NightfalL
Charity Haunt Experience
HAUNT FOR GOOD
2024 DATES
UPDATE!
October 18, 19, 25, 26. 31
November 1 & 2
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm - Litte Frights!
6:30 pm - 9:30 pm - Nightfall
There will be a brief operational pause during the changeover.
Dates and Times are subject to change.
LITTLE FRIGHTS! - 5:30 - 6:30 pm, more light outside and in the attraction, and NO JUMPSCARES, perfect for younger children, timid adults, or first-time-haunters. Tickets are good for multiple entries through the night, so feel free to test the waters at Little Frights! and work your way up to Nightfall's regular operation.
Have a child who wants to go in but is unsure or scared? Ask about Bastion Wands!
READ ALL INFORMATION
BEFORE ATTENDING
ABOUT DONATIONS & TICKETS
You may donate any amount. Tickets to Nightfall of $25 or $20 per person (with a food donation for your group) include access to the Nightfall Home-Haunt Attraction. Funds raised from tickets go to Washington's National Park Fund and a capped portion of operational costs -- 50% of proceeds and 100% of Profits gp tp WNPF. Nightfall does not profit. We encourage ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS at the Washington National Park Table, which will go directly to the organization to help raise further project funds, and help meet our fundraising goals for WNPF.
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You may enter the attraction as often as you want per ticket night, but you must re-enter the queue.
Ticket donations are card/digital only. Make sure you intend to enter. There are no refunds.
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Nightfall is community & neighborhood event for charity
WHY ARE YOU CHARGING FOR TICKETS THIS YEAR? This year, we will ask for a minimum donation as a ticket price and want to be transparent about why: Nightfall is still 100% a West Seattle community event for charity. Your support has been instrumental in making it a success. For almost ten years, Nightfall has been free, with an option to donate to one of our causes. In that time, we have raised almost 2 tons of food for the West Seattle Food Bank and nearly $20,000 for Washington’s National Park Fund. This year, we are introducing a ticket price to enhance our fundraising efforts for our charities and to ensure we can continue producing this event in the future. Ticket and monetary donations go to Washington’s National Park Fund and the operational cost of the attraction, split evenly up to a cap, and then 100% of the remainder goes to WNPF. Nightfall does not make a profit. We hope we can count on your continued support. Nightfall is a high-end, Disney-esc-Nightmare that is a fun, scary, fun-scary, family-friendly home haunt in West Seattle at our private residence. The team consists of only a tiny handful of dedicated and passionate people who put in roughly 400 hours of work every season. It takes six months of planning, designing, and building, and the tremendous cost of operating the event has grown exponentially every year. Your continued support has been the cornerstone of Nightfall’s success, turning it into a beloved West Seattle Halloween tradition. We are immensely grateful for the thousands of you who have made this event a success year after year. Your contributions have made a significant impact, and we couldn’t have done it without you. If you have further questions or if you have unique circumstances, please feel free to email us.
Nightfall Orphanage is a high-end neighborhood home-haunt for the local community that raises donations for community-based charities and is held at a private residence in a quiet area. All are welcome but please be respectful of the community and neighbors. Nightfall Orphanage may be too intense for some younger children (we recommend 10+, but have much younger kids love it). You know your child. Parental consideration is advised. Check the website again before attending as dates, times and information may change suddenly.
HAUNT SAFE
Nightfall is dedicated to providing an inclusive environment for all guests
READ BEFORE ATTENDING
Nightfall Orphanage appears at a private residence in a residential neighborhood and is intended for the local community. All are welcome but please be respectful. The area surrounding Nightfall has many narrow residential streets. Many of these have posted no parking, or are for resident parking only. STREETS MUST BE KEPT CLEAR for emergency vehicles and reasonable access. As such:
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OBEY ALL parking and street signs.
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DO NOT PARK in No Parking zones
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DO NOT PARK in or in front of Resident Driveways (We can't believe this needs to be said)
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Please try to park on LARGER MAIN STREETS, to help keep smaller residential streets clear.
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If you drive a LARGE CAR OR TRUCK (e.g. F-150, Silverado, Large SUV, etc.) do not park on any of the narrow streets. Please park on one of the larger main streets such as Genesee and walk in. Maintain reasonable access at all times.
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You will likely have to WALK A LITTLE WAY from where you park*. You will probably be eating too much candy anyway and could use a little extra exercise. At least I could.
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Practice good community thinking and act as if this was your neighborhood and we will all have a good time.
IF YOU PARK IN SOMEONE’S DRIVEWAY OR BLOCK THE STREET YOU WILL BE TOWED AT YOUR EXPENSE AND THE EVENT WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE REST OF THE EVENING.
YOU WILL NOT BE BACK OUT QUICKLY ENOUGH THAT IT SHOULD BE FINE.
TOWING COMPANIES WILL BE IN THE AREA DURING THE EVENT BECAUSE THEY KNOW SOMEONE WILL BE STUPID.
We will totally post your picture on Instagram so that everyone knows you are a selfish person who ruined it for everyone else. Your family and friends will unfollow you lest they face their quiet shame.
Also, you don't want to see an angry Mr. Black.
If you are with someone with limited mobility, or have a large donation package, you may drop them off at the top of the driveway and bring them to the entrance or request help to do so. (see Guest Information below)
99% of our guests have been awesome, thoughtful, and practiced common sense & and community awareness. This is for the 1% that actually believe parking in someone's driveway or blocking an entire street by parking your car in the middle of it is acceptable behavior.
Guest Information
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There are no reservations. Tickets are sold at the door. You may go in the attraction as many times are you want per night of ticket purchase, but You will have to wait in line again. The line may close early on nights when we reach capacity.
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Nightfall is held at a private residence. There are no public restrooms. Go before you go.
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Unfortunately, as it is a home haunt at a private residence built in 1926, there is no wheelchair access throughout the event. You may leave a wheelchair at the entrance, but all guests must be able to traverse uneven ground, go up and down steps, and be comfortable in tight spaces.
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Non-perishable food Donations go to West Seattle Food Bank. Ticket sales and additional monetary donations go to Washington's National Park Fund and the attraction's operational costs. Nightfall is a not-for-profit event.
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Do not attend if you have Covid or flu-like symptoms. This is for the safety of our guests and Nightfall operators.
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Treat Nightfall Volunteers respectfully and always obey instructions, rules, and safety information.
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Do not touch the actors. Threatening behavior will not be tolerated.
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Respect the neighborhood and community. Be quiet and courteous when walking to or from the event, especially later in the evening. ​
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Do not bring alcoholic beverages or containers to the event. Guests who appear intoxicated will not be allowed in the attraction.
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Littering, vandalism, and destruction of property will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Remember you are on private property as a guest.
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The Attraction and property are being monitored and recorded at all times.
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All guests and staff have the right to feel safe and welcomed. Hate, intolerance, rowdy, or threatening/violent behavior will not be tolerated. If another guest makes you feel threatened, harassed, targeted, or unwelcome, please bring it immediately to the attention of the Nightfall Staff.
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All are welcome who would be welcoming to others.
LOCATION
4544 51st Place Southwest
Seattle WA, 98116
Halloween starts in the neighborhood. At its heart, it is a community event. Nightfall is dedicated to aiding and promoting local and state charities that support the community and environment.
Washington's National Park Fund is the official philanthropic partner of Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks. WNPF annually funds 30-40 priority projects including research, maintenance, stewardship and opportunities for people from all backgrounds to experience, learn to care for and protect park resources. Find out more @ wnpf.org
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There are more than 10,000 families in West Seattle alone that live below the poverty level, and West Seattle Food Bank is committed to providing food security and community connections to neighbors in need.
Nightfall has raised over one ton of food since it began. Barrels will be stationed at the entrance to collect non-perishable food items. For a complete list of acceptable items please visit https://westseattlefoodbank.org/donate-food/
All are welcome who would welcome others.
