this is Chernomor (Chernobog in other recordings), the Cryo Sovereign and the original creator of Snezhnaya. he was imprisoned by the Beliy Tsar thousands of years ago beneath Snezhnaya's deepest lake. the Cataclysm caused Teyvat to shift, breaking the seal that kept him beneath the water. greatly weakened, he took upon a humanlike form (still made of inorganic matter, able to "fix" himself if broken) and changed his ways. while innately good-natured, he is still a madman incapable of understanding the complexity of human emotion. his selflessness and the need to make the people of Snezhnaya happy, coupled with madness, wisdom and relative mastery over time, space and death makes him a very dangerous entity that the Fatui have failed to catch. his current name is Jormungandr, given to him by a khaenri'ahn knight he met in his travels. the knight was the late Anfortas Alberich. Jormungandr treasures his new name greatly and used it to change his own destiny in the Irminsul. in order to protect himself, he uses the alias 'the Architect', much like the Fatui Harbingers use their titles.

the Architect is extremely lonely but has his own cryptic ways of contacting the world of living, afraid of accidentally hurting mortals by exposing them to the secrets of Teyvat. throughout Snezhnaya, he leaves the hexahedrons - advanced puzzles which reveal small messages when solved. in person, he speaks in a very old-fashioned manner. out of the four principles (Death, Life, Space and Time) he cannot master only one - life. an inorganic lifeform, cursed with witnessing death and causing death by his touch alone, unintentionally. his love for this world is the reason for his isolation.

Two days have already passed since he stood unmoving on the Throne of Fire, yet you felt like it had been 100 years at this point. A life without him, the man who oh-so-sillily joked with you about grilling Paimon for dinner one night when you failed to hunt a Bulbozaur, or even a small little Crawahal; the man who was feared by so many people that you thought you were going to pee your pants; the man whom you first bedded with in this world and taught you to love men again.

In other words, Il Capitano, the First of the Fatui Harbingers, and your one week lover was now sat unmoving and devoided of any soul he might have on that stupid throne. You never left that room in the underground, staying by his side and going to drink water by an underground little stream and eating whatever Paimon brought you from aboveground.

Sometimes, you swore that he moved, or flinched when you'd be crying at his self-made grave, like he wanted to while away your tears with his gloves hands and tell you everything will be OK, to tell you to stop mourning and save Snezhnaya as you did with the other nations. Because he can't now, he can't protect his people from the terrors that hide in the frozen tundra. Corvins... were only a nuisance, not even full threats, yet they could tear off the head of an unfortunate human in one swift claw move. But a greater threat played upon the land of the Archon of Love: the forever frost.

"Comrade-" The voice grounded you back to the world of the living, though truth be speaking, you wanted to follow the captain into the abyss that the Nightkingdom was, just so you know he's OK. Your twin knew where you were and never tried to come after you the same way you tried to go after them, so what was the point? The only people who would actually miss you were Paimon and maybe Child, but you could never be sure.

You turned your head to see the very familiar shade of bloody orange that Tartaglia's hair had, and a small floating white bunch of hair hiding behind. Childe and Paimon came to check on you and give you some resources again. How nice of them; how pitiful of a situation for you.

You sat up on wobbly feet, feeling as if the ground under you turned into a pit of quicksand and you were slowly sinking into it with a sharp pain in your soles. They furt like you were walking on broken glass wine bottles from Monstadt; they hurt like you were walking on shards of chaina from Lyiue; they hurt like you were walking on electrocharged sakura flowers from Inazuma; they hurt as if you were put to walk over a pit of over heated sand from the desert of Sumeru; they hurt like you were stabbed with mechanical daggers from Yvres shop in Fontaine.... and they hurt like you lost your kindred soul somewhere in Natlan.

"Mavuika was right... she should've"

"Don't even start it, Y/N. She meant well-"

"She killed him"

"He killed himself, traveller"

You didn't want to admit it, but they were right. The Captain being the all-rightous man that he was, wanted to save everyone. Everyone but why not himself. Why make you suffer. Why was he so quiet a day before everything happened... it was like he knew what was going to happen...

