and stabilize those around them, which in turn helps keep Agate themself calm. This was a deeply necessary role during the initial Facet creation process and perhaps even moreso when the Facets properly became Facets and struggled to get along with the gods. Nowadays they mostly take to working on prayers and trying their best to keep Geminorum from freaking out Nepsis initiates. They are hilariously basic compared to their patron god, having the most vanilla tastes in things possible and thoroughly content with day-to-day mundanity. It makes sense, though, given that they were designed to answer for Geminorum's perceived lack of consistency and communication skills. They're not very good at grounding them, but they've been a helpful figure nonetheless!
Combat-wise I think they're something of a jack of all trades, having some magical girl-ass shit going on where their form changes somewhat and their abilities shift, calling on their component parts. Like, having a fire agate form with cool fire powers and a palette to match. Outside of that, though, they're best at support, focusing on healing and reflecting magic. But also they're really fuckin tanky idk. They enjoy brewing potions with various beneficial effects, which kinda reminds them of making smoothies, which they are a Big Fuckin Fan of. Design-wise I'm fixated on the concept I've had of them since day one having, like, a hoodie where the hood and sleeves and inside just look like solid banded agate like it's a Rock Sweatshirt and yet somehow they can put on the hood without getting a concussion.
Geminorum gives some fucked up little agate trinket to all Nepsis initiates, and it's a key way of identifying one another without speaking of Nepsis: any ol' schmuck can wear some agate, but only Nepsis schmucks have agate that can summon a specific little guy. If I'd fleshed out the mechanics of Facets a while earlier, they almost certainly would've plopped some on the Erpsis Brigade:tm:. Geminorum probably wears their own on an armlet or a funny-shaped ring or something. Or as part of some kind of fucked up charm bracelet. It's Geminorum, so probably all of these! Their summoning phrase is "hydra Gate" (gah-tay, like their name).
Name: Emeraude
Title: Facet of Compassion
Pronouns: she/her
Zodiac: Cancer
Patron God: Cancri
Lustrous Weapon: Lunokhod, Aegis of x
Gemstone: Emerald
Domains: Family, childbirth, parenthood, peace, emotions, protection, planning, love, life, vision.
Emeraude was designed to address Cancri's focus on her defense domains at the cost of her various family-related domains. Emeraude predictably turned out to be The Ultimate MILF:tm:: she's kind, nurturing, protective, a master of all things domestic, dotes on everyone around her, always knows where that thing you can't find is, and like has fat mommy milkers "imperfect cleavage" my ASS anyway.
For many of the Facet candidates, Emeraude was the only thing keeping them sane and in the game. This was, once more, deliberate design: the act of creating, training, and refining Facets causes a considerable amount of physical and emotional strain, not to mention the suboptimal survival rate. Though emotionally resilient herself, even she was beginning to doubt the worth of the Facet program by the end of things, only remaining loyal out of fear that dropping out herself would simply cause her lone rival candidate - the relentless and cruel Trapiche - to succeed in becoming a Facet. Given that she was also hanging on because she believed in the genuine good the Facets could do, she feared what would happen if dark-hearted candidates managed to succeed. All of this, once more more, deliberate design on part of the "Facet architects", down to Trapiche's very existence only being to keep the idealized emerald candidate in line.
Needless to say, upon becoming a proper Facet Emeraude was quick to turn on her makers and joined Agate in encouraging everyone to make peace with the gods and be careful with their newfound roles and powers. She continues her role as group therapist to this day, caring for the Facets above all else but also spending a good amount of time trying to get Cancri to take a break and also make out with Capricoris already for goodness sake!!!! Naturally, with the MILF branding comes being a mama bear; anyone who brings harm to the Facets or anyone else she particularly cares about is going to get their absolute shit caved in.
Offensively speaking, Emeraude is fairly similar to Cancri. While Cancri is mostly a tank with offensive options, Emeraude is instead a tank with support options, primarily healing and buffing. She also dabbles in plant magic, and has a few more psychic options - though whether they're actual psychic powers or just good intuition is debatable. She sees through lies with absolute ease, even when speaking with strangers, and seems to have eyes on the back on her head. It's pretty much impossible to sneak up on her, she detects traps way too easily, and she does have a fondness for utilizing magic that gives her more metaphorical eyes. Or literal...?!
Aside from giving one to Gabriel, Cancri pretty much just hands out emeralds on an as-needed basis, typically just waiting on requests from other gods, the other archangels and Facets, and most often Emeraude herself to try and force Cancri to work less. idk where Cancri keeps her personal emerald atm because she wears too much damn armor, probably a necklace under it or something. Her summoning phrase is "hydra Emeraude".
i forgot to smoothly put this somewhere but she's besties with raphael and particular and thus likely the whole dominations gang. definitely gabriel at minimum #crabgang
Name: Onyx
Title: Facet of Pride
Pronouns: she/her
Zodiac: Leo
Patron God: Leonis
Lustrous Weapon: Apollo, Gauntlets of x
Gemstone: Onyx
Domains: Misfortune, darkness, night, confidence, revival, claws, strength, independence, childbirth?!
Much to the chagrin of her overseers, Onyx was the only real candidate for, well, the onyx Facet. Onyx and carnelian had two candidates apiece: Onyx, Carnis, and a Lirgo named Sard who happened to be eligible for both. Sard resonated a bit better with carnelian, however, and the "architects" who actually I'm calling them the Lapidaries now that sounds sick as fuck and also appropriate. Anyway. The Lapidaries weren't particularly optimistic about Carnis, forcing them to place their bets on Onyx.
The thing about Onyx is that she's talented, capable, quick-witted, merciless, intelligent, hardy, competent, all of the things one could want from a Facet. However, her personality left something to be desired. Snarky, contrary, unruly, unreliable, self-absorbed... Onyx was an all-around hassle for the Lapidaries and even for her fellow candidates. She was made to compensate for Leonis' apparent lack of pride in his lineage, people, and self, with the ultimate goal of creating a Facet who valued authority and royalty. They absolutely fucked this up, instead creating a Facet who was full of pride, but just for herself.
