Category Archives: Mara

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The Mara: Limitations

My Lord:  I recently recorded the first references to the night demons called the “mara.”  (And, incidentally, my use of the term “night demon” is intentional–there are other kinds so I find it worth the trouble differentiating one from another.)  They are indeed a breed to be feared–animated shadows even a shade darker than the deeps of the Twilight, slinking through the night like a poisoned breath.  But, I recently was able to speak quietly with one or two people who know a bit about their limits.

Ironically, light in general does not seem to be much of an impediment to them.  A normally-lit room, or a cloudy day simply makes them stand out in starker relief.  However, they abhor direct sunlight or fire, and both seem to burn them.  Being shadows themselves, they can quickly retreat into a shade cast by something else.  This allows them to travel, albeit with difficulty, in the sunlit lands by slipping from shadow to shadow along the way.  My informant did tell me that on several occasions mara have been trapped by luring them into a shadow and then quickly surrounding it with very bright light.  The shadow becomes like an island in a sea of flame to them, and they dare not leave their haven.

The mara’s greatest weaknesses (that these people apparently know of) is mental.  They are ravenous  in their taste for blood–something I do not yet understand since by all accounts they cannot consume it–and they will do virtually anything for it.  This can sometimes be played off against their other driving force, which is their servitude to the starsisters.  The former is consistently willing to betray the latter, and the latter is always seeking to indulge the former in any way it can in the service of its mistresses.

I am not sure that this isn’t a “weakness” in only an academic sense.  It would be a very dangerous fate to tempt to even speak to a mara, let alone try to game one.  I do not look to try it myself.

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The Mara

My lord, I realized that in my previous entry, I referenced the “mara,” as if you should know about them already.  I see from my notes that I began an entry on them earlier, but I scratched it out and never finished it.  They are certainly not a pleasant subject to discuss, in any company, but perhaps it is time to at least broach the subject.  I doubt, though, that one entry will be enough to really describe these vile, unnatural creatures.

The mara are a sort of nightdemon that reside and breed in the deepest parts of the Twilight.  They tend to congregate in the highest concentrations around the spires at the center of the starsisters’ larger cities, though they can also be found lurking in force near the smaller towers that spread the Twilight in the outlying areas.  There are mixed stories regarding their origins.  Some say that they are the spirits of the dead who have opposed the starsisters, bound into earthly form as punishment.  Some say they are the shades of the evil ancestors who first betrayed the Empire of the Sun to the starsisters.  Still others say that they were brought into the world of Khumkato by the sisters when they pierced the veil of the heavens.  I of course have no way of knowing, but I suspect that some variation of the last is the true tale.  I have seen the mara with my own eyes, and I find it hard to believe that they belong here, even in the deepest crevices.  Khumkato can be a dark place, but the mara are darker still.

How to describe the mara?  They are shadow, formless and yet with shape; they are there and yet they are not there.  They have a limited ability to touch someone in our plane of existence, but they cannot hold complicated forms for long.  Thankfully I have never caught the attention of these foulest of  beings, but I spoken to those who have.  The mara slip in and out of your field of vision, even as you look directly at them.  It is said that as you focus on one, you suddenly realize that it is no longer there, only to feel its death-like touch caressing your throat and smelling its revolting breath as it whispers madness into your ear.  When you turn, it melts away only to come at you from some other, unexpected angle.  Its voice, I hear, echos through your mind and into your very soul.  A phrase, though spoken softly, reverberates through you, leaving the impression that certain words–usually the most horrible–are repeated again and again in a cacophony of jarring dissonance.

Perhaps it is their hunger that I find most revolting.  The mara feed off of light and life, both intangibles, but they desperately desire them in corporeal form.  All they need do is drink of a victim’s soul and mind, leaving behind a withered, shrunken husk.  But that is not enough for them.  They try to physically devour their prey, especially the remnants of the human sacrifices the starsisters regularly demand (perhaps it is a boon for their continued service).  However, since they have no settled physical form and certainly no digestive system, all they usually succeed in doing to tearing the poor soul to pieces, and smearing the remnants around until it is a bloody mess of pulpy gore.  I am sorry to say I have seen this happen to on two occasions.  I do not care to see a third.

That is enough on the mara for now, I think.  I would like to have enough stomach left to eat again before I sleep.

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The Starsisters

The seven starsisters, under their mother Hai’lyn, are the ruling powers behind the nation of Nightfall and the center of the Cult of the Starsisters to which all are forced to pay homage.  They are incredibly powerful mystical beings that, according to the peasants’ legends, descended to our world of Khumkato from the outer darkness more than seven generations ago. They are said to be the living representations of the stars in the constellation of the serpent, where Hai’lyn allegedly resides.  While no one has ever seen their mother and some doubt her existence, the sisters are clearly very real and their strength grows steadily with the corruption they spread.  They are subduing this entire continent.

While I know that there are seven sisters, I have only been able to identify and locate five of them in the portions of Nightfall that are contained in the former Empire of the Sun.   (I would suggest that your majesty consider further expeditions to locate the remaining two.)  They are   Anhilisha, Anhilynya, Anhilerya, Anhilysha, and Anhilarya.   Apparently Hai’lyn likes to do things in groups and isn’t very creative with her naming.  Each of the starsisters will be treated to a separate entry in this compendium as I compile information on them.

From what I have been able to ascertain, the starsisters are not physical/corporeal in any real sense of the word.  They are very powerful spirits of some kind, and they possess the bodies of mortals to interact with and rule their physical realms here on Khumkato.  Their energies burn through the individual’s body, leaving behind a mindless husk that obeys their commands and seems to be able to manipulate the darkness of the twilight.  Thus the twilight is spread and maintained, even in places where the starsisters are not present.  I have seen one of Anhilisha’s ceremonies of transition.  It was…disturbing.

Each of the starsisters maintains control of a different section of Nightfall, living in a tower that burns with a brilliant white light at it’s peak.  Usually, the tower sits at the center of their ever-expanding district, and they sometimes have constructed newer abodes as the center of their twilight shifts and moves with time.  They are nearly always to be found in the darkest parts where the destruction of the corruption is at its worst.  Their cities all have grandiose, almost ceremonial, names such as the “City of Glorious Twilight,” the seat of Anhilisha’s district.  While marvels of engineering and planning at their center, the cities’ outer regions are dirty and chaotic.  They are universally dangerous places to be no matter where you happen to be inside them, and the mara haunt the grounds surrounding the towers.

The starsisters are very different from one another in terms of personality and style of rule, though they all share a love for cruelty, sadism, and murder.