A Comprehensive Guide to the Noctees: Drackard Family · 9:01am Mar 8th, 2015
“Staunch in the Laughter of Darkness”
From the many peoples we equines share this world with there aren’t any more mysterious and bearish than the Noctees. Both the practices and the culture of their race have always been seen by the outside world like incomprehensible and strange until recent times, when the families have started to abandon all their secrecy and opened their doors to Equestria once more. For many investigators, this has presented us with an opportunity to rediscover the past and present of a culture that has been kept away from ponies for the last millennia. Many researchers are encouraged to dig into the cultural richness the Noctees have to offer, but, maybe out of pure circumspection, we the more seasoned researchers have always tried to put that onrush to rest, and told repeatedly to our younger folk to analyze the situation with a more sober mind before they bury their muzzles into something that they shouldn’t, which in the case of the Noctees takes the form of a list of obscure and dark secrets that weren’t disclosed even in the times when they interacted with our race more openly. The Drackard Coven, is one of those cases where curiosity has led many eager researchers to learn their lesson the hard way. Obscure and mysterious, even for Noctees standards, the Drackard family hasn’t openly discouraged new investigations to be held in their Coven, and even are open for tours throughout their city! Everything is granted if is asked correctly, but every time an investigation or research is opened for their Coven it always goes with a single warning: “Learn at our own risk…” Practices of strange arts, the Drackard rituals are extremely outlandish to say the least, and the magic that the whole family is renowned for using is some of the most incomprehensible and esoteric beyond compare. The practices of the Coven border on a line that many would call the definite division between still practice magic as we traditional understand it and the exercise of dark powers, which in time has earned the Drackard a very ill reputation of warlocks and spooks among their brethren Covens, and even the repulse of other lesser families because of it.
Drackard Coven
The Drackard city-estate is located inside the mountain chain that stretches from one side to another of the Unicorn Range, along with the other Covens who owe them loyalty and one way or another descend from them, which are known as the Western Collectivities. Even though the families of this region are relatively new, in truth their cities are in most cases older than them. These ancient Covens who otherwise hosted entire and more numerous families than the ones that inhabit it now once used to be part of a kingdom that supposedly ruled unmatched over the chain, even over the pony herds that inhabited the area. The Drackard hegemony would go undisputed during the early times of Equestria until the rise of the Crystal Empire, which little by little claimed domain over the whole central and northern portions of the continent. By then the power and territory of the Drackard dwindled, and Lucius found himself ruling over a piece of land that paled in comparison to the immensity of land and resources of their neighboring kingdom.
Tension between the Crystal Ponies and the Noctees consequently rose up, and when the Pony-Noctees war erupted every Coven and family of the Noctees was, to some degree, involved. The Drackard, like every other major family in Equestria, commanded their fellow families to battle against the Crystal Empire, and managed initial important victories against the ponies before the massive offensive known as the Emerald Storm Campaign shattered the Noctees control of every front, even at the cost of king Emerald Storm, and left both contenders in a stalemate that would extend the war another thousand years. During this time, both Lucius and his fellow Allfathers battled against the Crystal Empire with resolution, switching from defense to the offensive throughout centuries until the Western Crystal Empire finally surrendered.
Lucius finally achieved victory, but at a high cost. Most of his families had been disintegrated as a result of the conflict, and the ones that were still left were in bad shape due to the sacrifices made to overcome the Crystal Empire stock superiority. The Western Collectivities would start rebuilding, but another harsh test would await them around the corner, for not long after the defeat of the ponies the Changeling Swarm, which had started to colonize and reclaim vast tracks of land, hit the families with all its power. Lucius and his families defended the nowadays Unicorn Range, and foot by foot they made the changelings pay for their recklessness, but ultimately the “bugs” and their sheer number superiority made them flinch and falter. The Allfathers needed to retreat, and soon they found themselves fighting inside their very Covens, their cities being assaulted by endless hosts of buzzing hive warriors. The Drackard were no different, and level by level Lucius fought back the changelings until there was nowhere to retreat to. The brave Drackard family would have fought to the end, but their goddess hadn’t decided that it was their time, and before the changelings could reclaim their territories as theirs, the very ponies who had been their enemies not so long ago, took arms once more and in a completely unexpected move they counterattacked the Swarm. The series of battles and desperate fights that followed only concluded when the changelings were wiped away by the Windigoes, and a peace treaty was established between the Noctees and the ponies of the Three Tribes in the name of all of their races. The Drackard Coven may have won the war, but lost their domains. Their kingdom was completely ravaged, and now they are the last standing family of their former glory.
Nowadays the Drackard Coven has been at last rebuilt and is fully functional. Politically, the Drackard Coven represents the centre of their new nation in ways of development, functioning as a node from which the Dreackard rule their lands or what little remains. The rest of the Covens have been tried to be restored, but the fallen kingdom just doesn’t have the coltpower to do so. The result is that even though the rest of the families in the region find it easier to just inhabit an abandoned mountain rather than to build a new one, still their numbers are not large enough to fill their cities entirely. Abandoned halls, and titanic chambers that remain in darkness to this day are the product of trying to revive the ubres that used to be the Covens of the Drackard kingdom, and in the cases of the Covens that haven’t been repopulated at all, buried ruins of the cities that used to be are still standing from the several millennia when they used to be bastions that have seen the loosing of countless lives between their walls.
Although is not a constant because of their own diversity, all the Drackard of their original Coven distinct themselves by wearing golden ornaments, by which they try to exalt their statuses as rightful rulers of their land, so many regal-like trimmings and masterfully crafted plates are the preferred choice of the Drackard family members. The thestral population of the Drackard Coven prefers to distinct themselves by wearing purple and gold, from their normal attires to their battle armors, two colors that, supposedly, exalt the nobility of their heritage.
The Void
This, over the rest, is one of the main factors that have contributed to the bad reputation the Drackard have earned throughout their history. The reason behind this is because of the instability of their magic, even for Nightmancer standards. The result of the constant utilization of this magic has been rooted deep within they city. The wind howls in the dark, indecipherable whispers are heard in the silence of the night, and one cannot tell wether if he’s being watched or not. Precaution is advised to everypony who comes from the outside, and getting into dark places strongly discouraged. Because of the strange effects that seem to lurk in the dark and are inferred byproducts of the utilization of the Drackard magic, the world of the outside has learned to see the family and all of their members as black warlocks and witches, people who likes to play with things that shouldn’t be disturbed.
Starting to address the base of all of their magic, the place where all the strange beings the Drackard bring to existence come from is only vaguely referenced as the Void. No one knows where it is or how does it look, but its existence is far beyond any questioning, for all the creatures that had come to this world under the tutelage of the Drackard Nightmancers have demonstrated that there is a plain of existence beyond our normal lives. The magic of the Drackard in this facet is complex and unique, for they don’t only specialize in conjuring and spell casting, as the rest of the families, but their practices are strongly oriented towards summoning these immaterial entities and tie them to their will, which they give mass and shape through the use of their raw powers.
The Nightmancers of the Drackard Coven are in their totality centered around the summoning and mastering of these creatures for their purposes, be it means of attack, defense or other uses. For being capable of using this special kind of magic, a Nightmancer must know the nature of the Void, and have his or her thoughts synchronized to that dimension in order to know when is it convenient to use it and summon simple passing creatures, or when would it be too dangerous to exploit it. The most likely theory states that because of their tuning to this realm of existence the Drackard Nightmancers can also see it along with the material reality, and thus know when is it suitable to use their most specialized power in order to defend themselves. A fully fledged Nightmancer will know when to summon these creatures to reality and power them for a brief period of time before he banishes them back to where they came from when their purpose is complete. Still, the methods and results of these summonings are very unpredictable, and a wrong summoning can turn counterproductive both for the caster and everyone around him. The nature of the inhabitants of the Void is as varied as the ways of magic there are to call them.
