Foundation Blog: Nightingales
For the next four posts, I want to focus on the design philosophy and inspiration for each of the four titles. There is material here I want to communicate as the foundation of each, and explore so I don't lose the visual theme as they grow. This week, we’re starting with Nightingales.
Nightingales
Era Setting: Contemporary. Style of dress is what you expect of a contemporary world: some culturally-relevant pieces updated for modern people; jeans, t-shirts, and all that. Building styles hearken back to old aesthetics paired with modern lines and silhouettes. The title logo may still go through a future change to align it with the era.
Name Inspiration: In the ancient world, the ternathe people were comprised of six tribes, each named after a bird sacred to their goddess Hain-Terrana. This story follows the Mordana family, the premier family of the Nightingale tribe. The story went through multiple renamings, including just calling it “Mordana,” “Paladins,” “Parliament,” and “Orisons.” I ultimately settled on “Nightingales” because of the interior influences of art and music. Also, they are the last family of the Nightingale tribe within the known world, so the stakes are raised ever so slightly.
World Events: Ternathe tribes pushing back on oppression and building political strength in the southlands of Alexandria; polarization and ethnopopulism around the world; social, cultural, and economic unrest despite increasing global wealth; the return of magic to the world after generations without it
Media for Inspiration:
Charmed
Mage: The Awakening (WoD TTRPG)
Detroit: Become Human
Background: This story came about when I wanted to modernize the main world where my stories are set. I wanted to focus on a specific family and their modern lives after all the world-shaking events were relegated to 60-year-old, dilapidated history books. At the heart, I wanted to ask what happens to a world when ancient knowledge and wisdom return to a world still struggling to “get along” with itself socially? In bringing back magic, I had to look at which family would be at the center of it and why, what it would mean for them, and who they are. Knowing the history of this world as intimately as I do, because I set so many of my old stories here, there is a lot of social and racial turmoil simmering under the surface, as the world is filled with so many ethnic populations who, as in our own world, don’t get along.
As in all my stories, the people at the center of all of these events are analogs for Black people. The Mordana family have been at the center of ternathe culture for generations and their status has always flowed like ocean tides throughout history. At the height of their peoples influence on the world stage, they were the undisputed caretakers and administrators of their country, establishing much of the economic and cultural norms that the ternathe understand today. But now, the family numbers and wealth have declined significantly, as the father of the three sons re-purchased the family manor and spent his young life rebuilding it while raising his sons.
The Mordana family today is like any other middle-class family. Each son has gone to college, and is establishing or has established their early career. Europa, the eldest, is a multi-instrumental musician like their father. Where their father built his fame as a touring jazz musician, band leader, and composer, Europa leans more to local scene, composing and teaching music, and playing regular performances at cultural events, wanting to prioritize his family. Ganymede, the middle son, attached to their mother in the kitchen, where he learned the finer points of culinary art from her. But it was her career as a social worker that inspired Mede to head to medical school to become a doctor. Fresh from his certifications and residency, he is an attending physician at his university’s hospital. Finally, Narcissus, the youngest, is actually the cousin of Europa and Mede but was adopted by their father as a toddler and is considered a sibling. With their uncle’s and cousins’ support, they are currently studying ballet and theater in university. The three live together mostly for the security of a familiar home and neighborhood, as much as to be close to each other, and the convenience of not having to pay exorbitant rents within their city while pursuing their careers.
Moon Child: The trio is paired with Kyrie, the eldest of the five moon-children who are born from the goddess Hain-Terrana. Kyrie is the eldest, and the most supreme of his siblings, and is a dominating personality among them. However, he and Europa have been lovers since antiquity, being reborn over the course of many generations just to find each other again. Though they did not always find each other, if one were to explore the family history in-depth, one might find a certain white-haired, thin-framed lover to that generation’s eldest son. As it stands, Kyrie and Europa in this age found each other as children and grew into fast friends, teenage lovers, and now devoted couple.
Kyrie and Europa have always revolved around each other since their first birth centuries ago. Even then, they shared the same birthday, and were well-known throughout their country as romantic and political partners, especially when Kyrie’s power first manifested itself during the ancient Prism War that saw all five nations in a magical arms-race. In each incarnation, Kyrie’s power awakened when Europa’s life was threatened, and he regained more of his sealed memories from their time together. In the current age, Kyrie maintains full awareness of his and Europa’s epic history, and remains on high alert to threats against his family, as it’s often those threats that both awaken his powers and sends the world into a conflict that, historically, claims Europa’s life.
Prelude: The entire family is gathered on “Liberation Day,” a ternathe holiday that celebrates the ancient end of their enslavement in the central and western nations and established their sovereign nation as an independent power in the world.
And that’s where we start with Nightingales! I wanted to give just a peak into interior of these stories to provide foundation and context, and because I like talking about them. In the next, I’ll lay down the same treatment for Warsaints.
Thanks for reading!