Onyx called bullshit on the Lapidaries practically from birth, finding it pretty obvious that they were all being manipulated to benefit the Lapidaries rather then Siderea as a hold. She, however, had a vested interest in her continued existence and liked the idea of power and immortality, and so continued going along with the process being as much of a pain as she could. She is an ever-terrifying "free-thinker" and - while certainly a bitch about it, which never helped her case - often encouraged the other Facet candidates to think for themselves for once in their life. The absolute vodka aunt to Emeraude's momness.
Finally becoming a Facet did little to change her behavior. She relished in the opportunity to jab at the gods mostly consequence-free, finding it deeply amusing to see just how human - and thus astoundingly messy - they all were. She especially enjoyed bullying Leonis, who didn't take kindly to her deliberately antagonistic attitude. Though over time they've come to understand each other a little better and Onyx has learned to be a little nicer overall, they still have one of the tensest god-Facet relationships.
She was mostly kept from being smited by her dedication to freedom and independence, continuing her crusade of getting people to use their own damn brain for once, be a little selfish, and lighten up a little. She's well on board the "everyone here needs to learn how to fuckin' relax" train, and certainly spends much of her own free time indulging in Siderea's finest pleasures. When she's on-duty, she's made it work for her: her "job" is essentially to make life difficult for wannabe tyrants and billionaires, showing up wherever there's signs and basically hassling them out of their minds. Likewise, she seeks out promising candidates and uses her wiles to get them to toughen up and put themselves out there, figuring anyone who can't take the heat was going to be too weak for the job, anyway.
Though her lackadaisical nature might suggest otherwise, Onyx is ferocious in combat. Apollo is (are?) her bestie(s?), and she gets a real thrill out of shredding things like a poorly-trained kitten. While not the strongest of the bunch, she makes up for it in being a deeply dirty fighter with countless tricks up her sleeve. Leonis doesn't hand out onyxes to too many people, mostly just Raziel and his precious Virgy, as she's independent enough to know where she's needed and how many shes she needs around. He probably keeps his own on like some kind of chain idk some fancy suit shit you know?? Her summoning phrase is "hydra Nyx".
also i didn't find a good place for this but she spends a shitton of time smoking, but she's smoking like. onyx dust somehow. which you probably shouldn't smoke (you shouldn't smoke anyway!!!!!!!!) but she's a rock so it's okay.
Name: Carnis
Title: Facet of Vigor
Pronouns: he/him
Zodiac: Virgo
Patron God: Virginis
Lustrous Weapon: Dawn, Scythe of x
Gemstone: Carnelian
Domains: Carnivorous plants, animals, luck, protection, motivation, the body, strength, energy.
A rare carnivorous Virgo with a particularly insatiable appetite, which led to him getting booted from his backwater village for a number of reasons. Forced to survive on his own, Carnis took to traveling the world in search of more tasty flesh and perhaps a little acceptance. Considering that most of Siderea even at that point wouldn't have had much issue with him - minus needing to learn some self-control and manners, and maybe finding the concept of a carnivorous Virgo a bit curious - all could have gone well had he not had a chance encounter with a Lapidary desperately searching for anyone to fill the carnelian slot after a string of failures left it almost wholly unoccupied.
Though highly impulsive and decidedly lacking in brain cells, Carnis is actually quite agreeable and chipper. He was just happy to be part of a community and little frame of reference for how messed up Facet training happened to be. Like, of course he'll eat a bunch of rocks! Not as good as flesh, but who doesn't want to put rocks in their mouth? Anyway, the Lapidaries didn't expect much of him; he certainly made for a good foil to the perceived cold and reclusive Virginis, but he wasn't cultivated over generations nor wholly understanding of what the Facets' purpose was. Nonetheless he seemed to have a high enough resonance with carnelian and ultimately outlasted his lone competitor, not really any the wiser for why this was significant.
Upon becoming a Facet he only became more excited about life, though he was admittedly disappointed that Virginis seemed to be a bit of a stick in the mud. This ultimately didn't deter him, though, since his whole point of being a Facet was to change that or something?? So began a life of pestering Virginis to have fun and get wild and party hard!!! Which Virginis fervently resisted, instead attempting to get Carnis to calm down and meditate and develop manners. Though Virginis has had more success than Carnis has had, they've nonetheless been a decent balance to one another and Virginis has come to respect Carnis - though he still sort of sees him as more of an unruly student than a facet of himself.
Combat-wise, Carnis is about as feral as you would expect; while he certainly takes full advantage of Dawn, he's also prone to tossing it aside to just leap on someone and start biting them until someone gently reminds him not to eat people flesh and he goes ohhhh ^^ okay! He's probably the kind of guy who isn't Super durable stat-wise but heals when he deals damage and thus has significantly higher survivability than one might think. He dabbles a bit in support thanks to Virginis' influence, mostly focused on buffing.
Like Leonis, Virginis mostly just gives carnelians to Metatron and Leonis himself, but will distribute more if there's an apparent need. Virginis keeps his own, like, somewhere in the belt area you know but he doesn't have a belt?? I need to finalize his design someday. But he's got like stuff going on there bc Virgos are all about the tumtum. His summoning phrase is "hydra Carnis".
Name: Peridot
Title: Facet of Bonhomie
Pronouns: xe*/they
Zodiac: Libra
Patron God: Librae
Lustrous Weapon: Rabinowitz, Sword of x
Gemstone: Peridot
Domains: Offworlders, space, banishment, exorcism, protection, imagination, science, novelty, light.
* xe/xyr/xyrs/xyrself
A deeply unusual Facet. Peridot had two candidates already - Chrysolite and Olivine - but something deeply unlikely occurred and threw everything off-track. An idly returning Cetus unwittingly brought along a meteor from foreign space, which crash landed conveniently near the ol' Facet raising grounds. It had considerable peridot deposits, so the Lapidaries were like hey, why the hell not? Some soul fuckery, filigree-engraving, and vessel-crafting later, the Lapidaries had wholesale created a candidate from peridot. Needless to say, their competition was blown out of the water; being so specifically-designed allowed Peridot to succeed at everything the Lapidaries desired, making them wonder why they hadn't tried harder to truly "make" a Facet earlier.