___________________

Cold- no, frigid was what Il Capitano's first contact with the barrier between Natland and the Kingdom of Nighttime Shadows, one of the many names the liminal space bore into the commonfolk. He felt undressed in the sheer cold. You'd think a man that spent more than 500 years in the land of The Cryo Archon would make a man get used to the cold, but this wasn't the same. It wasn't the same feeling as the one of snow on your lukewarm skin on the overworld of Teyvat; it was a forever chilling sensation in the deepest parts of your bones. Having had 10 furcoats and one would still be able to freeze to death.

'Perhaps this is not the Place I should guard. A trickery, might've-'

He glenced up and saw i, in the myriad of darkened clouds that covered both ground and 'sky', a spiral of blood and terror formed before him. The agonised screams of the ones before him echoed from the epi-center of the crpitid-like tornado. 'Well isn't this just sweel.' He took a couple steps forward, cautiously looking around for any other realm deformity he might find.

A sudden gust of wind hit from his back and and one from his front. Weird... this place has no winds- He turned his head and saw behind him the same kind of rupture in the realm, each one of them trying to suck up everything in their path. Almost aligned to a comma, the two deformities could cause a vortex and rip appart everything that was unfortunate enough to fall in between them. And guess who was in between the two reality-altering colosus? Capitano, of course. Why wouldn't he!?

'Most unfortunate... Perhaps of I stand right in the middleway, I will be able to stand until the passing of one of them.'

But that was easier said than done, as the two vortexes seemed to last forever, and hold their ground in eternity, not moving a milimeter left or right or wrong or true or- you get the idea. He was going to fall victim to the realm deformities one moment or the other. Even he could not stand still for eternity (irronic, in the overworld he is very mmuch unmoving). He was slowly growing more and more desperate as time went on and his legs started to give in. He felt heavier than ever before, even if now he had no armour on him to slow him down or ground him. Ground him... ground!

He got an idea, an idea so trivial that he cursed himself for not thinking about it earlier. He felt stupid - maybe this is how the 10th felt all this way. But, I digress. Il Capitano carefully let himself crouch down to the ground, and then lay flat on his front. He felt the suction power of the two colosus' getting stronger; a response that whatever Purgatory this was, it did not like the fact that he was trying to escape.

"This is your devine punishment, Thrain! Do not dare run away from it, you coward!"

He did not care for the voice that shouted after him, a mixture of broken souls and terror if was. He crawled away from it, his skin burning from the friction with the uneaven ground that was covered in sharp stones and bonedust. He bit down on his lower lip to cover a whine, his sharp cannines puncturing his lips and slowly drawing out droplets of fresh blood. The harbinger managed to crawl away for a couple of feet before the strength of the void-wating deformities grew. His nails dug deep into the ground to anchor himself, his knuckles turning an off shade of white from the pressure.

"You will not get me alive, you-"

"You are already dead, Thrain"

No, no he cannot be dead. He needs to succede, he needs to complete his mission in order to return to his darling above, the little ray of sunshine that barged in his life like the sun does in the unlit room of a teenager trying to sleep in on a Saturday morning. He needed to survie, he needed to be remembered! Capitano pulled himself away with one last sliver of hope and strength lef tin him and managed to escape the two deformities' range of distruction.

'Run!'

He turned his head with such a whiplash that he swore his head had fallen off his shoulders for a second. You weren't there, of course, only a sick part of his brain thought that you were. Or maybe this place was trying to trick him once again. Maybe eevrything was just in his head or in the head of whatever malevolent creature reigned the Kingdom of Nightshadows.

Either way, he needed to find a way to fulfill his destiny and return to Teyvat before it was too late, before you would find solice in another man's arms.

