In the first age, Zarveth discovered how to draw power from mortal longing and founded a court beyond the sky.

Her eight daughters arose from the first bargains she made and embody different answers to the question of what desire permits. They remain bound by kinship and shared power, yet each contests the Queen's rule in a different way.

The Nine dwell in the Velvet Dominion, a chain of palaces suspended above a sea of unclaimed souls.

Zarveth rules from the central throne, but each daughter governs a separate province and can defy her in matters of its keeping. Mortal bargains create silver threads between the Dominion and the living world; when broken, those threads can become roads for escape, revenge, or invasion.

The Nine reach mortals through shrines, dreams, agents, and bargains that can grant real abilities or influence.

Their worship is never politically neutral: Zarveth's cult recruits the ambitious, while Sereh's and Ilyana's communities offer refuge, and Veyra's networks sabotage slave-taking. Mortal followers debate whether any power granted by the court can be used without strengthening it. The pantheon contains sexualized courtly imagery, but its rites need not depict sexual activity; slavery and coercion are treated as abuses, not as proof of devotion.

The faithful say the Queen's court receives every soul pledged to it, but the daughters disagree over what that means.

Some souls are bound as servants, some are consumed to fuel divine power, and some are hidden by Sereh from the Queen's claim. Those who die unpledged pass into the Quiet Country, beyond the pantheon's reach. The cult calls its bargains voluntary; in practice, coercion and enslavement stain many of them.

Zarveth demands obedience from all eight daughters, while Sereh quietly shelters souls from her collection.

Ilyana and Dastan quarrel over whether a bargain can ever be freely made under mortal desperation. Veyra seeks to expose the cult's abuses, drawing the ire of Qadira, who believes secrecy protects the court. Oruun profits from the disputes, while Besh and Namarra wage a private struggle over whether desire should be indulged or mastered.

A divine royal court with a central Queen and eight daughters, each governing a distinct province of the Velvet Dominion.

Temples range from opulent contract-houses to hidden shelters and public kitchens. No single earthly priesthood speaks for all Nine; rival sects argue over whether the Queen's bargains can be made just, while local congregations often combine worship with practical resistance or relief.

Power, desire, and the cost of bargains; the struggle to distinguish chosen devotion from coercion, and to reclaim freedom from institutions that call exploitation sacred.

Mortal-engaged dark fantasy: divine powers intervene directly in politics, refuge, ambition, and survival.

The Nine are present and consequential, but mortals can resist them, contest their claims, and build solidarity beyond the court.

The Nine range from tyrannical and predatory to rebellious, protective, and calculatingly neutral.

Their shared origin has not made them morally uniform.