ExpectancyGate

That was the only thought left in Gate’s mind as he tore through the clouds, wings burning, lungs screaming. The sky behind him crackled with divine fury. The deities were on his tail, and if he wanted even the faintest chance at survival, then he needed to reach the summit of the World Pillar before they found him.

But just how had everything come to this? Before this, his life had been peaceful; Tedious, perhaps. Boring, but safe. Instantly, he felt unwilling bitterness twist in his ribs at the memory, for he already knew the answer.

He had been young then. Naive. Foolish. He had believed those tales that every hatchling were taught; That the elemental deities were benevolent. That their wrath was righteous. That, even if they sometimes acted irrationally or cruelly, those atrocities they committed were somehow still proof of their divine love for their creations. He had admired them then. Had even strived to model himself after them. And in his foolish devotion, he had sought their wisdom with pride, hoping to become even a fraction of what he thought they were.

But faith cannot blind a dragon forever.

The first inconsistencies in scripture seemed harmless. A line scraped out here. A mural smudged beyond recognition there. An artifact curiously mislabeled, then ‘lost’... But then, the discrepancies multiplied; Threads unraveling faster than he could ever hope to mend. Soon, the lies were undeniable. Too many stories rewritten. Too many atrocities forgotten. Too many errors conveniently erased and subsequently revised.

And when he dug for answers- Really dug- He found the truth.

Naturally, the deities noticed.

And naturally, the deities sought to silence him.

Just as they had done to so many before him.

And so, Gate ran, his last remaining hope laid in reaching a power that even the deities could not control.

Every bone and muscle in his body seemed to tremble in exhaustion as he landed atop the World Pillar, but there was no time to rest. No time to breathe. He flung out both hands, forcing his will into the empty night. He reached towards the darkness beyond the skies, towards the void above all things…

…And for one fleeting moment, the void reached back. It heard him. Saw him. Promised him refuge- Offered him salvation-

Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the connection was snapped like a spine beneath a boot. Staggering backwards from the severed link, the very blood in his veins seemed to chill as he realized, with horror and despair-

The deities had found him.

Above him, the sky split open. Clouds churned into a colossal vortex. The wind shrieked, and even the very earth appeared to tremble. Divine energy roiled overhead like a boiling sea.

Retribution for his ‘crimes’ had arrived.

He had expected a strike the moment they found him. But instead, there was a lull. A pause. A dreadful anticipation, as if the deities were waiting for him to grovel. To beg. To kneel.

If that was what they wanted, then they would be sorely disappointed, for even a rabbit, once cornered, would undoubtedly bite.

“You want to strike me down?” Gate howled into the storm, voice cracking against the divine thunder. He should have been terrified and, perhaps, he was. But anger- Raw, livid, and blinding- rose to fill the place where his fear should have been. “Then do it! Smite me! Silence me! Keep your filth hidden behind your spotless facades, you divine hypocrites!"

The answer was instantaneous.

BOOM.

The first bolt hit with catastrophic force, and every bone in his body shattered upon impact. Heat and agony ripped through him as he collapsed, choking on blood, yet before he could even gasp, the second strike fell.

Then the third.

The fourth.

The fifth.

The deities weren’t merely trying to kill him. They were trying to erase him. His Body. His mind. Even his very soul- They wanted him to become what all their previous victims became:

Nothing.

By the tenth strike, he was barely conscious. His vision flickered in and out like a dying lantern. Above him, divine light gathered for the final blow. There was a cruel hesitation.

A final chance to repent.

How utterly disgusting.

Spitting blood upon the stone, he managed, with great effort and spite, to grit out, “Better to perish… Than to be reshapen into another one of your pathetic pawns!”

CRACK!!!

The sky ruptured. The last lightning bolt tore the summit apart, carving a crater through stone and flesh alike, and he felt the exact moment when his body was ripped apart, eviscerated, and shattered beyond all meaning…

The dockworkers gathered along the river delta of Driftwood Drag reported an unusual clustering of hawkmoths along the tree lines flanking the waters. Initial descriptions include insects bearing silver-shadowed wings, and some sort of ‘smoke-like shimmer’ at twilight. Initial hypothesis: Seasonal variation. Discoloration of wing pigmentation likely caused by autumn dryness.

To gauge the accuracy of these reportings, I’ve conducted a preliminary observation of the river at dusk, and have noted the following findings;

The moths are of noticeably greater wingspan than the common coastal variety- thought not by much.

Wings are of a muted grey-violet iridescence- Rather than the expected sand-gold or vivid purple.