Peridot was designed to address Librae's neglecting of every domain not related to judging the dead - diplomacy, relationships, all of those social things Librae seemed to avoid. Peridot, therefore, is highly sociable - perhaps a bit too much so. Xe's known for being nosy, chatty, and overly inquisitive, always needing xyr attention diverted somewhere for anyone else to get some peace. They're insatiably curious and especially like to ponder other worlds, naturally becoming an avid consumer of sci-fi and fantasy media. They were eager when it came to finally meet the gods not because omg gods!!! but because they were hoping the gods were in cahoots with aliens.
Nowadays Peridot mostly handles prayers and matters related to space, which has a lot more going on than you'd think. They were quite busy monitoring Cetan appearances for a while there, and in the aftermath - in Ent1rety at least - they're living the dream. With Siderea suddenly open to offworlders, they needed someone to aid in inter-universal policy and catch unauthorized offworlders, not to mention authorized offworlders in unauthorized places. They tend to appear unannounced, being vague about who they are as they corral offworlders and approach them like funny little animals to analyze and feed treats to, creating a whole host of rumors about their identity that Siderean natives call BS on. In En2rety, on the other hand, they're probably just bugging purple people to answer questions and - intentionally or otherwise - distracting them from picking the place apart too much.
Peridot's combat abilities reflect their interests and duties to some extent; they excel in capture, deception, protection, and banishment, as well as teleportation and psychic skills. They're also quite adept with light magic and passively absorb enough light to end up glowing in the dark. They like glow in the dark things. And the alien emoji. The internet, for sure. And snakes. I almost said snacks but they probably like those too?? They probably only eat plastic. And they hate heat.
Librae gives out as much peridot as is asked of her, which is a fairly healthy amount in Ent1rety. In Ent1rety Peridots will usually be running around in offworlder hotspots, as well as in places offworlders very much should not be. Otherwise, Librae is sure to keep one on her... like, she's got a Euanthe thing going on, you know? Like a belt-located thing that isn't a belt at all? Additionally, she'll keep one or more on her various avatars. I debated her entrusting one to a certain someone, but to be honest she would probably know better. Then again Librae is not always good at knowing things, mainly she keeps accidentally dipping into her peridot stash as if it's any other snack stash, but can you blame her? It's a lemon-lime flavor explosion!!! Anyway xyr summoning phrase is "hydra Peridot"; note that xyr name is pronounced "per-i-dott", but in the phrase it's "per-i-doh".
Name: Marin
Title: Facet of Clarity
Pronouns: they/she
Zodiac: Scorpio
Patron God: Scorpius
Lustrous Weapon: Horizon, Misericorde of x
Gemstone: Aquamarine (Beryl)
Domains: Water, sailing, clarity, purification, the throat, stamina, willpower, truth.
The beryl position had numerous candidates, and to be honest Marin didn't anticipate being the victor. Actively didn't want to be, even! While aquamarine was the favored beryl variety to become Scorpius' Facet, "House Aquamarine" had suffered from a string of weak generations that left their standing in question. With only Marin left and outsider (thus not looked upon with much hope) Maxixe not staying for long, there wasn't exactly a "House Aquamarine" anymore. Marin was instead "taken in" by "House Morganite", which is to say she wound up being their servant. Marin was actually quite content with this, having fallen in love with their candidate Morgan at first sight.
When training got into full swing, Marin passed tests with flying colors - but so too did Morgan. They thought little of this, working less to become a Facet and more trying to spend as much time at Morgan's side as possible; Morgan, smitten in turn, demanded they work hard to make sure they would be able to stay at her side, even proposing that perhaps Marin would somehow become a Facet of a Facet - wouldn't that be something? So they continued to work hard, even as the other beryl candidates began to fail and suffer. Even Morgan was finding the process to take more and more of a physical toll on her, but Morgan was so confident and Marin so confident in her that Marin was blindsided when she completed the penultimate testing just fine... only to find Morgan had died in the process.
Morgan's death broke Marin pretty hard. All of her life she had lived entirely in service of Morgan, lived entirely for Morgan, and now what was she supposed to do? She was suddenly left adrift, with no apparent purpose in life and no vision of the future. While the other candidates sympathized with her, the Lapidaries took full advantage of her numb state to push her back into Facet prep. She was the only beryl candidate left, after all, and if she became a Facet surely she would find purpose in that or idk find some way to bring Morgan back to life listen get back to work. Not sure what else to do, she simply obeyed and succeeded in becoming a Facet.
After becoming a Facet, she remained fairly numb, not truly interested in the job but not sure what else she really could do. She devoted herself half-heartedly to Scorpius to fill the hole in her heart, which he easily took notice of. Through a combination of directly playing to this need, encouraging development of her other interests (which she didn't really realize she'd had this whole time), and tricking her into therapy, Marin's devotion eventually became extremely earnest. She is by far the most loyal of the Facets, and probably the one who gets along best with her respective god. She was made to compensate for Scorpius' secrecy, as most mortals don't really have an agreed-upon idea of what he really even does, if anything. It's only fitting that she's come to understand him better than most, but she really is closer to a facet than a foil. They share a number of traits, but most prominently their lack of hesitance in speaking the truth and annoyance when others fail to do so.
Currently Marin mostly serves as extra hands for Scorpius, doing various forms of dirty work and engaging in copious amounts of espionage. She is an accomplished martial artist who - again, much like Scorpius - focuses on ending things quickly and definitively. She's also an expert in water magic and the manipulation of aquamarine, making her even more sturdy and versatile than the other Facets. Despite not focusing on defense, she has a reputation for being unkillable; she persistently gets back up when downed and should she be shattered she'll simply get the authorization to spring back up from one of her pieces. Or even more. Imagine. She has a few non-combat talents as well: she loves seafaring, enjoys music (particularly... humming?), and engaging in watercolor painting. They have aphantasia, but it doesn't really keep them from dabbling in the arts.
