Decided to do a fun art piece after writing out some setting information in my private notes. Sometimes it's fun to remind myself that I'm an artist, and can do pixel art for fun. So here we have some deep setting lore. To even talk about The Moonfisher, I have to go into the cosmology of the Brave Earth setting and why the world "ended", as well as how things began.
The Brave Earth Creation Story
Sitting in vast metaverse is a powerful, formless consciousness, so ancient that not even it can recall it's orgins. Perhaps the gestalt mind of all existence, or an ascended race, long ago merged into one. This Ur-Mind exists in it's own little pocket of space, purely content, being free of desire and curiosity. The Ur-Mind thinks, but not of anything at all. Any context, language or knowledge it had has long since faded in it's pursuit of purity.
Rarely, bits of the Ur-Mind grow curious. It lets these thoughts pass through it, before discarding them, casting them off deep into the vastness of space, leavng the Ur-Mind once again pure and empty. Strong enough thoughts become Aspects, little sparks of the Ur-Mind's power.
Most simply float invisibly through space. Some become stars, or nebulas, or trigger vast cosmic events, but one of these Aspects of the Ur-Mind took interest in the insignificant microbial life growing on earth and by following it through it's evolution and through witnessing the growth of humanity, slowly became more human.
Scifera, whom existed then as a young Aspect without name or body, watched life from its inception. She observed single cell life, silently, for billions of years. She lacked the context of time, making this act almost trivial. Life, unlike everything else in the universe, was like her. It had will.
When the first proto humans began to emerge, the ideas of culture, language and social interaction flooded her imagination. She could see a future. The waiting, which once was trivial, was now eternal. Following the lives and stories of those toiling on earth made her feel the years.
She was alone and wanted someone to talk to. She couldn't wait for humanity to progress.
Zephan, and the Kar
Now able to growing impatient, Scifera traveled to Mars to create a hospitable world to be her playground. She seeded Mars with earth life, but forged her own "humans" from her own essence to populate it, literally dividing her ethereal "body".
She created One, and then One Thousand more.
The One was Zephan, the one made from the largest part of the essence. She made him to contrast her by giving him parts of herself. In that process, she remade herself.
From the lesser part of her essence she made The One Thousand. The Kar, the Mars-Children, who would want for nothing, not fearing death, nor feeling pain. They were idealized humans, perfect in form and stature. Their bodies were simplified and streamlined, so they would not know hunger or know lust. Zephan teached them to use Scifera's essence, to use magic, to fulfill their wants.
But the Kar were fundamentally flawed. They wanted for nothing. They the lacked context for happiness or creativity. They could not fulfill themselves with Love or Art. So instead, ennui turned to rage, lashing out and destroying Scifera's other creations in attempt to get the only thing that felt different, Mother's attention.
This experiment was a failure, but Scifera could not destroy them. They were a part of her, and the failure was her fault. She put the Kar to sleep, sealing them eternally in a tomb on the back of the moon, a shameful reminder about what happens when she meddles too directly with life. Of the Thousand and One, only Zephan remained to give her companionship.
Returning to the Womb
As the millennia went on, Zephan too began succumbing to ennui. He would awake the Kar in secret for companionship. The Kars' resentment grew. Abandoned by mother, who only wanted to watch these sad humans on earth toil and die. They were not a part of her. They did not deserve her. Yet she gave them her essence too. They didn't even know how to use it.
The story of what happens in this period could be its own post, but in short, the Kar begin to escape to earth, first to scout and explore, but eventually to execute a plan. To return to Scifera. To merge wit her again. To achieve Henosis, and they would spend the lives of Humanity to do it.
The the attempt at Henosis was what humanity calls The Rending. It was when the Old World was ended. The Kar's plan did not succeed. As the spell to forcefully pull Scifera into reality began destroying the earth, Scifera sacrificed herself, using her body to protect and shield humanity, whisking them away inside her until the Earth was healed and ready for them to return. Her 'body', which was sacrificed to do this, enveloped the earth, becoming the Aether Field that allows magic. The Kar, got absorbed, but could not quite merge with her. Their hate, frustration, and anguish made them too impossibly different to become one. So instead, their bodies dissolved and their minds reduced to nothing but their id, the Kar became the shadowy Karric Daemons that lurk deep within the Astral Plane. All but two. Zephan is a story for another day, but there is the one Kar who still survives.
The Moonfisher
The Moonfisher was one of the early Karric scouts who arrived upon earth. Him and his brethren always struggled to control their emotions. They could learn fast and focus when the situation was just right, but for most of their existence it was like their minds were screaming at them. They had no outlet, and most took it out on Humanity.
The Moonfisher, on the other hand, found Buddhism. Disappearing for years, the Moonfisher took on an ascetic lifestyle, using meditation and study to calm his turbulent mind. He used meditation to free him from the aimless desires that doomed his cohort. Instead of lashing out at humanity, it would destroy his concept of self.
The Moonfisher was the one Kar to not participate in The Henotic Ritual, staying in meditation in his 'tomb' on Lot'lydor, the sealed Karric 'city' on the dark side of the moon. As such, he is the only Kar not to be consumed during The Rending and the only sentient being to have existed all through The Lost Times. This makes him, in terms of lived years, the oldest known physical being in existence.
This age has a visible effect on the otherwise ageless Kar. The Moonfisher face is gaunt and sunken, from a lack of eating. His hair a giant mess of black that trail for yards behind him, 'greyed' by dust and debris. Some of the hair is tied in front of him, appearing like a giant false beard that drags along the floor during the rare times he gets up to move.
The Moonfisher sits, in meditation in the remains of Lot'lydor, maintaining the astral thread that links Earth and the Moon. There, when the alignment is right, he astrally plunges to earth to attempt to find and remove one of the 999 Karric Daemons that dwell there. These shards of his former siblings are the embodiment of the Kar's hatred of Humanity and, in his mind, must be purged before he can find peace. The Daemons he recovered are left to roam the dark side of the moon, where they can be starved of their hatred until they can finally find peace.
One day he will complete his task. Upon purifying the 999 Karric Daemons, he will pass down to the deepest levels of the Astral Plane with them, to once again be absorbed into Scifera. Until then, he waits on the moon, fishing for the shadowy daemons that continue to sabotage humanity, eternally repeating his mantras as to not lose himself to the poisons of his mind.