The Moonshawl: A Wraeththu Mythos Novel (47 page)

Weaving the Moonshawl

Author’s Afterword

This book can be seen as the third in a trilogy
about the hara of Alba Sulh, which began in ‘The Hienama’ and continued in
‘Student of Kyme’, both of which though are very different novels to the one
now in your hands. ‘The Moonshawl’ is completely separate from the events in
Jesith and Kyme, found in the first two books. In this story, the hienama Ysobi
accepts a commission from Gwyllion – a town in what was formerly Wales – and
travels there alone from Lyonis (formerly Cornwall). He’s there to do a job,
but finds a mystery to solve. There are ghosts – both out in the landscape and
within him. He has a lot of exorcising to do.

At the end of ‘Student of Kyme’,
Ysobi didn’t come out of events – one of which nearly killed him – looking
particularly good. Having left a trail of ruined lives in his wake, he appeared
not to realise – or care – about the consequences of his emotional experiments.
In the past, some of his students had been broken by his training, or perhaps
even simple proximity to him. Yet he’s not an incarnation of evil, or even someone
who wants to hurt others. He himself is damaged. Yet unlike ‘Student of Kyme’,
‘The Moonshawl’ is not an agonising examination of emotional misery. This book
is at its core a mystery, a ghost story. Ysobi’s self-learning is a by-product.

How these Alba Sulh novels came about involves
rather a story. Back in the early 2000’s, before social media like Facebook
existed, I belonged to several online groups that had been formed by fans of my
work, Wraeththu in particular. I used to visit their chat room once a month or
so, to answer questions and join in with discussions. During one of these
chats, someone asked me what aruna – Wraeththu sex – was really like. Yes, I
might describe it poetically in the books, and allude to reshaped genitalia,
but somehow the
details
just weren’t clear. Those nitty-gritty details.
‘Do you want Wraeththu porn from me?’ I asked jokingly. Perhaps inevitably,
there was a clamouring cry of ‘Yes!’  So ‘The Hienama’ novella was written with
this in mind – especially for the fans, and brought out as a Wraeththu curio by
Immanion Press when the company was fairly new. I never intended ‘The Hienama’ to
evolve into a trilogy.

Even though ‘The Hienama’ had
initially been conceived to be pure erotica, darker elements and plot ideas
inevitably crept in and made it a fully-rounded story. At the end of it, I
wanted to know what happened next. This is what led me to write the much
gloomier ‘Student of Kyme’, which is a story of the tragic consequences of
obsession. In this novella, I also first began exploring the gulf between
incepted Wraeththu and the second generation ‘pureborns’ and beyond. This was
more than a simple age gap. While I was writing ‘Student’, I began to think
about how the horror of the Devastation, as it was called – the first days of
Wraeththu when humanity fell and the world burned – must have had catastrophic
effects on hara. In most cases, inception itself had been harrowing and brutal,
spawning little more than monsters, albeit beautiful ones. First generation
hara, while now approaching what in human life-spans would have meant the
certain approach of death, often carry within them legacies of their savage
creation. They might try to hide this and live up to ideals promoted by
advanced tribes like the Gelaming, but at heart many of them are still raw
inceptees, dancing around a fire in the dark, with bloodied skin and feral
eyes. For some, the past has thorns embedded so deeply in their psyches they
can’t be pulled.

‘Student of Kyme’ is a bitter
story – the protagonist Gesaril’s diary of events. I didn’t find it pleasant to
write, but that was the voice – and the tale – that needed to come out.
Wraeththu’s shadow self. Yet once it was done, I felt that the story was
incomplete without Ysobi’s narrative. All readers had seen so far were
acrimonious accounts of what Ysobi had done to others. But I
knew
he
wasn’t bad. If anything, he was just plain unlucky and rather stupid. He was
first generation: scarred.

‘Student of Kyme’ was published in 2011, but it
wasn’t until the start of 2013 that I began work on Ysobi’s story. His voice
simply didn’t come to me until then. But once I started writing, I found I
didn’t want to immerse myself in Ysobi’s past but in his future, his
redemption. And then I saw Gwyllion in my mind, and knew the hara who lived
there, and the legends of the landscape. And there was a ghost and a buried
mystery. And more to tell about the early days of Wraeththu and their legacy.
In relief – Ysobi’s as much as mine – I could remove my main character from
Jesith, away from his mistakes and the hara who judged him for them. He could
start anew in the magical landscape of what humanity had called Wales, itself
steeped in ancient mysteries and tales.