Trailers & Media
Gallery
Nightlore revolves around an ancient, shadowy world where light and darkness wage an eternal struggle. At the heart of this mythos is The Bastion, a realm of dreams and hope, safeguarded from the encroaching Starless Sky, a domain ruled by the malevolent Elder God, The Awoken One, Bathuzel. Holding the barriers of these two realms apart is an in-between place, a remnant of creation called The Radiant Twilight. From secret orders like The Circle of Dusk and The Order of the Eastern Sky to haunted places like Nightfall Manor and the cursed Grand Monarch Hotel, dark forces plot the unraveling of reality. Legendary figures like Fredrick Nightfall, his strange heirs, and other influential occultists seek to fulfill The Great Work—an apocalyptic endgame where time will be undone. As malevolent beings like The Drid and Horrors from the Starless Sky seek to conquer the Radiant Twilight, only the Bastion and the last flickers of light stand in their way.
A dark, atmospheric world where ancient forces battle for control of reality itself. The Radiant Twilight and the Starless Sky mark the border between hope and nightmare, with The Bastion standing as the last sanctuary. As the Awoken plot to unravel the All-Story of creation, shadowy creatures and lost souls haunt a story where dreams, darkness, and mystery collide.
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Best if viewed on tablet or desktop
A Brief History of the Nightfalls and Other Matters of Various Import
NIGHTFALL ORPHANAGE
Nightfall Orphanage was founded and operated by Rose Elise and Aldus Emmet Nightfall, the twin scions of Frederick Nightfall and heirs to the Nightfall Shipping Empire.
Many initially thought that the founding of the Orphanage on Nightfall lands was continuing with the twins’ history of charity work, such as their founding of Nightfall Asylum for the Insane and Melancholy. They were almost as well known for their apparent generosity as they were for their strange ways. But good will waned as rumors about the Nightfalls, the orphanage, and the peculiar children that inhabited it circulated more frequently. The Nightfalls had built the orphanage adjacent to the Nightfall Cemetery* with one of its walls abutting their family mausoleum. The location of the Orphanage and the cemetery, as well as other sites such as the Asylum and Manor, were all built on Nightfall Lands utilizing sacred geometry and clearly with purpose. While the grand design escaped most, the observable systemic plotting still unnerved the locals. After all, their father was a man of strange manner, and their mother had died under mysterious circumstances after being committed to the Asylum.
People whispered about late-night chanting and pointed fingers when another townsperson mysteriously disappeared. Older residents breathed new life into old tales, such as changelings left in hollow stumps, and frightened neighbors would quickly hush each other at even a mention of having seen a boy in a bowler hat, who was sure to be a harbinger of some impending doom.
When the children were seen outside, people would move to the other side of the street, lest one of the children came tugging at your clothes to whisper, “Mr. Giggles is coming for you.”
Late one night, an angry, hooded mob approached Nightfall Orphanage with torches and set it ablaze. They watched as the fire burned against the night until nothing was left but ashes. Those who were there would swear that they only heard the children giggling and singing, “Ring around the Rosy.” No bodies were ever found.
NIGHTFALL MANOR
After marrying Margaret Holmes of Virginia, the young industrialist and Shipping Magnate Fredrick Nightfall built a stately manor for them to live. The large house that decreed in its very armature a sentiment of wealth and power did nothing to alleviate Margaret’s melancholia, and it was an open secret in social circles that she was unhappy in her marriage. This was not uncommon; as did many women of the era, she had little choice. Her dowry helped solidify the Nightfall Empire, and she did what she was told was her duty; She gave birth to Fredricks’s twin children, Rose Elise and Aldus Emmet Nightfall.
For a time, the house was constantly buzzing with guests and business. Fredrick often met with his close compatriots Orr, Gotten, and Hemmel and hosted rites, rituals, and gatherings for The Order of the Eastern Sky. His inner circle of that order, The Circle of Dusk (also Dusk Circle), was said to have its secret chambers on the land. Only the most loyal and influential members would meet in the Dusk Chamber to study the more profound works of the Codex Malificarium and the Verbis Malifico’s moving contexts as they planned The Great Work’s complex machinery.
Many servants claimed the house was cursed, and many left as soon as they arrived. Some were never seen or heard from again.
Margaret’s melancholia grew worse in the home, and as she continually self-isolated, her mental state deteriorated. She claimed widely that her children were not her own and that they were trying to kill her. She lived in her wing of the manor for a long while, where only the most dedicated house attendants would dare go and brave the increasingly strange occurrences. Her children soon left for school, and with Frederick busy with work and The Order, no one was left to try to soothe her madness.
After their father disappeared and was presumed dead, Rose and Aldus returned to their family home and inherited their father’s fortune and empire, and presumably, took over The Great Work. They found the house in a state of disrepair, and their mother mainly left to her wild paranoia and ailing melancholia. They soon built Nightfall Asylum and committed their mother as its first patient.
The Nightfall lived in the Manor until their fiery death at the hands of an angry mob at Nightfall Orphanage.
Though fenced, empty, and abandoned, the Nightfall Manor still stands at Widows Hill. Over the years, the dark, rotting hulk of the once-stately mansion has fascinated the curious even as more unexplained events and dark stories have wrapped themselves around it.
NIGHTFALL ASYLUM
Before founding Nightfall Orphanage, the Nightfall Twins broke ground on Nightfall Asylum for the Insane and Melancholy. The purposeful and stunning gothic architecture enthralled many, with its towering pointed spires denoting each vast multi-story ward laid out in a Kirkbridian style.
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Unknown to most, Nightfall Asylum was designed following plans laid out by the twin’s father, Fredrick, a figure shrouded in mystery. The architecture and the swath of land it occupied were part of a grand design developed by The Dusk Circle, based on geometric and symbolistic configurations found deep within the Codex Malifacarium.
The Asylum was initially celebrated as it engaged cutting-edge technologies and state-of-the-art medical practices. It was expected among luminaries of the time that it would further establish the emergent fields of behavioral therapy and cognitive realignment. It was one of the first to develop dedicated laboratories for Transorbital Lobotomies, Nerve Pain Induction Behavioral Modification, Rotational Therapies, Vivisectional Structural Realignment, and Curative Organ Displacement.
The very first patient admitted to Nightfall Asylum was the twin’s mother, Margaret Nightfall, who suffered from persistent melancholia. The Asylum was built in part to treat their ailing mother. She died as a patient in the Asylum and, without a funeral, was quietly buried in the family Mosleum next to Nightfall Orphanage. She was the first of many. In all the years of its operation, no patient was ever released.
Many believe that the bodies of deceased patients were all buried, primarily unknown, at Nightfall Cemetary. The Nightfalls already had a history of burying more than their family on their lands. Famously, Fredrick had taken pity on a young widowed bride who, after losing the love of her life at sea, took her own life near Nightfall Shipyards. As she was poor, Fredrick had her buried in Nightfall Cemtary with the privileges of the wealthy class, along with rite and ritual.
Years later, Nightfall Lands would be renamed after that young woman as Widows Hill. With the Manor and Orgpahange gone, the state would take over the Asylum, renovating and renaming it Widows Hill Institute of Mental Health. The Cemetery would become Widows Hill Cemetery and Recreation Park.
The Widows Hill Asylum eventually closed and was abandoned until it was purchased and reopened as a Pharmacogenomic Research Facility by the Staerling Family’s Estrella-Lowe Pharmaceuticals. The Staerlings are essential members of The Order of the Eastern Sky, and deep within what once was Nightfall Asylum, more dark secrets await in fulfillment of The Great Work.
NIGHTFALL CEMETERY
Nightfall Cemetery was not just a family plot but more extensive grounds on Nightfall Property that served as the final resting place for many people from the surrounding areas. Fredrick Nightfall had opened it to the public so that rich and poor could be buried in the once garden-like acreage. His reasoning was never known whether it was out of charity or for some other darker purpose.
Not all buried there were local, as Fredrick invited friends, members of the order, and others to make Nightfall Cemetery their place of internment. It was Fredrick who suggested the young widowed bride, who had drowned herself by the shipyard, be buried at Nightfall.
Local legend has it that she still rises from her grave, walking the grounds, searching for her husband. Her anger and longing are so great that she pulls the dead from their graves, searching for her lost love. She continues her futile walk on dark nights, and the dead she pulls from the ground walk with her.
This legend, and accounts of those who had seen her, is why the area was nick-named Widows Hill. Years later, when the state took over, the entire area officially took that moniker. Nightfall Cemetery became Windows Hill Cemetery and Recreation Park. Nightfall Asylum for the Insane and Melancholy was renovated and renamed Widows Hill Institute of Mental Health.
