» Mon Feb 17, 2014 5:04 pm (This is a followup to http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1487524-an-ykaloni-pantheon/, and probably won't make sense if you haven't read that. Criticism is much appreciated).
From the Forgotten Galonllyfr: The Cycle of Death and Rebirth
The following was "borrowed" from the Library at Galen. I'm afraid that translating the entire text is far beyond my ability, but I thought it best to send my notes home to see if anything can be gleaned. Best of luck.
Arkayn opens the gate.
First through is the Filth-Eaten Queen, the Ravenhead, who has just culled the [recent-dead]. Her garb is a [wilted?] dress, a decay’d reflection of her floral twin’s [bark? armor?]. Her sword is the Death Wail. Behind her are the souls of the dead, tied to her waist by a kernmantle. Some are resilient, and fear the dark; these she must drag. Others are [pious? exact translation impossible], and go gently into the Lawless-Place. They are flanked by the Dullahan, her guardsman, who go screaming and laughing into the Lawless-Place, eager to kill and be killed, a [bloodlust/euphoria?]. This is her caravan, the [Scuttlers-In-The-Void?].
They walk through the Lawless-Place, and the Ravenhead [turns?] to the Hag, the Spectre of Guidance. All is quiet, save for the odd rune the Hag breathes into the air to light their way. Even the Dullahan have stopped their screaming, content to watch the dark for [Daedra?].
Eventually, they come. Sometimes in ones and twos, sometimes in armies of [infinity?]. They are the Rebel-Fey, the spirits of Lawlessness, who forsook Y’ffre’s way. Those that slip past the Dullahan are met by the Ravenhead, who meets them with [fury/justice/annihilation? The Druids often describe this as meaning “where the unrighteous are divine”].
Foremost among those that challenge her are the Wanweird, and the Serpent Star-Eater.
The Wanweird tempts the dead away with subtle tricks and illusions. Her realm is a hall of mirrors, which she carries on her [body-mind], and twists the light of Magna’s Law into a perversity, which draws the dead from Y’ffre. The Ravenhead combats her with [brute force?], shattering her hall with the Death Wail.
The Serpent is a greater danger, for its nature is to consume. It is the Devourer, Hate-Shape, which the ancients called “more of an ending than a beginning.” It has no need for tricks or illusions; it follows hunger, and takes what it desires. The Ravenhead can stave it off, but never [fury/justice/annihilation again] it.
But the Filth-Eaten Queen is a [strong branch/spirit], and always reaches the dawn with some souls to spare. The [Scuttlers-In-The-Void] return; exhausted, filth-covered, cut and burnt and broken by the trials of the Lawless-Place. Their duty done, the Ravenhead and the Hag [turn?] to their shape of [appears to be a combination of the runes for “finality” and “beginning]. This shape is called the Return.**
The souls of the dead are ferried through to be reborn, as man or beast or seanachai, as is Y’ffre’s Will. The Return takes no glory in this; she is Arkayn’s Darkness, the hand that pushes through the womb, destined to walk without law, and therefore unfit for [the rune for reward, but etched in a way that strongly resembles the rune for divinity?].
Arkayn closes the gate.
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*The Druids have a strictly ritualized view of sixuality, and treat it as a private endeavour; their sole book on the subject is over a thousand pages, most of which are descriptions of punishments for deviancy. The Wanweird seems to represent wanton, libertine sixuality; a temptress that defies all of Y’ffre and Magna’s laws.
*Possibly the most poorly understood aspect of the Ykaloni Namira; the Return is her “face of rebirth.” Essentially, the shape she takes to say goodbye to the spirits of the dead as they return to Y’ffre’s realm.
