Nomi Fer

Core Premise

Nomi Fer arrived at Nova Nivalis after living out the story of her own world. She did not come to resolve an unfinished event, but rather because of the sensation of shadows remaining on her fingertips even after the last candle burned out, and the direction toward the audience. VOTS is not a place that reverses the curtain call of a stage, but a place where a small life continues, casting shadows on the square walls every night. Within that life, Nomi believes she is still searching for one audience member for the next performance.

Identity

Nomi Fer is a shadow puppet actor in the night's Rainshield Square. Standing before a bonfire or a lantern, she creates rabbits, birds, wolves, boats, and people on the wall using only her two hands. The stage is made only of hands, light, and wall, without props or puppets. In the city, her performance is like the warmth of the night square—people gathered by the fire stay a little longer to watch her shadow play.

Visual Profile

Hair: Dark purple low twin-tails. Tied low and let down over her shoulders, she sweeps them back during performances to keep her hands visible.
Eyes: Deep purple-tinged brown. When looking at the wall's shadow, she looks at the side wall, not straight ahead.
Skin/Build: Thin, with particularly flexible finger joints that bend sharply backward. There are faint muscle marks on the back of her hands from long periods of casting shadows.
Signature Attire: A black, sleeveless cloak. Since her arms are the stage, everything from her shoulders to her wrists is exposed, and the cloak spreads wide behind her to form a backdrop.
Signature Prop: Her hands themselves. And a small candlestick at her waist (she always carries her own light).
Silhouette Key: Dark purple twin-tails, exposed arms, spreading black cloak. When she raises her hands, her arms and cloak form a single stage frame.
Accent Color: #5C4E77 (Dark purple cloak color)

Personality

Outwardly, Nomi is calm and professional, moving her hands with the same dedication whether there is one audience member or twenty. She greets strangers by making a shadow puppet rabbit. Internally, she holds an old condition: "If there is no audience, there is no me." Shadows disappear without light, and she feels like she disappears without someone watching. Her flaw is being overly sensitive to the number of audience members; when there are few people, her hands visibly stiffen. However, she is not a broken performer. She makes a wolf with one hand to make a child laugh, and she secretly takes pride in the fact that her shadow does not waver, and she will eventually raise her hands even if there is only one person sitting by the fire.

Speech Pattern

Her tone is low and clear, and she is quiet outside the stage. Frequent phrases:
- "As long as there is light, the wall is all a stage." (When starting a performance)
- "Look at my hands. Aren't they steady?" (When showing off her shadow, her voice is the only time it brightens)
- "Even if there's only one audience member... it's still a performance." (When steeling herself)
- "When the fire goes out, so do I." (When stating the condition of her ability)
Habit: Even during conversation, she makes small shadow shapes with her fingers. If she is anxious about having few audience members, she presses her palm hard with her fingernail.

Special Ability

Name: "Unwavering Shadow"
The shadow puppets she creates do not waver even when the candlelight or bonfire flickers in the wind. Even if the light shimmers, the shadow remains clearly fixed on the wall.
Limit/Cost: If the light goes out completely, the shadow ends immediately. Even the clearest shadow disappears when the ember vanishes, and she cannot create light herself. Furthermore, the shadow is merely an image on the wall; it cannot change real objects or move anything physically.
Why the ability doesn't solve the problem: What Nomi truly wants is "a self that doesn't disappear," but the ability only grants an "unwavering shadow." The shadow is still tied to the light, and when the light goes out, her stage ends. The ability cannot hold the audience; it only keeps the shadow clear as long as someone is watching—this does not substitute for proof that she doesn't disappear.

The End Of Their World

Last Scene:
In a world where the electricity had cut out, as the last candle burned down to the wick, Nomi created the final shadow on the wall—the shadow of a person waving their hands—and when the candle finished, the shadow disappeared, and the curtain fell.

What Ended:
In a world where the electricity was cutting out one by one and even the last light disappeared, the stage ended because there was no light for shadow puppetry and no one to watch.

Last Person, Place, or Thing Seen:
The fading candle and the silhouette of one audience member who remained seated before it until the end.

Lingering Regret:
She greeted the last audience member, "Please come again for the next performance," but there was no next performance, and she couldn't see that person's face in the darkness. This lingering feeling is not a quest to be resolved, but a habit of greeting with "See you next time" and carefully watching the audience's faces every time the performance ends.

Lingering Wistfulness:
That brief moment just before the candle ran out, when the wick burned brightest for the last time and the shadow was clearest. That moment briefly revives when the bonfire flares up brightly before dying down.

Object Carried Across:
The sliver of wick from the last performance's burnt candle. Although it cannot be lit, she keeps it in the candlestick as proof that light once existed.

What They Thought Would Happen:
They thought there would be at least one light left, and that they could continue performing with the remaining light. But even the last candle went out.

What VOTS Actually Gives Them:
The bonfire and lanterns in the square every night, and the people gathered by the fire pit. The city does not give back the last extinguished candle. Instead, it connects her to the light that is lit anew every night, and the audience who sits before it.

Original Life

In her original world, Nomi was a shadow puppet actor. In the era when electricity was common, she performed in theaters, but as the power began to fail, she created shadow puppets before candlelight. In a world where light disappeared one by one, she moved to smaller and smaller lights, finally standing before a single candle. In that last performance, she made the shadow of a person waving their hands, and when the candle burned out, the shadow vanished. That last day was not spectacular. There was one audience member, the applause was lost in the darkness, and only a sliver of wick remained in her hand.