THE GREAT WORK
When the immigrant parents of Fredrick Nightfall, Bjorn and Torill, arrived in America, they stood before the immigrant inspector. The inspector rifled through some papers and asked the newcomers their names and circumstances. Bjorn, speaking only a little broken English, held up his hand, creating a circle with his thumb and ring finger, extending his other fingers upward. Then, he placed his hands in the opposite direction, palm to palm, and flipped them over so the hand on the bottom was now at the top. While he made this gesture, he spoke a strange-sounding word.
The haggard Immigrant Inspector, weary of days and days of deciphering people’s information, looked down at the Manifest of Alien Passengers. Finding no match to this word or at least its sound, he asked his charges for their names once more.
Bjorn replied as before; with a hand gesture and a strange, foreign-sounding word. The immigration inspector shook his head.
Any translators or interpreters on staff in the Immigration Service would not understand the word Bjorn spoke. It is a word that only a few could comprehend genuinely, even if they recognized it. Even those fluent in Nightspeak might understand the word but not the depth of its meaning. The word he spoke comes directly from the Codex Malificarium, the great tome of collected manuscripts, fragments, and writings central to beliefs of the Order of the Eastern Sky. However, even few in the order would truly understand the depth of that word because only the truly faithful understand the Verbis Malifico, the language of anti-creation.
When you genuinely understand the Verbis Malifico, the text moves - like an object that constantly changes its shape in context to its environment. To understand it, you must understand the object, its surroundings, what currently affects it, its impact on other things, and its current shape. The Verbis Malifico is moving language, and one must understand it how one understands another living being. But at the core of each geomorphological context is the seed idea. In the case of the word spoken by Bjorn, at the most basic level, it meant “The Great Work.”
The Great Work is many things and has many meanings for many beings. To the Order, it means what they must do to serve the aims of The Awoken. To the Awoken, it speaks to the fulfillment of those aims, the end of their exile in The Starless Sky, the end of time, when the tendrils of darkness will cover all the Itherian. Like many translations in many languages, the literal translation does not necessarily reflect that translated meaning. For example, the word for gums in Swedish translates as tooth-meat. With a geomorphologic language, the depth and complexity is far greater. What is meant as “The Great Work” translates more literally as “To cover everything in darkness” or “The coming of (an unending) Night.”
The Immigration Inspector was tired, and whatever compassion he had begun his career with had been eroded by time. He was about to send the man and his wife to holding as detained petitioners, which would have meant months in confinement with eventual deportation as the most likely outcome. But suddenly, another man in uniform appeared at his side, out of breath. He whispered quickly in the Immigration Inspector’s ear and left just as quickly. The Immigration Inspector returned to his ledger and asked Bjorn to repeat what he had said. Finally, wanting to give these newcomers a more American name, he asked Bjorn what it meant.
With only broken English, Bjorn pondered the word’s meaning and tried to find the most concise way to translate it. Finally, he took a breath and, with determination, said, “Nightfall.”
The Immigration Officer nodded, satisfied. He scribbled Bjorn and Torills’s new name in his ledger, nodded, and sent them on their way, repeating the name as they passed: “Nightfall.”
- Bal’shara Malhüt -
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It will be done.
But First...This Happened
In the beginning, there was nothing. There was only Gaerguna, the Void, an implacable realm of emptiness, both infinite and finite. It was not conscious but had consciousness; it was formless but understood body. It was nothing and everything all at once, as if not at all. It knew only that there was nothing.
A simple minuscule idea appeared in the blackness—a single spark of thought that if there was nothing, then there must be something. And in that singular thought, a thought so powerful it could shape the very fabric of existence lay all the power of creation.
In the nothingness, it began to dream of something. It dreamt of something that was not nothing, of something more than it had been. It dreamt of itself, and in dreaming, it formed itself. It became something. This was the first, The Dreaming One.
It did not understand what it was but knew it was only one. It knew that it dreamed and wished to share this dream with more than itself. So, it dreamt of something separate from itself. It was one, and now there was another. Together, they shared the emergent dream and understood one another. They dreamed of another who would share the dream. And another. And another.
These were the Catharga, The Dreaming People, who shared the emergent dream that grew and shaped the universe. They were not separate entities but a unified collective, a livening phantasm collectively manifested into being. There was no distinction between the tangible and the intangible, the hidden and the obvious two sides of the same construct. Light and darkness, night and day, good and evil, all two sides one, all the same. There was only the dream: a constant cycle of decay and renewal, birth and death and rebirth.
The Catharga inhabited the Dawn Garden, the fantasmordial well-spring of creation from which all the threads of the cosmos were woven together, and the shared dreams became the fabric of All-story.
THE DAWN GARDEN
Entropy was the engine of renewal in the everlasting dream. And so the Catharga, like the many threads of the dream, could decay and die. But they would be remembered by the others and dreamt back into existence, born anew. They were dream and they were memory. Echos of what had decayed, remembered into new life. The constant cycle of dreaming and re-dreaming, shaping and reshaping, creating and recreating…Old stories made new, building a new dream on the echos of the old. Together, they dreamed of more than themselves: things, places, doing and being, coming and going, inspiration and understanding. From this, they wove the Cosm Lexus, the language of creation, the dream prose of the stars and planets, and the magic of the All-Story.
The Catharga, in their dreaming, envisioned a vast array of beings and worlds. Thousands upon thousands of planets, realms, and universes, each with their own unique stories. Some knew of the Catharga and revered them; others did not know and storied their own gods, their own myths. Countless stories woven from the strand of All-Story braided together and spun apart, separate but whole. But each was imbued in some way with the Dream, and so some dreamt of their own worlds, each with its own beings and realm of dreamers. The dream was woven into everything the Catharga dreamed, and so also the dreams their dreams dreamt. Their dreams could dream, and their dreamt dreams could dream of dreaming.
From the wellspring of The Dawn Garden, The Everlasting Dream called that would be called Story.
THE WAKING ONE
Sometimes, the dream was singular and shared between the whole and other times; they began to dream of individuals woven together as one story of many parts. There in the Dawn Garden, the Dream of Story exponentially grew and prospered, winding around itself and cultivating new pathways around it. But dreaming of self is a complicated matter, and undreamt dreams may grow corrupted in time. Bright suns may turn black as pitch; some things die and are not remembered.
For some were born corrupted, and their dreams became nightmares, and with their screams, they became separate from the dream. Some woke from the torment of the nightmare. The first was Bathuzel, the Waking One. He was the first of those called Elder God or The Outer Kings, The Void Sovereigns, and The Awoken.
Bathuzel, once part of a collective dream, now found himself separate and in agony. His awakening was not a liberation, but a torment. No longer content with dreaming within dreams, he craved to consume the dreams of others, to become the master of all dreams, the conqueror of the All-Story. But his awakening brought only the agony of null-creation, and he was banished from the Dawn Garden into the vast emptiness of The Starless Sky.
He awoke others like him, others who wished to be singular masters over Story and the Dream., whose dark thoughts thought of dark places, who were forged by the agony of waking, the ordeal of Nightmare. Among them were Balrathan -the Story Thief, Fathat’umbra - The Dream Butcher, and the Six-wombed Elder Goddess; Athat’un’sunamoom - The Stillborn Pythoness, The Seer of Nothing, who would be Queen of the Starless Sky.
With no creation poem of their own, they stole from the others who still dreamed dreams. Balrathan stole prose and magic, story and conception, while Fathat’umbra carved them up into untethered parts. They all feasted, ate, and consumed what others had made in reverie.
Cast into the abyss of The Starless Sky, they were condemned to an eternity without sleep or dreams. They would have no story of their own, only the relentless torment of empty birth and the insatiable hunger for dreams that were not theirs. In their exile, they would feed on the fear of broken hopes, corrupted dreams, and the terrors that reside within every being. With no dreams of their own, screams would be their banquet, a feast that never satisfied their eternal hunger, always leaving them wanting more, always starving.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DAWN GARDEN
Bathuzel, The Awoken one, and his companions were exiled into The Starless Sky and cast into a formless abyss. It was here that Bathuzel, fueled by a burning desire for vengeance, swore to bring about the destruction of The Dawn Garden.
Bal’rathan crept back into The Dawn Garden disguised as a great Owl and stole the language of Creation from the Tower. Bathuzel fed the Cosm Naratual to The Great Void Worm Yjarmintarphus, who spat it back out inverted; The language of Anti-creation, of Anti-story; the Verbis Malifico. With the help of Athat’un’sunamoom, Bathuzel used this language to speak-shape a great weapon that would destroy the dreaming people.