Considering his character, it's sort of funny that Scorpius is possibly the most liberal at all when it comes out to handing out gems. He's given aquamarines to Piscium, Cetia, Jeremiel, Perseus, Andromeda, and really quite a few New Aethiopians, even more Dream Sea people as Piscium sees fit, as well as people he feels the need to keep an eye on. Those he's given them to as a trust thing are capable of summoning Marin like normal - their summoning phrase is "hydra Marine" (mah-ree-nay) - but can also use the phrases "triangula Marine" and "Marine australe" to activate and deactivate Gem Mode, respectively. They're sort of formalities, however, considering Marin is always in Gem Form across all of her gems for the explicit purpose of keeping an eye on things; unbeknownst to her holders she can simply ignore a deactivation command if she has reason to believe she ought to be snooping. All of this together means Marin easily has the largest workload of the Facets, but as Marin likes to keep busy this is very much intentional. Also idk where Scorpius keeps his gem but probably uncomfortably close to his crotch. Thanks
also according to crystal heaven dot co dot uk she should be besties with raguel which is an extremely funny thought so it's canon, somehow
Name: Topaz
Title: Facet of Prosperity
Pronouns: she/her
Zodiac: Sagittarius
Patron God: Sagittaria
Lustrous Weapon: Galileo, Bow of x
Gemstone: Topaz
Domains: Wealth, bounty, fire, light, the sun, healing, beauty, friendship, dancing, performing.
Back to more esteemed Facet nobility, Topaz was designed in opposition of Sagittaria's flighty and - from the Lapidaries' perspective - useless wanderings. The stories of her existence involved mostly fucking up the whole Orion thing, then just popping up to party now and then rather than showering those she found worthy with power and wealth like the Lapidaries thought she ought to!
Needless to say, being instilled with the virtues of money and power led to Topaz becoming more than a bit spoiled and oblivious to how life really works. Nonetheless she's actually quite good-natured, cheerful, and agreeable, just... really oblivious and sometimes condescending when she doesn't mean to be, often openly shocked at how people can survive without the grandest of luxuries. She had full confidence in herself when it came to becoming a Facet and wasn't surprised when she succeeded, though the hardships the other candidates had endured had worn on her.
True to form, Sagittaria almost immediately took to bullying her, forcing Topaz to engage in horrific scenarios like "camping" and "eating random stuff from outside" and "wearing normal people clothing and being subtle." Topaz begrudgingly tolerated this on her mission to prove she could be a better god than Sagittaria, only to find there was a reason - several of them, even - Sagittaria didn't just shower wealth upon everyone who asked. She's since accepted defeat and become good friends with Sagittaria, instead turning her attention toward finding more reasonable ways to realize her ideals while also attempting to dig into Sagittaria's millennia of regrets stuffed into a closet.
Topaz is highly skilled with fire magic, but prefers to use it for more recreational purposes like art and performance. She really can't take a hit (whines about breaking her nails kind of girl), so she mostly sticks to the backlines. Her specialties are buffing and healing, but she's incredibly strong when pressed. She's not overly interested in combat, though, far more interested in entertaining, company, and beauty.
Sagittaria doesn't have topazes on too many people, pretty much just herself (worn on a like... thigh bracelet... why don't they have names) and Raguel. Others she'll give them to as needed, though Topaz likes to wear some herself because they're stylish and wearing yourself is self care! Probably requests extra hers so they can all activate and go "omg we are all SOOOOO pretty!!!!" I think Sagittaria also sometimes gives them away when she loses bets or whatever just because she knows Topaz will get offended about it, which she proceeds to do. Her summoning phrase is "hydra Topazios".
Name: Rubezia (Ruby)
Title: Facet of Passion
Pronouns: she/her
Zodiac: Capricorn
Patron God: Capricoris
Lustrous Weapon: Cassini, Whip of x
Gemstone: Ruby
Domains: Love, revenge, fire, regeneration, vigor, determination, passion, heat, life, the heart.
Yet another member of Facet Nobility:tm:, Ruby is renowned as possibly the strongest. In additional to excellent durability and astounding physical prowess, Ruby is a master of fire and gem-based magic. Her attitude reflects her talent: Ruby is confident, passionate, hard-working, and intimidating. So intimidating that she frightened off any other ruby candidates and the Lapidaries thought nothing of it, having little doubt in their minds that Ruby was The One.
For someone with so many expectations placed upon her, one would think she might crack. Ruby instead is aloof and and doesn't think much of it, simply having no doubt in herself and being very blunt about when she thinks an expectation is unrealistic. "Blunt" is another good descriptor: she speaks her mind very freely and fails to understand why anyone might want to filter yourself. You're you, and you only get to be you, so why bother with all the decorum nonsense? Not that you'd think she thinks of it as such, given that she has a fairly prim and proper demeanor. It's just, that's who she naturally is, and she's a real gem, and if anyone around her fails to appreciate that then that's their problem.
She's not without sympathy, though. She was designed to address Capricoris' perceived lack of passion: the thought that she let all sorts of tragedy transpire on Siderea over the years because she clearly doesn't care enough about her job and/or has grown too soft to make hard choices. Ruby is meant to be the embodiment of "tough love" - of course, in all the ways the Lapidaries desire - and as tough as she is she's also got quite a lot of love. Though not always exactly warm, she does clearly care for the other Facets, and in fact is quite obviously in love with Sapphica. She has an immense soft spot for love and is always eager to help with matters of romance, likewise feeling a great deal of sympathy for those struggling with heartbreak. Marin's story, for instance, moved her considerably and was a prime motivator in eventually going back to punish the Lapidaries when all was said and done.
Speaking of, punishment is her claim to fame. She's never gotten along all that amazingly with Capricoris due to Ruby's abrasive nature, but over the time they managed to settle into a professional tolerance as Ruby came to understand Capricoris' true nature and duties. And also mostly got distracted by trying to hook her up with Cancri. Anyway, Ruby tends to be Capricoris' executioner, so to speak, sometimes literally! While Capricoris drafts law and plans punishments, Ruby is eager to mete them out and often comes up with creative, typically karmic punishments of her own - though, begrudgingly, barring Capricoris' approval. When given free reign to deal with the Lapidaries, for instance, Ruby came up with the idea of trapping their souls in gems. Thematic! (Though, begrudgingly again, with a time limit rather than for eternity... Ruby tends to go a little hard.) This trait of hers has made her close friends with Ariel and the Powers.