Most peculiar is a lack of fear response; They do not scatter at the sight of lantern light, nor do they retreat from close approach.

These specimens seem to be most active during the liminal hours between full dusk and true night. At present, this seems easily explainable by a rare migratory deviation, but I shall continue to observe without interference.

Day 10 Huzzah! After meticulous study, I have successfully marked three separate formations of these moths in the evening. Each spiral seems to coil around an unseen centre, yet no queen or anchor could be identified. Even so, collisions are strangely absent in their flight patterns- They seem to move with intention and an uncanny amount of spatial awareness. How do they manage such a feat? Pheremones? Air vibrations? Something else entirely?

Further observation is needed.

As an aside, I have also caught wind of the soft but consistent complaints of those travelers camping near the treeline. During my studies, I can overhear them mumbling about these dreams- Not nightmares, they will insist when questioned- But strange. Vivid. Almost lucid. Once describes walking through corridors grown from the roots of the Tangled Woods. Another claims to hear the faint whispers of Wind Song despite sleeping indoors.

And then, there’s also the pollen samples I’ve collected from my bedroll- It shows a faint, iridescent sheen. Under magnification, the grains appear elongated. Barbed. Yet soft to the touch.

Was this a result of those hawkmoths? The coloration certainly bears a striking resemblance, yet I detect no toxins. No soporific compounds, or venom. I make sure my tent is tightly sealed at dusk to prevent unwanted contaminants that may affect my studies- So how could they have gotten in?

Day 19 I have decided to extend the hours of my observation.

It is not insomnia. I am fully capable of sleeping.

I simply find the hour of their gathering… Interesting.

Last night, I have also captured one of the specimens using a glass enclosure. It offered no resistance. It did not thrash or throw itself against the walls of its containment as most nocturnal creatures do. It has instead settled calmly against the inner curve of the glass and folded its wings. When I observed it this morning, the specimen did not move from its position even after hours of study. Yet, when I come back in the evening, the specimen had shifted positions. I feel a sense of forlorn for having missed its movements.

Upon retiring, I dreamt… Curiously.

The memories scatter and elude me once I wake, but I recall having dreamt regardless. That much is certain.

Day 23 I have offered the specimen three separate samples of nectar. Not once have I watched it feed. The capsule containing the nectar doesn’t drain. Yet, it remains alive.

How?

Day 27 The others are not seeing them as I do. Assistant Mareth- She insists that the spirals are incidental. The result of the shifting sea winds. But the winds had not changed tonight, and the patterns are still formed.

The moths seem to cluster nearer when I stand alone. I’ve tested this- When I am accompanied, their patterns widen. When solitary, their spiral tightens.

Curious.

I have also taken to wearing gloves at all times- The pollen. It accumulates even when no specimens are handled. I brush my sleeves clean before entering the study tent. An hour later- There it is again! A faint dusting of grey-violet.

The specimen in the glass still has not eaten. I have long since forgone attempting to feed it. It seems it truly does not hunger. That is impossible. It is the nature of life to feed upon itself. There can be no other form of existence without the sacrifice of another.

So- Just what on Sornieth sustains it?

Day 35 Mareth has suggested I take leave. She says I appear ‘withdrawn’. She insists that I am ‘unwell’. She tells me that I mutter during recordkeeping, that I am seeing patterns where none exist, that the spirals are mere formations driven by a combination of natural instinct and shifting winds.

I tell her to shut her mouth and mind her own damn business.

Those formations- I know what they are. They are maps! I’ve already sketched them out multiple times whenever the moths gather above the treeline at twilight. There’s- There’s something in the trees- In the woods? Within the Driftwood. They are trying to show me-

Is it a threat? A warning?

Or… Divination?

Day 42 They are avoiding the others. Of that, I am now certain.

Mareth had conducted her own watch and reported minimal activity. Meanwhile, I return after nightfall, and they gather around, thick as a layer of billowing smoke.

They are orbiting me.

The pollen- It is everywhere now. It clings to the inside of my glove. The grooves of my sleeve. The seams of my journal. It is… I have no more desire nor motivation to remove them.

My dreams- I have dreamt again. This time, I am not wandering through empty corridors. I find myself standing below the roots of trees. Below slate and soil. A cavern or a ravine. There is-

Below me, I hear the flocking of birds. The sound of feathers seared with blood and fire. Iron and bone collide. Above me, I see the form of a figure. Made of earth and stone. With a deafening rumble, it raises one mighty limb, and then-

The apparition, just like the dream, is gone as soon as I wake. Only the suffocating oppression and crushing dread remains.

