For a number of nights after giving birth to Achilles, Thetis kept passing him through the hearth flames so as to burn away his mortality. Unfortunately, she was unable to complete her work, because of her husband, Peleus, who stumbled upon the (gruesome to his eyes) scene one night; thinking that his wife was trying to incinerate their son, he interrupted her. Thus Achilles was left an (undoubtedly mighty) half-mortal, with a glorious albeit short lifespan.
When
the goddess Demeter roamed the earth in mourning for her daughter’s
(Persephone) abduction, she visited the palace of Celeus, king of
Eleusis, in the guise
of an old crone. He welcomed her and asked her to nurse his newborn
son Demophon. Wanting to reward the king for his hospitality, Demeter
passed the infant through the hearth flames each night, in order to
burn away his mortality and turn him into a god. Alas, as in the case
of Achilles, one of the boy’s parents (the mother this time)
chanced upon the night scene and interrupted the ritual. To make
things worse, in this case the infant wasn’t powerful enough to
survive the ritual’s interruption.
The idea that mortality can be burnt away in the hearth flames is a
memorable one and has long fascinated me. Stumbling once more
recently upon the Demeter myth in Martin Persson Nilsson’s Greek Folk Religion,
I thought about how this removal of mortality can be distilled and
transmuted in game terms. What I ended up with is a rough take on
elves and half-elves; how these races come into being and what sets
them apart from humanity.
The core idea:
Infants
that are passed through the flames of the hearth by their
otherworldly wet-nurses or mothers for a number of nights (3 or 7 or
what reasonable magic number suits you) become elves – this is how
elves come into
being. If the process is interrupted and the infant survives (5%
chance), it becomes a half-elf.
Concerning the process itself:
-The
power of the ritual does not solely lie in the hearth fire or in the
person manipulating the infant. Rather, it is the combination of the
two aforementioned elements that makes the magic work.
-The
caster of the ritual must be a full-blooded elf or a divinity, and
the hearth fire must have been burning
continuously for at least a whole week (that is why people are
over-protective of winter-born children and cold autumns). For
the purposes of this text, a hearth fire is any fire around which
people gather to warm themselves and tell stories: a
fireplace, a stove, a campfire, even the oven if people usually
gather beside it in winter while food is cooking. [Note 1: If
a human/half-elf/other pushes an infant through the hearth flames,
the child will be burnt. In the case of the half-elf there may
optionally be a very small chance (1% or less) of it working – but
then there is the matter of how the half-elf will find the way to the
Elfland (see below),
for only true elves have been taught
the way.]
-Upon
the ritual’s completion the caster takes the newly-transformed
elfling and departs for the
otherworld/Elfland/beyond-the-hedge/wherever
it is that elves dwell in your world (preferably in a place that reeks of otherness
and myth). [Note 2: As a side-note, they may
leave in its stead a changeling, which becomes a half-elf. This fits
nicely with changeling folklore, the kidnapping of infants by elves,
etc.]
Parenting:
There
are people that consider their child’s immortality a great gift
that overshadows its being raised far away from them. As a result, they
try to attract elven midwifes and caretakers; a task rarely
successful, for elves work in mysterious ways. Of course, there are
creatures (wizards, hags, shades, pregnant ghosts, intelligent cuckoos, the new moon) that try to
take advantage of the situation, passing themselves as elves in order
to snatch the baby.
How to attract an elven midwife (aka adventure seeds):
- Burn the last corn of the year in the hearth at midnight, and douse it with snow from the highest mountains (above the permanent snow line).
- Carve the baby’s true name on an eagle shoulder bone and hang it above the threshold.
- Recite a prayer in front of a mirror that has seen a basilisk or medusa.
- Leave a plate of wooden/earthen fruits (found in dense forests and deep underground respectively) on the windowsill.
- Fill a gown with twigs stepped upon by criminals on their way to the gallows.
- Count the grains of sand in a blessed hourglass and plant each, separately, in the garden.
Most parents, however, tremble with the idea of their child being
taken and raised apart from them. That is why they are extremely
suspicious with autumn and winter visitors, and snuff out the hearth
fire at least once per week.
Concerning the races:
Half-elves:
They grow among humans but they usually feel slightly out of touch
with them. Half-elves have the potential of living longer than
humans, though they usually die young and tragically: they all have a
mortal weakness; their mode of death, or a condition pertaining to
it, is always foretold in prophecy. [see table] If they are doing a
deed that requires prolonged activity and is heroic in conception,
then not only are they not tired or need sustenance, but they show
superhuman resilience and skill; the deed must be something that
verges on the heroic in spirit (run for a whole night in order to
save someone, stand guard at a passage fighting off enemies, etc). Half-elven children do not have a proper elven mien (see below, in the elven section), though distant echoes of it may appear as a
flickering flame in the eye pupils or whispers in an unknown
language. They
are mightier than both humans and elves, akin to mythological heroes.
Table of Preordained Half-Elf Banes & Dooms:
- Will die by a wound in a specific body part (heel, ear, left palm, tip of the finger, etc).
- Will live until a particular piece of firewood burns completely (usually, this log is kept in a safe place by the half-elf and/or its family).
- When a bird knocks three times thrice upon the stone on which the half-elf was born, the half-elf will fall.
- A river will not tolerate the half-elf’s bloodlust and rise up to drown it.
- A traveler both known and unknown, relative and lover, foe and friend, will be the bane.
- Will die when forced to speak its true name in complete silence.
Elves: They are
the stuff of legend, immortal otherworldly beings. They
know the way to Elfland. They may eat and drink,
though they need not to. They cannot be
truly killed. However, they can be defeated at which point they are
banished (their body gone, leaving behind ashes and clothes/equipment); their return to the world may take hours or years, as they
nurse their wounds in the Elfland
(where time is a mysterious thing, having nothing of the
inevitability and
single-mindedness
of our world’s time).
In
almost all of cases, elf babies are taken by their mother or nurse to the
otherworld/elven place. This is because their grandeur may literally
kill mortals; having no control over their glamour, even their
sole presence may immolate a mortal gazing upon them. In game terms, elven children may (especially when angry or blissful) manifest
a flaming mien accompanied by unnatural sounds that causes fire and
divine damage to all nearby mortals. Elven adults have managed to control the mien, but as a result it has been rendered dormant; the power is at odds with any sort of control.
Both races have a special relationship with hearth
fire: Elves are invulnerable to it, while half-elves are resistant
(other kinds of fire may damage both races normally). Both races can
make people take vows upon the hearth, which vows become binding.
Elves can manipulate the flame in subtle ways, creating shadows,
lessening or heightening its light. They can draw sustenance (eliminating their need
for rest) and power (empowering their magic) from it, though they
must serve the people of the hearth for a time if they do so.
Mortality
ashes:
Mortality
is a fleeting, immaterial thing which, surprisingly, leaves material ashes
after each ritual night. These ashes are treasured. They can be made
into potions that accelerate or delay old age. If scattered in a
field anything that grows in it has blood inside. If used as
fertilizer for mandrakes, the plants will initiate a cult or coven.
