The old Skas bloodlines insist these are not “cruelties,” but traditions — ancient aristocratic rites meant to “temper the soul through terror.” Most outsiders see them for what they truly are: elaborate sadisms hidden beneath velvet, lace, perfume, music, and ceremony.
In the Olde Realm, the darkest noble houses cultivate reputations of refinement specifically so no one suspects what happens beyond the torchlit gardens, iron gates, hunting forests, and isolated manors. The more civilized the ballroom appears, the more dreadful the cellar beneath it often becomes.
Here are several infamous Skas noble traditions and games whispered about in servants’ quarters, prison barges, plague camps, and among runaway estate workers.
The Velvet Lantern Chase
Victims are dressed in luminous silk veils soaked in alchemical oils that faintly glow in moonlight. They are released into hedge labyrinths, ruined forests, or abandoned districts while the nobility hunt them carrying blackened lanterns.
The hunters are forbidden from outright killing prey immediately. Instead, points are awarded for:
- Cutting ribbons from clothing
- Wounding without disabling
- Marking skin with ceremonial blades
- Forcing victims into traps
- Causing psychological collapse
Some noble houses pride themselves on “keeping prey alive longest.”
The glowing garments ensure victims can never fully hide.
The Feast of Hollow Smiles
A horrifying banquet game among older Skas dynasties.
Servants are seated at an enormous dining table alongside nobles while masked musicians play softly. Nobody except the host knows which dishes are poisoned, drugged, hallucinogenic, or harmless.
The nobles gamble on:
- Who notices first
- Who panics
- Who turns violent
- Who begs for mercy
- How long victims survive while attempting to maintain etiquette
The true obscenity is that guests are expected to continue polite dinner conversation throughout the suffering.
A servant who screams “ruins the artistry.”
The Bell Tower Procession
Victims are fitted with chained collars attached to cathedral bells or hanging iron chimes. They are then forced through forests, swamps, or ruined estates at night.
The objective for the victim is silence.
The objective for the hunters is listening.
Every bell ring reveals location. Skilled nobles use crossbows, thrown hooks, or trained hunting beasts to track movement through darkness.
Some estates intentionally fill their grounds with hanging bells to create a symphony of confusion and terror.
The Garden of White Hounds
A favored game among rural manor houses.
Victims are painted with scented white dyes and released into snowfields, ash plains, or pale fungal woods while nearly silent albino hunting hounds are unleashed.
The Skas consider this “beautiful,” especially during winter moonlight.
Nobles wager not only on survival, but on whether victims:
- Freeze
- Are found by hounds
- Become lost
- Turn on one another
- Attempt to return to the manor for mercy
Returning to the manor is considered the greatest humiliation.
The gates are usually locked.
The Candle Court
A punishment reserved for disgraced family members or failed servants.
The accused is placed upon a throne-like chair covered in slowly burning ceremonial candles. The room is filled with aristocrats pretending to hold a legal trial while wax accumulates and flames slowly spread across elaborate clothing.
The accused must defend themselves calmly and formally while enduring increasing pain.
If they scream, interrupt proceedings, or attempt escape, the “court” declares guilt.
The Skas believe composure under agony reveals “true breeding.”
The Black Ribbon Waltz
One of the most infamous noble masquerades.
Every guest wears formal attire with long black ribbons trailing from belts, sleeves, collars, or masks. Hidden among the dancers are victims disguised as nobility.
The game begins at midnight.
The orchestra never stops playing while participants:
- Hunt victims through the ballroom
- Cut away identifying ribbons
- Secretly wound targets
- Drag victims through hidden passages
- Replace dancers without others noticing
Guests pretend not to see obvious terror unless directly addressed.
Some say entire masquerades have continued while bodies remained hidden behind curtains for hours.
The Mirror Rooms
An old manor tradition involving vast mirror halls and candlelight.
Victims are drugged with disorienting powders before release into interconnected mirrored chambers while nobles watch from hidden crawlspaces and observation windows.
The hunters use:
- Whisper tubes
- False voices
- Hidden doors
- Mechanical mannequins
- Mirrors that conceal passageways
Many victims die not from wounds, but from terror, exhaustion, dehydration, or attacking their own reflections in panic.
Some survivors are intentionally released afterward, knowing nobody will believe them.
The Ash Choir
A ritualized execution disguised as musical performance.
Victims are fitted with iron masks or throat collars designed to produce haunting tones whenever they breathe, scream, or cry.
The “choir” is forced to march through estates or catacombs while nobles accompany them with violins, drums, or funeral organs.
The more distressed the victims become, the more disturbing and beautiful the music sounds.
Certain Skas composers allegedly wrote entire symphonies specifically around the sounds of suffering.
The Crimson Orchard
An autumn tradition held during harvest moons.
Victims are suspended from trees using elaborate harnesses and crimson ribbons while hunters armed with ceremonial bows compete to pin ribbons, clothing, or flesh without causing immediate death.
The orchard becomes a grotesque display of hanging silk, lanterns, blood, and music.
Some houses leave the “decorations” hanging until dawn for guests to admire over breakfast.
The Silent Rooms
Perhaps the most feared of all Skas traditions.
No music.
No speaking.
No screaming allowed.
Victims are locked within darkened manor chambers while nobles enter one at a time carrying tools, blades, hooks, perfumes, masks, or instruments.
The terror comes from anticipation:
- waiting for footsteps,
- waiting for doors to open,
- waiting to discover who enters next,
- and never knowing what they intend.
Breaking silence is considered losing the game.
Some victims willingly mutilate themselves simply to make enough noise to be discovered.
The Philosophy Behind the Horror
The Skas nobility justify these atrocities through twisted beliefs:
- Pain reveals truth.
- Fear strips away lies.
- Nobility is proven through dominance.
- Mercy creates weakness.
- Terror is beauty.
- Civilization itself is merely a mask over predation.
Many noble houses outwardly reject the old customs publicly while secretly preserving fragments of them in isolated estates and ancestral halls.
Some participate reluctantly to avoid appearing weak before rival bloodlines.
Others genuinely revel in the cruelty.
And the most dangerous nobles are often the charming, intelligent, civilized ones who know exactly when to smile, apologize, donate to charity, speak kindly to commoners… and when to lock the manor gates after dark.
