SONNE YUME

Long, long ago in the middle of a mystical unknown sea, a lost group of Shoggoth, Eldricht slave-labor creatures that had recently risen up against their previous masters had found home in the deserted yet lush "Island of Dreams". Through wandering about every inch of the Island, and consuming all of the native fauna along the way, they took on their prey's forms to better accommodate to their new environment, as their naturally amorphous, tentacled form was not as well suited on land as it had been during the water in their travels. Through time, they eventually had become the native species to the island, forming their own society in solitary and finally peace.

Or so it seemed.

After hundreds of silent years, mortal human and fur settlers had finally landed on Dream Island. The shoggoth went to investigate and were immediately attacked. The mortals were intensely frightened by their horrifying and grotesque appearances and sizes, having never seen such things before. They had no idea how to interpret the monsters, even if their means of communication was easier than considered at the time. The Eldricht beings retaliated of course, intensely aggravated by the strangers invading and attacking them. Though but through sheer numbers, the mortals had managed to push the Shoggoth deep into the forests and mountainous regions of the Island, far away from any of the civilizations that the mortals formed.

They then barred all forms of magic and occult. It being intensely prohibited in the new Kingdom, punishable by death.

The citizens looked up to their King for a decision on what the beings were, though unsure of what to call the Shoggoth. The mortals would deem them “Hell Beasts”, although they had nothing to do with hell.

In fact, shoggoth were biogenetically engineered beings, though it was something beyond the current understanding and comprehension of mortal science during that age.

Regardless, it wasn’t long before Aya a single mother cat-woman, and many others formed together a secretive cult that empathized with the “natives” that had so ruthlessly been forced away. The group would study the “beasts” through contraband foreign books and materials regarding the monsters that they would amass into a small library in the basement of Aya’s family temple. The secrecy was so strong that neither the King, nor Aya’s youngest child Kiyo, were the wiser.

When Kiyo was 19 her mother was approached by the King, who proposed buying their land to build his own rural getaway in its place. Aya, sassy despite her age, told him to fuck himself, to which he coolly remarked at her apparent senility, telling her that her “9 lives are about up”.

Within a month, Aya would become gravely ill, and soon passed away. Her last instructions for Kiyo were to go to the basement she had never been allowed into, and to read every last piece of content in there. Kiyo was decimated from losing her only parent, and the only support she found was in her mother’s following and her older brother Misoki, who came in from another village at the news of Aya’s passing despite their history of disagreements.

Soon, Kiyo was being frequented by a persistent tax officer, who informed her of her new responsibility of paying the “royal tax” on a weekly basis. The mounting expenses and her inability to keep up made it clear that the King intended to tax her into submission on selling the property.

Kiyo’s resentment for the King had become critical, sending her into a cold, dark place. All she knew to do anymore was to storm into the temple’s basement, all but tearing the door off its hinges. She yanked the light on, unveiling a worship room; walls packed with books and objects, any remaining space covered in insane scrawling. In the middle was an altar with more objects and what seemed to be a pile of ragged journals. Kiyo was horrified by the site, confused even further, but took to reading the journals first.

And she continued for days, consuming all the texts, learning everything. But eventually the royal guard found her, breaking their way into the basement. The tax evasion that warranted her arrest quickly paled in comparison to the eldritch horrors that lay before the guards. Kiyo, aware of the death sentence before her, attempted to attack and escape but was unable to and was brutally murdered on the spot. Her body was unceremoniously dumped at the forest edge, for the Shoggoth she so “disgustingly” worshipped to consume.

The Shoggoth attempted to consume her discarded corpse, but her body suddenly spasmed, an unholy scream uttering from her as she came back to life, a favor that had been granted to her by her mother before she had passed. It would make kiyo's feline "2nd life", but would have been her mother's "last" (the 9th), fueled on further more by her deep hatred for the King, and seeking vengeance on him for all he had taken from her and to claim his Kingdom as her own and letting the Shoggoth free.

Shocking the monsters and deeply impressing them with her supposed necromancy, they looked to her as a higher being. She told the monsters her plan, promising them their stolen land back for their help.

For months she is assumed dead and forgotten, until she and her following of Shoggoth beasts attacked the kingdom in the dead of night. The king was flushed out of hiding, and consumed whole by pursuing Shoggoth.

Kiyo was now in control, reigning over all those who stayed, and eventually adjoining villages that had originally fled the old King’s rule. She would reacquaint the people with the Shoggoth who were presented their land once more, although most seemed to keep to their own civilizations in the mountains and forests, some passing through and seeing the beings became entirely normalized, and so long as each kept to themselves there could be peace. The mortals were urged to leave the shoggoth alone especially, as they were known to be aggressive if they are bothered.

Eventually, though, a young woman couldn’t keep her distance from the Shoggoth, and after an encounter bore a child with one in secret. The child would be raised by her and was seemingly normal, that is until age 13 when their cover was blown by him having an episode in public where tentacles emerged from his back during a fit of rage, unable to contain himself any longer.

Kiyo would meet the child and rather than punish the mother she insisted on taking him in under her attention herself, deeming him an “anomaly” with the intent to study and teach him.

Kiyo and the Anomaly grew close as years past, eventually as he grew into adulthood the half-Shoggoth would become so deeply and uncontrollably infatuated with her, and so aggressive and borderline obsessive over her she had no choice but to establish boundaries with him.

One faithful night would lead to a disagreement between them, Kiyo growing tired of the Anomaly's constant presence. She was overwhelmed by his predatory and intolerable behaviors toward her, her body only growing with age...as his seemingly only grew more out of control. He would finally attack her not being able to take her finally verbally rejecting him, leading to her killing him.

Despite the act being out of self defense, it deeply gutted her soul and left her forever heartbroken.

She then instilled a law, mandating any future children of this type be accounted for and monitored, not out of discrimination but the safety of them, the parents, and all other citizens. Further systems would be available such as counseling and safe zones, where those suffering “triggers/breaks” can vent safely away from others and regain composure.

As Kiyo grew older, she still couldn’t overcome the pain and remorse of her murdering the first Anomaly, and she was deeply wrought by nightmares and never ceased questioning herself over and over, regretting it all.

Her fragile psyche was sent in a downward spiral, and eventually she would die of a broken heart.

She would be succeeded by her brother Misoki and his wife Chiharu, who would initiate the continuing matriarchal tradition of every generations daughters upholding royal duties at the age of 19.

These included keeping the “peace” between the Kingdom and the Shoggoth, and their society in the “Black Mountains”.

Legend has told of the reincarnation of Kiyo as a future Royal daughter, to live out the rest of her lives and who would usher in a “new era”. Legend also tells, though, that the first Anomaly child would someday reincarnate in the same time as Kiyo, and seek revenge on her as his scorned lover, his murderer, his obsession. However he could, no matter how much chaos it brought to the island and its inhabitants.

It would be up to the reincarnation of Kiyo to stop him from succeeding, and to bring order between all of the species of the land and surrounding sea once more.