For this purpose, even if a Nightmancer will have a high degree of mastering of the arts of his family, the Drackard harbor an elite group within the ranks of their family. This corps is not only capable of knowing almost with scientifically exactness when and how to summon from the most inoffensive of the Void denizens to the most powerful and dangerous as well as to channel their energy for as long as they are here in order to direct their antinatural wrath towards their foes. But that is not what makes this select group within the Drackard so particular, but the fact that they, over time and practice, have been able to summon and tie the creatures of the Void to their will, and with that they have made them being able to remain in the physical plane for an indefinite amount of time. These Nightmancers are rightfully called the Lords of the Void, and there is none over the phase of the world that understands the workings of this alternate reality as much as they do. The multitude of beings that they drag around and interact with, even if they aren’t visible to simple sight, always accompany them and act as both their protectors and servants. Some even go as far as to theorize that because of the existence of this bond they are able to share the same perceptions and enhance their overall conscience!
The ranking of the Lords of the Void depends strongly in how many creatures are tied to their will, and their level of mastery over them. Of course that even if a Lord of the Void will never reveal the exact number of creatures that he or she has subdued every one of them is prone to demonstrate to their fellows the level of mastery they have achieved over their servants. Most of the times a Lord of the Void requires three or four of these wraith-ish creatures to be visible at a time while he keeps the others hidden or supplying him the power necessary to continue with his summonings. For this reason they also have no personal escorts beyond their servants, and are completely capable of going on their own beyond the Coven’s confines.
The creatures that have been tied to the Nightmancer’s desire, though are still in this reality, remain formless and ethereal until their master imbues them with his magic, time when they take form and gain the capacity to interact with the physical world according to his mental orders. Some specially advanced Nightmancers in their field can even command their servants to possess and manifest themselves in material objects!
Other branch of the Dracakrd Night Guards that has learned over time to interact first-hoofed with the interdimentional creatures are the elite corps, even higher than the Night Bearers themselves, of the Void Knights. These thestrals are Night Bearers who, forfeiting their right to keep advancing in Noctees society, will dedicate their lives to become themselves living weapons and vessels upon which the Void will inhabit whenever is needed. As with the Lords of the Void, there is not a standardized process by which these thestrals are trained or named. Everyone of them is unique in their own right. The way of forming of a Void Knight begins when the already existing members, when not guarding their rulers or any other sacred site of the Coven, roam the lines of the Night Bearers in search for the qualities that, according to their mysterious thoughts, make for a good candidate. The selection process hasn’t proven to be the same in any case, the Void Knights often choosing their candidates because of meaningful things of their personality, like their strength of will or determination, or because of seemingly irrelevant features, like their voice pitch or the length of their ears. Every Void Knight has his own criteria for every situation, and every Night Bearer is subjected to their judgement without question. For this reason also, it’s not strange to find a Void Knight in many of the Night Bearers companies that exit the Coven, for if there is a way to prove the existence of the features they are after, is when their possible candidates are exposed to the changing and unpredictable possibilities of the outer world.
Once the Void Knight has chosen his or her prospects, they return to the Coven, where the Night Bearers will be formed into a new company known as the Void Bearers and will be the personal escort of one of the Lords of the Void of the Drackard family. While serving the Lord of the Void, the Void Bearers will try to assist him in every possible thing he requires. No necessity is too little. The Lord of the Void in question will be their absolute master, and while they serve under his rule he will decide who stays and who leaves. The criteria by which the Lord of the Void selects those who leave or stay is entirely his own. After a while, when the Lord of the Void decides that all the ones who weren’t committed with him have been discarded, the selected few will be given their final test. The Lord of the Void will grant them one of his personal servants as a gift for all their dedication to their master. The creature that is granted to the Void Bearer is then given to him, or rather he is given to it, in order for the latter to be directly possessed by the last.
The Void Bearers who have proven in battle that they can withstand a possession from an inhabitant of the Void, or have been granted by their master the gift of one of his pets will have to undertake the last and most difficult test by their lords to the date, for the fusing with the creature will not only have repercussions in their physical bodies, but in their minds as well. Because the creatures from the Void are not of this realm, the invasion of the body of a normal denizen of this reality by one of these intelligences results very often in a battle for the mind of the host, both not to let the creature take hold, and to avoid being shattered in the process of communion. Cases of madness, loosing of mental stability, and even death have always followed to those who hadn’t have the strength of will to prevent their alien tenants from defeating their own selves. The effects on the outside are another story, for when the creature converges with the flesh and bone of its host it almost always reshapes it so that it can fit its needs. The result is a series of painful mutations and shapeshifting transformations that turn the subject into a living reflexion of the creature that inhabits his body. Scales, claws, secondary or even third pairs of wings, jaws full of knife sized fangs, or poisonous dart launchers always appear to replace or enhance the existing physical form of the subject as he tries with all of his might not to be torn by the battle that is occurring inside of his head.