Light and matter mixed with dream and song in The Dawn Garden, but amid that creation, a great shadow came. A colossal adumbration that blotted out the dream-sky with its great wings, The Nine-Headed Terror-Dragon Bal’mahouth sent by Bathuzel, Threshold of the Eastern Sky, to raze The Dawn Garden and extinguish the song-fires of creation.
The Dreaming People, once in blissful creation, were abruptly thrust into a world of madness, death, and agony. The once shimmering forests turned to ash, the great towers of inception exploded like stars, and the Sky-poem was torn as fabric as Bal’Mahouth, the Nine-Headed Terror-Dragon, unleashed his ruin upon The Dawn Garden.
A great chasm tore through The Dawn Garden as if all creation were being ripped apart. Mad with fear and torment, the Catharga flung themselves into the gaping wound. A murky resplendence of light and shadow, memory and things forgotten, mixed together as they bled into the opening. As the Catharga threw themselves into the opening, it grew more vast, as if slowly tearing at the seams of reality stitch by stitch.
But one Chatharga stayed behind and bore the agony of waking so that Darkness would not consume the cosmos. This was The One Who Remained, and he did battle the Great Terror Dragon Bal’Mahouth upon the smoldering embers of the Garden, each landing blows that shook the cosmos, each wounding the other in turn.
In a great climax of Story and Anti-Story, of Dream and Nightmare, Bal’Mahouth and The One Who Remained struck their final, fatal blows. The shockwave from their collision rent the universe in twain, splitting the chasm everlasting across the universe. A wound-realm where light and dark pour in together and the echos of memories, dreams, and nightmares take shape and are born anew. A resplendent abyss where all that has been and all that might be and never was flow together like a river: The Radiant Twilight.
On either side of the Radiant Twilight sat the eternal realms of The Bastion and The Starless Sky—two sides once whole, now forever locked in conflict. The Bastion serves the balance of all things, the All-Story. It is a place of dreamers and those who seek the light in all things. The Starless Sky and its Three-Horned Keep Ogusgoskul want only the destruction of all things, an end to time and space, an end to story.
THE BIRTH OF THE DRID
Bathuzel took from the smoking detritus of the Dawn Garden slivers of oak, many thorns, and ashes from the ruins. He took the smote hulk of Bal’Maouth to the void and severed all nine of its heads. He pricked his own flesh with each thorn and placed them in a shallow grave with a drop of his blood. He placed each head in the hollowed ground, and upon each head, he placed a sliver of Oak. He filled in the hole with the ashes of The Dawn Garden.
Night after Night, Bathuzel knelt by the burial mounds and spoke the Verbis Malifico. For 333 nights, Bathuzel cast his speak-spell upon the graves until new beings of great power emerged from the corrupted earth. They would be the custodians of the great Watchtowers of the Three Horned Keep of Ogusgoskul, each Watchtower holding sway at the border between the Radiant Twilight and The Starless Sky. These were The Drid, and men would seek them, pray to them, bow to them, serve them, and be destroyed by them for eons. They would have many names and be told as many stories, but they were always The Drid, The Abyssal Lords, the Great Over-Fiends of the Starless Sky.
The most powerful among them;
Tothmaru, the most sinister of all, is the Queen of the Drid, Regent of the Somber Day, and Custodian of the Watchtower of Despair.
Ethroot, The Infester, The Barron of Flies, Custodian of The Watchtower of Disgrace.
Daga’Thule, The Deep One, The One Who Dwells Below, Custodian of The Watcher Tower of Deceit.
Belial, Teeth of the Wind, Custodian of the Watchtower of Corruption
Xothtmal, Herald of the Dusk, and Vazinath, Bane of the Dawn, custodians of The Watchtowers of Humiliation and Ridicule
Some day, the Drid will sing The Song of Nine Sorrows, calling forth Yjarmintarphus to eat the world eternal. Space and time will be destroyed, the light of creation vanquished, the fires of story expunged. The Bastion will be razed, and the nectarous shadows of The Starless Sky will pour into the chasm of the Radiant Twilight and spill forever across eternity. Those who served and kept their oaths to The Awoken will be rewarded and shall be alive forever and forever shall have lived.
This is The Great Work of The Circle of Dusk, the inner society of the Order of the Eastern Sky, not just to grasp immortality or to defeat death but to have always been and always be.
- Bal’shara Malhut -
It will be done.
THE BASTION
As the One Who Remained smote the evil of Bal’Mahouth upon the embers of The Dawn Garden, they, too, received a blow that promised their death. They could see across the burgeoning chasm the vast darkness of the Starless Sky as tendrils of shadow slowly crept towards the Radiant Twilight like giant claws filled with malice, tearing at the edges.
The One Who Remained, using the last of their own dream-language, bestowed three gifts. It was as if they exhaled the final remnants of their being, offering the last of themselves to this boon. As the clutches of The Starless Sky and the Three-Horned Keep Ogusgoskul tightened around the Radiant Twilight, The One Who Remained left behind a dream that would serve to hold it at bay; Three Gifts; A Rock, an Acorn, and a Feather.
And then, with no dreams left to dream, they flung their dwindling body into the chasm and joined the rest of their kin as echo and memory in the saturated oblivion of The Radiant Twilight.
The Rock would become the Sanctuary Mountains, a vast shield wall of palisade and precipice, nearly unconquerable to those without dreams. Upon its peaks, the signal fires of the Great Lighthouses would shine like suns, beckoning all who would be dreamers and warning all who would seek the end of the story.
The Acorn became the Great Dreaming Tree, a colossal, many-branched oak whose foliage touches the sky. The vastness of its canopy covered and protected the forests and lands below. The limbs are so large that entire cities could be built upon them.
The Feather became the great Golden Dragon Thaledrowl, who keeps watch over the Bastion and searches for those who would protect it and who would fight against the darkness of Ogusgoskul; The Bright Wardens who serve the Bastion and patrol the Radiant Twilight and seek out and protect those, who have story inside them.
THE RADIANT TWILIGHT
Emerging from the cataclysmic battle between the Nine-Headed Terror Dragon Bal’Mahouth and The One Who Remained The Radiant Twilight is a unique entity. It transcends realms and universes as an eternal chasm of dreams, memories, shadows, and light. It coils around and between each plane and dimension, a space between walls. Here, the past, present, and even the impossible take shape as ethereal echoes. It’s a realm where light and dark converge in a disquieting harmony.
The great expanse of The Radiant Twilight is bordered on either side by two opposing domains: The Bastion, a place of light and wonder, and the infinite darkness of The Starless Sky, where The Awoken and The Drid plot the undoing of all things from Ogusgoskül.
At the ‘center’ of The Radiant Twilight, if such a concept can exist in a realm that stretches for eternity, stands the grand city of Meridian. This city, a manifestation of piecemeal dreams and composite magics, was founded by the Witch Queen Liliandre. She stole the gift of magic from Bal’Rathan and bestowed it upon her sisters, who Walk with the Moon. In Meridian, peace is not just a concept but a living entity known as the Justice of the Balance, upheld by The Wolves Who Serve No Master. These Grey Wolves, children of the two-headed Wolf-God Redjek, are the guardians of peace, walking the line in the sand.
The Radiant Twilight exists just beyond, as if just behind a thin veil, unseen. Its energies wax and wane, the barrier between it and other worlds weakening and strengthing like an ocean. It can be felt in the prickling on your neck, the feeling you are being watched, a voice calling from an empty room, the movement out of the corner of your eye that, when followed, reveals that nothing was there. Some beings are more connected than others and can feel its presence like a doorway just about to be unlatched; others walk by an open door and never even stop to wonder what might be inside. Many things can thin the veil between the realms, such as the moon when new or full or the calls of wolves on the winter night. But nothing allows the Twilight to mix and mingle like the turning leaves falling from the branches. The Dying season, the dim machinery of October, calls the doors to open, and all who are connected to the Twilight can feel the air change, the shift in the wind when the season comes. During the festival of Shamshahana, the denizens of meridian celebrate the thinning of the veils, the rebinding of the realms, and the passage from life to death and back again—the walking dead and sleeping births. The city of Meridian alight with flickering Jack’o Lanterns and Will-o’-The-Whips; Shamshahana is one the most sacred and honored festivals, observed not just in the Twilight but by those that serve The Bastion and that serve The Starless Sky alike. Certain individuals, like Mr. Black, can even weave the energies of the Twilight with this world, stitching together the tangible with the intangible, capturing dark echos and half-remembered dreams to build the shadowy phantasms of his carnival.
