Hello, fiends!

After MUCH deliberation, the team have all read and 'eep'ed at your stories and come to a decision about who will be the winner of this year's Scare the Storytellers contest!

As usual, we'll be drawing inspiration from all entries while worldbuilding, so even if you weren't the top winner, you may well see your creative input used in future content/events (We can't promise anything, and would contact you to let you know if we do!)

Without further procrastination, this year's winner is...

ASTEYR DREYA!

Asteyr's myth "The Cabal/Katsyi, Lost to the Depths" chilled us to our bones and gave us a lot of new lore ideas to ponder (and I even think Arissa's entry could work with it!). So a huge congratulations to that old fish guy!

Speaking of which, this year we actually have FOUR runners up, who will each be getting a small prize, with Asteyr getting a bigger one! They are (alphabetically, before you ask!):
Akiko
Arissa
Desmond
Shulamit

You can read all of the winning entries below, and they will also be added to the wiki very soon, which means they're canon!
Congratulations to all of our winners! We'll be in touch very soon to arrange prizes.

Many thanks to everyone who entered and to the marvellous storytelling team for scoring so diligently. You are all amazing <3

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WINNING ENTRIES
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Asteyr Dreya (Overall winner)
The Cabal/Katsyi, Lost to the Depths

Around the end of the War of Extinction and before the birth of the Amaian race, a wounded and shaken Lha Ti by the name of Katsyi fled everyone, and everything, to Delphi and secluded itself in its madness at the bottom of the Keter Ocean where it relived the horrors of a 1,500 year war in its mind alone. Unfortunately, the young Amaian race encountered Katsyi. Having no interest in this new race, Katsyi lashed out with void kith, ate the brave who got too close, or ignored the Amaians. This tempestuous nature of this god-like being encouraged the young Amaians to worship, or at the very least fear, the Lhai Ti as the god of the sea and named it, in their tongue, Ksi. As thousands of years progressed and the Amaian set their gaze on the shores and the stars and began to strive for planetary dominance of Delphi, Katsyi stayed in the depths of the Keter and its own personal hell and languished. The name and nature of Katsyi was completely forgotten, and only the memory of Ksi remained.

But not all forgot.

A few ambitious Amaian remembered Katsyi and sought to bargain for power before they made a bid for dominance of Delphi. This was a mistake. Most died, but Katsyi finally relented and mind-controlled the rest with overpowering void kith. Katsyi forced the remaining mind controlled Amaian to cull themselves and the survivors were left linked by Katsyi. Thus, the Cabal was born. The mental grasp the troubled Katsyi had over the Cabal was flawed, a result of indifference in the affairs of the Amaian race and the madness it suffered. The link also allowed the Cabal to influence Katsyi to a certain degree, though with varying results. See, Katsyi was twisted and mad, capricious, and violent, in its suffering and isolation. Katsyi often compelled these Cabal to undertake impossible quests simply to be rid of them, which often led to their deaths or, if successful, greater fortune, fame, and influence among the Amaian people. It was through this link that the Cabal gained insight into spaceflight, the art of war which lead to the extermination of the Evux, and mastery of the seas. Is it no surprise the Amaians were among the first in the Younger Era to achieve spaceflight? All that it cost were live Amaian sacrifices&Katsyi needed to eat after all.

The Amaian people already had the Last Inundation as a tradition. A small thing indeed it was for the Cabal of the time to suggest a specific place in the Keter Ocean to be the most significant for their people. The early Cabal found they could pass the link on to their heirs, so the power stays within the dynasty. It is said that Katsyi remains Lost to the Depths of the Keter languishing in solitude when not roaming the seas as a violent force of nature.
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Akiko
Shadows of the Undercity
Akiko Zylas muses about shadows in the neon-lit gloom of the Undercity:

It isn't often that stories like this end with 'and our heroes all survived,' but if it helps, they were all in therapy for quite a while afterwards. A while ago, when the Blood Ark was still settling into Scatterhome, a handful of not-quite-gangers-per-se idiots with spaceships (we're all familiar with the sort) took it upon themselves to look into some disappearances along the remote Corsairs' trade route. It was probably pirates, they all assumed it was pirates, and along the way they hailed a little just-set-up colony who told them that it was, in fact, pirates, and invited them down to throw some money around on drinks and fuel. Strangest thing, though - their transfer shuttle had barely touched down when one of their number went flat blind. Nothing happened to his eyes, zero physiological or chemical changes, no detected kith phenomena, just, blind. They were partway to the colony's infirmary when one of his friends leaned in to quietly ask

hey

hey what is it that you blue guys see with that weird forehead eye again

And then they started shooting, which saved their lives and the lives of a lot of other people going forward. The sheer number of corpses in the colony's chapel basement was so shocking it dominated the news cycle for half an entire day.

This may be the most extreme example, but it's something that preys on our minds a lot, when we're with you weirdos who can't see the darkness of transcendence.

Jin don't jump at shadows.

Jin just worry over which shadows are the ones only they can see.
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Arissa Moonchild
The Barrel-Eyed Whale A.K.A. "The Swimming Death", "The Deep Cage"

This is the story of family: of a community of Sisters, a monster, and the 'Mother' that extracts a price from her 'Daughters'.