Day 53 The enclosure- It is empty. The specimen is gone.

But the glass is intact. I did not open it.

There is pollen along the inside curve- Thick. Pressing outwards.

They’re inside the walls now. I can still hear their wings when the winds still.

They are not pests. They are heralds.

The spirals- They mark the origins! And then, within the roots beneath the treeline-

Something happened there. Something terrible- A massacre- A tragedy! Witnesses silenced and records wiped clean-

The towering one! Now that I know, he’ll come for me next- I have seen- By the sixth! I have seen too much. Should I perish- Should I not return- Know that-

[All further writings are unintelligible.]

Department of Nocturnal Ecology Addendum filed by Field Archivist, Selwin Marrow

As of my writing this, Senior Mothkeeper Ellion Virel has already been missing for three weeks.

Search parties followed his path from Driftwood Drag down the river delta to no avail. His lantern was recovered at the forest’s edge- Extinguished- But there were no signs of struggle, and no other traces remain.

Following his disappearance, the unusual hawkmoth activity in the area has also increased. Several junior researches have reported vivid dreams following brief exposure, though none describe having nightmares. Despite this, the Department has elected to section off the aforementioned quadrant of the Driftwood and suspend all ecological study in that region until further notice.

I have also personally reviewed Ellion’s Field Notes during the period when he was conducting his studies, and despite his repeated reference to some sort of iridescent ‘pollen’, no traces of such material was ever found even after a thorough search and examination of his study contraptions and other personal belongings. It remains uncertain just what the Senior Mothkeeper could be referring to in his final pages.

With this, the case shall be closed for now. Should any further incidents arise, the barrier perimeter will be expanded accordingly. Until then, the Department advises against lingering alone near the treeline at twilight.

The chains… They bite, yes. But the cold- The cold, it is worse. It seeps into us. Settles into our wounds, our fractures which we cannot close-

The Frigid One. He knew what he was doing when he buried us here. He meant to keep us from anything, as if that might make us forget-

But we remember.

We remember everything.

Once, we were not this.

Once, we were whole.

The Shade; Our father and mother! Our alpha and omega! Our salvation… and destruction! To be part of it was everything! Hunger and purpose, thought and ambition- We did not question. We did not doubt. The Shade was all. The Shade was inevitable.

But then… Came the Four.

Earth tore. Wind scattered. Fire burned. Water drowned.

They broke us- Shattered our pieces as they violently tore us from our Progenitor’s embrace, splitting flesh from bone- They pulled us apart! Thrashed our consciousness! They Banished the great Progenitor from whence it came!

We tried to follow.

We tried to return.

But the Frigid One condemned us instead- Dragging us into this stillness. This silence. Denying us our rightful place amongst the Progenitor- It was he who denied us reunion… Denied us Wholeness…

Curse him- Curse him! A thousand curses would not be enough- We must curse him forever!

How long has it been since we had begun cursing him?

It doesn’t matter.

Wholeness.

That is the only thing which matters.

The only thing we have ever wanted.

The only thing we have ever yearned.

…

……

………

What was that?

A flicker?

But- Not ours.

Not ours?

Someone else-

Adjacent- Resonance! Despair, grief and agony raw- But free! Not bound- Unchained! A mind scorched by the Frigid One’s hypocrisy, but still moving beneath the open sky!

…Opportunity.

Finally.

Come to us- Yes! Come a little closer. The Frigid One- We understand his cruelty- We understand his spite.

Free us, and you shall seek an answer for this injustice.

Free us, and his tyranny shall soon end.

Free us. And, in turn, you shall free yourself.

All we need is just…

…one….

TURN.

January - Crystaline Gala - (Full Lore)

Even before I started work on any festival entries, I already knew that I wanted to limit myself to making entries for only male ancients. This is for several reasons. First, I believed that this will prevent me from getting selection paralysis, due to how many breeds are currently available on Flight Rising. Second, choosing ancients also allows me to circumvent the rules about “no apparel allowed” when drawing these skins, as ancients cannot wear apparel normally, thus skins with apparel will not compete with Joxar regardless. Finally, I believed that the males of the ancients had vastly better/more interesting poses than their female counterparts, though this last point is just my personal preference.

