Blade Maidens: Strays -13

“Ages ago, when Sulna’s light was still young, Night’s Mother and the Little Sister were lonely.

Sulna, the eldest daughter, and her absence in the night sky were keenly felt. Eons spent cheering the moons and stars, giving them the very warmth and comfort that now graced the lands of Telos, had left the heavens silent and cold in her absence. Worse still, with the birth of day, the people of Telos had shunned the shadows of the night. Whether they remained huddled in their homes asleep or toiling in their cities, the scant few that prowled the night did little to distract either moon from their solitude.

It was then that Linaya, the clever little sister that she is, proposed a solution. If Sulna would have her claim over those that call the daylight their home, then the twin moons would simply need to create their own flock.

First came the dwarves. Created by Night’s Mother to be sturdy, resilient, and given the gift of sight keen in light or darkness, they seemed a perfect fit. While grateful for such blessings, they felt as lonely as the moons in their isolation and left Mother’s grace to join the rest of Telos’ peoples.

Next came the giants. Given life by Linaya, so mighty and towering that any threats lurking in the shadows would prove little threat to them. Threats under Sulna’s light, however, proved different. Driven off after ransacking cities and towns and leaving destruction in their wake, it is said they made a fleet of ships the size of great castles and have never returned to our shores.

Stymied by their failed efforts, the moons threatened to give in to their sorrow. Tears and wailing echoed across the night sky for hours, until they were joined by the howl of a single, persistent wolf. The Twin Moons looked upon the creature, already a beast of twilight and shadow, and formed an idea. Linaya proposed their folly lay in trying to create a new life when they simply needed to refine that which was already there. Cunning, strength, vitality, all blessed and grown by the moon’s influence. And in a cruel moment of spite, the ability to change members of Sulna’s flock with a bite of their great jaws.

The werewolves thrived, growing their numbers with each passing night and driving the people of Telos further into their cities in terror. As the violence grew, Sulna begged her family for peace. Her pleas did not go unheeded. Realizing their melancholy had grown great enough to blind them to the pain they were causing their own family, the Twin Moons agreed to a solution.

The werewolves could not be destroyed, for they deserved life as much as any other being in Telos, but they could be lessened. While they would be as powerful and bestial as the night they were created under both Moon’s light, under just one of the Goddesses, or neither the beasts would be weakened and vulnerable. And under Sulna’s light, they would appear as they did before they were turned into one of the beasts, with scant more ability than any of their kind. An uneasy agreement, but one that has held to this very day.”

– An antiquated Telosian folktale