The Demarq-s

The Demarq-s
"We call upon the Demarq-s, who permits no ambiguity; who divides, and conquers; who cannot be obstructed."
Origin	Flesh
Titles	The Partition The Legendary The Map-Maker The Ink-Scarred The Taxonomarch
Names	The Once-Divided The River-Barons Zhuósè, The Orchid Tiger Sècǎi, The Woodsorrel
Aspects
Date of arrival	Some dreams have yet to be deciphered...
Owner(s)	A certain infrequent author...

The Demarq-s, who is sometimes known as The Partition, The Legendary, or The Ink-Scarred, is an Hour of the Fourth Fansus created by Rolepgeek. Their Aspects are Edge and Shattered Histories and Knock, and their domain is that of boundaries, contrasts, civil wars, and irresolvable tensions.

Description

History

The Demarq-s was once a Name of the Navigator, before the Collision. Though the tale is known to few even now, it is said that the Demarq-s blamed their master for the harm that had been wreaked, and turned against them.

Shorthand version of events, to be replaced: The Demarq-s found their way to the Prismatic fount trapped between the Manses. They were divided by the Demarq-s, opened and cut apart, and carefully, diligently, their form was recorded. The Light within was split, and split again, and again, cut apart until the colours they became would not destroy the Mansus. Fragments discarded, own being disregarded, the Demarq-s tried to cut the Prismatic away from the Manses entirely, and succeeded only in stripping it down to its barest components. Fragments were used by the Welkin and the Fulminate to survive, and what could have been hours, the tint and the SHADE were taken by the Taxonomarch to be wardens of the path that now bridged the Manses.

The shards of the Prismatic refracted and reflected the Light of the Twin Glories, and in so doing the Glories met and shed new Light, which was not entirely broken, nor entirely whole. In attempting to split the Manses apart, the Demarq-s became responsible for the ability to cross between them; for such reasons do we have the Motley Bridge, and the Verge which bounds the Manses, as we do the Facets that bound the manses now.

Appearance

Skin made of indecipherable diagrams outlining impossible places, many implausible even for the Mansus, understood by none but themselves and their Names, who will, on occasion, scribe fragments of the etchings in ways that might be understood, outside the Mansus.

Principles

The Demarq-s defines the world by opposition: what is and what is not, maintaining always tension, and so they are firstly associated with Edge. They have mapped the world upon their skin, before Calamity and since, and none remember the lost places of the world better than The Map-Maker, and so they are associated with the Histories. The Partition watches the bounds, and chooses when the lines on the map may be crossed, or rewritten, and so they are associated with Knock.

Worship

Most commonly invoked by surgeons, explorers, and map-makers, though sentinels, taxonomists, and tailors have been known to call upon the Divisive Hour. Dissection, door-carving, and the marking of skin with knife and needle are sacred

Mark

1. Temptation: Comprehension: It has occurred to me that I hold the key to greatness.
2. Dedication: Comprehension: I have dedicated myself to the pursuit of a fullness of understanding. I must know the difference, whatever the cost.
3. Ascension: Comprehension: The Demarq-s has marked me; the need for precision darkens my humors and cuts through thoughts. I know this to be the Third Mark.
4. Ascension: Comprehension: I can see the subtleties in fracturing stone; the quiet boundaries maintained in a couple's embrace; the weaknesses in flesh. My complexion smooths, and winds feel stronger. This is the Fourth Mark.
5. Ascension: Comprehension: Ink stains my skin and will not be washed off. One may determine the Fifth Mark either by extent of the patterns, or by their detail. I suspect I would meet both criteria.
6. Ascension: Comprehension: My flesh spreads itself to keep the symbols from spilling off. My tears leave black trails behind them, and in them I see reflected the components of others. It is difficult not to test how they fit together differently from one another. The backs of my hands bear maps to places I've never been. My left thigh informs me, in elegant calligraphy I do not remember writing, that this is the Sixth Mark.
7. Ending: The Map And The Territory: I have split myself in twain, becoming more than the sum of my halves, and drawn my innermost essence in symbol upon the walls of Mansus. The Demarq-s sees the opposition that my selves now bound, and follows my map back to find me. They shall bear me upon their skin for ever more, and remake my body in perfect representation. So will I live forever twice, setting right the world's unrending.

Servants

Legends

Kakushibori

The Kakushibori

It has no voice with which to speak, but images beyond seeing. Perhaps it will even show them.

8

8

8

Summon an attendant of the Demarq-s

"Knock, to peel apart the way; Moth, to give it form; and secrets, to bribe it to look."

"Ink and dye, without paper, as flat as flayed skin and thinner than thought. No fixture may bar it passage."

8

5

2

Items

Tools

• Broken Needle:
  • Description: It still bears a use in breaking other borders.
  • Aspects: 4
• Ink-Stained Edge
  • Description: Once, it was used in carving the history of a world onto flesh.
  • Aspects: 10 2
• Unmarked Map
  • Description: Perfectly accurate. Deliberately obfuscated. Terribly helpful.
  • Aspects: 8 2

Ingredients

• Palimpsest Pigment
  • Description: The color of contrast; it always bleeds through.
  • Aspects: 4

Influences

• A Discordant Accord
  • Description: All present agree: nothing can be agreed.
  • Aspect: 2

Books

• Fenwic's Collected Atlases, Maps, And Other Depictions-of-Places-That-Were, Fifth Edition, Corrected
  • Description:
  • Start Text:
  • End Text:
  • Gives:

Rites

• The Rite of the Territory's Division
  • Description: A place or time of power must be circumscribed and precisely detailed by use of specialized ingredients, before being torn in two in recognition of the Map-Maker.
  • Requires: Influence, Consumes Ingredient.
  • Gives: Varies

Relationships

• The Navigator: A former Name of the Navigator.
• The Modiste-and-Mannequin and The Mannequin-and-Modiste:
• The Modiste-with-Spindle:
• The Stone Meridian:
• The Golden Child?:
• [[]]:
• [[]]: