Noctule is a British musical project founded by Serena Cherry, best known as the lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of Svalbard, in 2020.

Launched as a personal creative outlet amidst the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, Cherry considered the project to be a return to her roots as a black metal solo artist,[1][2] prior to forming Svalbard in 2011, with its video game-inspired lyrics contrasting with the aforementioned band's heavy subject matters.

In 2020, after losing her job and the cancellation of Svalbard's tours for that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns,[8] Cherry began playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) and returned to writing black metal music.

[4] The album and its title track are named after Hermaeus Mora, one of Skyrim's Daedric Princes,[12][13] and its lyrics further reference certain dungeons, storylines and items in the game.

[7][14][15] Cherry said that she wanted to distance herself from the heavy and often personal subject matters she wrote about in Svalbard's songs,[4] and as such made "a really deliberate choice to go, 'I'm not going to talk about anything to do with me on this record.'

[21] The positive reception to the album online led to Noctule receiving offers to play gigs, prompting Cherry to recruit a live band for the project,[10] featuring Francis on guitar and Rhys Griffiths, formerly of Extreme Noise Terror, on drums.