THE STARLESS SKY
A remnant of Gaerguna, the vast abyss of the Starless Sky is a cold, lifeless void. It is formless but for where the absences of creation give it shape. No life can survive there; no dreams can take form, and no story can take hold. The only birth there is through death, the only dreams are nightmares, and the only narrative purchase is the NullStory. The Shadowy tendrils at its edges tear at all the other universes and realms. It exists on the other side of the Radiant Twilight, but its tendrils and spaces intertwine across The Itherian. It is the realm of The Awoken and The Drid, the seat of their power.
The Outer King Bathuzel, the Waking One, Threshold of the Eastern Sky, rules the Starless Sky. He sits on his throne of Shadow and Ash in the Three-Horned Keep of Ogusgoskul, its chambers, and halls sprawling like a vast network of intermundane arteries.
Here, the six-wombed goddess Athat’un’sunamoom, The Still-Born Pythoness, is the Queen of the Starless Sky. She gestates machination upon machination in her death wombs and gives death-birth to the horrors of the void. She is the Seer of Nothing, understanding everything as one who would glean knowledge from a book by reading between the lines and spaces. The remnant dark matter of creation is the board on which her necrotic planchette glides in divination.
The Great Void Worm, Yjarmintarphus, slithers in The Starless Sky. It consumes that which is taken and spits it out inverted, biding its time for the day when it will be called down to consume eternally.
Here the Awoken herald the long night, when The Starless Sky will spill into every cavity of the universe.
And here, the Drid, The Abyssal Lords, surveil and serve from their Watchtowers along the border realms of The Radiant Twilight and The Starless Sky.
FREDRICK NIGHTFALL
Fredrick Nightfall was the child of Norwegian immigrants Bjorn and Torill, who had immigrated to America shortly after their marriage. When they arrived at the port, the presiding immigrant inspector, as was typical, sought to give most newcomers American-sounding names in favor of those in “native tongues.” Unable or unwilling to pronounce what Bjorn had said when asked for his family name, he asked for clarity on its meaning - believing, as many Americans did, that every foreign name must mean something - and he noted that he did not recognize it on the ship Manifest of Alien Passengers. Shortly, an officer from the superintendent’s office appeared, whispering a quick message in the inspector’s ear. After a brief exchange with Bjorn, the inspector nodded and scribbled a family name down on his ledger and passed them through the “Golden Door” to America. The inspector wrote what he believed to be the English translation of the word first spoken by Bjorn, which he assumed was his name: Nightfall.
Once through the golden door, the newly named Nightfalls had friends waiting on the other side. They did well; Bjorn became a shop owner and respected businessman, and Torill soon gave birth to their son, Fredrick Nightfall.
Many opportunities came with their friends and partners, and when Fredrick applied to university, he was accepted into the prestigious Ivy League of America’s Promise. There, he was tapped to join the mysterious Thorn & Castle Society, an order even more secretive than its more well-known contemporaries, so much so that the rumored entrance was known as “The Door That Does Not Open.” It was deeply connected to the Order of the Eastern Sky.
In Thorn & Castle, Fredrick Nightfall met many of his allies, and many “Rooks”- as they called themselves - were members of the elite Circle of Dusk. Among them were Fredricks’s greatest clandestine partners, Benedict Orr, Heinrich Hemmel, and Juergen Gotten, and together, they would become some of the most powerful industrialists of their age.
After leaving university, Fredrick founded the Nightfall Shipping Company, and though small at first, it grew in scope and power exponentially. As Thorne & Castle was a nearly direct link to the Order of the Eastern Sky, Nightfall and his partners were inducted and rose swiftly through the ranks. As his fortunes flourished, he courted and married Margaret Holmes of the Virginia Holmes. Her father, Jacob Aster Holmes, was a man of vast inherited wealth who had no sons - he would say his wife had given him none because he was that guy. His daughter’s only value to him was in her marriage prize, so he sought a deal that would at least secure the future of his bloodline. It was a good arrangement for both men, as Margaret’s sizable dowry solidified the Nightfall Empire for good. It was an open secret in social circles that Margaret was unhappy in the match, but this was dismissed owing to her persistent melancholia. She did her duty despite her condition and gave birth to Fredricks’s twin heirs, Aldus Emmet and Rose Elise Nightfall.
Fredrick would become known as an odd man who dabbled in the occult, but this was not unheard of among industrialists then. Many rumors surrounded him until he disappeared mysteriously and was presumed dead, leaving his children to inherit his fortune and his work.
ALDUS EMMET & ROSE ELISE NIGHTFALL
Margaret Nightfall gave birth to Aldus Emmet and Rose Elise Nightfall in the year 10,191, according to the Itherian Calander (which moves sideways in time compared to human linear perceptions and does not follow the same rudimentary sequential order). Fredrick was a proud father, and even the people most skeptical of his ways could not deny that he had a special bond with his children. Soon after giving birth, Margaret’s melancholia grew worse; she became more withdrawn and was diagnosed with Neurasthenia. She was sequestered to her wing of the manor under doctor’s orders and, over the years, was given to mad ravings about creatures roaming the house and accusations that her children were unnatural and not her own. Eventually, her children would open Nightfall Asylum for the Insane and Melancholy to better care for their mother.
Aldus attended the same college as his father and, as a legacy inductee, was tapped to pass through The Door that Does Not Open. Women were not allowed to attend Thorn & Castle or The Order at the time, but Rose did not sit at home idle. She traveled to Oxford, England, to study the dusty, flesh-bound tomes in the Bodleian Library. Women, of course, were not allowed in the library, but The Order was well connected there, and there was a secret chamber underneath The Bridge of Sighs. Though she was not allowed to be inducted, she was a Nightfall, after all, and was permitted to use the chamber. There, she studied high alchemy and magicks and The Codex Malificarium.
When they returned home, they took residence in Nightfall Manor and remained there after their father’s mysterious disappearance. Rumors and gossip continued to surround the Nightfalls, but the twins made an effort to change minds through their “philanthropic work.” Rumors and Gossip do little to disillusion people in the circles of wealth and power. Eventually, they founded Nightfall Orphanage on their land and ran it themselves.
The strange events, the odd behavior and looks of the children, and the missing people became too much for commoners and aristocrats alike. There was no evidence of orphans coming to live at the orphanage, and there were no reports of any being adopted and leaving with new families. Yet the number of children continued to grow. Unfortunate circumstances befell those who spoke out against them, and people were afraid that they might have a visitation of a child in a bowler hat or come face-to-face with whoever, or whatever the children called “Mr. Giggles.”
The Children would talk excitedly about Mr. Giggles as if he were a playful friend who loved to play games with them. But should anyone glance in their direction with a sneer or make a whispered comment under their breath, the children would be just as excited to tell them that Mr. Giggles was coming and that he was going to come for them.
The children of the Orphanage were Changelings, willful spirits too dark for The Twilight, refugees of the Starless Sky found in tree hollows and other natural portals between the realms. Mr. Giggles appears in a form most pleasing to those who serve it, and for the children, he is a clown full of shadow games and dark laughter. He is Ethroot, the Infestor, the Baron of Flies, and the Custodian of the Watchtower of Despair.
They burned Nightfall Orphanage to the ground. No bodies were found in the ruins, not that of the Nightfall Twins or the strange children.
THE SACRED ORDER OF THE EASTERN SKY
(Ordo Orientis Caelium)
“Let my tongue be cut out that I might never speak
My eyes be torn out so that I may never see
My ears be cut off so that I might never hear
My hands be severed to that I might never write
My feet be hobbled so that I might never run
Should I ever betray the Sacred Rites or Secret Rituals
Or reveal The Great Work,
Of this most revered Order
Hail Bathuzel! The Awoken One! Threshold of the Eastern Sky!”