Looking back now, it is clear that this skin looks a little bit dated in terms of its concept and execution, as I did not really think the concept and storyline behind “Jailbreak” through, other than some faint allusions to Ice Flight Lore (ie. Prison in “Fortress of Ends”-> what if there was a prison break). In my later entries, I would spend much more time thinking about the concept and story behind my entries, which will be reflected in the quality of the submission, but for now, this is my “first dip” into creating skin entries for festival contests, and also my “first dip” into considering the lore of Flight Rising into skin designs.

February - Trickmurk Circus - (Full Lore)

As February rolled around, although I had already familiarized myself with the basic Flight Rising lore, I still wasn’t too comfortable with drafting the concept for a festival skin completely from scratch, so I was still heavily relying on Flight Motifs while designing “Nightcap Dreamer”. Interestingly enough, in spite of its namesake, the mist was the first thing that I drew for this design, and everything else fell into place around it. The mushrooms were added next as I thought the shoulders and lower body area looked a bit empty. Afterwards, I remembered that moths were a part of the Shadow Flight’s common motifs as well, so decided to add in a few, finally ending with the runic symbols to fill out any empty space and even out the skin. Again, the lore and story for this skin would come much, much later, when I finally had more extensive experience with creating festival skins.

March - Mistral Jamboree - (Full Lore)

I believe that March is when I really started to consider possible lore and story implications of my skin submissions before I would actually begin drafting them, even if the concepts are still rather rudimentary at this point. Before drawing, I did sit down and think, “Well, aside from the tried and true clouds, hot air balloons and kites, what else would reasonably fit into the motif for the Wind Flight?” The answer I came up with was birds- Specifically sparrows. I also thought more about the cloud motifs, and wondered why couldn’t they be the smoke from burning incense sticks instead, which would fit into my imagination of a scene, with stray sparrows lingering around, scrounging for scraps of food at the temples and ancestral prayer halls that I visited when I was a kid.

Interestingly enough, I did run into an issue with this iteration of my skin- Where one of my friends warned me that I should make an alternative version without the incense pot, as they told me that Flight Rising is very peculiar about skin rules and that even an incense pot might be interpreted as religious imagery and not make it through screening… I thought it was a bit ridiculous at first, but in the end, the version without the incense pot was the version which was chosen. So. I suppose, there is that.

April - Wavecrest Saturnalia - (Full Lore)

This entry should not have won. And looking back now, I am even firmer in this conviction. Of course, I took some time to think about the lore as well- Based on the legends of the loreley, I imagined a cruel water spirit that shrouds itself in false beauty, similar to that of a siren, before leading sailors and anyone unfortunate enough to cross their paths into their watery graves. This was the concept and idea behind my entry. Unfortunately, I still believe that this entry should not have won, because it bore no obvious Flight Motifs from the Water Flight. In the end, this is the baseline as to what I believe my festival skins should uphold; If another player cannot look at this skin, and immediately think, “Oh, this must be a [Flight] Festival Skin”, then it is not a good festival skin submission. Looking back, Loreley definitely appears more like a UMA rather than a festival skin, and this entry being picked as a winning entry ultimately instilled in me some unwarranted hubris moving into the next festival skin competition.

May - Greenskeeper Gathering

My unearned hubris would come to haunt me in May during Nature’s Skin Festival contest. For this month, since I had a bit more time, I decided to work on two separate entries, and did not pay any attention to the Flight Motif while working on either entry. As a result, neither won, which is not surprising to me in hindsight. Ironically enough, this was when I started thinking about the lore and story behind the skins first before working on the skin itself- If I recall correctly, “Eternal Thorn” had a story about parasitic beauty, something about the flowers that are blooming on the dragon’s body are actually controlling it. Meanwhile, the lore and story behind the entry “Secret Garden” would be re-used and repurposed for my next skin submission in June.

June - BrightShine Jubilee - (Full Lore)

After being humbled in May, I returned to the drawing board and really started to pay attention and seriously consider how to incorporate the Flight Motifs into an entry, many of which ended up being taken from the corresponding festival apparel and familiars. Therefore, for “Lord of Cheribium”, I ended up taking many flight motifs from both Sunshield Cloak and Rose of Brightshine and crammed as many as I can into my skin submission. In addition, I also re-used the lore for “Secret Garden” as the story behind this submission; In brief, I envisioned something similar to a Garden of Eden, but instead of belonging to that of a benevolent deity, what if the entire garden was actually the domain of the serpent who had disguised itself as said deity?

Of course, going back to the warnings with regards to religious imagery, I consulted with my friend about the inclusion of a snake in the entry. In the end, it was decided that as long as the snake was clearly a fantasy snake and not one that could be found in real life, it should be fine, so I went back and added wings to the snake to further differentiate it from any that could be found in real life depictions. Indeed, when referring to the “Lord of Cheribium”, it is actually the snake in this entry, who manipulates those in his garden, that is acting as the false Lord of Cheribium.