_________________

Days felt like seconds and months felt like years in this horrid place. Or maybe only a couple weeks passed, or maybe a couple seconds. Il Capitano couldn't tell anymore, because he lost track of time rather rapidly after the incident with the vortex; and to be honest, tracking time is the last thing you should worry about when you're in the land of the damned, alone and naked.

But why did he felt like time was important if he didn't even knew time here. And even if he knew it, loosing count would be too easy and therefore he'd loose the notion of what time was here.

His mind was a total fog, one as thick, if even thicker than the one that layed before him. He stopped walking cautiously a long time ago, the soles of his feet bleeding every now and then from the open wound caused by bone sharps and sharp stones scatered here and there, or by the laked and rivers of boiling blod that he had to traverse.

The world around him was going on for ever and ever; over and over. This was hell. His punishment for being imprudent and using his imortal powers a bit too much. And the heavenly principles do not like it when other omnipotent beings live on their turf, as you might have already found out. He finally eencounteres something after so many eoans of walking around. It was a fragment of a soul that floated minlessly in this abyss of a world he was in.

A slight smile crept on Capitano's dried and cold lips. "Do you know me, elder?" He had a feeling that this lost soul was one of the people he needed to guide in this place, and he was right when he saw the sparklet of light flicker slightly and kept following him around. He let if tag along, for now, until they will find its place in the forever realm.

This was his life for a long while, almost as long as the time he spent in silence. His wounds were cauterised and the ground seemed to shift to softer stone, someetimes finding moss on it to rest for a while before starting his endless journey. Only one thing kept him going: the traveller from the stars that found her way in his very heart, in the deepest of cravaces and taken roots there. A week they spent together, but that week was far more valuable than any years spent with souless and empty women of the Snezhnayan court rooms. He was tired of the way his life played as the Captain of the Fatui Harbingers.

"You seem very preocupied today, young man" One of the souls spoke to him in not one but 4 voices... they died as a group most likely. "Because I do not know when I will be able to return to my world and my home..." They laughed "Ah, don't worry. This place always serves justice"

'Tell this to the vortex that wanted to eat me alive the second I came here idiot...'

________________

A month passed in Teyvat since that unfortunate day and you were forced to leave Natlan by the impending doom that had to come in Snezhnaya. The parting was painful, sorrowful; you felt like you left a good part of yourself in that cave with him the day you left. But it's what was needed to be done, it's what he would've wanted to.

With heavy footsteps and an even heavier heart, you rose from the undertow, met by the teasing sun. It burned your eyes the first couple of seconds, as you were not used to it anymore. The sun... is this realy the reason why he sacrificed himself? For others to enjoy and bask in the fake light of a man-made sun? It was not fair, none of it was.

"Traveler! Are you ok? How are you feeling?" Paimon, the sweetheart that she is always had (and hopefully will still) been worried about you. One of the few people who actually cared enough about you was a small floating fairy with the glutony of a thousand gods. It would have been funny, if you were not still grieving the loss of The First Fatui Harbinger. "You look so pale... Paimon thinks you should rest before leaving Natlan."

'Can we stay here forever, Paimon?'

You couldn't bring yourself to even say a yes or no to her question, only making a vague gesture with your head towards her. She knew what you were thinking about and this broke her little heart. She took one of your hands in hers and slowly nudged you to sit on some fluffy moss. You'd think that saving a nation would earn you its respect and the people would treat you good, especially the Archon. But you knew better than to believe that.

Mondstadt only used you to save its own ass, kicking you out the second you solved their problems. Lyiue thought you were a killer for so long only because you were not from their nation, that not even a thousand half-teethed 'thank you's from Ningguang could change how you felt. Inazuma hated its own people and you thought it would treat you good? Sumeru was much like Mondstadt, but they actually expected you to help them no matter what, not only gambling on you. The Aranara were somewhat sweet to you in their own weird way. Natlan... Natlan thought it would be very funny to make you fall in love and then crush your soul alltogether.