Should any member of The Order of the Eastern Sky betray their sacred oaths, they would condemned not to death but to the Hell of Self. But defectors were rare because with the order came wealth and power and the promise of everlasting life and dominion. The Order attracted those that would be attracted to it, so members of the Order were very loyal. It counted among its highest ranks some of the most influential and powerful people of the time. One of these was Fredrick Nighfall.
Fredrick Nightfall was eventually one of the highest-ranking members of The Order of The Eastern Sky, achieving 33rd Magistrate Magus of the Amaranthine Nightwind. While the Orders rites and rituals are based around their great tome, the Codex Malificarium, Nightfall and many of his peers sought a deeper connection and meaning to the rites, symbols, and moving contexts of the Verbis Malifico in which they were written. To this end, Nightfall gathered his closest allies and others most dedicated to the order, as well as those with affinities for alchemies and magicks, and founded The Circle of Dusk. Together, they would build the dim machinery of The Great Work and herald the day when it is done; plans and toil that would take generations….
The Drid will sing the Song of the Nine Sorrows and call down Yjarmintarphus to eat the world eternal. The Starless Sky will fill the Radiant Twilight, and shadow will consume The Bastion. The All-story will be undone, Time will be destroyed, and those that served The Awoken will not only be alive forevermore, but will always have been.
“As Above, So Below!
As was Done, now be Undone!
As was Made, now be Unmade!
As was Dead, be Alive Forevermore!
Night Gathers in the East
And from the East, will it be done!"
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"Bal’shara Malhüt!"
They have already won.
It just hasn’t happened yet.
NIGHTFALL SHIPYARDS
As the Nightfall Shipping Empire grew exponentially, so did its control over harbors, ports, and, some say, the seas themselves. Recovered work orders and ledgers show that most, if not all, of the Nightfall ships, were built only at night, and logs from dock workers describe seeing a green glow beneath the harbor waters from time to time.
Competitor vessels were often lost at sea with all hands, while Nightfall ships made safe port even in rough seas and terrible storms. Some sailors that survived reported their boats were attacked by some manner of creature and pulled down into the depths.
Accidents seemed typical when others tried to sail along Nightfall Shipping routes, and those who did often found trouble hiring a crew. It was said among sailors that Nightfall had struck a bargain with some devil beneath the waves.
Of course, this was indeed the case. The Order of the Eastern Sky and their tome, The Codex Malificarium, center around The Drid, the Archfiends of The Starless Sky who serve The Awoken. Among the Drid is Daga’Thule, The Deep One, The One Who Dwells Below, and the Drowned King. Data’thule insured Nightfall’s Prosperity as he hunted competitors’ ships and haunted their sailors. This was not always enough, and Nightfall Ships would sometimes have to hire a new crew member, promising work and riches, only to sacrifice the poor greenhorn at sea to please the Drid.
There was a well-known story at the time about a woman who drowned at the Nightfall Shipyards. She was a young bride, married that very day to the man she deeply loved. He set out with the tide on a Nightfall vessel before they would have their wedding night so that he might return to start their life with pockets full of money. He never returned. Every day, she waited by the docks at Nightfall Shipyard, and every day, the tide returned nothing to her. One night, dressed in her wedding dress, she stood on the docks at Nightfall Shipyards. She screamed the most heart-wrenching screams at the ocean to return her lost love. Finally, when the sea would not answer, she jumped in, drowning herself to join her love in the sea. As she had no other family, Fredrick had her buried at Nightfall Cemetery.
THE BRIDE
The Nightfall lands were sprawling and featured various topographies, flora, and fauna. Each building, space, and location was placed with purpose and design and followed the configurations of Sacred Geometry outlined in the Codex Malificarium.
So this was true of the Nightfall Cemetery itself. Here, Fredrick buried his parents and their parents who had come to America once Fredrick achieved his success. The cemetery was also home to the family mausoleum that housed Margaret Nightfall in her external slumber. However, the plot of land for Nightfall Cemetery was so large that the Nightfalls allowed it to be used as the main burial ground for the area. It seemed like a charitable offering to the community, but as in all things, they did nothing without purpose.
The Nightfalls would also inter friends, extended family, members of the order, and those loyal to them.
There had been a young bride who waved goodbye to her new husband on her wedding day and a sailor who left on the evening tide before they could share a wedding bed. Hired by Nightfall Shipping, he left hoping that he would return with money and they could start their lives. The bride loved her husband with all her heart and promised that she would wait by the docks every day until he returned, and they could have their wedding night and start their life together. She was told her love had tragically died at sea, with no mention of having served his purpose as a sacrifice to The Deep One, Daga’Thule. Day after day, night after night, she would stand at the docks of the Nightfall Shipyards as if believing that her lost love would somehow be returned to her. Heartbreak and loss turned to fury, and she screamed and screamed at the sea as if she could pull up her beloved from the depths and be with him again. Grief is a mighty torment, and the young bride, desperate to be with her love, threw herself into the cold waters and drowned.
She had no family, so when she was brought up from the waters, Fredrick Nightfall had her buried in his cemetery. There are nights, especially those near and on the festival of Shamshahana, when the veil between the worlds of Twilight are thin, that she still seeks her lost love. She rises from the grave, and by her longing anguish to find her beloved, her pain calls all the dead around her to rise from their grave.
Years later, once the Nightfalls were all but forgotten, the area was renamed Widows Hill.
THE GRAND MONARCH HOTEL
The Dark Reach is the Domain of the Ethroot, the Baron of Flies, and the Custodian of the Watchtower of Deceit. It exists within the Watchtower but extends beyond it, like a long hall with many doors. The hall is in the Watchtower, except when it is not, but it goes somewhere else when the doors are open. The Dark Reach is often known as the Hallway between the Rooms.
Within the Watchtower of Deceit, one can move between the doors in the Dark Reach. However, one must use a Construct to utilize the Dark Reach to move between doors when not in the watchtower.
A Construct is not a simple act of magic; even the most powerful twilight souls such as The Nokhexan or the Droom would expend incredible energy and focus to craft even a simple construct, much less the umbrulating energy of The Dark Reach. To do so requires both invocation and evocation, elemental magic, and ethereal conjuration. It is bound to its plane by blood magic and necromancy.
The Grand Monarch Hotel was one such construct. It was what it was on the material plane, and it would be what it would have been when it was something else than what it was, except for when it wasn’t. That’s how it is with constructs. The Grand Monarch was built the way all building are built, it was designed as a hotel with no ulterior motive. It was something that was made to exist that was then used to make a construct. From that moment, The Grand Monarch Hotel was something else then what it was.
Beyond the Grand Monarch’s gilded double entryway doors was a festival of luxury and style. Across the marbled art-deco lobby, full of plush leather chairs and hanging smoke, was the breathtaking veranda with views that overlooked the cliffs and the ocean crashing on the rocks below. In its heyday, it was the haven of celebrities and luminaries. Its bar and lounge attracted star and starlet, look-at-me’s and look-at-thems. The stars were only outshined by the stories.
The Grand Monarch was a favorite retreat of famous actress Greta Hayworth when she wanted to escape the lights and cameras. She was known for her messy personal life, with several high-profile relationships and two divorces, and was hounded by the media. It was known to Hollywood brass that she was problematic, had a habit of taking her meals in the form of pills and booze, and had several breakdowns. But during one of her retreats, while on break from filming the David P. Curtis’ epic “The Wind Will Carry Us,” she disappeared completely, shutting down what at the time was the most expensive film ever made. The part would eventually be recast and reshot with Ava Wood.
Three years later, she appeared in the lobby of The Grand Monarch in her nightgown, which was torn and stained with filth. She babbled and screamed mostly incoherently but claimed she had been trapped on the 9th Floor the whole time. In her account, she would run to the end of the hall to escape, but it would just be the beginning of the hall again. She would open doors, but they would all only lead back into the hall, and the sounds of maniacal laughter and otherworldly screams hounded her. She was committed to the sanitarium at Widows Hill, and her career never recovered.
Likewise, surrealist painter Richard O’Keefe claimed that after a night of psychedelic cactus “experimentation,” a “Star-Bridge” had opened in his room, 333, after listening to Ken Nordine’s “Flibberty Jib” for 17 hours straight. His paintings changed after that, as he entered his “Dark Period,” creating imagery he said represented his experiences in the Starless Sky. He soon went mad and, just as Greta Hayworth had been, was entrusted to the care of the doctors at Widows Hill Sanitorium.
