Worldbuilding Airtha: The Rún

(This post is sort-of from the archives – I’ve refined some of the information.)

While the Shadow have the female servants called Vídolf (Women of the Dark Arts), the Light has those called the Rún (or the Hidden Ones). The Rún, like the Vídolf, consisted of far more women than men. So much so, in fact, that a male Rún was unheard of except in the southwest of the Western Lands and Western Isles. Although gifted with a special talent for healing, they were human and mortal, but with a much longer lifespan – averaging at one hundred and twenty years. This made their life spans shorter than the average Ciph life span by only about thirty years.

The Name: Why the Hidden Ones?

This name was given to these women for two reasons. The first is that they usually hid in plain sight, living as just another member of the community. Only when living as one of the Keepers or as servant of one of the rich families could they wear the garments associated with the Rún with more freedom. This was because they could then be kept safe from the Servants of the Lewjan who wished always to do them harm because they held such power. Many of the Vídolf also tried to learn the secrets of their Talent, not believing that you could only be born with them. Those living in villages or towns serving the Light would often simply be called “healers” or “the needlewomen”, because their talents were with needle and thread. By using certain signs, depictions of living things (like plants) and words, they could make cloths that could heal wounds and illnesses that most healers can’t. 

These signs, words and other depictions made into tapestries, embroideries and even sometimes lace and cords, were only known by the Rún (and is therefore hidden). The knowledge of these signs is taught orally from one Rún to the next. This means that Rún, once they are known as such, takes up apprenticeship with an older and accomplished Rún either from their own or another village or go to one of the Keepers’ Houses to learn. Holt Haliern in the Midlands and the House of Rún in the Western Lands have the Rún with the most talent and are therefore sought after places to go to and learn the language of the Rún.

The best of the Rún can fashion cloaks that make the wearer invisible to the eyes of the Lewjan servants or those who want to harm them. More than one Rún would often work on a cloth meant to heal a specific illness or wound; as it is extremely draining work. 

Unfortunately the cloths’ abilities can also be drained and can not be used indefinitely. The healing houses usually have cloths to help lessen pain, help knit bones or serve as an antidote to some poisons. These can be used for cases where the medicine available is not working or simply to ease extreme pain.  

Although the language of the Rún are taught, the Talent of the Hidden Ones are given to them at birth, unlike the powers of the Vídolf or Werlea. This Talent is simply strengthened and used to its greatest potential by using the language. While they lived mostly in peace with the other peoples of Airtha, there were times during the ages when they were seen as evil and their talents given to them by the Lewjan. During these times they went into hiding; with a few remaining in the villages and towns where they had lived and worked. Others kept travelling from place to place without settling for long; lest they be found and killed or turned over to Lewjan or Werlea.

I came across this painting by Mary Cassat, called The Young Bride in the beautiful book In Praise of the Needlewoman by Gail C. Sirna. 

Image: Shutterstock 

Worldbuilding Wednesday: Alaila’s Daughters, part 2

The first part of Alaila’s Daughters can be read here. The first of the Tellerassar legends can be found here, and more about the Tellerassar can be found here.

Or, head over to Kammastories, where the story is postedtoday in full.

Alaila’s Daughters are Scattered

Ikaira did not leave the riverbank even when the sun rose towards its zenith and all his tears were spent. Only when the sun lit the waters of the gorge from above did he see movement in the water. It was Alaila. She wore a dress the colour of the shadows of the deepest pools and her eyes brimmed with tears. Ikaira rushed to the water and embraced her.

“Where is Lamira?” he asked, for he did not see his daughter who usually followed her mother everywhere.

“She is safe in our halls,” Alaila said and motioned towards the wall of rock from where the waters of the river flowed. “Hidden there we can all be safe. Dalath and her kin do not know of this place. We have left them to roam about the river to the south. They have twisted our Gift.” Tears flowed from her eyes. “My gift. I was a fool to think that such a gift could not be twisted to serve the Lewjan.”

