Campaign guide plight of the tuatha (1) 41

Campaign Guide Chapter Three Lore of Aeliode History Below is an excerpt from a work called “The Mysteries of Eshu.” This story was first told by Eshu, an oracle of the Dovani people The Dovani have passed this tale down through the generations This particular tale was first recorded by Livantus, scholar and Gardener of the Allamar Livantus’ footnotes pertaining to his insight into this account are included Except from “The Mysteries of Eshu” As I, Eshu of the Dovani, settled down by my fire after the day’s journey, a strange feeling came over me The rustling of the leaves in the trees above me and rivers flowing beside me echoed in my ears The caress of the cool autumn breeze began to penetrate my body and it felt as though it flowed through my soul It was thus I knew that the world wished to speak a truth to me if I wished to settle myself and listen I looked deep into my fire and saw At first I saw a void in the flames, a vast emptiness, a space into which my soul felt like it would fall into and be lost It was in this emptiness that I beheld the gods Tulhesa strode proudly next to Paladrus, and they spoke of things to come They spoke of building worlds together; of grand creations too numerous to understand, with which they would fill the void But they were not alone Tulhesa’s children1 followed close behind their mother, clamoring in her shadow for her attention ‘We think there should be this’ her children said, ‘We think there should be that.’ But the desires of her children were foolish and vain and would have done naught but destroyed the worlds which Paladrus and Tulhesa wished to build Even though Tulhesa listened to them and explained that their ideas were foolish, her children wanted their ideas to become a part of creation Soon the children grew angry with their mother and words began to pass among them ‘She is foolish to not listen to us’ one said ‘She is uncaring,’ said another ‘If she will not listen to us as we speak, we should plot to make her listen,’ a third spoke.2 So Tulhesa’s children left her side and plotted ‘If Paladrus would only leave our mother would heed our advice’ one said ‘If we showed her how strong we are she would listen to our counsel’ said another ‘Let us seek the aid of Ochesa3 the hunter, He will know how to force her to hear,’ a third spoke It is commonly thought that Tulhesa’s Children are the original forms of what today we would call dragons There is much debate concerning this passage Some state that the three children who speak represent three types of dragonkind: Metallics, Extra-planar, and Chromatics Others state that only the Chromatics are the children of Tulhesa, and that the three are the three original Chromatics Still others state that we are not given any clues as to who the children are and that the assumption that they are dragons is an unsubstantiated claim I, though, feel that it is most likely that the children here are the Chromatics, as they are generally known to be Tulhesa’s beloved children I further believe that the number that speak is not a claim of how many children she had as nowhere does the text state that all her children have spoken when the three have spoken It is most likely that case that only three children speak in a given moment due to the inherent power of instances of triplicate occurrences Only three children speaking allows the children to gain power and perhaps focus magical workings in conjunction with the will of each other The children must be using magic of some sort to guide Volsung to their bidding and act so uncharacteristically It should also be noted that the three children also have a pattern in which they speak In each stanza, there is a shifting from what appears to be a true or moral statement with the utterance of the first child, to a more ambiguous statement from the second, while the third child’s statements seem either to be lies or foretelling dark deeds This raises the question as to if the statements are some kind of treatment on the nature of the differences of morality While there is no definitive answer as to the nature of the “children”, the moral lessons are there to be learned from It is thought by some that Ochesa may be the truename of Volsung/Balar This is one of the few places known where the name is used This use of a third name makes the nature of Volsung who is Balar even more complex As a god it is said he does shift between his two aspects and has different designs upon the world with each incarnation I believe that Ochesa should be thought of as a third aspect that rarely manifests, thus making Volsung who is Balar not a binary god, but a triple-aspect god This of course fits in well with this myth as it adds another layer of the numeral three into the tale, along with the three speaking children and the three gods that are present 40