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Scrawny marten is back!
I've mentioned before how she knows a thing or two about magic, but I have never shown it until now, so this prompt was perfect for her.
She was supposed to become her village's shaman and healer, following in the footsteps of her mother, but her tribe was wiped out leaving her to tend to her daughter alone, surviving by foraging in the forests and by helping travellers in need.
For the most part she heals people using herbs and magic, together with some protection spells, exorcisms and so on. She's also a "Good-walker", meaning she can enter the spirit realm while dreaming or in a trance, and communicate or fight with spirits or other magic users once there. Cave Lion protects his family from physical threats, while Scrawny Marten protects it from intangible ones. In all honesty, she could probably the more dangerous of the two if she wanted.
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Taking a lot of inspiration from my local history for her character. Pockets of paganism, folk religions and "shamanism" survived in remote areas of the Alps until the 17th century, when these last holdouts were unfortunately forced into full conversion.
The Benandanti (good-walkers) were a shamanistic cult who'd fight evil spirits as well as evil witches (Malandanti, aka bad-walkers) in the dream world, thus protecting their communities from evil. Pretty fitting for what I had in mind for her!
She still doesn't have a name, but I'm toying with the idea of naming her Strìa (literally "witch" in my regional language)
I've mentioned before how she knows a thing or two about magic, but I have never shown it until now, so this prompt was perfect for her.
She was supposed to become her village's shaman and healer, following in the footsteps of her mother, but her tribe was wiped out leaving her to tend to her daughter alone, surviving by foraging in the forests and by helping travellers in need.
For the most part she heals people using herbs and magic, together with some protection spells, exorcisms and so on. She's also a "Good-walker", meaning she can enter the spirit realm while dreaming or in a trance, and communicate or fight with spirits or other magic users once there. Cave Lion protects his family from physical threats, while Scrawny Marten protects it from intangible ones. In all honesty, she could probably the more dangerous of the two if she wanted.
_______
Taking a lot of inspiration from my local history for her character. Pockets of paganism, folk religions and "shamanism" survived in remote areas of the Alps until the 17th century, when these last holdouts were unfortunately forced into full conversion.
The Benandanti (good-walkers) were a shamanistic cult who'd fight evil spirits as well as evil witches (Malandanti, aka bad-walkers) in the dream world, thus protecting their communities from evil. Pretty fitting for what I had in mind for her!
She still doesn't have a name, but I'm toying with the idea of naming her Strìa (literally "witch" in my regional language)
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1014 x 1450px
File Size 2.81 MB
Listed in Folders
Yeah, I suspect a lot of it is just the writer's imagination. I've been playing with an idea of having a human priest who has a goblin congregation who genuinely believe he is "magical" and keep trying to involve him I weird practices from that book. While not accurate folklore in a fantasy setting it could be a lot of fun.
There are similar notions of spirit fighting, animal form and dream journeys in Old Norse Seiđr and in Sámi and Finnish folklore - Hunter could probably tell you more. Their similarity with Benendanti were already pointed out by Jan de Vries (possibly also by Jacob Grimm) and given how the whole Alpine region is filled with remnants of "Old pre-Christian Traditions" (Perchta, Frau Holle, Krampus etc.) it is possible both these notions are descended from some pretty ancient, more widespread tradition
Still a valuable skill in "the New World"; nobody believes in 'the spooky sh!t' until things start getting weird after some moron decides "playing" with a Ouija Board would be a fun "party game", and they finally decide they need to call in "that creepy 'Wicca dude' to help clean up the mess they've made!🙄😖
I'm sure many people would say it's a good skill to have also here in the "old world", there's still a lot of interesting beliefs around, though most are disappearing.
(not really a believer in spooky stuff myself though, I just find it cool from a folkloristic point of view)
(not really a believer in spooky stuff myself though, I just find it cool from a folkloristic point of view)
This is super cool! Also, I love the mention of the Benandanti, I feel they're an underappreciated part of history. The witches who claimed to be werewolves (the Hounds of God) and who went into dreams to fight satanic forces. My favourite detail about them is that the Inquisitions and the Church really had no idea what to make of them, and tended to find them a nuisance more than anything. This is largely because the official stance of the Church was that Werewolves didn't exist, because any power outside of God would be Satanic, and Satan couldn't grant powers like that. However, these people claimed to be werewolves for God, so it threw the entire status sideways. Very niche but fun part of history.
The benandanti are super fascinating! I'm actually deeply saddened by how many traditions we've lost so recently after they managed to endure for centuries. There's still some cool folk traditions surviving here and there, like lighting bonfires as spring comes and looking at the smoke to see how the harvest will be, but not much.
That's interesting, I have never read that werewolf part anywhere, do you have a source? I know some would claim they could transform into animals in dream, like cats and such, or even become smoke or gusts of air, but I've never heard of them becoming a werewolf.
But yeah, the church found them odd and after a while pretty concerning, and decided it must be of the devil. Some Benandanti tried to throw their "clients" under the bus instead, and that really made them lose a lot of influence. The area of Carnia and Karst in Friuli had a lot of these weird traditions and the inquisition worked hard to eradicate them in the 16-17th centuries. It's no coincidence that many times in local legends the villains of the stories are "the pagans".
That's interesting, I have never read that werewolf part anywhere, do you have a source? I know some would claim they could transform into animals in dream, like cats and such, or even become smoke or gusts of air, but I've never heard of them becoming a werewolf.
But yeah, the church found them odd and after a while pretty concerning, and decided it must be of the devil. Some Benandanti tried to throw their "clients" under the bus instead, and that really made them lose a lot of influence. The area of Carnia and Karst in Friuli had a lot of these weird traditions and the inquisition worked hard to eradicate them in the 16-17th centuries. It's no coincidence that many times in local legends the villains of the stories are "the pagans".
I think they're conflating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiess_of_Kaltenbrun with them - he's the one who claimed to be a good werewolf who ventured into Hell to fight witches, and a comparison was made between him and the Benandanti by an Italian historian, but as far as I know, the Benandanti themselves have no werewolves.
I understand. That sort of thing is common all over the world. In a language I created for a story I wrote a long time ago, I did the same thing. I would use a base word and add a prefix or a suffix to change the meaning of the base word. For example, I used a word for "family member" and then I would add a suffix to denote "sibling" and a prefix to denote "male or female sibling".
It does, even my local folklore witches (Strìe and Strigòin) are portrayed as evil usually. Still, the prompt was a good excuse to draw her more magic side.
That could be a good definition. "Good walkers" here were specifically people who could travel great distances in their "dream form" and fight with the spirits of evil witches to protect their communities, and while they were awake they could still heal people and see the souls of the dead.
That could be a good definition. "Good walkers" here were specifically people who could travel great distances in their "dream form" and fight with the spirits of evil witches to protect their communities, and while they were awake they could still heal people and see the souls of the dead.
Love it. Folk legends, beliefs, paganism... from around Europe are a widely unexplored source of material for fiction of all types. Especially folk magic and old religions that have so much unique concepts of creatures and rituals who can still feel somewhat close to an European public and have a strong impact (it's my case anyway).
I'd love to see you explore further this fantasy aspect of your bronze age setting. Especially if it comes with more info on the old beliefs of your homeland. That little reading was very interesting.
I'd love to see you explore further this fantasy aspect of your bronze age setting. Especially if it comes with more info on the old beliefs of your homeland. That little reading was very interesting.
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