They walked hand in hand along the river – Alaila lightly stepping in the shallow water; as far as she could venture out while the moon wasn’t full, and Ikaira walking along the bank – while Alaila told him all that had happened while he had been away.

“War still rages between the people of the Midlands,” she then added. “Markus leads raids to the river towns and villages nearly every week. They have even ventured to the northern bank where they have gotten a foothold. I fear for the safety of my people. With the Vídolf’s involvement we will only be seen as another enemy even though we serve the Light. I do not see a way out for us. We cannot hide in our halls forever even if they are safe. Some have left the river at night to look for other pools and streams. We do not know if they are still alive.”

Photo: Sias van Schalkwyk

Ikaira thought for a long time before speaking. “There is one way. The lands gifted to the Tellerassar are safe. No one can attack our houses on the cliffs.” He took a deep breath, remembering all that had happened to him while in the service of Markus. “I have men to spare – warriors and soldiers who can keep you safe. We can fly over the river and keep an eye out for any of the Vídolf.” Alaila wanted to protest, but he would not let her. “We can fly out of the range of Markus or anyone else’s arrows. We are as safe high in the air as you are in your stone halls.”

And so it was that the Tellerassar took to flying above the water, calling to each other over distances, as they watched the actions of the Vídolf closely. It was these Tellerassar about whom the first legend was told and each eagle people saw were thought to be Ikaira still searching for his lost love. And it was these Tellerassar – who were skilled fighters and had knowledge of both the northern and the southern parts of the Midlands – that became Keepers, aligning themselves with both Théotriewe and Holt Haliern. Tiriane, who played a notable part in the story “A Dragon’s Freedom”, was one of these Tellerassar. 

Worldbuilding Wednesday – The Dragon Tears of Marglóthborg

Before the Great Sundering, many battles were fought in the lands of Airthai. At the beginning of the world, after the Shadow – the first of the Lewjan Lords – turned against the Light, the first great battle was fought between the Lewjan and the Airus. The Airus won and banished the Lewjan Lords into darkness. But in their dark dwellings they planned and schemed and released many beasts into the world.

Airthai before the Great Sundering

These slithering wyrm-like creatures crept from the deepest, darkest caverns across the Great Continent[1] to slay those following the Light or turn them to their masters. They crept along the ground on many legs, pulling their scaly bodies along the ground. Their tails ended in a sharp sting dripping poison which could kill animal and human alike and burnt the vegetation it came into contact with.

But the Light saw everything and was ready for the Lewjan’s onslaught. The dragons of Airthai were smaller than the Lewjan’s beasts, but were more in number and were nimble enough to attack the beasts. The poison also did not hurt them as much as they were protected by their scales. But many still died as they fought, though they did not fight alone. The men of Airthai stood by the dragons and healed those they could. They formed a great bond with the dragons and they were gifted the means to communicate with them and could even control them with the right words. But some of the dragons became wilder and their actions turned to malice as they – and some of the men – fell under the spell of the Lewjan. These men, instead of using their gift to keep the dragons and themselves safe, commanded their dragons to kill, maim and plunder. But those who stayed true to the Light refused to use the dragons like this and even made an oath along with the dragons to the Creator to this end. Because they did this of their own, they kept the gift of the dragon tongue while the others lost this gift and the language turned to meaningless sounds in their mouths.

One by one the beasts of the Lewjan fell. At last only two were left – one in the northern part of the Western Lands and one to the south – close to where Marglóthborg would one day be situated. Here there was a great battle between the shadow dragons, the Lewjan’s beast, the fallen men and those men and dragons following the light.

For four days the fighting continued and blood drenched the ground while fires from dragon tears left the ground under a layer of ash and smoke choked the air. Then, at last, one of the men - Ardeo - came close enough to the beast to deal it its death blow. But the death of the beast came at a great price, for Ardeo died along with two more dragons; struck down in its death throes.

Those following the Shadow fled if they were able to. The dead were buried on the plain and even the dragons were given a hero’s farewell. Those who survived this day were to become the Dragon Guardians.

