-[X] Do Not Name Air Great Woman, Name The People Air
-[X] Send In An Elder
The Kin to Air
Flower wreaths and sacrifices, wolven skin and joyous dance; these are but small parts of the great celebration that takes place as the elders perform their haruspices and their prophecies. They cut up the entrails of birds, mutilate the innards of a caught bull and bid the hunters dance and strike their spears against the stones. They bid the young women sing, and you join in yourselves with a chorus of hoarse and creaky voices. The song is one of kinship found and old enemies reconciled, and at the center stand you, Air, a matron of middling might of no particular renown before your calm words and wise actions calmed down a people enraged. Here you are, carefully mixing your blood with any who ask; once, a matron of a minor family, now the mother of a people.
No longer are you simply "the people", they are - you are - are the Kin to Air; the Kin to you. The celebration lasts for days, as hunters compete and show their skills: who is the fastest runner? Who is the strongest man? Who throws his spear best? Who can kill a beast the fastest? By competing in the festivities, they compete like they would for their families, and show their dedication to their new kinship through friendly sport and competition. They have no winning prizes, but often invent their own - or ask their fairer observers to come up with one - spoils of victory.
As the five days of celebration slowly come to an end, and the victorious hunters tire of showing off their red-dyed wolven cloaks, their laurel wreaths and their prowess, you find that the people as a whole seem more confident. In leaving the valley of your ancestral paradise, you have become something which you were not when you left, and the omens drawn by you and the matrons show a bright future.
How Is The Story Remembered?
This vote will greatly shape the tenor of your mythology as it develops over time and in the future.
[ ] Tricking The Lonely Ancestor Into Giving A Secret Name - The hunters named Valley Trick, River Secret and Mountain Greatness went to the lonely ancestor, clad like wolves with fur of bloody red and tricked him to believe they had returned from a great hunt. They asked of him that he give them a name so that the other wolves would know of them, and he named them to be Kin to Air for their swiftness, but found the wolves to laugh at him before they ran and gave their people the name he had given them.
[ ] Heroes Finding A Name In Distant Lands - When the people left their old home, they were in turn beset by the Great Women named Valley Trick, River Secret and Mountain Greatness, who wished to own the people in soul and body, but the people saw through their tricks and beat their hunters, for their own wore cloaks of wolven red, which intimidated even the mighty hunters of the Great Women. The great hunting hero, who was named Triumphant Air, beat the Great Women and their hunters in turn, and the people became the Kin to Air in recognition of his deeds.
[ ] A People Gifted A Name To Lead Them On Their Journey - When the ancestors saw the plight of the people, as the unfaithful sisters Valley, Mountain and River had spurned their children, they sought to safeguard their children from further betrayal and entreated with the brothers Air and Wind, who never betrayed and had great brotherly love for everyone, and asked them to mix their blood with them. And the two brothers saw that they were great hunters and clever thinkers, and Air mixed his blood with theirs to become their brother, and they became the Kin to Air, for Wind can never be caught and is flighty and indecisive.
[ ] A Name Carried From An Old Home - The ancestors of the ancestors had been carried across the Greatest Water by the boatsman named Wind, who had named them to be like his sister Air in their virtue, and she kissed them all once, before they went to lie with the sisters River, Valley and Mountains who begat their children. Then they were the Kin to Air, for they had kissed with Air and thus became her beloved under the open, starlit sky.
At the end of the celebrations, an elder named Dark Sky goes to enter the strange tent of stone. First, you help her perform the proper rights, as the most victorious hunters give to her a wolven cloak of red, which marks the bearer as a victor, even in the eyes of lonely Wolven Dream. You perform the rites out of sight of the people, in a closed tent where the only light is that of the fire that burns in the center, in which you throw many plants which you know to be loved to smoke by the ancestors of your ancestors, and you hang a pouch of secret herbs around her neck in a fibrous thread. You also use dyes to paint her face and naked arms, and hang another pouch from her walking stick.
As the the Beauteous Ancestor seduces his wife, the sun to rise, and day displaces night, you and three matrons stand together and Dark Sky walks into the construction, striking her walking stick against the stone and singing a hoarse, throaty song to scare away lurking demons. Her walk is reminiscent as steps of a great dance, but she is alone bodily, while the spirits of four matrons who lie around the fire in the tent attend to her in spirit. After a right-wise turn, she is no longer possible to see inside, and the strange construction prevents you from hearing her song.
In absence of her song, you begin the same hoarse and throaty tune, which you know her to be singing still. You and the matrons disperse, surrounding the structure to ensure that no demons will threaten her or you, for they cannot bear to hear a matron sing the song of their ancestors. As time goes on, minute becomes hour, and hour becomes day, and different matrons come and go to replace you, and you occasionally replace the ones to follow her as spirit, seeing a world of claustrophobic corridors, animalistic carvings of foxes, birds, oxen and finally a low fire burning at the heart of a small kiln in a smothering blanket of darkness.
On the night of the third day, she emerges from the construction, striking no longer her walking stick against the earth, but rattling it in the air, indicating that the demons have been chased away, and that she wishes to signal to the spirits her well intent. The people have been sent away, and sleep in a camp not far from here, for the matrons must be alone in such a doing of great import as this. The matrons assemble to greet her, and bid her tell of her experiences in the dark, for even those who had been with her as spirits saw but the faintest impressions.
Then it is that Dark Sky speaks to you, "My sister matrons, I come from the tent of stone, and have journeyed to the land of the animal spirits, and return an emissary of Fox, Bull and Bird, who wish me to say to you that this was once a place of worship, but those who built it now are gone and eaten by the Great River Beasts to the far south. I have learnt through the burning of herbs and asking of the fire that they have seen that we travel far, and wish us not to stay here with them, but to take from within their pillars and carry them with us, to our new home, and away from this place, and that if we do so, they shall give us their blessings when we reach it."
What Does The Elder Council Decide?
The effects of this vote are secret.
[ ] Take None Of Them - These are foreign spirits of another people, and it is well-known that such can be tricksters and hard to understand in intent. In addition, pillars of stone are hard to carry, however small they are, and only hunters would have the strength to carry them, if what Dark Sky speaks of them is true, which would reduce the amount of hunters that could hunt for foods.
[ ] Take One Of Them - Pillars of stone are heavy, but the blessing of a spirit is a powerful thing, and to deny even one would be foolish. However foreign they are, the people are no fools, and should they be malicious, they are sure that the matrons can fight them with the backing of the ancestors and their ancestors.
(Choose one subvote)
-[ ] Take Fox - The trickery and resourcefulness of Fox, will surely be of great aid.
-[ ] Take Bull - The strength and stamina of Bull, will surely help you in your time of need.
-[ ] Take Bird - The speed and aloofness of Bird, will surely align with your desires.
[ ] Take All Of Them - No matter the weight of icons, this triat of spirits is proposing their aid at the cost of carrying them. While they are foreign, the power of them to have such a sanctuary like this, must be very great, and denying them could only be the move of a fool.
