A Comprehensive Guide to the Noctees: Voidstar Family · 8:54am Mar 8th, 2015
“As Vast as the Stars”
The Voidstar is perhaps the most numerous and richest among the elder families of the Noctees. Their wealthiness is only rivaled by their reputation as good business makers, and among the other families the Voidstar and their descendants are the ones that enjoy an unparalleled prosperity. Mainly receptive of those who wish to establish commercial relations, the Southern Collectivities are the ones who had have the most contact with the other races of the world, and through by which the Nightmancers of the families that descend from the bosom of Boudicca herself are virtually unmatched investors, business partners and accountants. In fact, at least half of the cities and towns that have been established over Horse Shoe Bay are financially supported by one the Voidstars or their siblings! But not everything the family does can be seen under the light of the sun, and their disposition to make amends and help the Day-Dwellers cannot be spoken of without referencing their own personal reservoir at the moment of making intimate contracts, which has led many to think that their members always have concealed intentions or secondary reasons to sign a contract that apparently doesn’t benefit them more than their counterparts. For those who seek to scam them easy money they must learn from the errors of those who have already tried and failed: the Voidstar are reasonable business people, but they are equally good as debt collectors, and none of them has even an inch of foolishness within them.
Voidstar Coven
Unlike the Dracakrd kingdom, the Southern Collectivities are a territory that instead of forming a nucleus of hegemony spreads throughout southern Equestria, ranging from Horse Shoe Bay to the coastal regions of the San Palomino Desert, the Voidstar families are spread throughout these areas of varied climatic conditions, but where mining is best suitable. Even though Boudicca’s city is the richest because of the commercial relations both with her business partners and her siblings, in truth the small kingdom of her descendant families is not attached to any central authority. In exchange, a Chamber of Commerce is in charge to make and manage any decision that would affect the Southern Collectivities as a whole, although it’s worth to mention that Boudicca’s voice is still the one with more weight in the decision making process.
Because of the prosperity and age the Voidstar have harbored throughout their ancestral history, the economic privileges and prestige of the family have allowed them to build more than one Coven, which their members can use as temporary residences or private workshops in order to focus on their personal projects unmolested. The location of the original Coven therefore is a mystery that has been lost in the midst of all of the opulence the elder family enjoys. Nevertheless, if a guess would have to be done, the biggest and most active node that the Voidstar use to effect their most important operations is located south from Horse Shoe Bay, surrounded by the Hayseed Swamps and just before the mountain chain that separates this region from the Badlands.
Before addressing the Coven itself, it’s necessary to know that even though the Voidstar are renowned throughout Equestria for their jewelry art and metallurgic designs, which constitute most of the base of their fortune, inside of their cities, at the very heart of their culture, their nature as Nightmancers is more than evidently expressed in the way that the Voidstar magic has evolved and developed a style of conjuration that has constantly put them at the brink of crossing the line between geniality and aberrance: the refined and highly misunderstood practice of necromancy.
Indeed the Voidstar are looked upon like the apex of successful business management, but if there’s something that cannot be denied about their nature, is that as Nightmancers their family has existed long enough to find a branch of magic and specialize in it. In this case, and because of their long history, the familiar expertise in the utilization of necromancy as a means to attain their objectives is a factor that has given shape to their tools and beliefs, even their cities are made of the remains of what used to be once living beings!
Because the jewelry also plays an important role in their sense of aesthetics, the Voidstar usually combine their masterful skills with their sinister art, and conversions of bone arrangements and gemstones are the result of such a twisted sense of fashion. Interior decorations fall into this category too, and the Voidstar Coven use to adorn the interior of their buildings with such frightful and beautiful displays of skeletons that even the most staunch of observers will find himself debating in weather to acknowledge the genius of the artist or his madness. These patterns repeat throughout all of the city without falter, and even some great murals and mosaics of sublime beauty are in truth bones crimped with gemstones attached to the walls! It’s a relief that the sense of aesthetics of the Voidstar be one of the strongest the architects had in mind at the moment of erecting the city, otherwise one would find a hard time believing he is walking amidst a great city and not in a populated necropolis.
Although the base of the fortune of the Voidstar lies in their cunning for business, another strong part of their earnings comes from the crafting and commercialization of enchanted trinkets to the other races of the world. By combining their characteristic artistic taste and the frightening nature of their magic they are able to create objects which have a beautiful design and power within it at the same time. From a femur crimped with a fire ruby that’s supposed to grant its holder good harvests through the year to a mandala of rubies drawn in the forehead of a skull, which is supposed to help have good luck in love; the point where runic bones which allow their possessor to have the knowledge and experiences of those whom they belonged to, and enchanted gemstones that when added to a shield in the right measure will grant it the strength of a castle wall intersect have given as a product objects whose utility is as varied as the nature of the art that can be produced with it. Every piece that the Voidstar make is insanely high prized, and even crazier is that there are actually buyers out there who will give exorbitant amounts of money just to have the right to have one of these magical objects in their possession for a limited period of time.