Apart from having wanted to
write a ghost story of novel length for some time, I was also keen to explore
the consequences of Wraeththu’s beginnings, especially now that nearly a hundred
years had passed. As Ysobi puts it in the story:

‘I felt a hundred years old and then realised, with some
amusement, I actually nearly was. I’d lost track of the years, because time is
different for hara than it had been for humans; it is less of an enemy. Humans
had experienced each day as a step nearer to the grave, in what had seemed like
a fraction of time that flashed past in an instant. In contrast, Wraeththu have
been given the gift of longevity, a friendship with time.’

In ‘The Moonshawl’ being referred
to as ‘first generation’ is now considered somewhat impolite. Some hara even go
so far as to disguise their origins. Again, using a quote from the book:

Gen took a breath. ‘Rey is... Rey. He was never at home
in a community, although he did his best. I’m sure he’s happier now. He’s first
generation.’

‘Oh.’ I let the word hang darkly, with all its
implications of instability, weakness and perhaps madness.

Lacking Wraeththu longevity – more’s the pity! –
I’m now well into middle age, the years flashing past in what seems like weeks,
and naturally the ageing process isn’t something I can ignore. There are so
many benefits to being older – from a self knowledge and acceptance point of
view, as well as the wisdom gained from accumulated experiences – but these
gifts are viciously countered by the failing of the body. Humans never get
really
old. We begin to disintegrate and die before we ever find out what having
the wisdom of a hundred or two hundred years, in a fit and healthy body, could
be like. Hara have this gift from time. When I first wrote about Wraeththu, way
back when I was still in my 20s, I didn’t think about this aspect of my created
race. Now, it’s of prime interest and importance to me. And consequently, it’s
of interest and importance to Ysobi.

But this isn’t the main thrust
of the novel, which is truly a mystery, and I hope a riveting one. Ysobi’s
knowledge and experience help him deal with that mystery and give him strength.

‘The Moonshawl’ is also about
story-telling and the potency of legends. Nowadays, figures from Welsh myth,
who were kings, queens and sorcerers, are often regarded as gods and goddesses,
especially in Pagan beliefs. Humanity has shaped them that way, and for some
those figures are very real. The human mind can shape reality to some degree,
but how far could that go if it was shaped by the minds of more powerful
beings? Could not the raw shout of thousands of years of war, grief and
treachery not be dragged from the very earth and given form? And then, equally
powerful artefacts must be created to counter such entities. The moonshawl is
such an artefact, fragile and shimmering against the roar of the dark, with
only fragile beings of flesh and blood to vitalise its symbolism.

‘The Moonshawl’ is three times the size of its
predecessors and I enjoyed writing it immensely. While the places described in
the story don’t actually exist, the tower Dŵr Alarch, where Ysobi lives
while in Gwyllion, was inspired by Brynkir Tower in Gwynedd, where I once
stayed for a few days with some friends over a decade ago. We had some very
peculiar experiences there! The tower is still available for hire, so if you
should want to immerse yourself in the landscape of ‘The Moonshawl’ that is the
place to go. There are a lot of pictures of it online, and it’s easy to find
the booking page. When I inspected the images, I was rather sad to see that the
tiled floor has gone from the bathroom now and has been replaced by wood
laminate. The whole place looks a lot smarter than it was when we stayed there,
but I’m sure the atmosphere is unchanged. The houses Meadow Mynd, Deerlip Hall
and Harrow’s End are all made up, although they incorporate aspects of various
old piles I’ve visited over the years. I have a fascination with big old
houses, and this novel enabled me to indulge that interest completely.

Wraeththu have been with me
since my teens, even if I didn’t start writing about them seriously until I was
25, and they have evolved and changed as I have. There are now new aspects of
them to explore, relevant to our human experience. Ysobi realises that what he
goes through in Gwyllion might be found in similar situations elsewhere, where
hara are tortured by the past, if not chained by it. He has a desire to seek
out those tragedies, unearth their mysteries and restore balance. I already
have an idea where he might be headed next! 

Storm Constantine

November 2014

Appendix 1: Harish Names and Family Relationships

A Comparison with Human Terms

Hostling
- mother

Father
- sire

Harling
– child

Brother
– sibling

Hura
– uncle/aunt

Hurakin
– any hara who are siblings of the
father or hostling, but sometimes used to denote all manner of family
relationships within a group, i.e. ‘relatives’.

Harakin
– members of a family, sometimes
including those not related by blood or chesna-bonds, but who nevertheless are
close to the family.