The Description: The Barrel-Eyed Whale is a monolithically large sea-beast that skims along the plains of the oceans beneath the midnight zone. Outside of its magnitude, (as large as a medium-sized city) and its entirely translucent head, its body is fish-like and nondescript with massive fins that propel it along the abyssal hills. Inside of its head, instead of organs and circulatory systems, it houses a lush, swampy garden full of plant and animal life, vibrant, alive, and sparkling with bioluminescence that makes it a very real home to its inhabitants.

The Story: Once every generation, The Barrel-Eyed Whale makes its ponderous way to the surface from the impossible depths and swallows young Amaian women whole. How it is able to find or sense them is a mystery, though some claim that an old Amaian woman is always present at the 'time of the swallowing'. Upon being devoured, the 'community' of women collected are slowly moved from massive esophageal chambers until they are shunted forward into its membranous head. There, the women of each generation tend to the fragile but utterly beautiful ecosystem that both feeds its captors, and their living residence. It is said that if the 'Mother' of any community is willing to sacrifice a 'daughter' for the good of the whole, The Swimming Death will pass them by on its next generational trip. No one knows how or why this bargain can be made, but Mother always knows, and the daughters are always offered, unless tribute is paid to the old woman; tribute that may be much more steep than a caged existence in paradise. Thus, the Mother tells the story, the Daughters accept the story, and we all know that should we become the next sacrifice, we have our sisters waiting in the The Deep Cage, and we shall not be alone.
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Desmond Lockwood
Unknown, popularly referred to as the North Star or the girl with the fiery hair

Appearance: Appears only in dreams as a beautiful woman with fiery hair akin to a celestial blaze. Appearance is subject to change based on the victim's preferences and beauty standards.

Soggy journal entry found in the jungles of Saksar:
On old Earth, it is said that she appeared as the first star in the night sky. Some claimed the star was named the North Star and, in ancient times, it helped sailors navigate on their journeys. It brought hope and guidance to those who were lost and saw it upon the sky.

My nana tells a different story though. She spoke to me of a fearsome being that struck at the hearts of young men. She asked me, "Des, did you ever dream of the girl with the fiery hair?" and I nodded. "Be wary of her and count how many times you see her."

I often think about that, because my Nana told me that if you dream of the girl with the fiery hair seven times, then you are lost. First, she comes to you in your dreams, a creature of unparalleled beauty that beckons you to follow her, but stays always out of reach. She rides on the starry sky and you feel a kinship to her that is all-encompassing. And when you wake, the feeling persists and remains with you for days. It makes you want to find her. But you cannot. And then, you are filled with wanderlust and you go searching, wandering, getting lost and losing more than just your way. You travel the lands and when the lands are exhausted, you travel the stars and you travel the galaxies.

And you cannot find her. And your heart slowly withers for she consumes your soul, feeding on the shadow of every step you take in your futile quest. What do you find though are others like you. You see them in cantinas, you see them on the road, you see them camped up on lonely peaks, staring up at the sky, their eyes hollow and their skin pale. When you ask them about the girl with the fiery hair, they know of what you speak and they nod sadly, recognizing a lost brother. And then they turn their eyes back to the stars, enjoying the quiet of the night before their next journey.

Nobody knows what she wants and why she only shows herself to young men. Nobody has found her yet but she is most definitely real, otherwise, why would we all dream of the same thing? The answers are there& somewhere, among the stars.

Sadly, I must stop writing this entry now, for I must go to sleep. I have a long road ahead of me tomorrow. I have been everywhere in the galaxy and, last night, I dreamt of her for the sixth time.
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Shulamit Moonchild
The Questioning Terraworm

Description: More of a psychological horror, the Questioning Terraworm (sometimes a different kind of insect, one that always eats trees in some form) is not usually seen. It is usually heard by growing Decheeran, although sometimes it likes to crawl through their roots, so also felt. It greatly prefers to not be seen, and only heard.

A backstory: The Questioning Terraworm likes to try and convince growing Decheeran that they are, in fact, not growing. That they have died, and that they should just lay down into mulch so a healthier Decheeran can grow instead. It generally visits Decheeran that are growing in very difficult situations (like a failure to thrive style problem). Older Decheeran use this myth to explain why some Decheeran fail to thrive and tell growing Decheeran to ignore the words in their brain. Sometimes older Decheeran give the growing Decheeran nutrisilt and the like to grow stronger, claiming the Questioning Terraworms hate the taste. Decheeran are split on if they are real or not, and not just an ancient explanation for the failure to thrive problem some young beings of all creatures can experience. Questions the terraworm can ask range from nonsensical to philosophical in nature. For those not under a sun Is one truly alive without the warmth of a star? or What happens when you expend all your energy to break the rocks and there are only more rocks? for those in rocky terrain. After a Decheeran reaches Walking Day, a lot of the memories of growing tend to get fuzzy, so most Decheeran dismiss memories of the questions as nonsensical growing nonsense, but not all. Those that don't generally go out and try and feed growing saplings strong nutrients to help them out.
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~shudder~
You're all awful and marvellous.
Damiel <3