The practice of such an esoteric science is only limited to the members of the family, and even though their descendants also display arranges of bones and jewels in the same nature which gives them their frightful name in truth these are just gifts or trades that have gone remarkably successful between them and their ancestors. Boudicca only allows those of her immediate family to learn the secrets of the Necro-smithing, and that is a knowledge that the Voidstar are going to take to the grave with them, and perhaps beyond…
Voidstar’s motivations
The Voidstar have almost never gone to war or participated in any conflict with other race throughout their history because of one simple reason: it’s costly. Instead, the elder family and all of their siblings are more interested in forging everlasting relations between them and the other races of the world. In that respect, the Voidstar are considered to be the most diplomatic and friendly of the Noctees families, and nowadays one can see how well it’s played for them. Because of the relations that the Voidstar have with other races, most of the time the issues that present to them have been easily solved by employing their contacts. Why dirty one’s hoofs when you can put another’s to it?
Because of their long term view also, most of the Voidstar tend to see long into the future, both in order to assure the max profits from their contracts, and assess the dangers of committing with a rather doubtfully party. Their actions work the same way. As a family so extended throughout the southern region of Equestria, most of their success has been due because of their ability to foresee the strategic implications of their every move, art that they have refined to the point where it’s inferred that most of the time they no longer need to get themselves involved into an issue before it seems to “resolve itself”. The Voidstar in this aspect are prone to be seen as shady puppeteers, pulling the strings of their contacts and allies in order to fulfill their own agenda. Wether if this is true or not one can’t deny that it has played them wonders, for their strategic assessment is often so anticipatory that it is said that their involvement in the Pony-Noctees war didn’t shed a single drop of blood from their Coven!
Because of this one can certainly assume that the true power of the Voidstar doesn’t come in the way of sheer strength, but in the social influence of the family. This network of soft power has granted them the possibility of being able to manage their problems, even if they are mostly directed to them, from a multitude of secondary sources. An enemy of the Voidstar may not only find her or himself fighting against the power of the family alone, but a myriad of unexpected sources of threat that are or had a contact with the family, the words “As vast as the stars“ taken a far more different and devastating meaning for those foolish enough to assault the Voidstar on their own.
Voidstars in war
Because of their long term planning abilities and business oriented philosophy the Voidstars have almost never gone to war, or gotten directly involved into any conflict. The cases where this has been so can be counted with a griffon’s claws through known history, the most sounded of them being the war with the Swarm during the end of the Pony-Noctees war. By then, because of the exhaustion of every other strategic possibility, and the relentless advancing of the Changelings, the Voidstar were pushed to take action in order to protect the border of their nation and of the Three Tribes’ territory as well. The rest of their military potential and tactics are only inferred because of their display of bellicose artifacts, which comprise some of their finest bone artifacts at sale, as well as their most expensive.
In terms of utilization, the weapons of the Voidstar are apparently no more advanced or sophisticated as the Dreadwing, but the point where they make a difference and excel at doing so is in the use of enchanted plates and armors. Far over the simpler charms that their people devise for “lower” sales and auctions, and ranging from the Nightmancers of the family to the lowest of Night Guards, every soldier is clad inside an armor that comprises of runic plates and magic jewelry joints joined together, top that with necro-smithed trinkets and the result is an artifact which function is more complex the more of these are fielded in battle. These objects are known as Bone Armors, and are the most valuable merchandise the Voidstar can offer, as well as the most powerful and most zealously reserved only for trustworthy clients and friends.
All Bone Armors are masterpieces each, so complex and puzzling that trying to reverse engineer them is like trying to explain differential equations to a filly and expect her to solve a high level excise right afterwards. The secrets of their design have driven more than one scholar insane, and very often been granted as too beautiful and too advanced to understand. When displayed in battle, these magical ensembles act as dynamic independent devises designed to establish and maintain magical networking systems which at the time comprise a wither gestalt the more of these are fielded. In simpler terms, the more armors that interact with each other, the more they “connect” and enhance each other by doing so, as their power grows exponentially with every new member added to their ranks. This not only extends to the members wearing other Bone Armors, but every subject that are within a selected radius, which at the same time grows with the number of the armors.
The standard dynamic of a Bone Armor is that with every fallen comrade or foe, the wearer is able to “absorb“ the essence of the deceased creature, and by doing it he or she is able to learn about the one that has just passed away and, while still wearing the same armor, have temporarily the added capabilities of the subject adapted to his or her own. This way, the more essences the wielder absorbs, the more powers he or she will be able to unlock from the original functions of the armor. This is the necromancer aspect of the Voidstar taken to the limit of what’s temporarily possible, and the displays of these armors in great battles, even in a single squad, have been able to exercise nearly impossible feats when the fight is in its highest. There’s even a legend of a company that was cut off by the changelings and rose again after all of its members had fallen just because their captain was wearing a Bone Armor which got so fed up that it temporarily developed its own conscience! The revived thestrals picked up their weapons and their spirits got back at the Changelings until their revenge thirsty souls were satisfied, then the Bone Armor released them to join the Goddess, and it returned itself to the Voidstar, who have taken good care of it since then.
