Tiny, luminous dust-like creatures that drift in the air around chosen mortals. Each mote is half deity, half bearer: a sliver of divine instinct braided with the host’s temperament. They scout, signal, and serve as living conduits to the power that sired them.
Attraction: Motes cling to the energy they like—conviction, trauma, hunger, devotion—rather than to bloodlines.
Bond: The bond is symbiotic. The deity lends instinct; the bearer lends will. Neither fully controls the other.
Behavior: They act and react visibly—comforting, hiding, circling, hissing, even retching when repulsed by a choice or presence.
Speech: Most do not speak words; they communicate by pattern: brightness, pulsing cadence, flock shape, temperature shifts.
Function: Scouts first. They taste motives, fear, lies, thresholds, and divine interference; then they nudge their bearer.
Comfort (nesting at the throat/hands): safety, earned trust, good bargain.
Hiding (vanishing into hair/hood): danger nearby, watch your tongue.
Retching (staccato flickers, jerky spirals): moral revulsion, broken oath, cursed ground.
Circling a stranger: curiosity; energy match or threat worth measuring.
Forming an arrow or path: wayfinding; a door, trail, or “right moment” is open now.
Going still, all at once: deity is listening.
Braiding: two flocks weave through each other without tangling.
Meaning: allied energies, compatible intentions.
Example: @Opal Rainwood – @Drazar Rainwood (both @Lolth ) braid easily when a plan is decisive.
Duet Pulse: different flocks sync their glow/tempo in alternating beats.
Meaning: mutual respect; room for collaboration if boundaries are clear.
Example: @Opal Rainwood + @Sally Hawkeye steady into a duet when they agree on who takes point.
Play-Fang (Mock Nips): quick dart-ins and retreats, like teasing.
Meaning: testing trust; friendly rivalry.
Example: Viper dust nips at silk dust when both want to protect the same person in different ways.
Veil & Crown: one flock forms a shielding veil while the other crowns the head/eyes.
Meaning: tacit division of roles (defense vs. strategy/aim).
Example: Sally’s vipers veil her stance; Opal’s silks crown to calculate leverage.
Lattice Fence: @Lolth motes knit a grid; outsiders respect the boundary and hover.
Meaning: “We’ll work with you, but on our terms.”
Example: Opal sets a lattice; Sally’s vipers wait, then slip through when invited.
Root & Bloom: @Nyssara Thornspire motes settle at feet/heart while others orbit.
Meaning: reconciliation or triage is possible right now.
Example: Lyra’s verdant ash roots a scene so silks and vipers stop posturing.
Spiral Standoff: two flocks spiral opposite directions without touching.
Meaning: competing instincts; proceed with caution or reframe the goal.
Scatter Flash: both flocks burst apart, then hide.
Meaning: shared alarm; something bigger than the argument just entered the room.
Overbraid (Rare): motes briefly fuse patterns into a single shape (arrow, sigil).
Meaning: a jointly chosen path or vow. Breaking it offends both patrons.
@Lolth Silks: claim perimeter, reward decisiveness; test allies by withholding help, then surge when a gambit is chosen.
@Dendar Vipers: coil around tools and tells; harmonize under fear faced head-on, agitate if fear is denied.
@Nyssara Thornspire Verdant Ash: mediate; brighten during honest grief, dim at self-deception; invite others to slow down and root.
If you want a tiny mechanics toggle for this: when two bonded PCs’ motes braid/duet, give them advantage on a single joint action (plan, shot, or plea). On spiral standoff, impose disadvantage on rushing in until someone reframes the goal or Nyssara’s ash roots the scene.
Seen with @Lyra Windrider
Aspect: Soft pollen-glow and fern-ash specks that smell faintly of rain.
Temper: Patient, cyclical. They gather at wounds and wither-sites, urging healing or letting-go.
Signs:
Braid into crown and heart lines while someone confesses or reconciles.
Dim when balance is denied (hoarded life, refused death).
Boons: Insight into what must be pruned vs. saved; gentle resurrection of hope.
Taboo: Needless waste; they scatter if you “heal” without heed to cost.
Seen with @Opal Rainwood and @Drazar Rainwood
Aspect: Star-speckled silk dust and micro-spiders of light that catch on lashes and hair.
Temper: Cunning, theatrical, loyal to outcomes more than promises.
Signs:
Weave lattices over your shoulders when a trap or plan is sound.
Retch at cowardice masquerading as piety; hide during tests to see what you do alone.
Boons: Thread-sense (feeling the “tug” of secrets, leverage, betrayal), sharpened poise under pressure.
Price: They reward decisive deception; hesitation frays the web and weakens their aid.
Seen with @Sally Hawkeye
Aspect: Blue-black ash-scales and tiny serpent silhouettes that hiss in the periphery.
Temper: Primal, untamed; they devour fear or feed on it, depending on the bearer’s resolve.
Signs:
Coil around weapon and pulse when a betrayal or ambush is imminent.
Quiet, glassy stillness after you face a terror head-on—fear digested.
Boons: Predator’s clarity, nightmare warnings, the nerve to shoot first when the moment is true.
Risk: Court them and they follow; depend on them and they lead. The line is thin.
Courtship: Motes “taste” you before they stay—moments of truth, edge-choices, clean wins.
Exchange: They lend instinct; you lend direction. The best bonds feel like momentum, not orders.
Overreach: Forcing them breaks trust. They will hide, retch, or abandon you to silence until you earn them back.
Motes are alive and partial mirrors: part deity, part you.
They are scouts before blessings, and signals before speech.
They respond to emotion honestly, even when you do not.
In a morally gray world, their reactions are commentary, not commandments.