Her personality and duties have made her popular with Ariel and the Powers, all of whom carry her gem on top of the standard Capricoris/Azrael combo. Scorpius might keep one around too, idk. Feels kinda right. Ruby's also insisted upon Sapphica having one whenever possible, which is kinda gay, and in retrospect Ruby probably keeps a sapphire on her in turn. Cappy probably keeps her ruby on a bracelet or ring. Her summoning phrase is "hydra Rubezia". also fun fact i don't want to forget she is left-handed thanks (smooth insertion (kinky))
Name: Granatum
Title: Facet of Blood
Pronouns: he/him
Zodiac: Aquarius
Patron God: Aquari
Lustrous Weapon: Muse, Astrolabe of x
Gemstone: Garnet
Domains: Karma, vengeance, anger, storms, health, virtue, blood, death, fruit...?
A deeply unorthodox Facet. The garnet was in a situation much like agate and beryl, where there was a ton of competition due to the sheer number of garnet varieties, not to mention the ease with which Aquarians could incorporate gems into their bodies. Granatum - an outsider - didn't give a shit about any of that, though, bursting in like he owned the place and more or less forcing himself into the Facet program. The Lapidaries found it a hard request to refuse, given not only his immense power and intimidating nature, but also his... reputation.
Long spoken of in myth was an Aquarius born of the blood spilled during the Death of the Sky, powered by the collective grief and wrath toward the innocent lives and beautiful world stolen from them by Aquari's negligence, a fearsome entity who drained every corpse in sight in preparation to rage against the heavens. Evidently that guy existed, and he was seeking to become a Facet in order to take vengeance on Aquari and replace them. Needless to say his competitors were almost entirely scared away, and those who weren't couldn't manage to live up to his sheer might and determination. Even his fellow finalists were mostly afraid of him, not sure how they were going to handle his bloodthirsty aims once they became Facets.
Predictably, upon becoming a Facet his first instinct was to attack Aquari and immediately get himself put right back into naughty jewel jail. He was kept there while the gods tried to deal with the rest of the Facets, not for entirely too long but enough for the connection to Aquari's soul and feelings to start to wear at him. Once the gods could get him to not try and murder Aquari for 5 seconds, Aquari more or less challenged him with "fine, how about this, I'll let you experience all the memories you want about the Death of the Sky and if you really want to murder me after that then I'll let you have at me". Granatum agreed, endured reliving Aquari's copious trauma, felt a deep ache within his very soul, then decided to beat the shit out of Aquari anyway.
Aquari, being a god, won quite handily, and then Granatum decided to begrudgingly behave himself. Even to this day he still holds clear animosity toward Aquari, even if he's stopped trying to kill them every other day. It's clear that by now he has too great of an understanding of they and their burdens to truly and earnestly hate them, but merely continues to pretend he does because he was literally born out of a desire for vengeance against them and doesn't really know how to handle giving up any pretense of that. Aquari just lets him do his own thing - usually attacking those who harm the environment and creating ~the blood ghost~ as a formal Siderean mythological creature - not really wanting to press him and frankly being more annoyed than anything that they can't seem to get a divine aide in life who wants to just stick around and shoot the shit with them, jeez.
Granatum, as it probably goes without saying, is extremely powerful in all things Aquarian and excels at weather magic. And blood magic. Delightful stuff, that. He's prolly an enmity character, AKA deals more damage at lower health. Probably does some damage buffing stuff in general, though probably mostly on himself. I think it's appropriate enough if he has a bit for others, though, considering another job he performs is trying to reward those who perform good deeds toward the earth and usually just scaring the shit out of everyone. He doesn't really have a lot of friends because he's always talking about ruing the day n shit. Probably buddies with Trepein, at least, because they're both just Like That. Maybe Michael, too. He probably thinks that Jeremiel is really cool and not acting to pretend he's cool.
With that being said, it should come as no surprise that not too many people are clamoring for garnets. Aquari has one on whatever they see fit based on whatever body parts they feel like having at any given time, probably usually an anklet or bracelet when they're in their typical Genie Mode:tm:. Still, Uriel has one, and maybe Ganymede would have one if he ever came back home to visit, AHEM. His summoning phrase is "hydra Granatum".
Name: Methysta
Title: Facet of Placidity
Pronouns: she/her
Zodiac: Aquisces
Patron God: Piscium
Lustrous Weapon: Odinus, Scepter of x
Gemstone: Amethyst
Domains: Relaxation, alcohol, parties and general debauchery, dreams, clarity, temperance, magical resilience.
Continuing the trend of odd Aquarians, Methysta was an outsider who pretty much looked the part of a Facet from day one. Made mostly out of wine and decked out in amethyst from the start, she was unlike most outsider Facets in that she had a reputation. She was a far better candidate than the others the Lapidaries had, though, so they slowly lured her in. The idea of the Piscium Facet was to address their habit of overworking, creating a perceived notion that they spend little to no time answering prayers or addressing their non-Dream Sea domains. Methysta happened to have already been on time "Piscium chillax challenge", so it wasn't difficult to convince her of the Facet program's merits. She at first treated the whole thing light-heartedly, and by the time she realized how wrong things really were it was far too late to go back.
In the end, though, it all worked out, didn't it? She likes to think so, at least. Post-Faceting Methysta has been concerned with the same thing as usual: get everyone around her to slow down, relax, maybe have a drink and unwind for a moment. Even in a less casual respect she's always tried to get the Facets to slack off to actually process their emotions, to varying degrees of success. She'll forcibly keep people company if she must, though she certainly doesn't make for bad company. She's full of stories and ideas and is a good listener to boot, so once she's gotten someone to take a seat she's good at keeping them from getting back up.
Naturally, this means her primary duty is checking up on the gods and making sure they - especially Piscium in particular - aren't overwhelming themselves. Delegation is critical for the gods - again, especially Piscium - seeing that the gods becoming burned out or coming to loathe their duties is a one-way ticket to Siderea's doom. On a lesser level, everyone taking care of themselves and getting along helps make the gods more efficient, which is obviously beneficial to Siderea. Not everyone is exactly convinced that this is critical and useful work, but, well... saying as much only makes you her next target.
In terms of combat, Methysta is unsurprisingly mostly focused on support, mostly buffing and healing and what have you. She notably is astoundingly tanky, especially on the magical side. In keeping with amethyst's supposed properties of preventing/"curing" drunkenness and protecting against sorcery, Methysta is pretty much immune to things like ailments and other related, undesirable forms of magic like mind control. In spite of her laid-back personality she's actually quite competent in a pinch, being quick-witted, creative, and having little issue reading her opponents.