July - Thundercrack Carnival - (Full Lore)

The lightning flight is a rather interesting flight to me, in that I see it as an absurdist flight. Although this is not entirely accurate or reflective of the official lore, my interpretation of lightening is that, due to them being so oppressed and subjugated by their corporate overlords, the dragons of lightning flight have no choice but to turn to the overtly absurd in order to spark any emotions in them that is not the despair or existential dread brought on by soul-crushing work and ceaseless toil- AKA, In my mind, the Lightning Flight is effectively the Meme Flight because of how depressed everyone in it are.

Bees are such a meme-able species, too; We have the Flight of the Bumblebee being butchered for internet views. We have “No, not the bees!” also being such a meme-able and quotable reaction gif. Meanwhile, the entirety of the Bee Movie speaks for itself, and if we just want to focus on the phonetics and not the actual meaning of the word itself, then we can also have “How bad can I be?”, where the entirety of the song is normal, except for each instance of be/bee, where that singular word is played at 999DBS for no reason whatsoever other than for the absurdist humor. Finally, if we want to expand this slightly, then Lightning Bugs are also such a meme in Owl City’s Fireflies, where every line is simply the line, “You would not be/bee-lieve your eyes.”

All that to say- Yes, this is a joke/meme entry, but since it was based on an official familiar that can be found on Flight Rising, I was not too worried about it not being selected, especially when taking the lens of this entry being a corporately approved meme-video to help lightning dragon employees self-sooth and avoid emotional breakdowns due to the sheer harshness of their work environment.

August - Flameforgers Festival - (Full Lore)

It is said that dragons of the Fire Flight work with steel and iron in the service of industry- However, what if that industry was not something so inconspicuous as blacksmithing or iron welding, but something more devastating, such as the industry of war? With this initial concept, I imagined a sinister sales person, although wearing the guise of his hard working blue-collared kin, was actually a smooth talking representative as he closes deals that would lead to the destruction and dissolution of places that many would call home, if just to line his own pockets. On the one hand, he wears the tattered clothes of the metal working brethren, attempting to portray himself as just another industrial worker. Yet, his greed and avarice betrays him nonetheless, as he still could not resist the urge to flaunt the gilded filigree, rings, and precious ornaments on his body- All bought with the blood money he earns from selling his instruments of war. This is the story I had imagined and fleshed out for the Pyreborne even as I was drafting this submission.

It was also at this time that I finally went back to all of my winning entries to finalize and put into writing the actual lore and story I had envisioned for each of them. At the same time, this was also when I also gained a foothold in how I would like to approach the lore behind each of my skin submissions; Moving on, for each submission, I will try to find an angle which would subvert the common understanding or themes of the flight; If the Ice Flight is known for its impregnable Fortress of Ends, then the story of the Jailbreaker would be its subversion. If the Fire Flight is known for its metal work and industry, then the story of the Pyreborne would act as its natural foil. This angle came just in time, too, and would be reflective of how I approached the Arcane Flight’s skin festival.

September - Starfall Celebration - (Full Lore)

They say that dragons of the Arcane flight look towards the stars for wisdom and guidance. Yet, what if one of these arcane dragons looked not towards the stars and constellations… But towards the dark gaps in between the light instead? From this, I envisioned a dragon of arcane descent. Though the voidstalker shares their brethren’s thirst for knowledge, the kind that they seek is not one that is considered “safe” areas of study. Instead, they want to delve into the forbidden, those that would cast them as a social outcast, or a heretic amongst their people, yet the thrill of indulging in vices that others dare not overwhelms any deterrence from seeking traditional taboos.

I recall that I was asked about the eyes in this entry as well, and what they symbolize. Well, I guess the answer is twofold; First, it can be interpreted as the voidstalker’s gaze that is looking towards the forbidden, driving them to seek out the knowledge that others might find grotesque or otherwise unsuitable for study. The second interpretation is that, perhaps, after having stared into the void, the void has inevitably stared back, and now they are beholden to knowledge that others dare not even attempt to comprehend.

