The Powers

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Notes on a new candidate canon so I won't be so tempted to write it.

The Powers

Traditional Nomenclature

They call themselves "our kind" and mortal humans "their kind". Though they are worshiped as gods, they refuse the label with all humans they interact with, and basically any other label offered. When asked directly about their nature, the stock reply is, "Our kind do not care to talk about these things."

Despite suggestions to the contrary, their reticence is not based on fear of revealing vulnerabilities. They have few or none to any attack that could be mounted against them.

Social Rules for Answering Requests

They are all family and will not offend their siblings by harming those another cares for.

They are neither malevolent nor benevolent, "good" nor "evil", but rather indifferent to mankind without a bond or blood to make them care. They will do much, often anything, for the sake of those they love or share blood-ties with, but their willingness to extend themselves on behalf of those they love only extends one level. They will do anything for a spouse or child, particularly caring for their loved one's "people", but they will do little at the request of those people for someone they care for that otherwise has no ties to the one requested.

Members

The children of the Sun who have no father are:

  • East
  • West
  • the Mountains, which were made the inheritance of Alira
  • the Ocean
  • the Seasons
  • Morning
  • the Firebird
  • the Dragon

Alira is nature when it changes. She is the daughter of the Sun and the Fierce Wind, and when she dances on the heavens, it storms, but when she dances on the earth, the world is remade. She is also known as the Keeper of Power.

Crow is the son of Sun and Night, who is the ruler of dreams. Crow was the first to take a mortal bride. When asked his name, he answers, "Ask of me war, dust, wilderness, death, scavenge, plunder, or blood." The Seven Crows of War are his and were named by his first bride, Lailahetha: Uagh the first, Ma' the fourth, Cosch the sixth and infamously the most cruel and fierce, and Cadu the seventh. Crow's feathers allow passage between the world of their kind and humans, due to his time spent as a mortal cast out upon the earth.

Their Powers

  • Crow: war, dust, wilderness, death, scavenge, plunder, blood
  • East: newness, beginnings, change, light, east
  • West: journeys, endings, west, home, returning
  • Seiran: hunger, devouring, justice, (burning, emptiness, want)

Dealings

Passage between the two worlds requires blood. The Draught of Sending can be used to pass virtually to the side of the powers for supplication but does not allow free passage or the sender to be awakened. Lailahetha drew Crow to her with the use of his feathers but could not pass freely until they had married. Brides can be drawn through by their husbands but leave their physical bodies on the earth when they go.

The powers also cannot pass freely to the mortal side without being cast out of their home to the earth or also having blood or the feathers of one their own who has been mortal, e.g. Crow or East, who took mortal guise to marry her own first husband when she made him king of his land.

Possible Naming Language

  1. Lailahetha • lai.lʌ.'ɦɛ.θʌ
  2. Alira • ʌ.'liɹ.ʌ
  3. Alua • ɔlʷ.ɔ
  4. Uagh • u.'ɔɣ
  5. Ma' • mɔʔ
  6. Cosch • koɕ
  7. Cadu • 'ka.du

Canonical Works

Bride of War (poem)

For L.

They say that she was War
She was his bride
They say that she was humble
But she had pride
They say that she ascended
And yet she died

Four Winds, One Heart

The Four Lands is the land where East married a mortal and made him king over those lands. She continues to care for her descendants, who remain the primary blood of the first line of the Royal House. They are a warlike people and when they have fought against Lailahetha's people, the Powers have not harmed East's children but have been allowed to punish or destroy in defense any that are not of her blood. She handles teaching and punishment herself with a lenient hand for long periods where she does not offer instruction to those who do not seek it. Punishments arrive generally long after grievances began building up and often seem harsh or excessive to her husband's people. She promised that they would never know want and has maintained continuous harvests on the plains and in the valley surrounding the capital city.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14746115

Characters

  1. Eleya • Queen of the Four Lands at the City at the Heart of All Things, Element: Ice
  2. Caedros • Prince of the Northern Wind, Element: Fire
  3. Tanata • Prince of the Western Mountains, Element: Stone
  4. Sahasarel • Prince of the Southern Isles, Element: Breath
  5. Nirune • Prince of the Eastern Plains, Element: Metal

WIP

Works in Progress

Countries & Peoples

the desert

The desert is home to a violent people who long ago enslaved Lailahetha's. They offer blood sacrifices to the god of the desert, not knowing it is Crow.

the mountains

Lailahetha's are the people of the mountains Crow asked his sister Alira to dance on the desert and raise that they would be better protected.

The Four Lands and the City at the Heart of All Things

The people of the Four Lands are sometimes called "those who serve the burnt gods" or in the mountain country beyond the desert, "the Children of the East", referring to the literal bloodline of East in the royal family.

The elemental system they believe in is a bundle of associations between temperaments, skills, and powers:

  • Fire - (light)
  • Stone - solidity, reliability (recurring beginnings, mornings)
  • Ice - (east)
  • Breath - (newness)
  • Metal - honed to a purpose without motivation or conflictedness (change)