Hura-brothers – an uncommon term for cousins

Surakin
– other extended family
relationships, used in the same way as hurakin sometimes is, but most often to
denote a younger generation.

Sori
or
Sura
- cousin, nephew, niece
and all derivatives thereof (second cousin, etc.)

High-Father
- grandfather

High-Hostling
- grandmother

High-harling
-grandchild

Grand High-Father/Hostling/Harling
– great
grand-father/mother/ child. (Further generational distinctions simply add
another ‘grand’ to the term.)

Harish Names

As Wraeththu became more established and a second
generation of hara began to appear, many hara took on family names. Previously,
a har would take for his surname, as identification, the name of his tribe,
i.e. Ysobi har Sulh. But as communities and families formed and expanded, and
relationships between phyles became more complicated, innovations came to names
and titles.

To use hara in ‘The Moonshawl’ as examples of how
names and epithets are formed, Wyva’s full family name would be Wyva har
Wyvachi har Gwyllion har Sulh – even though he is generally simply known
locally as Wyva har Wyvachi. Sulh is the overarching tribal name of most hara
living in the country of Alba Sulh; Gwyllion is the area in which Wyva lives; Wyvachi
is the family or phyle name. Some hara, however, might elect only to take
regional names, so if Wyva wished to keep his family/phyle identity private, he
could offer his name to strangers as Wyva har Gwyllion, with or without the
qualifying ‘har Sulh’, depending on how much he wished to reveal. Abroad, and
still seeking a degree of anonymity, he might use the name Wyva har Sulh.

Hara of Ysobi’s community in Jesith simply use the
town name as a phyle name, so Ysobi might employ the title Ysobi har Jesith.
His family of Jassenah, Zeph and himself have not taken on a private family
name.

Some hara might use even more complicated tribal
names, for there may be mini-phyles within a phyle or regional preferences.
Ultimately, the purpose of surnames is to offer information to others – a har
may reveal as much or as little of this as he prefers.

When hara become chesna, one of them will generally
change his name to match his partner’s, depending on where they decide to
settle and with which tribe and/or region they ally.  Hara sometimes move from
phyle to phyle, (or even swap tribes), and in these cases full names, giving
all information about a har’s heritage, would obviously be too cumbersome. In
general, a har uses only the name of the tribe/phyle/family he currently lives
among or identifies with most strongly, unless he has a good reason to make his
lineage known.

Appendix 2

The Wheel of the Year - Arotohar

(Adapted from ‘Grimoire Dehara: Kaimana)

The harish spiritual wheel of the year follows the
traditional pagan festivals, incorporating androgynous reinterpretations of the
myths. The cycle is known as Arotohar, and the festivals associated with each
significant date are Arojhahns (ah-roh-zharns). There is one extra min-festival
(or majhahn – mah-zharn) of Adkaya two weeks before the winter solstice, when
the pearl of the dehar Elisin is delivered from his hostling.

Deities are referred to as dehara. The principle
elemental dehara of Wraeththu are Aruhani (earth), Lunil (water), Agave (fire)
and Miyacala (air). The Aghama represents the fifth element of Spirit. Separate
dehara, with their own mythology, populate the wheel of Arotohar.

Natalia
-
December
21st

This is the arojhahn of the
Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. At this time, the dehar Elisin
emerges from the pearl that nurtured him. The pearl was dropped two weeks previously,
and now the deharling comes forth from it. He represents the reawakening of
nature and the return of the sun. This is the new year of Dehara.

Solarisel, the deharling’s
hostling, is a benevolent dehar of great beauty, dressed in gold and white,
with a mane of golden hair. He grants the gift of a light heart, of fortune,
promise and opportunity. He is the dehar of abundance, whose cauldron of
creation offers up the ultimate potential. His is the arojhahn of the new sun.
His plants are the holly, the ivy and the pine. He is accompanied by sleek
white hounds, who at the moment of the deharling’s emergence, fly through the
sky yelping out the news. To hear the hounds of Solarisel on the solstice night
is a fortuitous omen for the coming year.

The deharling is named Elisin, the child of light.
He retains this name until the moment of his hostling/lover’s death at
Cuttingtide.

Rosatide
-
February
1
^st

This arojhahn is named for the fact that the trees
become rosy with new growth at this time. The last grey white days of winter
are marked by the colour of blood as life begins to rise and surge from the
earth.

Elisin is now
beginning to grow and his hostling has transformed from his soume or female
aspect into Eburniel, the white dehar of the snow-covered earth. All early
spring flowers, especially those with white petals, are sacred to him. He has
nurtured Elisin, borne him from his body and now devotes himself to teaching
the deharling the lessons necessary to maturity and eventual solitude. Eburniel
teaches Elisin how to imbue the earth with his life-giving energy to encourage
new growth.