It’s believed that there’s no limit as to which point the powers of a Bone Armor can grow, but the development of these are often marked by its wielder, for all that prospect to great magic may be appealing, but in truth the burden of having to mentally cope with so much distress and sensations the armor supplies its wielder is a challenge out of any weak mind’s league to say the least. Besides, the more essence is being fed to the armor, the more unstable its powers are going to be, so after a point it becomes too dangerous to remain in battle if one doesn’t have the proper control over the abilities which the armor is going to exponentially develop. This is the main reason why the Voidstar doesn’t hand the Bone Armors to those who are not familiar with magic, and even then they must have a masterful level of utilization of it. Only the most seasoned of Nightmancers or the most remarkable of thestrals are able to fully exploit their capabilities without turning into a hazard for their troops or allies, and even then an unexpected situation may put an armor’s powers out of control. The prize of a single Bone Armor is heavily inflated, even for Voidstar standards, and the buyer must have a very close bond of friendship and trust with a member of the Voidstar family in order to issue the petition. If it’s approved and rightfully payed the wielder will be granted the armor, and the object will be imprinted with his or her essence so that only him can use it. The armor will be granted then but it will not cease to be property of the Voidstar family, and right after the buyer’s demise, be it because of natural causes or other, the armor will be retrieved so that the process may begin again.
Every armor is unique and unrepeatable, for it contains the bones of heroes and the essences of everyone who has been unfortunate enough to leave this life under its area of influence, though wether if it’s fully or partially is still debatable, which the one who wields it will be infused with at the moment of cladding into the armor, and will have to calm the spirits that dwell within it if he or she wants to begin to use it. But even if these objects are of unparalleled prestige, as unparalleled as its prize, which is to be said, is higher that the whole summed income of a large city, these are, surprisingly, not the top of their class. That spot is reserved for the jewel of the Voidstar crown, the most beautiful and dangerous product Mother Boudicca has even made. These are the Masterfully Crafted Bone Armors, and there are only six of them in existence. Unlike everything else the Voidstar make, these are not for sale, and under any circumstances are let within the reach of anyone but Boudicca herself. The Allmother is so secretive about this and so cautious that she deliberately encourages the notion that it’s a myth, an imaginary machination of the minds who doesn’t understand the true sophistication behind a single Bone Armor. To some extent her method has worked, but there always remain those who still believe this as a truth, and if it is one cannot do anything but hope that such terrible objects don’t see the light, for according to legend one of them is powerful enough to turn a simple mortal into practically a god. Why would Mother Boudicca design such nefarious objects is only inferred, but if their legend exists that would mean that at some point they had to be used…
The Elder House of the Voidstar
The Voidstar family is the largest there is in existence, their members number over the hundreds, and their thestral population is the largest a single family has managed of all of their race. This is another reason why the Voidstar have more than one Coven, and every one of them is an outpost of formidable proportions. Summed to this is the fact that, because of their good relations with the outside, many thestrals and Nightmancers have commonly mated with the races of the outside world. The genotype of the family therefore is very diverse, and even if for the Voidstar family themselves it has maintained its stability, the thestrals often present special features depending on the Coven they were born in. Even though, the family disposition is that the Night Guards must rotate through every Coven regularly in order to try to stabilize the genotype, for the unions between members of their Coven and other species have produced the largest quantity of Halflings, only surpassed by the Mirksun. The Nightmancer genotype comprises a pale blue mane and white coat striped with black, the color of the eyes of the Voidstar members range from red bright to sapphire blue. Boudicca’s irises show a strange display of litmus effect, and this way she can be easily identified.
Boudicca Voidstar is the Allmother of the of the family and the ruler of the Covens. Every member and city of the Voidstar is tied to her authority. She often manages the public relations with other peoples as well as conducts the family’s most important business. From massive petitions of artifacts to talking to foreign diplomats, kings and princesses have all met with her whenever the issue of very important commerce and or politics is raised. In these cases she often doesn’t meet alone with her invited guest, but with all of the Chamber of Commerce behind her back depending on the size of the issue. If the matter would be more personal to the Voidstar, a council of the whole family would be at her back instead.
But even though Boudicca is bound to meddle with the most important guests of the Voidstar at the time, there are sometimes when the list grows large enough so that she can’t meet with all of them at once. For this purpose, the Voidstar have a very defined system of ranking for their own Nightmancers, so that if the Allmotehr wouldn’t be available, another experienced member of the family should attend to the matter and make every decision as would his or her progenitor. A curious step on the ladder is the firstborn of Boudicca, Algol, who is directly below her in authority and personally manages Boudicca’s meeting schedule. It doesn’t matter who or what, if he doesn’t give permission his word cannot be overruled save for Boudicca herself. In practical matters he represents the Allmother’s interests and decisions, and his instructions cannot be questioned, not even from other Allfathers if Boudicca orders so.
The Voidstar characteristic style of conjuration comprises shadows of white, pale blues, and black.
Notable Family Members
Boudicca Voidstar
Algol Voidstar
Polaris Voidstar
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