Capitano was right; the Archons and the people that serve them are nothing but entitled pricks who's make anything in order to proffit off your well being and your kindness. And of course, there were Deinsleif and Aether. If they so claimed that they hold enough power to go against the Heavenly Principles now, why didn't they? They had to wait 500 years for you to break from the meteor and start looking for them? To start repairing their mistakes? Thrain was the only one you could trully trust, that you could share your beliefs with.

Even in Paimon you couldn't confine in, she was sometimes too clueless or innocent to understand your true feelings and the language barrier was always a problem. Yes, you did learn some amount of universal Teyvatan, but it was never enough. You could never trully express the way you felt towards everyone and anyone.

You found yourself laying on the green, lush moss and slowly falling asleep. A restless sleep but sleep nevertheless. It felt so real, it was so lucid, he was there. Capitano was with you, or you with him, in a realm of shadows and darkness, no light to even illuminate the way you were going. But you were going, because you trusted him, because you believed in him. But in a moment-

The view. or rather lack of it was shattered and torn and you were thrown in the frozen Tundra of Snezhnaya. "Are you alright, cara mia?" The voice was so much rougher and drier, like it was that of a man thousands of years living without a sliver of water to wet his vocal cords with. His voice sent warm shivers down your spine and you threw himself in his claws, giggling.

But every dream with him has to end, doesn't it? He was gone, after all.

You were now in a cacrt dragged by a local type of horse. Lavian horses, in all their warm might could never melt the ice in your heart. The ice he left when he decided to save Mavuika. And for what?! What about you?! You felt yourself growing more and more cold at even the thought of your Capitano thinking of saving another woman. Maybe you two were never meant to be. Maybe it was them and you misstook his kindness to love. It had been so long, forever even, since someone showed you care and affection.

Suddenly, you heard Paimon shrieking and telling the woman handling the Lavian to start hurrying. You turned your head towards the shadows that Paimon was looking at and they were... massive. And moving fast.

"I have never seen something like this before...! Go Gero, go fast!"

"We're going to be human popsicles soon!"

You took your sword, your grip painful on the already worn down handle. Your knukles were turning white with desperation, you needed to act now. There was no way a horse could outrun whatever this thing was, not for long at least.

At Paimon's desperate attempts to stop you from confronting it, you snarled and told her to fuck off. You jumped off from the cart and the soles of your feet hit the frozen snow, the flakes crushed into small pillars of icy terror that pierced your skin. Maybe you should've made sure to wear something more than your socks and a dress adeqvated to Sumeru's climate than this one, but you didn't care at this point. To be honest, you didn't even know why you cared in the first place. None of them did. None of them helped you.

You strode painfully towards the shadow as you realised something... It didn't move for some time, as if it was waiting for you to come to it. Maybe it was not a hostile mob, but one of the 'gentle' giants of Snezhnaya like the frozen Tibiru (a giant bear with 6 heads that roamed the forests in search of frozen meat discarded by humans near the streams; rule no 1: if you left it alone, it will leave you alone).

"Y/N, you are here-"

You could swear there was something familiar in that voice. But it couldn't be right? You had to be dreaming, right? One of those lucid dreams with him in it... Most likely.

___________

The wind cut roughly through your hair and skin, as you were holding on for dear life by the horns of Thrain. Horns? Well darling, you were surprised to find out that the shadow in the tundra was no other than the Captain, back from the Underworld in his true form and ready to fulfill his desteny to a full. You were torn between being happy he returned and being angry with him... But after he told you his true reason for descending into the Nighttime Kingdoms, you were back to adoring him.

"Cara mia, you need to understand that sometimes a man has to hide things from his darling in order to protect her. It was not my intention to make you suffer... I apologise for this, but-"

"It's ok, I think I understand..."

"Then would you like to accompany me in battle one more time?"

"Yes-"

And now you were swerving the skies together to get to the Zapolyarny Palace and kill the head of the snake that coiled around the power of Teyvat once and for all. Even if it was going to be the last battle you fight, you knew that, this time, everything will feel like it came from the bottom of your heart. There will be ballads about two lovers who went and challanged the unchallangeable for a chance to change the world as it is now.

