Nightlands: Demigods?

[mimi_sardinia]

I have been listening to videos about mythology that I found, and when listening to one about Pan, I got the thought, what if the Nightlands have powerful entities that seemed a bit like that?



Now to start with, the biggest problem with this idea is that I don't want any definitive gods in the Nightlands. All gods that are actually worshiped are unseen and concepts of pure belief, even the Arcane. What the Nightlands does have however are powerful beings residing in it or in the Arcane Realms who have vast amounts of power and can be compared to gods. Some of those include the Fae Queens, Leviathan, and arguably the Three Sisters.

So my thought is there are a few more random figures that live in either the Nightlands or the Fae Realms that have power and also legend that makes them... figures to be respected and feared, if not outright worshiped.

So far the only concept that comes to mind is a Hunter type of figure, an entity that lives in deep forests, may have some animal features, like horns and/or fur, and has influence over animals. I am imagining this Hunter to actually wander between both the Mundane Realm and the Fae Realms, readily ducking in and out of Fae gates, ignoring the barriers of standing stones and the like, which keep normal Fae from interfering with the Mundane too much (Fae can be aided in crossing these restraints, and can trick Mundane residents into giving them such aid).

Another potential figure that comes to mind is maybe some sort of sea being - I am veering into a being who looks like some sort of Merman/Poseidon/Triton/whatever figure. I do think he however would come under Leviathan's watch, but maybe this sea being and Leviathan have some agreement between them.


I would probably have to consider more character archetypes to come up with more of these, and it occurs to me there could also be some crossover with the Eldritch Entities, maybe with these beings being Eldritch Entities who have managed to acclimate to the Mundane and assume forms that will not harm the sanity of anyone observing them.




I have given this only a little thought since first posting (it's 4:26AM 1/3/18 right now) and I only have a couple of other ideas, one of which is a "Daughter of the Stone" who is rumoured amongst Dwarves to roam the hidden cave and passages that run throughout the Sunset Mountains and is said to look like she is made completely of mithril and has a throne in a cavern lined in jewels.
The other idea is a kind of dust storm djinn that lives in the southern continent's deserts.

Another line of thinking that just came up while considering the South, maybe the queen of the Unseelie is one of these, something that would make her a credible opponent to the Quendár Seelie Queen.

That brings up a consideration of what exactly these entities are, and I want to dig into something I have seen in both a fanfic and a novel series - these are what have formed in the Deep Arcane due to what people believe. They are Arcane engery shaped by certain themes of thoughts, feelings, ideas, myth and legend.

That reminds me of Lifestream theory from Final Fantasy.

I once had an idea back when I was in FF, that the Summons are collection of memories that hit a singularity point and become sentient. Back then, I also came up with the idea that people can become the centre of such a collection of memories, and that ends up catapulting them into becoming gods (Summons).

I am now thinking of applying that concept here, including potentially people being invested with "Arcane Entity" status and powers due to the amount of belief about them. It's a slow process though, and happens only rarely.

I think the Seelie Queen has had that happen to her, Leviathan is a big enough legend that he definitely has, and even the Three Sisters may have, but they are very very quiet about it, and they were already some sort of arcane entity beforehand. Elená may have a legend of a wandering adventurer surrounding her, making her something of a patron figure for everyone in the adventuring business, Elossí is more likely to have some sort of "island queen" legend, while Losá probably has a mix of Hopá Ammá (Harbour Mother) and High Priestess, since she regularly acts as an active priestess.

I still think there is room for more figures, in other regions, a "swamp thing"? A yeti in the mountains? A jungle cat monster? *Shrug*


Edit 25/4/18: On rereading, it also occurs to me that the Night King and Lord Captain would have gained this status, possibly also the Crafter Princes. The Lord Captain may also have inadvertently caused the existence of one who is his own twin - the Ice King. The thing is, since the Lord Captain separated himself from his Lossëquendár identity when his people migrated west, his legend remained behind and is a legitimate Arcane Entity, and one that has since drifted away from his own mindset. The current Ice King may be a lot harsher entity, cold and cruel like the northern snowstorms he is associated with./Edit.



Edit 5/5/19: New Arcane Entity idea, based on old tropes - the Weaver. A woman who is ill-defined in looks and age, she can look old, she can look young, it can vary between people and she can change between forms in front of a witness. Exactly what she is a weaver of is debatable. Some people think she weaves lives, some think she weaves destiny/fate. Some believe she weaves arcane energy, some she weaves prescient images that predict possible futures.

The things that stay the same about her is that she is a female humanoid in form, and she is found inside some form of residence with equipment like spindles and looms where she crafts her fabrics. People who encounter her usually end up receiving some sort of gift.

The gift varies greatly, it can be actual fabric, it can be something less solid but still very measurable, like a non-physical arcane construct, like an enchantment or a permanent magical boost. Some gifts can be far more metaphysical, such as insights into one's soul, predictions of possible futures, knowledge about other people, a greater understanding of the Arcane itself.

But just because the Weaver gives gifts to people who find her does not mean every gift is benevolent or exactly what the person would like to receive. Some of the more metaphysical gifts can reveal things people do not want to know, or truths that make them unhappy. arcane gifts could do things that the receiver may not have wanted. Material gifts may be puzzling in exactly why they were given.
Hostile visitors to the Weaver may even receive gifts that are punishments for their hostility and disrespect.

(I had a lot of thoughts pop up about the Weaver.)



ETA 28/10/2021: So I listened to a video about the Shadowfell and got this mental image of a woman is an elaborate gown that is all totally black, complete with a veil that covers her face, hands covered with gloves,absolutely no skin visible. The only things that are not black on her are some pieces of silver jewellery, maybe with blood-red rubies in them. She is always in a magically floating seat.