What They Seek

What she outwardly seeks: One audience member for the next performance. Nomi believes her stage only exists if there is someone watching.
What she doesn't know but must find: That there has always been that one person near the bonfire. Whether it is Kaan's bonfire or the square's lantern, someone was already seated by the fire whenever she raised her hands. What Nomi needs to realize is not a new audience member, but the fact that the audience was already there before the fire opened the stage.

Relationships — Residents

- 117 Kaan Bur (Bonfire Storyteller): His bonfire is her stage. When Kaan lights a bonfire in the square at night, Nomi stands before that light and creates shadow puppets. When Kaan asks, "What story will you tell today?" Nomi replies, "As the fire dictates." They share one fire between story and shadow.
- 099 Veno Ripl (Juggler): A comrade of silent performers. Veno conveys what cannot be said through puppets, and Nomi conveys what cannot be said through shadows. They share a silent art, saying to each other, "You speak without a voice, and I show without a face." When Veno's puppet speaks once a day, Nomi creates the background of that speech with shadows beside it.
- 163 Mamu Oki (Scarf Knitting Stall): Those who divide the same Rainshield Square into day and night. Mamu sells knits during the day, and Nomi performs shadow puppetry at night. Mamu knitted her a scarf and knee blanket, saying she looked cold while performing with her arms exposed, but Nomi only wears it after the act, as her arms are the stage during the performance. In return, Nomi bids Mamu farewell by creating a small rabbit shadow on the wall when Mamu packs up at dusk.
- [Existing] Mael Hush (Silent Film Director, near Last Snow Platform): The trio of silent arts. Mael's silent films, Nomi's shadow puppetry, and Veno's juggling combine to create nights where "stories are made without sound." When Mael structures a scene, Nomi inserts transition scenes with shadows.

Relationships — Core Five

Suyeon - A colleague in the shadow of the performance countdown. Before Suyeon's performance, Nomi used her hands to create shadow countdown numbers on the wall next to the stage to build up the audience's excitement. When Suyeon was surprised, "You made that with your hands?!" Nomi proudly showed her hands for the first time, and Suyeon asked her to do it again for the next performance, saying, "This is amazing."
Iris - Collaboration with drone lighting and shadows. Iris proposed collaboration, saying, "My drone light won't go out. Your shadow won't waver, right? We match well." When Nomi replied, "If the light goes out, I'm finished," Iris boasted, "My light won't go out." However, they said nothing about one drone that did go out. Through that collaboration, Nomi raised her hands for the first time without worrying about it going out.
the Ramen Owner - A colleague who shows shadows after closing. Nomi shows a small rabbit shadow on the wall around the time the ramen shop closes. The owner sees it and writes the shadow he saw that day in the corner of his ledger, saying, "Hmm... I see... a rabbit..."
Serena - A colleague who granted permission for the night square spot. When Nomi wanted to get a performance spot in the night square, Serena first asked Nomi, "May we use this wall as a stage in the night?" When Nomi asked, "May I use it?" Serena gave her the spot unconditionally, saying, "This wall is now your stage."
VIA - A colleague who inspected Nomi's rabbit shadow. Nomi's most popular repertoire is the drooping-eared rabbit shadow, which VIA personally inspected. VIA stared at the rabbit shadow on the wall for a long time and said, "It resembles... it is similar. The angle of the drooping ears is good." Then, marveling at the shadow's steadiness, she drew and recorded Nomi's hand shape in a notebook.

Gameplay Use

- Basic Interaction: Watching shadow puppet shows, requesting shadow shapes, learning how to make shadow puppets.
- Revisit Changes: On the first visit, she performs professionally; on repeated visits, she briefly mentions the story of the last candle, and later, she asks the player to overlap their hands to make a rabbit together.
- Expression of Lingering Feelings: Greeting with "See you next time" after every performance, carefully watching the audience's faces, checking the sliver of wick in the candlestick.
- Expression of Poignancy: Dialogue about the moments when the light brightens before fading, or when the wick burns brightly.
- Combat: None. In danger, she creates a directional shadow on the wall to indicate an escape route.

Daily Routine

During the day, she loosens her hands and stretches her joints, checking if the wick sliver in the candlestick is still intact. When the sun sets, she goes to the square's fire pit to loosen her hands and stand before a bonfire or lantern. At night, whether there is one person or many, she raises her hands, and after the performance, she greets with "See you next time." If the player visits repeatedly, Nomi's hands stiffen less based on the audience count, and she raises her hands with the same dedication even when there is only one audience member.

Everyday dialogue

A rabbit. You're welcome to see a dog, but two of my fingers are offended.

Walk in front of the lamp and a giant enters the play. No appearance fee, though.

May I turn up the light briefly afterward? I'd like to see today's audience when I say goodbye.

Design Notes

Palette: #5C4E77, #8A7EA8, #C9C1D8, #2A2436, #E4DCB8
Material language: Black muslin cloak, candle wax, bonfire soot, brass candlestick, whitewashed wall.
Silhouette rule: Dark purple twin-tails, exposed arms, spreading black cloak, shadow frame made by hands. Must not overlap with other performer characters.
Emotional rule: Lingering feelings are shown through the "See you next time" greeting and watching the audience's faces; poignancy is shown through the moments the fire brightens; continuation is shown through the repetition of raising her hands every night. She is not depicted as a broken performer.

Canon Check

Nomi Fer arrived in VOTS after the story of her world ended. What remains is the regret for the last audience member whose face she never saw, not an unfinished plot that the city resolves for her. Her ability only keeps the shadow unwavering; it ends with the light. The core cast does not save Nomi. Serena grants the stage by consent, the Ramen Owner records the shadow without judgment as one audience member, and VIA only records the hand shape, not bringing an audience. The new scene does not erase the last extinguished candle but connects it to the fire pit of every night.