Piscium gives out amethysts fairly liberally, per Methysta's insistence. Along with the usual suspects, Piscium's given one to Scorpius for homosexual reasons. Methysta's probably planted some herself somewhere so she can jumpscare people into self care or something. Also that one site says both Zadkiel and Jeremiel are associated with amethyst and it's really fucking funny to imagine her being besties with those two specifically so I think that just has to be canon. Her summoning phrase is "hydra Methystos".
Name: Jacinth
Title: Facet of Earth
Pronouns: she/her
Zodiac: Ophiuchus
Patron God: Serpentarius
Lustrous Weapon: Trujillo, Staff of x
Gemstone: Jacinth
Domains: Earth, fire, lightning, history, meditation, honor, humility, mortality, trees, nature, introspection.
Jacinth was orphaned at a young age and raised by her grandparents, who did not live long enough beyond that point to see her reach adulthood. The Lapidaries, sensing resonance in her, wasted little time in bringing her into the fold, where she doubted she would accomplish much. The other zircon candidates were far more enthusiastic and confident than she was, but Jacinth remained diligent for the sake of pleasing the strangers who so kindly took her in. Her grounded and humble nature made her the expected winner in the eyes of the Lapidaries, however, considering the Serpentarius Facet was meant to shore up Serpentarius' perceived lack of humility and connection to mortals.
She was surprised when she successfully became a Facet, but accepted the role quickly. Though intimidated by Serpentarius, she believed they needed her because they seemed to have no fuckin friends. Her concerns rapidly shifted from "Serpentarius is high-and-mighty and sits in their lofty temple issuing decrees from the gods and having no interest in mortals other than ordering them around" to "Serpentarius isn't really like that at all but is out of touch but it's actually due to loneliness and overwork". She's since tried to be a friend to them by encouraging them to engage in more humble activities and pursuits, and while Serpentarius remains aloof they do quietly appreciate it.
Jacinth's upbringing has left her as something of a blunt realist. Though kind and virtuous, she's very firm and pragmatic. While she generally defers to authority figures and respects them by default, she doesn't hesitate to speak her mind if she disagrees with them. Her opinions aren't easily changed, but she's willing to agree to disagree if she gets overruled. Though fairly intelligent, Jacinth has a tendency toward naivete, especially when it comes to sarcasm, exaggeration, and euphemisms. She tends to have old-fashioned habits and interests and is useless with technology, despite her many years of being alive. Thinks computers are evil and I mean she's got a point. Twitter would give her a heart attack. Not that she'd really engage with social media anyway, as she's a fairly solitary person and prefers her groups to be small.
My last Etrian Odyssey Untold playthrough defined the following character traits: she is bad at not getting her legs stuck in things, suffers the unfortunate running gag of getting hit in the head with things, enjoys climbing trees, would simply gain experience from being petrified, is good at not panicking even when others are, but apparently will sometimes fly into a rage when attacked. Also she's a DPS who uses katanas which is pretty cool, although she has to burn a turn to be effective which kinda sucks but it's less of a big deal than you'd think. Good at incorporating magic with physical attacks, especially fire and electric magic.
Serpentarius probably wears some jacinth on one of their many bajillion accessories, they've got a lot of options here. Aside from Raphael, Serpentarius gives jacinths to important figures in and around the temple they spend the majority of their time in, mostly for the sake of protection. They aren't resistant to requests to give some out, at least so long as Jacinth herself isn't. Which she seldom is, seeing that she aims to take as much stress off of Serpentarius as possible. Her summoning phrase is "hydra Zirconia".
Name: Lazulum
Title: Facet of Candor
Pronouns: they/them
Zodiac: Cetus
Patron God: Cetia
Lustrous Weapon: Brown, Trident of x
Gemstone: Lapis Lazuli
Domains: Truth, illumination, protection, connection, the abyss and the heavens, Ishtar, home.
Lazulum led a lonely existence for a long time, heavily resenting Cetia for abandoning Siderea - and the Cetans, they felt - for a cause they didn't believe in. They felt bitter over how the large exodus in population destroyed many communities, turning their own into a ghost town and forcing them to go from having a normal life to having to take on slaying-abyssal-horrors duties to help protect what remained. This only worsened as their little slice of the bottom of the ocean became part of the Godless Lands, with just about everyone who had remained abandoning it once and for all. Victim to sunk-cost fallacy, Lazulum remained as always and probably became worsties with Michael given their similar lifestyles for complete opposite reasons.
Once Ishtar set up shop in the Godless Lands, she took note of Lazulum and worked her magic on them. It wasn't easy, but in time Ishtar managed to turn Lazulum into a loyal devotee tasked with defending her realm personally. Eventually she managed to lure in more Cetans to handle the tough work of keeping a place in the Godless Lands stable, whom Lazulum became the leader of. Being well-regarded by their subordinates only strengthened their attachment to Ishtar and her people, increasingly focusing less on the past and focusing more on the present.
As she always does, Ishtar managed to learn about the Facet project and was immediately interested, seeing it as a way to tip the balance of power on Siderea ever in her favor. She became a point of contact for the Lapidaries and sent Lazulum not only as an emissary, but eventually as a candidate. Lazulum had no objections, seeing this as more than ideal; on top of aiding Ishtar and gaining more power to protect what they cared about, they would have the opportunity to right Cetia's wrongs once and for all. Given that Ishtar had been quietly priming Lazulum for candidacy in the background to shove in as soon as it looked like the Lapidaries had a winning group together, they unsurprisingly passed all tests with flying colors and succeeded in becoming a Facet.
With Cetia not around to delegate things to them or rein them in, Lazulum was a bit of a problem. While not exactly Granatum degrees of hostile, Lazulum made their displeasure with the gods - especially Cetia - well known. They had little interest with palling around with the gods and instead resumed their typical work, taking orders from Ishtar only. Efforts from the other Facets - eventually - and some strongarming of Ishtar from Tauri got Lazulum to at least vaguely participate in regular Cosmos dealings, but their allegiance was clear.