So, a mytho-entity goddess, always dressed head to toe in all black, always seen in a magical litter. She is vaguely threatening, someone to be wary around as if anyone is impolite and disrespectful around her, she will simply point a finger at them and cause them to disintegrate painfully into dust. Almost never seen out and about during Moon-day, also is very rarely seen in the Northern Nightlands, most often frequenting the Empire of Men and the Morin Empire, where she is very feared as she seems to find the former vaguely off-putting and the latter extremely distasteful.

As an aside, I am almost inclined to have her syncretised with Hela, just for the fun of it.

ETA 30/10/2021: Just to add a clarifying point, in the back of my mind I have long had a general idea that Morin culture values a lack of clothing. It is likely caused by warm climate combined with a pre-Nightfall resistance to sunburn, but culturally the Morin believe that the more someone covers themselves the more they have to hide.

This in relation to the Veiled Lady? Because she is viewed to be an avatar of death, it is believed that if they see her face, or any of her skin, they will die. Therefore her all-encompassing clothing is viewed as hiding her dangerous deathly nature.
/Edit.



Edit 7/9/19:

So I'm surprised I never thought to put this here before, but the Kessír gods are probably Arcane Entities.

The Kessír religion was brought into the Westerlands when the Kessír first migrated there, and because despite how the population ratio was, they basically accepted the Quendár as mentors and guides, including basically syncretising their polytheistic religion with the Quendár monotheistic religion of The Arcane, coming to agree that the Kessír gods are at the highest consideration, aspects of the Arcane, at the lowest, Arcane Entities.

It is likely figures like the Hunter and the Weaver are modern versions of ancient Kessír gods. The Daughter of teh Stone is absolutely not, as she is a Dwarven legend, and figures like the Three Sisters, Leviathan, the Night King and Lord Captain are definitely not Kessír, as their origins are known and the figures they are linked to are living immortal beings. The Ice King may have also merged with a Kessír figure due to syncretism and the Lord Captain not mitigating the legend after the Lossëquendár migrated to the islands.
/Edit.

Edit 27/10/120: One Kessír deity I have elaborated on in another post is Celanyi, the ancient Kessír goddess of Love and Pleasure, an Arcane/Eldritch Entity who remains a present figure in the Nightlands. The centre of her influence is a public garden that was originally established as her temple in an ancient Kessír city. The city has long since turned majority human, but human society has absorbed Celanyi as an arcane entity of veneration, since she does have real power to help influence emotions, specifically those to do with love and sexual pleasure.

Her predominant image is a either a pillar of rose quartz, or simply a cloudy oval in rose pink. After the rebellion of the last known avatar of Celanyi (elaborated in the post about the Gardens), the tradition of avatars was forcibly put to rest by Elená. Thus humanoid images of Celanyi are never considered official. Such unofficial images however do still, millennia later, retain certain characteristics, with them usually being shapely, buxom, and having long, rose pink hair.
/Edit.



Edit 4/10/22: The Virgin Hermit.
The Virgin Hermit is an ideal of virginity in the form a of a beautiful half-Kessír maiden who lives on the plateau of one of the northern Floating Mountains. She is a mix of conservative human ideals and a Kessír maiden goddess syncretising into a sentient Entity. She actually currently (i.e. in the 9800s AN - After Nightfall) has an avatar in the form of a half-Kessír girl who was fleeing first family trying to force her into the service of Celanyi against her wishes, and then from northern Stonelands residents (the Stonelands south of the northern-most lateral range, north of the second, is heavy in orc, ogre, and black and green dragon residents). Her travel resulted in her finding her way into canyon leading into the Floating Mountains, where she encountered a unicorn pair who called in one of pegasi who live in the mountains, because the unicorns recognised her as a fit for the Hermit.

Elená, Wanderer that she is, has explored the Floating Mountains and knows that the Hermit lives there. Out of respect for the legend involved, she only ever visits on her own, with Ciaran staying on one of the inhabited mountain plateaus.

***

The Moon God/Goddess
The legend about how Nightfall happened due to a fight between a Moon Goddess fighting with a Sun God is one that actually originates from the Far Lands, who were cut off for a good millennium before they reached the ability to sail the Day Ocean and reach the Mist Islands again. The whole Moon/Sun opposition filtered over pre-Nightfall, and through post-Nightfall survivors from the destroyed Sunrise lands in the far East.

The problem is, Daylanders who have ended up living in the Mist Islands have brought their legend to the mainland over the centuries, with it filtering into the human-dominated coastal cities. With it's Dayland origins, and coastal belief base, the legend also has a substantial amount of the Daylander/Day Mist tendency to attribute Nightland wilds with more salacious attributes, and thus the resulting Entity has developed more tendencies that way.

The Moon God/Goddess has, over time, developed a genderfluid nature, due to the licentious being retold for appropriate audiences (i.e. retelling it as male for female listeners) and thus will appear as appropriate in encounters. Universal characteristics no matter gender is that they are pale-skinned, white-haired, seem to show a half-Kessír nature (maybe due to the Kessír population of the coastal city), and is universally beautiful.

If the encounter happens between the Entity and a single person, the Entity almost always seeks to take the person captive for sexual reasons. A person in this situation is held in a shielded location for an extended length of time, and once the shield is good, the area's glow-features have all been altered to moonlight white. The person who was captured will never be found, presumed dead. The moonlight colouring will fade slowly.


This legend is based on the Lesser Moon, but the more mischievous and sexual associations are derived from Greater Moon tales that are popular mythology in coastal and Mist communities. There is no control on this Entity via an avatar.


Elená has encountered this "Moon God" multiple times, but due to being with Ciaran most of those times, and her own power being stronger than the Entity's influence the couple of times she was alone, he could not capture her. She considers the Entity to be troublesome.

/Edit.