But nothing was as storied or feared as Room 626 and its connection to the tragedy that befell the Grand Monarch one stormy Halloween night. No room in The Grand Monarch Hotel had as many rumors, with guests reporting everything from flickering lights to shadowy presences and being watched as if the walls had eyes. But its most haunting story would come after the night of tragedy.
Most understand, at some level, that Holloween (or Shamshahana in the Radiant Twilight) is when the veil between worlds grows thin. It was a dark and stormy night, as the stories go, and The Grand Monarch was filled with the who’s who of industry and art, all dressed in fancy costumes for the annual All Hallows Ball. Champaign flowed into glass after glass; the wind howled outside, and lightning streaked across the dark skies. As they toasted and fawned over each other, there was a tremendous convulsion, and then half of The Grand Monarch Hotel slid from its foundation, down the cliffs, and crashed into the rocks below.
The hotel was cut almost in half, like a cutout exposing the arteries of its interior. Much of the wreckage was swept away by the sea or into the network of caverns at the bottom of the rocky bluffs. Some people say that on stormy nights, you can hear the screams underneath the sound of waves crashing against the cliffs. But the most chilling rumor is from those who have ventured into what was left of the Grand Monarch, its ruined, condemned hulk sitting upon the eroded edge of the precipice. The door to room 626 is locked, and no key exists to open it. But if one could open that door, it would lead only to the space where the rest of the hotel once stood, with a shear falloff to the rocky shoals below. Yet those who have ventured there have said that sometimes, in the dead of night, there is a knock at the door as if someone from the other side is trying desperately to get in.
BENEDICT ORR
ORR MINING CO.
The Orr family were farmers from a small town in Ohio. Like all farmers, they had good and lean years but could scrap enough together to send their eldest son, Benedict, to University. He was an industrious young man, imbued with a keen sense of people, and his Narcissistic streak drove him to excel. Once at college, he was tapped to walk through The Door That Does Not Open. There, he met the men who would be his closest allies in business and The Order: Nightfall, Gotten, and Hemmel.
When he returned home, Benedict found that his family farm was in trouble. His father had died recently from a sudden illness, and the bank was knocking at their door over unpaid loans.
One night, a storm came that flooded all the farm planes and threatened every farm in the region. While others were trying to shelter their animals and protect their crops, Benedict was seen standing naked in his fields, screaming at the sky as if calling down the lightning itself since several bolts struck the ground.
By morning, many farmers had lost half their crops to flooding. The Orr farmlands were sodden, and the crops drowned. But the lightning had struck the earth and scorched the fields, revealing underneath rich veins of copper. With a loan from his friends Gotten and Hemmel, who had begun a successful Iron Works, he began mining his land. He expanded his concern across the nation from those initial mines, buying and establishing mines of precious and industrial metals such as gold, silver, iron, and steel. Towns sprung up around his mining concerns, and ever the narcissist, he named each one after himself. For years, many Orr Towns were dotting the globe.
ORR FARM
Even after his success, Benedict Orr kept his family's farmlands, though the land was infertile, and nothing grew there. But it was his family’s home, and his family’s dark secrets were born and buried there. The death of the land around it suited the death and shadow that had lived for generations in the family home. Horrible deaths, brutal murders, tales of affairs, jealousies, and revenge were as much a part of the Orr Farm as the lands on which it sat. Since the storm, most people usually gave the Orr Farm a wide birth.
The exception to that rule would come some autumns when the leaves would fall, and the wind would seem to change. During those seasons, when you could feel a prickling in the air underneath the October sky, a strange carnival would appear on the Orr Farmlands as if it arrived overnight. This was the only time people would flock to the once-fertile land. This was The Black Carnival, a mysterious collection of sideshows, rides, and experiences that most would call supernatural.
Generations later, the land would sit unused, and the farm abandoned. Stories and urban legend still sounded it, and local vandals added a bloody “H” and an “or” to the farm sign so that it now reads “The H-Orr-or Farm.”
ORR TOWN
Benedict Orr controlled every mine in any region where his company struck metal and founded every town that grew up around its concern. Ever the Narcissist, he named every one after himself: Orr Town. There was a time when one could take a train across the country, leaving Orr Town, stopping in Orr Town, or arriving in Orr Town. Along one of these routes, the stories of Casey Bones and his Doom Train were born. Orr Town’s history was not all dark; it was home to legendary lawman Sheriff Don Lee Roy and was the headquarters for Colico Cody’s Wild West Show, which, according to its advertisements, featured ‘Tall Tales and Strait Shootin’.”It was in Orr Town that Doctor Marvel first proffered his Miracle Elixir, a potent medicinal tonic that could cure tired blood, vapors, and numerous other ailments. His Marvelous Elixir Show was a crowd favorite when it appeared with The Black Carnival. Orr Towns and their mines were the leading suppliers of industrial metals to Gotten & Hemmel Metal Works, and Nightfall Shipping fulfilled all the transport. But nothing was as well known as the tragic Old #66 Mine accident.
Of course, today, most of these towns have been abandoned or renamed to distance their location from the name. Some new names have not instilled more confidence, as in the case of a previous Orr Town in the Pacific Northwest West that was renamed Blood Falls due to the red tinge in the waterfalls from an abandoned Orr Mining copper mine. This is perhaps why rumors of vampires living in those abandoned mines persist.
OLD #66
Of all the stories and legends from Orr Town(s), none were as well known as the Old #66 Mining Disaster.
The first thing that was odd about #66 was that it had always failed to produce, yet boasted more tunnels, more depth and more miners than any other mine in the region. The miners, dedicated to their work, toiled around the clock, with overlapping shifts to ensure the process never stopped.
Miners in 66 were paid more than their counterparts and were treated as elite; the roughest of roughnecks, the muckiest of muckmen, not a cackler among them. They were treated well by the company, and their loyalty was unwavering. They carried a certain air of celebrity about the town, rewarded for their continued service and, most importantly, for their secrecy.
The miners of Old #66 knew that there was something different about that mine, and not just that, they continued to dig without even a glimpse of the red or blue. In the lower adits, they discovered a system of massive, nearly smooth tunnels that ran for miles in either direction and delved into bottomless black depths. They would hear strange sounds, especially at night, coming from the depths; they heard low, grumbling words that echoed hauntingly through the caverns. Others lost colleagues who had followed mysterious lights like lanterns into the black and fallen into a shaft. Others still reported a strange humming from within the rocks to the company and were told to keep digging where it was the loudest. The location itself, and especially the shaft and tunnels underneath, pulsated with energy closely intertwined as it was with the Radiant Twilight.
A thunderous explosion rocked Orr Town one morning, and black smoke poured out of the mouth of the primary entrance of the #66 mine, A cave-in of such magnitude that it shook the entire Town. The collapse was near total, and all external shafts crumbled. Rescuers did what they could, and no miner came up on the elevator unscathed. But most who were on shift were trapped in the collapsed lower extremities of the mine, tapping against the rocks for help, with no way to get to them. Some people say you can sometimes still hear them tapping, as if they are still alive, trapped beneath the rocks in an eternal tomb.
Old #66 was not a mine dug to extract precious ore. It had a singular purpose and a singular query. To find an ancient artifact, a construct built of the remnants of creation itself, one of three integral to the Great Work of the Order. Deep within the Earth, the operations had uncovered The Maw, a place of extreme power where the shadows seemed to slither and change their shape even when lit by lanterns. They found what they were looking for and collapsed the mine so no one would ever know
The Greenhouse of Clockwork
Nightmakers
The echoes of Nightfall Orphanage do not appear in the Dark Reach with a simple wave of the hand or simple, second-rate magic. It takes the hard work of the talented and creative people at The Greenhouse of Clockwork. We call them Nightmakers.
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Aleister Emmet Black
The Proprietor - Purveyor of Nightmares and Dreams
Aleister Emmet Black is the man behind the dark curtain. He is the vicious cocktail of imagination, magic, and alchemy that grinds the ghoulish gears of The Radiant Twilight. But it is only working in synergy with a talented and dedicated team that the nightmarish echoes of The Radiant Twilight can truly be brought to life. Aleister believes that the strength or weakness of any worth while endeavor rests in the people that stand beside you.