When Cetia returned, needless to say things were tense. They became aware of her presence immediately, but didn't show up to meet her in person until physically informed by someone else. While it would be easy to assume this was disrespect, it was instead due to mixed emotions. Being connected to her soul for so long had rendered them increasingly understanding of and sympathetic toward her, but this was also their opportunity to finally vent their frustrations at last and be a huge bitch at her. They did end up chewing her out, but maybe less venomously than they'd fantasized about so long ago. While they've remained viciously blunt about all of their emotions, they did in the end elect to cooperate with Cetia, though she has mostly insisted Lazulum should live as they please and not worry about her, who - just as they'd said - should be the one shouldering all these burdens. Lazulum constantly wavers between intentionally distancing themself from her and lingering around her, reluctantly entertaining her desires to bond.
Given their background, Lazulum is one of the most capable Facets in terms of combat. In addition to using Brown effectively, Lazulum is an expert with water, light, dark, and mind magic - the last being mostly thanks to Ishtar. They're well versed in purification and are highly resistant to corruption, having been through enough scrapes with thing crawling out of the core that even their old body was just sort of used to it.
With Cetia's lack of presence throughout much of Siderea's history, Lazulum found themself in the interesting situation of not being able to really utilize their Facet abilities, including having a bunch of blessed chunks of Lapis Lazuli around. Dying, thus, would have been kind of an issue but dying is a skill issue they simply don't have. Though in retrospect I kinda need to think about Cetia I think because, like, she would Have to be aware of something weird going on and suddenly having a Facet you know?? But it would be uncharacteristic of her to be informed about this, be mentally chastised by Lazulum, and not come back home ASAP. But the timing of the Great Cetan Invasion is pretty firmly set and ANYWAY those are problems for another day. Once Cetia came back she, in addition to keeping one herself and giving one to Michael, happily complied with Ishtar's desire to outfit most of her people with lapis lazuli, meaning that if anyone tries anything funny Ishtar can just summon a shitton of whales at once. Their summoning phrase is "hydra Lazuli".
ok so arachne is complicated bc i kinda have two ideas atm:
Name: Hecate
Title: Facet of Destiny
Pronouns: they/she
Zodiac: Gemini/Sagittarius/Ophiuchus-Arachne (...you'll see.)
Patron God: Arachne
Lustrous Weapon: Vogh, Tome of x
Gemstone: Moonstone (hecatolite hehe)
Domains: technically just see below but things i jotted down from reading adventures i'll leave here anyway: substitute for other inorganic things, ambition, darkvision, invisibility, centipedes
You might be asking yourself "if Arachne didn't exist - particularly in public - until long after the Facets were established, then how the hell does she have a Facet?" Good question! The answer is weird Arachne fuckery, as usual. With Arachne becoming formally acknowledged as a god all was well and good, but Arachne was undeniably missing something the rest of the gods had: a Facet. While mortals are mostly unaware of the existence of Facets, nonetheless they desired Arachne to be as much of a god than any other, and having a Facet is kinda necessary for that, right? Like so many other spidery things, a new, shiny spider came crawling right out of the core.
...Problem was, what should Arachne's Facet be like? What facets did she even have to her character? What did she need help with? Mortals certainly didn't know, and even the gods weren't completely sure. So Hecate, the moonstone Facet, wound up having an undecided identity. While stable while being perceived, once she's departed and returned to view she's shifted to a different "concept". There seem to be three such identities, all sharing the same name:
- The Maiden: A dog-themed Gemini-Arachne of chipper and innocent demeanor.
- The Mother: A Sagittarius-Arachne of nurturing and affectionate demeanor.
- The Crone: An Ophiuchus-Arachne of wise but cantankerous demeanor.
Hecate will deny the existence of the other "concepts" despite them all sharing memories, and it's unclear what experience they have when not being perceived or if they're a philosophical zombie who only exists due to the anthropic principle. Likewise, it's unclear if they'll ever solidify into one "concept" or if having become known to the pantheon as a package deal has made this aspect of them permanent. They nonetheless are fully cooperative and loyal to Arachne, who gives out moonstones to pretty much any and everyone and goes ^^ but with several more eyes. Their combat abilities likely vary between "concepts", as well as what they're meant to represent. All of them manage to be besties with Haniel. Their summoning phrase is "hydra Hecate".
Name: Anbar
Title: Facet of Belonging
Pronouns: he/him
Zodiac: Arachne
Patron God: Arachne
Lustrous Weapon: Vogh, Tome of x
Gemstone: Amber
Domains: Electricity, history, insects, trees, nature, silence.
While born from similar means, Anbar's story is much different. Anbar was instead retroactively "added" to the timeline through the conscious desire of Arachne and unconscious desire of mortals for her to have a Facet like any other god. This should be an apocalyptic disaster given how time works on Siderea (did I talk about that on main yet?? well w/e) but instead it's avoided by Anbar being Kellam Fire Emblem for most of his life.
The story goes that one day, somehow or another, Anbar was an ordinary spider in a piece of amber who was freed and resurrected as an Aranean by Arachne because she just kinda does shit like that. Anbar had no real understanding of what was going on here, but Arachne skittered back into the ether with nothing but questions in her wake. Confused and a little afraid, Anbar avoided society while wishing he could learn more about Arachne. Eventually he stumbled about the Facet Zone:tm: and realized Arachne was a god in need and devoted himself to becoming her Facet. Being deeply shy, though, he never really got official and stuck to the sidelines, participating in training without needing to be told.
He never spoke to the others, and due to his complete lack of presence (despite the obvious "what the fuck, giant spider person") no one ever seemed to notice him. Even the gods didn't seem to notice him once he became a Facet! In fact, they seemed to accidentally leave his agonized rock chunks behind, but in the end it was alright because Arachne came back and scooped them up once they were gone and glued his existence back together for him. And so he became a Facet!!! Which mostly involved trying to find Arachne again whenever she skittered off, conveniently always ending up in places without people.
All of that sounds ludicrous, but the fact of the matter was that no one could prove he or Arachne wrong. Every story told about him could be neither proven nor disproven; the prolonged periods of isolation helped, but so too did the fact that every Facet-related event he claimed to be a part of there was always some feasible place he could have hidden himself or have otherwise gone unnoticed. At the end of the day the only person who could serve as an alibi was Arachne, and naturally she simply nodded along and went (translated, of course) "yes, it's entirely feasible Anbar's existed all along!" With Anbar undeniably physically present and being witnessed by others, so was finalized the tale of how Arachne gaslit a whole-ass human being (well... you know) into existence.