Traditionally,
this is the Arojhahn of Torches, when hara seek to bring the growing light of
the sun into their life. Eburniel is also the light of the candle flame. On Rosatide
eve, candles and lamps are lit in every window. The shadowy figure of Eburniel,
dressed in a cloak of snow white fur, walks across the fields. His animal is
the white wolf, whose breath is freezing mist.

The wistfulness
sometimes associated with this arojhahn derives from the fact that, in assuming
a more masculine aspect, Eburniel faces the prospect of his own death at
Cuttingtide. If the early spring flowers are found sprouting from snow, they
are Eburniel’s tears. Despite this aspect, Rosatide is a time of hope and
promise. As light fills hara’s homes, so they banish the bleakness of the short
days and cold weather.

Bloomtide
-
March
21
^st

This arojhahn marks the Spring
Equinox. The ascetic Eburniel transforms into the dashing Florinel, who begins
to woo the maturing Elisin. Elisin’s hostling has now transformed into his
potential lover and is no longer regarded as a blood relative, but rather a
separate dehar that has grown from the substance of Solarisel. Eburniel is seen
as a lissom young dehar, dressed in green with nut-brown hair. Florinel
conjures flowers to open with the sound of his voice, which is the music heard
in the wind, in spring rains and in the surge of swollen streams as the snow
melts. His animal is the white hare. Florinel is a trickster who can sometimes
deceive. He leads the unwary into dangerous territory, but can also bestow a
change of luck for the better.

Florinel is far
too full of life to contemplate such dreary concepts as his own demise. He
presides over planting and the reproduction of animals. Elisin is coy and
rejects his advances. The only contact Florinel can have with Elisin at this
time is to cover his sleeping body with white blossom.

While Florinel’s
thoughts begin to turn to aruna, Elisin is entranced by the wonder of being
alive. His is the unbounded joy of youth, as yet untarnished by adult cares.
Bloomtide is the celebration of life for its own sake. On the arojhahn night,
hara put aside fears and uncertainties and focus on hopes for the future. The
light hangs in equal balance, but only for a short time. From this night on,
the days lengthen and the air becomes warmer.

Feybraihatide
-
April
30
^th
/May 1
^st

This arojhahn is named for the
rite of passage harlings undergo as they enter maturity. It is the feast of
aruna, of first love and the deep, spiritual passion that enables harlings to
be conceived.

Elisin now is
full grown, a vision of beauty, like a radiant form of his Shadetide hostling,
with fiery red hair. His consort is Feyrahni, but this is properly Elisin’s
arojhahn, as he is regarded as the presiding dehar. He and Florinel have barely
seen one another since Bloomtide, and now – transformed – it is Feyrahni not
Florinel who steps from the forest, dark of skin and hair, dressed in clothes
made of leather and leaves. His sacred animal is the stag. On Feybraihatide
eve, Feyrahni initiates Elisin into the mysteries of aruna and together they
create a pearl.

Cuttingtide
-
21
^st
June

This is the Summer Solstice, the
moment when the sun begins to decline in strength as it moves away from the
earth. Feyrahni becomes the lord of the corn, the sacrificed one, Morterrius.
He is at the height of his potency, and therefore in surrendering his life
force at this time, the strongest energy enters the earth. Elisin, now with
pearl, sheds his youthful name and becomes Shadolan, the hunter, the
executioner. Gone are the cares of youth. The sacred animal of the dehara is
the hawk.

Morterrius
appears as the golden dehar of the corn, with yellow hair. He wears a crown of
barley and poppies and is dressed in red and yellow, symbolising the crop and
his own blood. Shadolan has a darker aspect, dressed as an archetypal hunter.
His beauty is fearsome, his gaze compelling.

On the arojhahn eve, Morterrius
walks the fields as a willing sacrifice. In sorrow, Shadolan must take his
consort’s life. In a grim repetition of Feybraihatide, the lovers meet in a
wild place and take aruna together. But its conclusion this time is death.
Shadolan’s fingernails have become blades that make a thousand cuts in
Morterrius’ flesh. The dehar stumbles from their trysting place and as he
staggers through the fields, so his blood flows down to fertilise the earth. He
eventually falls to the ground, which swallows him up, dragging the dehar’s
body down into itself, so he begins his long journey to the Eternal Plains, the
World Beyond, from where he will eventually be reborn as his own son.