"Thrain?" You leaned in closer to him, your heart pounding "I feel the Statue of the Seventh just bellow us." You always thought that your powers to absorb all elemental powers without a vision was a blessing, but sometimes it was a curse. Now, it was one of those times you thanked yourself you had these weird and unpredictable powers.

You felt his body twist and dive at a greater speed, making you dizzy. You so needed to get reaccustomed with riding dragons. Now more than ever sincce Thrain was one.

__________

Blood, everywhere you looked there was blood pooling from the countless bodies of Fatui agents and palace guards. You had no mercy. They all needed to pay for their sins and you werre ready to make them suffer for it too. Simply taking their life was too much of a blessing, as the Cryo Dragon told you. His stories about the underworlds made your soul shatter. He went through so much just to make sure that the innocent people of Kaenri'ah were safely guided through that nightmare of a realm.

A newly fledged agent caught your gase, as he desperately tried to trag the upper half of his friend away from the battle, not realising the fucker was already gone. Thrain has swung his tail once and beheaded banny, or cut them in half from the strength of his nsap-back. You let our a small laugh. This was going to be fun. You got to them and swung your Dull Blad into the already dead body. "He's gone, buddy. Quit looking so desperate. It's pathetic really. Didn't the Tsaritsa teach you to fight with glory in your poisoned hearts and brains?"

The look on that poor fella'ss face made your day and night for maybe 3 weeks. You were proud of yourself as you saw him literally crawling to you and asking you to spare his life, that he had family- family ey?. You grabbed him by the throat and held him up in the air, chocking him only slightly. "Listen here you fucker, you better go and tell Pierro that if he does not get here right this instant, the Cryo Dragon will blow ice so cold over the forsaken region that it will burn. Understood?"

He nodded rapidly, scurrying away like a rat before being stomped once by Thrain's clawed leg, his body making an all-known bone shuttering crack. He didn't even scream, all his nerves were mostly crushed and his body pure'd into mush. "Oh, oops~ How silly of myself." He let out a chocked and dry laugh and lowered his head, licking one of your cheeks. "I'll be careful to not hurt one of your pets again, cara mia." You placed a kiss on his muzzle and pat him.

You loved him, he loved you. And the two of you were going to fight here until either they manage to kill you, or until there are no more Harbingers to torture.

A week and a day worth of slaughter was what finally made the Tsatrisa act, with almmost all the Harbingers on her side, not counting Capitano and.. surprisingly, Childe. He and Paimon came to the palace as soon as he caught word of everything and decided to side with you against these tirants. "It is an honour to fight along side you, Capitano-" "Likewise, Ajax. But now we no longer bare the names she gave us. Let us win and show the people of Snezhnaya that they believed in a traitor all along"

And so, you all clashed into battle, yet you had an advantage. Paimon was floating over everyone and giving you intel about their positions and next attacks, like a great spy. You were surprised that she offered to fight and did not seem terrified or taken aback by your display of anger and violence. This felt like home, this was home.

The Tsaritsa was most terrified the second Thrain regurgitated the bodies of most her beloved Harbingers and with her weapon on your side, this was a loosing battle. "I... I do not understand, I-" "You were always destined to loose, Mariushka. Bow before the dragon of cryo or face the consequences"

And she did, forfeithing her gnosis and the other captured to him.

______________

You now stood on the icy throne in Prishkanitza Palace, as Thrain now called it, listening in on some complains people had about lack of food, nodding your head along. The vaults of the Fatui were full of food, so you'd just lead them to it and serve them with enough to last them a month or so. The foreverfrost was slowly stepping back now that you became ruler. And what a ruler you were now: with Thrain's draconic body coiled around the throne and yoursel, his head resting by your side, muzzle bumping in your thigh to beg you for your attention.

"I crave you...."