Anbar is extremely unused to being perceived and tends to jump when acknowledged. All his life no one ever looked in his direction, and now suddenly people do that all the time?? It's really weird and uncomfortable! Part of him is excited to be able to be part of society and make connections and what have you, but the rest of him is dissociating and screaming. Doesn't help that the whole "gaslit into existence" thing makes things a little awkward; people being like "who tf is this? no way he's someone we know" was kind of a bummer and makes him paranoid that people are paranoid of him! He's a kind and warm person, but generally prefers to be cooped up away from prying eyes. He enjoys history, feeling a need to learn about the planet he came to exist on. Also bugs. Probably likes to eat those.
Combat-wise, he's mostly a healer with a shocking (heh. didnt plan this actually) aptitude for electrical magic. In terms of Arachne handing things out, Anbar would be the same as Hecate; Arachne gives amber out pretty freely. One difference, though, is that his designated bestie is Uriel rather than Haniel. Given they're both spiders, though, he'd probably get along with Haniel anyway. His summoning phrase is "hydra Anbar".
both concepts are fun, anbar being more recent, but the idea for picking arachne's rock was either "pick a june birthstone to fit with spidey season" or "match with jacinth and lapis lazuli in being a stone that was likely on the priestly breastplate from which birthstones originated". though amber and jacinth are more or less mutually exclusive on there i think but w/e. hecate is also the kind of character who could feasibly be Not a facet and instead just some weirdo "normal" aranean due to how aranean reproduction works but more on that when i toast in the shrine of arachne someday. so i'm leaning toward anbar being the Facet which is kind of funny bc hecate was unquestionably the facet for the past year and i only came up with this dude like within the past week or so lmao
(Editor's note: I wound up going with Anbar; Hecate will likely be recycled into a non-Facet character as discussed.)
Rankings???
Considering having Moh's hardness scale as well as the durability of gems factor into things like their own attack power and durability but finding durability was hard bc when you google that shit you just get hardness which is Very much not a measure of how easy it is to shatter a gem. The one site I found that had durability listed didn't have every gem and didn't seem to follow any strict scale so what you see is what you get. Nonetheless I might as well mark this stuff down somewhere in case I use it so I don't have to dig it up again:
Hardness:
Sapphica, Ruby: 9
Topaz: 8
Emeraude, Marin: 7.5-8
Onyx, Methysta: 7
Granatum, Jacinth: 6.5-7.5
Trepein, Carnis, Peridot: 6.5-7
Agate: 6.5
Hecate: 6
Lazulum: 5.5
Anbar: 2-2.5
Durability:
Excellent: Trepein, Agate, Marin, Methysta
Very Durable: Sapphica, Ruby
Good: Onyx, Carnis, Granatum, Lazulum
Sensitive to Heat: Peridot, Jacinth
Fragile: Emeraude
Perfect Cleavage*: Topaz, Hecate
amber is specifically listed as "Can be Damaged by a Hot Torch" which like no shit man me too
* this means that they have fat tits but are very sensitive to being hit by a hammer i guess. i can relate
actually speaking of fat tits i did use the funy cleavage measurement to inform their designs to some extent although i gave some of them fat tits anyway. fuck you. But In Case You Needed To Know:
Cleavage:
Perfect: Topaz, Hecate
Imperfect: Emeraude, Marin
Poor: Sapphica, Peridot
No True Cleavage:tm:: Ruby
Indistinct: Granatum, Jacinth
None: Trepein, Agate, Onyx, Carnis, Methysta, Lazulum, Anbar
Other Candidates
Forgot I wanted to briefly mention the other candidates. For most of the Facets, they weren't the only candidates in their generation for their given god/stone, especially for those with a stone that has a lot of different varieties. Most of these aren't defined characters, usually being a vague design concept at best, but should I ever write the Facet Story:tm: for NaNo someday or something like that they're people ripe for development. Or ripe for Siderea fan-characters.....!?!??!?!
Something to note is that not all of the failed candidates are necessarily dead: many died in the process, but others dropped out early, and some may have even escaped entirely. Those who merely dropped or "flunked" out were made to remain in a service role and generally continue training as much as possible to serve as understudies and aid in breeding the next generation of Facets should theirs fail. The alterations made to their bodies provides the potential for immortality and thus a window for any given candidate who survived to be alive to this day. Though the gods - and later, the Facets themselves - did quite a bit to shut down the Lapidaries, the failed candidates weren't people anyone sought to punish. While not all of them had noble intentions or took the loss of their livelihood lying down, at the end of the day they were victims and not exactly targets for murdering.
Stones I'm keeping in mind for failed candidates include:
- Bloodstone: Heliotrope (was simply too purple for the job)
- Sapphire: Padparadscha
- Agate: Lace, Moss, Dendritic, Holly Blue, Fire, Plume, Iris (i'd give them like actual names but. some of these names work as like Fire Mode for instance
- Emerald: Trapiche
- Onyx & Carnelian: Sard
- Peridot: Chrysolite, Olivine
- Beryl: Beryl, Maxixe, Morganite (Morgan (marin sobbing)), Heliodor, Goshenite (Goshen), Bixbite (Bixby; was one of the OG Lapidaries and the only Lapidary I have defined atm)
- Topaz: Imperial, Blue
- Ruby: Corundum
- Garnet: Pyrope, Spessartine, Grossular, Hessonite, Tsavorite, Andradite, god there are so many garnets like theres more!!
- Amethyst: Trystine, Prasiolite/Vermarine
- Jacinth: Zircon, Starlite, Jargoon
- Lapis Lazuli: idk like the component parts?? like pyrite, lazurite, sodalite, and calcite
Moonstone/Amber, given the origins of the respective Facet, had no rival candidates. Also note that while I've basically already said as much multiple times already this is far from a final list, and there's certainly room for there to be more or less candidates. Multiple people can be named after a generic gem or specific variety, and I'm sure there are plenty of cool varieties of things I didn't catch.