crystal;

[arcaneadvisor]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Morrigan
RECIPIENT: Open
WHAT: Spook podcast 3: Autumn edition
WHEN: Vaguely nowish
WHERE: Sundermount (Morrigan)
NOTES: Threadjack, share spooky stories etc just have fun 'tis the season (for us)

There was a tale mother told when I was a girl.

[Perhaps not unsurprising that her mother isn't so far from her mind. Not so easy to banish her just yet alas yet Morrigan sounds untroubled, a fire crackling behind her; Sundermount is eerily silent come evening at least where her humble abode has been for this long.]

A young woman of the court - she never said what court, let us say Highever for the sake of it - heard it so that there were none who might go into the wilds bordering the lands else they would not emerge with their reputation intact, a command laid down by a mysterious Tamlane. This young woman was not deterred by such a thing and so did she set out to the wilds where she did pick a wild rose; Tamlane revealed himself to her--

The young woman's father noticed, upon her return, that she was very much with child. You can imagine this was far from ideal for her and when she told him it was not even a man from his court… [Well times haven't moved on so far, or so Morrigan's quietly amused tone implies.] Away she went again to the wilds, to Tamlane.

When they met again, Tamlane told the young woman he had been taken by a witch, and no longer was he as he had been, instead possessed by a spirit though fearing he was to be offered up to the demon the witch had made her terrible pact with as she had to do every seven years. But she could save him! If she waited for the stroke of midnight on Satinalia when the witch would ride through alongside Tamlane, though she would have to pull him clean off his horse.

The witch, of course, would not give Tamlane lightly: she had magic far beyond that which the young woman had encountered, and in her grasp Tamlane's form was not his own. He twisted about her as a great terrible serpent to crush the breath from her lungs though as she thought she might gasp her last and then he was Tamlane again for a moment only to leap out of his skin as a wolf as monstrous as all those the huntsman told tale of in her father's hall, snarling with his jaws about her throat. An eagle shrieking, talons to blind her eyes. Stinging wasps and biting gnats. On and on it went as her arms struggled to hold him--

[Her voice is close to the crystal, so close, as if the world has melted away entirely and she's back once more in a simple hut with Flemeth who told this tale to a girl too small to hear it.]

Hold him she did. Marry him she did. The witch was not best pleased but knew she had been bested that day. I always thought this Tamlane such a trouble for but one man, I suspect mother saw herself somewhere else in the tale.

Comments

[arcaneadvisor]

[If there are stories with joy in them to be found they are the stories Morrigan has reserved for Kieran. Fashioned anew. Looked for new lessons in them. The Fifth Blight where even those she was unkind to, those she disliked are heroes one and all stood brave against the darkness closing in that blackened the sky and festered in the earth beneath the feet towards the very end.

Morrigan herself has Flemeth's tales. The legends of Ferelden. The Chasind. Even the fragments of Dalish tales that she now knows had come by with the piece of Mythal that clung to her mother.]

I am not the person to tell you of love. Ask the Orlesians, ask the poets though even they might have a love that does not suit. What I know has been soaked in the mire or in slaughter for that was all that I needed to know where I was. 'Twas my lot. Preparation for what was to come. Andraste's husband Maferath was the one to betray her leading to her death and that is an old, old tale. The Dalish have Andruil and Ghilan'nain that ends with Ghilan'nain transformed into a halla when a hunter, vengeance, blinding and binding come into it.

But I shall tell you another tale then. I shall tell you of Luthias Dwarfson before I tell you the tale of Flemeth for you will understand more if told this way.

Luthias of the Alamarri was small for one of their children, but even so at the age of twelve he saved Tutha the son of the tribal chief from his own rabid hound, slaying it with his own hands. Impressed with the strength and bravery of Luthias, Mabene, father of Tutha, took him in as his own. As he grew, Luthias was still shorter than his fellows but known for his charisma and braver, stronger and persistent, and it was he that Mabene sent to Orzammar to negotiate an alliance for there was conflict between two clans and Mabene needed aid.

Luthias failed in that but instead fell in love with the dwarven king's daughter, Scaea, and she fled with him to his tribe where she taught him how to fight without pain. The battle wrath as beserkers call it so Luthias became a warrior of reknown leading his tribe to many victories and one day he replaced Mabene, his foster father, as chief. But how long does peace ever last? There was a feast between the Alamarri and the Avvar, and it was there that Morrighan'nan the Avvar chieftain beautiful and powerful seduced Luthias. Scaea learned of this and fled to Orzammar. And when Morrigan'nan's marriage offer was rebuffed by Luthias? Oh imagine her ire.

There was war after that.

[Morrigan pauses, allows the weight of the words to land heavily. Her fire cracks and pops, a log splitting.]

Fifteen years did the Alamarri and Avvar wage war with one another, and during the Battle of Red Falls Luthias was challenged by a young warrior of Morrighan'nan's tribe. Despite the injuries he sustained, Luthias slew the boy only to learn from the chieftain that he had slain his son conceived during their time together previously. She cursed him for the murder of his own kin, his own son, and thus did the Battle of Red Falls turn against Luthias.

The Alamarri were driven to the foothills of the Frostback Mountains for Morrighan'nan defeated Luthias time and time again until it came to the last stand. It was there that Scaea came to Luthias. She came to him with an offer: a dwarven suit of chain for one night together. He agreed then went to battle in her armour the next morning. The two chieftains faced one another, a fierce and bloody battle, with Luthias at last slaying Morrighan'nan but Scaea's chain could not save him: Morrighan'nan's final blow pierced his heart. Luthias died whereupon his body was taken to Orzammar by dwarven warriors come down from the mountain.