Reaptide - August 1
^st

Like Shadetide, this is a time
when unusual events are likely to occur. Apparitions can be seen in the fields
at mid-day. The landscape holds its breath and the hills become haunted.
Shadolan becomes the Field Walker, Verdiferel, wandering in solitude through
the ripening crops. His hair is dark and he wears garments of earthen colours,
decorated with leaves, flowers and heads of wheat. His sacred creature is the
white owl, which sweeps through the spectral night and even appears during the
day at this time.

Verdiferel, like
some of the other seasonal dehara, has a trickster aspect.

One story concerns a har who
came upon Verdiferel in a cornfield, apparently making a crop circle. As the
har concealed himself and observed, he noticed that the dehar appeared strange,
and somewhat unhinged. Verdiferel made decorative talismans from the crop, which
he hid around the landscape, in trees and beneath rocks. The observing har knew
that these talismans were hidden for hara to find, and that an audience with
Verdiferel could be sought this way. He considered himself fortunate to have
witnessed where Verdiferel had concealed the talismans. He took a talisman to a
sacred site, which comprised two upright stones supporting a vast slab.
Verdiferel was already present in this place, and said he knew the har had come
to enquire about his future. He told the har to lie down on the slab.
Verdiferel then produced a sickle blade and sliced the har open. He read the
future from the entrails. With somewhat dark humour, he said, ‘I see you’re
about to go on a long journey into the otherworld’. He then collected the blood
and made a libation in the crop fields. This story suggests that the rehuna
should employ caution when asking boons of Verdiferel.

Another story
concerning this dehar relates that Verdiferel might appear to a har as emerging
from the trunk of a tree. He has very long brown hair that comes out of the
bark as peculiar strands, and while not as dangerous as other forms of
Verdiferel, is extremely haughty. He carries a green orb of light, which is
called ozaril. It is said that if the invocation ‘Astale ozaril’ is chanted,
then the light of the dehar goes into a har, enabling him to see the ghosts
that walk at noon.

Smoketide
-
September
21
^st

This is the autumn equinox and
the major harvest arojhahn. The dehar transforms into Prosperiel. He is already
a hostling, and in that way fecund. At this time, he appears dressed in
garments adorned with autumnal leaves and fruits, and he smells of smoke. He
also wears a cloak of fox fur. His sacred animal now is the red fox.

Prosperiel, of
all the dehara of this half of the year, is the least tricky. Gone are the
shadowy aspects of Cuttingtide and Reaptide. He is the expression of
fruitfulness, and this is the time of year for hara to make plans for the
future, to plant their own seeds of intention that will come to fruit in the
New Year.

Shadetide
-
October
31
^st

This is the last of the harvest
arojhahns, and traditionally a time when the portals between different levels
of reality become unstable. It is the time when the veil is thin and discarnate
entities can make contact with the living.

At this stage,
the dehar transforms into Lachrymide (La-CRIM-ee-day) the Keener. Heavy with
pearl and alone, Lachrymide stalks the bare earth. In nature, he can be
unpredictable. His tears bring floods and the coldness of his heart brings
snow. Only at his arojhahn time does he really show any lighter side, and that
is when, compassionate with his own sense of loss, he leads lost souls to the
light. It is a night of trickery and feasting, of carnival and costume.
Lachrymide is one of the most intimidating and fearsome of the seasonal dehara,
but he is appeased by merriment and feasting.

Lachrymide can
be petitioned to give glimpses of the future or news of lost loved ones. After
being invoked, he appears at the threshold as a tall har dressed in black with
long red hair. Often, his face is veiled.

As Lachrymide
presides over the dark weeks between Shadetide and the solstice, he is asked to
provide warmth, food and shelter, to keep animals healthy through the cold
months and to preserve the stored grain. His animal is the black cat, cats
being invaluable in guarding grain stores from rats and other vermin. Often,
during his reign, tall dark figures are spotted in the fields or at crossroads,
or beside lonely tracks. If a har comes across Lachrymide in the dark, they
should offer him a gift. If he is pleased with it, he will grant them fortune.

Adkaya
-
December
7th

This majhahn, (a minor festival),
two weeks before Natalia, is not one of the major arojhahns, but still an
important part of the seasonal calendar. Adkaya observes the time when the
dehar Lachrymide drops the pearl of the deharling and transforms into
Solarisel, who will be the presiding dehar of Natalia. The pearl of the
deharling takes two weeks to mature before opening, so hara use this time to
perform majhahns associated with planning and preparation.