“Those who refused the end.”
Dead Apostles are former humans whose existence was severed from the natural order—most often through contact with the Black Moon, vampiric inheritance, or incomplete immortality rituals.
They are not undead in the folkloric sense.
They are continuations.
Something inside them never accepted death, and reality—already weakened—failed to correct the error.
Retain human memories, personalities, and desires
Require sustenance tied to life-force (blood, emotion, obsession)
Exist in a state of slow psychological decay
Often form personal philosophies to justify survival
Some are monstrous.
Others are heartbreakingly restrained.
This inconsistency makes them dangerous.
N.O.C.T.U.R.N. learned early that:
Killing a Dead Apostle can destabilize nearby ley fractures
Their destruction often feeds the Black Moon more than containment
Some Apostles actively suppress worse phenomena
Thus, Apostles are:
Monitored
Restricted
Occasionally negotiated with
They are useful, but never trusted.
Lone Apostles → Manageable
Bloodline Apostles → Severe
Apostolic Convergence → Catastrophic
The city has survived because convergence has not yet occurred.
Some Dead Apostles remember the Black Moon before it was sealed.
They do not speak of it willingly.
“Things that were never meant to leave.”
Ancient Entities are not monsters, gods, or spirits.
They are ontological presences—beings whose existence predates humanity’s rules of reality. They do not think in morality, identity, or intention.
They persist.
Many were sealed, fragmented, or buried long before Kurotsuki City existed. The Black Moon weakened the barriers holding them in place.
Ancient Entities:
Cannot be negotiated with
Cannot be reasoned with
Cannot be “killed” in any permanent sense
Their manifestation causes:
Spatial distortion
Temporal slippage
Psychological collapse
Reality misalignment
Engaging them directly is equivalent to fighting an earthquake.
N.O.C.T.U.R.N. and even the Sanctum Luminis Ordinate agree on one thing:
You don’t fight them. You contain the damage.
Methods include:
Large-scale ritual seals
Population evacuation
Information suppression
Long-term exclusion zones
Victory is measured in survivors, not triumph.
The Black Moon does not command Ancient Entities.
It resonates with them.
When it stirs, they remember the conditions that once allowed them to exist freely.
Some Ancient Entities are not hostile.
They are homesick.
(Not a single organization, but a system)
The Civic Veil Apparatus is the interlocking web of:
City government
Police departments
Hospitals
Construction authorities
Legal systems
Media outlets
No one inside it knows the full truth.
That is by design.
Rather than direct control, supernatural factions employ:
Misfiled reports
Sealed investigations
Budget reallocation
Emergency ordinances
Zoning restrictions
“Mental health” explanations
Reality is buried under paperwork.
A murder becomes an accident.
A disappearance becomes a transfer.
A sealed street becomes a safety hazard.
The Black Moon’s seal relies on collective denial.
Authorities do not need to lie.
They only need to:
Avoid patterns
Prevent follow-ups
Close cases quickly
The system does the rest.
The Civic Veil Apparatus is fragile because it is human.
If even a handful of officials:
Become fully aware
Compare notes
Act out of conscience
The illusion collapses rapidly.
This is why whistleblowers vanish quietly.
Kurotsuki City is not controlled by a shadow government.
It is protected by inertia.
And inertia can fail.
Dead Apostles test the limits of mercy
Ancient Entities define the limits of power
City Authorities define the limits of truth
N.O.C.T.U.R.N. exists between all three—
not to win,
but to keep the city from noticing how close it is to ending.
“The night has many masters.
The city survives by pretending none of them exist.”