The dragons whose bodies remained on the plain, however, turned to stone and many tears were shed which were buried with them; for at this time there were yet no way to use a dragon’s heart for dark arts and it was not necessary to destroy a dragon’s body.

During the centuries which followed, the battle was remembered in stories, but the battleground forgotten. Then, during the Sundering, the buried dragon tears were found once more. Not knowing the power these stones held (as the Dragon Guardians kept the secret well), they were mined simply as precious stones and sold and traded. These stones had to be very carefully removed from the surrounding rock and it was extremely time-consuming. The tears glowed in the little light available in the tunnels, forever bathing the miners in strange blue light. Some were said to go mad in the strange darkness and soon the mines – which were held by only a few families – became a last resort to people who had no other way of earning a living.

Other precious stones and metals were also discovered in the vicinity and Marglóthborg became a very rich city over the next few centuries, at last laying claim to the lands from the Dragon Cliffs to the ridge beyond Black Harbour. It was a dry land, but with their riches, trade goods were bought and sold from across the length and breadth of the Continent and the Western Isles.

The city of Marglóthborg was first written of in the story “The City of Promise”, written for NaShoStoMo 2011. It can be read here.

Map of Southern Lands showing Marglóthborg

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[1] Before the Sundering most of the landmasses on Airthai was compacted into one continent. Only after the Sundering were there two major landmasses – the Sundered Lands and the Continent. 

The Great Sundering Part 3 – The Night of Fire

For your reading pleasure this week, is part three of “The Great Sundering”. Click here to read part 1 and part 2. Next week I’ll try to have something a bit more uplifting for the fiction Monday!

The Night of Fire

At the time of The Sundering, dragons still lived on the coast of the Eastern Lands. The Saerimavolk were their guardians and knew the Dragon Tongue and their kingdom was very great. At The Sundering, many of the Lewjan's servants, the forebears of the Flotaferan from the scattered trading islands, attacked first the islands not under their power, and then the coast of the Eastern Lands; as they thought that they would be spared death if they could claim the land for their own and their master. There was with the Flotaferan also a Lewjan Lord who wanted to claim and bind the Eastern Dragons to himself to gain more power.

But the dragons saw the ships approaching on the churning ocean and had time to warn their Guardians and the Saerímavolk of the impending attack. Some of the Guardians, who were not fit to fight, fled with some of the dragon eggs and younglings to the Blue Mountains; following the messengers who were to call the peoples there to arms.

The Flotaferan attacked at night, but the dragons were ready for them. They burnt most of the ships and slaughtered many of the Flotaferan, as did the warriors of the Saerímavolk. But the Flotaferan had used for the first time the deadly poison made from the Dragon’s Bane plant, with which they smeared their arrows and killed every last dragon and Guardian they could lay their hands on. The Lewjan Lord did not have the chance to bind one grown dragon to him and could find no younglings on the cliffs. The last dragon alive found the Lewjan Lord and slew him and threw his body from the cliff before he was slain by an arrow from the Flotaferan.

 This night was known as The Night of Fire, because of the many fires that lit the battlefield.

Reinforcements from the Blue Mountains also came to fight the Flotaferan. Together, they and the Saerímavolk overcame the Flotaferan and the remaining attackers fled in the boats that were still somewhat seaworthy. The slain of the Flotaferan were buried in one pit, while a mound was raised over those of the Saerímavolk who fell on that night. The blood ashes were thrown in the ocean and the Dragon Tears were used to cremate the fallen before the graves were covered and the mound constructed. As happens to the dragons when they died, the dragons’ bodies were turned to stone below the waves, or where they fell on the land, and their passing was greatly mourned.

And so, on one fateful night, the time of the dragons and the Dragon Guardians of the Eastern Lands came to an end.

(The Night of Fire is commemorated every year at the first new moon after The Day of Sundering, at the end of summer. The night is commemorated by the lighting of bonfires on the beaches and has come to include mock battles and feasting, where the first nights were held in austerity, recounting the tales of the Sundering around fires on the beaches over a simple meal.)