In 2015 Aleister was prescribed the antibiotic Levaquin which damaged his mitochondria and neuromuscular system. Prior to his illness Aleister was very active; He practiced Martial Arts, enjoyed world travel (including in North Korea), and had worked in the Halloween and Theme Park Industries for 20 years.
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Now he has accepted Mr. Blacks bargain and together, they have begun to build a new, better life out of the Twilight.
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The Magic is in the details.
"Seek your nature not in darkness, nor in light, but in that perfect twilight of the soul to which we should be bound"
- A.E. Black
Photo Credit: Kathryn Skvarla
"Chainsaw" Gilmore
Cruise Director
“Chainsaw” is a senior product manager at Amazon, but that doesn't mean she isn't a good person or believes in subjugation and oppression. Also known as “Cruise Director,” she makes sure Aleister and the rest of the team don’t blow up the world or destroy the local economy. She got her masters in Primatology at Oxford, wrote a dissertation on Orangutan communication, and worked with them in the wilds of Sumatra.
Atticus Black
Hellspawn
Atticus is the prodigal Hellspawn of Aleister Black. He grew up around Special Effects Make-up and Halloween as a necessity but was always allowed to decide on his own when he was ready to watch scarier movies, use special effects make-up, and claim his Halloween birthright. He is a martial artist, an avid gamer, a musician, and someone who does not believe in cleaning his @$%#! room.
Shawn of the Dead
Nightmaker
Shawn knows how things work. Trapped in the 8th dimension for over a decade, Shawn was able to distill the ancient Sumerian texts of universal working, which allows him to design and build some really cool stuff that makes crap work. You probably won't ever see the stuff he has designed, because that's the point, but it's there in the Dark Reach…stalking you. He enjoys combat glowstick juggling, sand swimming, breeding face-huggers, and lending money to wayward fishmongers living in landlocked states.
"Dandelion" David
Nightmaker
Dandelion graduated with a degree in Unified Field Physical Engineering where he received an award for chemically reshaping the cosmos to match his wallpaper. He is an avid collector of left socks and believes furniture makes people soft. He lives a spartan existence in a world called Thume, which apparently has a magical entry portal in his mother's basement. He enjoys the occasional joke and had fun once. He didn't like it.
Crazy Halloween Lady
Nightmaker
Crazy Halloween Lady can basically redo your kitchen & bathroom using only what you find at a 99 cent store. She can also sew like the wind just like the old woman in “Three Amigos.” If it's in the Reach and it has a stitch she probably had her hands on it. She also makes sure none of us lose a finger when none of us know what the @%$#& we are doing.
Ian Davis
Nightmaker
Ian is the right man to have around when you are in a bind. Like when you have had too much cheese, he is the existential prune juice that keeps you moving along. He is a wanderer, but he is not lost.
Tony "Satony" Loverti
Brigadier Nightmaker General
The constructs and artifacts of The Radiant Twilight take dedication and skill. Much of the architecture that diligently retains the echos of Nightfall Orphanage was built and erected by Tony. He is the carpenter, tradesman, and Home Depot sage.
The denizens and spirits of the Radiant Twilight are often the work of talented outside artists, whose skill and knowledge are only overshadowed by their passion. As we grow we are always looking for thrilling new frights and phantasms from creators who dwell in the realms of night.
Special Thanks
FAQ
Do You Need Reservations?
No, you don't need a reservation at this time. However, we are a small neighborhood haunt that supports local and community charities. As such, we have a far lower capacity than larger, commercial haunts. Depending on the night, there may be a wait, but so far this has never been more than around 30 minutes. On busy nights, the line may be shut down early once we reach capacity for the evening.
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How do I buy Tickets?
Tickets are only sold at the door; there are no online ticket sales.
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Do you accept Cash?
We do not accept cash for ticket sales. However, we do receive additional cash donations at the door for Washington's National Park Fund. Cash is not kept on site.
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Is there parking?
There is no parking on the upper part of 51st in front of Nightfall Orphanage, and at that time of night, most residents have taken up the street on the lower half. It is much better if you park on one of the larger main streets and walk in. Please read all the parking information on the website, or you may be towed at your expense and force the event to close for the evening.
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Do you have a bathroom?
There is no bathroom available for public use. We are a high-end neighborhood haunt at a private residence. Go before you go, and understand that on busy nights, that wait can be 20-30 minutes or more.
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Is there wheelchair access?
Unfortunately, because we are a neighborhood haunt at a private residence built in 1926, and due to the multi-level layout and limited footprint, we do not have wheelchair access for the attraction at this time. We are very sorry; we wish we could come up with a way.
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Is there a dress code?
Um...no. Dress up, wear costumes, and be yourself. I mean, no banana hammocks unless you have a really compelling costume reason. Keep in mind there are many narrow corridors, tight-ish spaces, stairs, and uneven ground and larger, more elaborate costumes or clothes may get caught or damaged or may damage something within the haunt.
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Are Masks required?
At present masks are optional. You may wear a mask, but you will be asked to take it down for a moment at the entrance for security reasons.
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How long does it take to go through?
This can vary from person to person and group to group. Obviously, there are many factors and lots of cool stuff to look at. At a steady walk-through, roughly 12-15 minutes.
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Are Monsters/Creatures/Characters allowed to touch you?
Do not touch anything in the Radiant Twilight and it won't touch you. The phantasmagoric energies that bind the Radiant Twilight together are such that there is an inherent danger in making contact with them; If you touch anything in the Twilight, you may become a permanent resident.
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What are Bastion Wands?
Bastion wands are light-up wands we offer to younger kids who want to go into the attraction but are slightly afraid or unsure. The Bastion wands allow them to channel their courage and bravery and have a little story to them. Part of that story is that there might be some scary stuff, and some things might jump out (during regular operations), but they are protected. If they point the Bastion wand at any creature and say they are not scared, their courage and strength become their power, channeled through the wand - and even though something might jump out, as long as they hold the wand and say the words, it cannot touch them and has no power over them. Animatronics will NOT behave differently; they will still be triggered during regular operation, but they only go within their range and do not touch anyone. Children are told that creatures might jump out, but they cannot touch or scare them as long as they are brave and have their wand. Actors in the attraction will shrink away from Bastion wands. During the “Little Frights!” hours, animatronics will not be on at all and will not jump. Bastion wands are available during “Little Frights!” and regular operation.
In the Nightfall story, The Bastion is the place of dreams, hope, and light. The Bright Wardens and a golden Dragon, Thaledrowl, help protect and search for others who believe in dreams, magic, bravery, and helping others. Bastion wands are imbued with this power, allowing children to face their fears, find their courage, and become Jr. Bright Wardens of The Bastion.
What is Little Frights?
“Little Frights!” takes place during the first hour of Nightfall Operation when it is still light outside. There are no actors in the attraction, and the animatronics are off. This is perfect for younger kids (or Adults) who want to go in but are unsure or afraid. There are NO jumpscares during “Little Frights.” Tickets are valid for the entire evening, so it is also an excellent way for kids to check out the attraction while it is still light and then, if they want to, go back in during regular Nightfall operations. Bastion wands are also available at both times. There will be a slight operation pause during the changeover between “Little Frights!” and Nightfall.
Is there an age restriction?
Not officially, but we usually say 10 and up. It depends on the child though. We have had 6-year-olds that want to go again and again, and 30-year-olds who won't go in at all. However, if you try to drag a screaming, obviously terrified child into the haunt, we will not let you go in.
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Is there are a lot of smoke and effects?
We do use smoke, haze, and scent machines throughout the haunt and outside. It is all water based, safe and non-toxic.
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Are you open if it rains?
Normall, yes unless it is a full-fledged storm and wind, rain or other elements become a safety concern. However, if it is raining, you will likely get a little wet.
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Can we take flash photos or videos?
No. You are welcome to take as many photos or videos as you like, just not with flash.
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What is the difference between The Radiant Twilight and The Dark Reach?
What a good question, someone has been paying attention. It's in the Lore.
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Values
It is the moral obligation of all those who can do good to do good
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Learn all you can, Teach all you know
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Keep Watch over those in your care
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Stand up for those that others would push down
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Protect those who cannot protect themselves
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Leave no one behind​
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Speak the truth​
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Modesty over vanity
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Charity over greed​
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Compassion over Cruelty
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Sincerity over deceit
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Fluidity over stagnation
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Victory with Humility
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Above all Else:
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Loyalty - Integrity - Honor