Many don’t make it, and mad, frenzied, deform creatures are the result of their inability to both sustain their changes and being able to subdue their host by themselves, failure that their fellows will have to “correct” in the worst possible scenario in order to vindicate their comrade fallen in disgrace. For the ones that do manage to break their hosts and tie them to their will, nevertheless, a far stranger price awaits them. From the moment they win the battle inside of their minds and bodies, the subject returns to his original form, and the newborn Void Knight will have the power to commune with his personal host every time he desires. The creature that he has been infused with is no longer a separate entity, but both have successfully fused and now form a new essence within a mortal vessel. The new Void Knight will be free now from the needs of his otherwise mortal condition. He will no longer feel wariness, hunger or pain; even age is said to no longer have an effect over them and will be able to morph to his monstrous appearance and back whenever he desires. The conscience of the Void Knight will be tied to that of his lord the same way the creatures are bound to him, but will still allow him enough independence to exercise free will, for what use is a living weapon if it can’t think beyond what’s ordered to it?
The Void Knights always go bare, no longer needing any kind of clothes or protection, for when the time comes they can harden their skin to the point of being the same as any other crafted armor, or become inmune even to the harshest climatic conditions. They no longer disport themselves with the affairs of the mortals, like fashion or bonding with other living creatures. They may have transcended their condition as mere thestrals, but in the process they have truly become something else.
Drackard’s motivations
Right after the incredibly costly war with the Crystal Empire and the Swarm, the kingdom of the Drackard was left in ruins. Lucius was morally crushed, as much as the rest of his family, but his will, nonetheless, wasn’t deterred, and in the millennia that followed the Drackard have worked their lives to rebuild their entire territory. Now the Covens of the Unicorn Range are rising in power once again, but the promise of recovering their former glory is still an elusive dream. For the Drackard and their siblings every loss they sustain is a setback in that matter, a chance less to attain their wealth and prosperity once again. For this reason, the Drackard extend their filial bonds with the lesser families that have branched out of them with the union with other Covens. Even though Lucius remains the oldest and biggest figure authority, he’s still willing to concede audience to his fellow Allfathers whenever an issue will rise, and hear them in their self made Father’s Council as equals.
Because of this political organism, and the first priority of rebuilding their kingdom, the Drackard are unlikely to interfere in the affairs of the world, but whenever they do, they act with the complete support of their fellow families. A Dracakrd task force may not only have forces of the family per-se, but from every other family attached to them. Still, the requirements of their possible involvement with the issues that transpire around them is regarded as costly enough in most cases so that the family often chooses their fights with uttermost care and only if they have a meaningful weight in the outcome of the crisis in hooves.
Drackards in war
The Lords of the Void comprise the centre of every major task force the Drawcard have destined to exit their ancient city. These highly specialized individuals act as the heads of the army while the lesser Nightmancers fulfill their duties as captains and lieutenants of the army, each one at the command of a lesser host of Night Guards that in turn serves as the army’s vanguard and flanks. This strategic disposition allows the Drackard to move their forces as a whole like a regular army, but also grants them tactical advantage, as the lesser Nightmancers are still capable officers and the hosts of the Lords of the Void can move independently from the rest of the units in order to strike at the most crucial points of the enemy’s formations. To this purpose, the hoof soldiers of the Drackard are equiped with light armors and disposed in support formations in order to grant them more mobility on the battlefield and impact damage against enemy lines once they are in position. The Night Bearers of the Drackard Coven are clad inside full and heavy sets of armor, and always carry broad shields and long spears. They are always disposed in tight formation units, both in the air and on the ground, and are the toughest cohorts which usually withstand the heavier enemy’s assaults. The usual function for these elite thestrals is to drag and resist the onslaught of the heavier enemy units in order to display them so that the truly bread and butter of the Drackard can hit the enemy at their very heart.
The true core of every Drackard force is mainly comprised by the Lord of the Void himself and his personal escort. These troops, which comprises entirely of Void Bearers and Void Knights, will charge with their Nightmancer and aid him in case he’s in danger. When the battle is at it’s highest, and the enemy force has used or displayed all of their reserves, the Lord of the Void and his division will move through the lines of their fighting soldiers, granting them courage and morale as they fly towards the most critical point of the enemy formations. Most of the time these spear tips are headed towards the enemy leaders, being aided and covered by the rest of the Noctees army until they reach their objective and unleash all of their antinatural wrath; others, they are used as special operations teams, or as reserve divisions whenever the battle is turning fiercest or the lines are menacing to fall. In practice, this is a far more useful tactic as it appears at first, not only on the battlefield, but on the enemy morale as well. Seeing a complete division of thestrals, and even the Nightmancer that commands them, turn into monsters in the middle of a charge is a vision that can freeze the heart of even the most valiant of enemies.
The Elder house of the Drackard
The Drackard genotype is varied in its strains, though the differences are subtle between the breeds. For example, Nightmancers tend to have a deep-purple mane with a black coat of fur, which inside the walls of their city, and during nighttime works as a splendid natural camouflage. Thestrals all possess a similar pattern, but the mane-color varies more. Another interesting thing about their genotype is that there is no one in the entire Coven, be either thestrals or Nightmancers, who has two eyes of the same color. Cases are few of a monochromatic display, the most famous being Lucius, the Allfather, who has black irises, which in time have only added more rotten fame to his already bad image to the world as The King of the Sorcerers or The Master of the Void among many others.
Since the major lost of their siblings during the Pony-Noctees war, the Drackard family has struggled over millennia to recover themselves, including refilling their missing ranks. Since at the end of the conflict only a hooffull of his family survived, Lucius has been actively looking to form and confirm as many unions between his family and others as there’s possible. On major terms, his petitions have been granted by their brethren families of the Nocturnus, whom which they fought side by side during the conflict, and the Voidstar. Even the Heartless accepted after a while the union between their houses, and some of their descendant families as well. In them Lucius has found true supporters in order to restore the Western Collectivities to their past power, but even despite their bond of closeness Lucius’s pleads for help have fallen on the deaf ears of the more conservative families of the Mirksun their offspring, and the Dreadwing, though mostly because of the lack of members to mate with.
Back in those desperate times of lean strength, Lucius bet his whole recovery to the contacts with his fellow Allfathers in order to expand the bonds of his family as much to the outside as possible, and even though it was a long time invest, the trust of the ancestral Allfather wasn’t misplaced, and just now does his investments and allegiances are starting to show results. The union between his family and those who have him in high regard has produced the lesser families of the Blackwing, Northwind and Hellflame, whom at the same time are one of the last known descendants of the original Heartless, which time after have produced a third generation of lesser families and satellite Covens. Lucius has worried about the enlargement of his own family as well, but with his bloodline contributing to the creation of new families, and the rumors going around of a fourth generation which would “leave no Coven without rule” in their ancient kingdom the actual numbers of his own name haven’t grown the way they should, remaining a fraction of what the Drackard family was before the war. Still, to some degree of comfort the existing families nowadays are all aligned around the Drackard and their bonds of union are so close that despite their last names, every member of the Father’s Council considers himself or herself a fully fledged member of the Drackard family. Lucius and his immediate family have all taught them about their powers with the Void, and every member of their relative families is an avid practicer of their ways. Lucius Drackard may not have been able to rebuild his family and his kingdom yet, but the choices he’s made for his people, and the legacy of his work are sure to be able to fulfill his dream even if his whole bloodline comes to an end.
The Drackard characteristic style of conjuration comprises shadows of purple and black, often in low tones depending of the mastery of the conjurer.
Notable Family Members
Lucius Drackard
Legba Drackard
Samedi Drackard
Rada Drackard
Vlad Drackard (deceased)
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