Nock

Name(s): Nock, Lambert, Richmond, Leer, Lurker, Priam, Murk, Tagell, Slough, Orie, Knave... the list ever grows

Nock has a strange relationship with names. It possesses many and is in the state of acquiring new ones, all the time. But it does not wear monikers like a man wears a fine coat; no, it views them more akin to acupuncture needles, crowding its skin. Each new title is one less that it can offer up - and there are only a finite number of names. One day it will run out and - due to its strange nature - simply cease to exist.

Nock is often found along the fault lines of humanity. Fault as in flaw; as in blame; as in guilt. Like flies to an open wound, it is drawn - for some unknowable reason - to the convergence of sin. Skirting the outskirts of these vile loci, it has been known to manifest and appear as a variety of creatures - from dogs, to rats and crows. It has even resembled a female form, on occasion. But most often, it takes the shape of a haggard, unlovable man with black, inscrutable eyes and a smile that sits too wide. But Nock has no control over these matters: it does not decide who it appears as, nor when and where it does so. It has no free will. In a sense, it is little more than flotsam drifting about a shipwreck; or a moth at a sickly flame.