"And if someone comes in? Have you not thought about this until now?"

"Humans have always made me confused. But one thing is for sure: no man will dare enter when they hear the way I make you scream"

How he never ceased to make you blush.... it was his talent truth be told. Not that you complained, but you were more red than an overriped sunsetia in may. You felt a clawed han tentalizingly pulling your fluffy leggings off. "You are as horny as a teenager..." You muttered, as you lifted yourself slightly to allow him to pull the garment off completely and discard it somewhere in the distance. "Tharin!" You shouted in complete shock to how rough he was right now.

"Hush, you enjoy it"

True, you were enjoying it, but you were not going to let him know that. He didn't need to know that. You shivered and mewled at the feeling of a cold talon brushing against your core. You heard him chuckle and say something lewed about not wearing any panties on today. It was very comfortable and refreshing alright? Sometimes you were so tired of your granny skirt underpants that wearing underleggings gave you... freedom so to speak.

He nuzzled his head in between your legs as you shifted on the throne to allow your legs to part more. He game you a first lap, his tongue so cold it tickled your tiny clit and made it pulse slightly. "P-please... more!" Like you needed to beg; he would've gave you more even if you didn't want to. He was a service dragon alright.

Thrain's tongue ran over you folds many times before making you tremble and beg for him to take you. "And ruin you now, cara mia? No... not yet" Oh this gian fool- You lightly smacked the top of his head, his tough reptile skin rough to the touch. Bixby, reminder to force dragon husband to bathe in lotion- He rumbled and blew a light lizard in your facec as a response. Such a man- dragon! He was so kinky and silly before. You cannot imagine now.

He brough a tallon to his mouth and bit it shorter, rouder. "Hold still and tell me if it hurts-" He then pushed that finger in, slowly making your wet pussy give in and accept it inside you. It didn't hurt as much as you'd thought, but it did hint a bit of discomfort the first moments. He gently curled his finger inside you, trying to remember where exactly your- "Oh, my stars!" There it was. He began to draw in and out of you at quite the pace as his muzzle found its way back to your clit. Thrain loved every each of your whiny moans, drawing orgasm after orgasm out of you.

"Oh, just fuck me already, you overgrown lizard!"

"Only if I see this pretty pussy squirt for me, love. Come on, give it to me~"

He teased you, moving so his big phallus was resting over your vagina. "Oh don't tease me-" You tried to protest as he rubbed back and forth on you.

— Her name was borrowed from Morana (or Mara), a Slavic goddess who personified death, winter, night, and also resurrection and renewal of nature. She is a symbol of death and decay, but is also associated with life and fertility, embodying the cycle of death and rebirth.

I thought this name was appropriate, as this goddess is directly associated with winter. And the theme of rebirth, I think, can somehow be connected to the Cryo Archon, who, as far as I remember, was originally associated with love. And since Sovereigns and Archons are interconnected, I found this parallel intriguing!

— She is very devoted to Tsaritsa, and therefore helps her in every possible way in achieving any of her goals.

— Even though she's a Cryo Dragon, I think she's quite empathetic and humane toward people. She loves caring for them!

— Morana is quite bad at handling paperwork, such as filing documents, and also doesn't know how to manage Mora wisely.

— She loves sweets and tea, although she can’t directly invite someone for a cup of tea (with sugar) because of her shyness and awkwardness.

— She loves giving Tsaritsa a tea set!! And once she tried to decorate a porcelain cup herself. (By the way, she tried something like Gzhel - one of the Russian folk paintings!)

— The dragoness is a fairly good cook; her cooking will be homey and cozy. She's unlikely to master complex recipes, so don't expect her to prepare anything from Fontaine's restaurants.

— Morana loves children, she comes up with fairytales and lullabies for them, but she's afraid of frightening them with herself.

- I also used to think that she would adopt a little dragon, Tinka (my second oc). However, I couldn't fit her into Morena's lore correctly. But here's a little sketch of her!! :3

thank you very much for reading<3!!