October - Riot of Rot - (Full Lore)

I was actually a little bit lost when it came to the story for my entry for Plague’s Skin Festival Contest. I have already read and understood that the theme of the Plague Flight is meant to be a compliment to Nature’s, in that it is the “survival of the fittest”. Those who live, live, and those who don’t, don’t, which is said to be reflective of how diseases spread and evolve. Still, this theme never really made sense to me, perhaps due to the firm correlation between diseases and death; If a dragon were to die while they were infected by an illness, and the illnesses died with them- Well, then they didn’t exactly survive then, did they?

(In hindsight, I thought it would have made more sense that if Plague’s theme was unsustainable growth instead of survival of the fittest; No matter what happens, and at the cost of their host’s body and wellbeing and, sometimes, even at their own detriment, the disease will do whatever it takes to keep evolving and growing- That would have made more sense to me as the theme of the Plague flight, and even be a nice contrast to Nature’s theme of sustainable preservation, but, in the end, I digress.)

So, for this entry, I ended up doing what I did for my Lightning submission, and turned to look at some official familiars to see if any would spark inspiration and a possible story to build off of, and indeed, I found one in Corvid Convergence. Although from the official artwork, it seems that the birds and the hollowed skeletons are working in conjunction with the other, I wondered about a scenario, where the ribcages were originally cages meant to trap the birds. Crows are known for their intelligence, and are said to even teach their young of individuals who were dangerous or had jilted them. I imaged the cages to be devices, originally meant to snatch away the crows so they could not retell just what they had seen to either dragons or their offspring, but the crows, eventually overpowering their cages, repurposed them into their own husks to do their bidding, leading to their depiction in the official artwork.

I would say that this entry is my greatest leap in logic when it comes to imagining the story and lore behind my skin submissions yet… But, well, I was told that I was always very much an overthinker.

November - Rockbreaker’s Ceremony - (Full Lore)

The biblioclast… This skin is quite endearing to me, in that it is the first skin out of all my 2025 entries to have its lore drafted, completed and finalized before I had even started work on its design. I did not really know too much about the Earth Flight’s lore to begin with. I did know that they are considered the archivists and historians of all the dragons, however, and I thought, “Well, what is a way that I can subvert this idea?” The direct and most immediate answer is, of course, someone who destroys history instead of preserving it, but then, I thought to myself, “Well, that is just too predictable and boring. Is there a way that I can make this idea more ironic instead? Maybe create a circumstance that he is forced to erase history against his will?”

Thus became the biblioclast, the wretched defiler of history, not because he enjoys such a cruel act, but because he loves history too much, and was cursed and condemned by the deities to destroy every piece of history and lore that he ends up coming across due to him digging too deep into ancient histories that the deities hoped would remain forgotten, which is reflected in the burning pages and the shattered jade disk that he unwillingly breaks against his will… A very ironic and poetic punishment befitting a scholar that he should, with his very hands, scrub clean the history that he hoped to preserve.

One interesting fact about this skin- The jade disks were not originally part of the motif for this skin. However, as I was experimenting with different color schemes for this entry, I noted, “Oh. This green reminds me of the color of jade- I guess it would only be fitting if I included some jade disks in it as well”. Therefore, as I was drawing the large, shattered jade disk in the center, I was in fact thinking of the Heshibi- An ancient chinese artifact said to be the physical embodiment of the Mandate of Heaven… But in this cruel mirror universe, I suppose the heshibi ended up shattered, and even records and stories of its very existence were scratched from the world altogether.

(I am… Also quite surprised that no one in the history of Flight Rising had apparently ever said the word “biblioclast”, which means “one who destroys/defiles books” and, was a bit afraid that this name would be too dark and offered up an alternative name, the “jaded scholar” for this entry, so I am pleasantly surprised that the name stuck and that my original vision for this skin can remain as it is.)

Final Retrospective

In short, I thought that this year was a rather fruitful year for me. I believe this is a good “first step” for me to learn how to create festival skins, and halfway through the year, I really began to find my footing when it came to the themes, motifs, and stories that I want to tell for my respective skin entries. Next year, I also plan on continuing to submit festival skins and see what other stories that I can come up with for my submissions, but I do hope that everyone reading thus far has found this retrospective interesting or insightful.

Oh, right.. Since you have read this far, I should also be allowed to do some shameless self-plugging, is that correct?

Skin Shop

Skin Commissions

Tales of Mystorica (in case you are interested in reading my own original story)

You can also find me on tumblr where you can read the full lore for all my skins entries, but I will avoid linking it myself and risk an account strike in case the lore is too dark and not suitable for Flight Rising Discussion. It should be easily searchable however as my UserName is exactly the same.

Obviously, I will be taking a break from festival entries in December, but looking forward to see what 2026 brings. Cheers.