Traditional Folklore and Superstitions of Elothnin

the gnome-warding lights of Perejin

Throughout their storied history, the humans of Elothnin have incorporated a number of peculiar superstitions into their daily lives and folklore. Scholars of magicology and anthropology suggest that such superstitions are attempts to understand and control magickal forces which humans, by their mundayne nature, cannot make sense of.

Many superstitions suggest that magickal creatures (and magic itself) are dangerous, sometimes even cruel, and thus should be avoided. The marriage customs of the Fethil region are good example of this: although humans now find intermarriage between red elves and humans acceptable, taboos against this used to be in place in both cultures during the red elves' First Displacement period. Folklore from the period claimed that the red elves would use their charms and glamours to appear as lovely humans, often arriving to a town alone and forlorn (sometimes even claiming to be attacked by the very same group of elves that they in fact belonged to). Once accepted into the community, the masquerading elf would then set about seducing eligible young folk. Some stories claim that the elf would seduce multiple partners, then set them on each other in a jealous rage, so as to weaken the human community, while others say that the elves would marry a young human, then bring them back to their homeland where the human would be used as a servant or slave of some kind.

Such tales inspired a number of marriage customs designed to root out camouflaged elves - for example, both the bride and groom are expected to eat a hearty bowl of mush, a dish elves are known to find unappetizing. Similarly, Perejinders still line the perimeter of their houses with bright lanterns (thought to keep gnomes at bay, thus preventing a magickal attack in the dead of night), and not getting the lanterns lit by sunset is considered an extremely bad omen.

Folklore regarding the Shrine in the Forest and the waters of Susselfen are also indicative of the suspicious and careful approach Fethilians take to magic. Both are said to have the power to imbue even the most mundayne of creatures with magickal powers, sometimes even causing a careless human to be transformed into something unearthly. Occasionally, such tales describe positive changes (such as the Fethilian boy who, after spending the night in the Shrine, was able to call for rain during a time of drought), but more often than not, the result is quite tragic (for example, the strapping young Susselfenner who valiantly jumped into a river to retrieve his sweetheart's hat - only to grow gills in the process restricting him to a life under water forever separated from the lass). Stories surrounding the Old Man claim he has a similar eccentric and fickle tendency to either bless or curse human passers-by, often for no provocation at all. The cumulative moral of these stories highlights the great power of magick, but emphasizes that said power rarely benefits the human recipients of it.

Another common theme in Elothninian folklore is that magickal beings can be negotiated with if one keeps one's wits about them. The Perejinder custom of bringing mush to centaurs as payment for fortune telling is thought to derive from the tale of a clever young woman offered a bedraggled-looking centaur some delicious mush one day in the forest. She then uses her wits to trick him into telling her her future by wondering aloud if she would ever be able to feed him the tasty dish again.

Skillilinilia, the deity of the Great Land Sea, is the subject of many similar tales as well. Fishermen point to her legendary negotiations with King Otellian I, where he extracted a promise from her that his people would be allowed to fish in her seas as long as they did not take all her fish, as the genesis for their superstitious custom of throwing the last fish of all of their catches back.

Legend also holds that Skillilinilia's famed curiosity can be used for one's personal gain if one is willing to sacrifice. The most famous example of this is the legend of Otellian's courtship: Alethia Fenstrauer, Elothnin's future first queen, was an ambitious girl who had set her sights on climbing the social ladder while Otellian established his empire. One night, she slipped away from court and venture to the caves where Otellian was reputed to have negotiated with the deity and called for her. When the spirit arrived, dripping wet and covered in black scales, Alethia implored her to make Otellian fall in love with her and take her as his bride. Skillilinilia questioned Alethia for hours about her motivations (and Alethia, knowing that the deity had not emotional expectations of her, told her the truth) and finally agreed to give the girl what she wanted - but only if Alethia returned every morning to tell the sleepless deity what her dreams had been the night before. Hopeful maidens at court still venture down to the caves of the Land Sea and shout out their nightly visions in the hope that she will grant them their deepest desires.