Siorra, The Eternally Damned Kami
Introduction[edit]
Death is a difficult topic to discuss. Everyone dies, eventually, and to Samsara their soul goes to peacefully find its way down the Styxian river. Ferried to its ultimate place of rest, reintroduced into the cycle, given new purpose, or taken -- death shall find purchase in every aspect of our daily lives. For many, this comes as a shock, for some it comes as expected, and for others is it painfully dreary, sobering in its absolution.
For spirits, death is a different concept. Some it is a horrifying true death, their domain excised like a tumor just as they are while others it is merely temporary, a set back they can come from. There exists however two more options that appear to be little more than setbacks but whose consequences tear the mind and grip the soul.
The twinned consequences to always be in the process of dying, and soul chrysalis.
The Kami of Dust[edit]
Death of a spirit is difficult to achieve on its own. Usually, a spirit can always come back if its domain remains. However, if it's domain is corrupted and destroyed or turned to another purpose, it can darken its domains and lands, rending them inhospitable to life or even simply growing things where once nothing grew. This is nothing new. As a plant grows, it also withers, but in its withering state it spreads its gametes, and new flowers grow from the old.
In Rhiness, however, there was once the story of a spirit who lorded over the land, before Rhiness began life as a seedling, a small simple village on the coast of a great crystal lake. The Kami of Dust. Its tale is a long one. Though it began life as a spec of dust on the earth, yielding to the brothers and sisters of earthen spirits, it would one day grow to be an important creature to the people that would come to, for a time, worship it.
Yet too does its tragic tale begin. The Kami of Dust, simply named, began as told a dustling, a mote in its brothers eyes. It traveled along the empty roads from a time where the ruins of great cities were buried and forgotten, through the cracks of marble stone, adrift aimlessly. As a dustling, it could scarcely be called a spirit of anything. Simply speaking, it was alive, but it was nothing. Dust in the wind, dirt in the eye, one of many such little beings that are the bane of housekeepers Rhyst-wide.
One day, though, this dustling bounced and drifted and stole away into a vast cave by the careless sweeping of siblings, a little girl playing ball with her brother. Crashing against the cracks of the cavern, the little dustling drifted further and further away, down from the world it knew until after some years, it finally stopped. The little dustling could see no one, could not hear its brothers or sisters, or talk with them.
Instead, all around it lay lifeless crystal and stone. It flitted around these little stones, bouncing around, trying to find its brothers and sisters but to no avail. They were gone. Distressed, the Kami would dig into the earth, with its infinitesimally small hands, like a child clawing at a locked door. For years, it dug into the earthen soil to no avail, searching for its brothers and sisters. And as it dug, new pathways opened to it.
Eventually, after a time long lost to it, it came upon a vast cavern, filled with crystals and gems. And these stones were not lifeless, like those above. They filled with light, shimmering brightly. It had discovered spirits it could talk to, converse with!
But they wanted nothing to do with the dustling. Saddened, the dustling would spend some years within this dismal company, mocking her. They laughed, they made jokes.
"A breeze would be the end of you, haha! One whiff and you'll be in a thousand particles."
"Yeah. A decade spent just pulling yourself together. What use are you, little dustling? You should return to the air, where you belong."
As it was mocked and mocked, however, and the sadness grew inside of the dustling, voices only she could hear gripped the tiny dustling's mind.
"It is not a prison, little one. It is only the beginning, and from this form you will become something greater."
"Haha! Yes. I like that, sister. A lowly dustling turned master of the caves it was mocked in. How shall we free it?"
"With one breath, brother."
At first, the dustling thought it was hearing things. But then, a swift and terrible breeze buffeted the cavern, rocking stone, cracking the earth and the dustling was thrown into a terrible whirlwind. What should have killed it then and there had done the opposite.
Instead of dying and later reforming, the dustling's particles had intermixed with crystalline particles from the dead crystals above, growing like cysts upon its body. At first, she was terrified, but eventually grew to understand they were not cysts. Like deadened nerves, they had become her and she had become they.
And like this, she slowly grew, in that lifeless cavern. What began as a dustling became crystal, and when that crystal grew in power, it took from those that mocked it their domains, bit by bit, chipping away. She did not mock them. She did not turn them away. Instead, she incorporated them, pulling them into her domain, forcing them to kneel to her.
It was through this that the Kami of Dust would grow, and it was through this that the Kami of Dust would die.
Death of the Spirit of Dust[edit]
Years passed and the Kami of Dust was big, now. She held mastery over vast caverns. Rhiness was a thriving metropolis, paying her tribute, worship. Other countries came, too, for she lorded over deep caverns. Her eyes were red onyx, her arms were blue quartz, her body white jade. Illusory wings of gemstones dotted her back, six in total. Crystal dust swirled around her feet as they moved.
The fox-spirit priests of the East gave prayer to her, and Rhiness gave succulence, and in return they were given gemstones and crystals to power their cities, to empower their magi. For Rhiness, it was said that she gave them the secrets to gemstone magic, and for the priests, they were given secrets to an unknown magic or reagent.
As time passed, though, jealousies began to boil and bubble. And eventually, the kami of dust caught the ire of some jealous spirits that began their revolt, angered that a dustling would be able to lord over them. Many had never forgotten how they used to mock her and how now, they are her subjects.
And so, the lot of them banded together and struck one fateful night, known in Rhiness and the East (because there's no name for them yet) as The Sundering. On one bright morning afternoon, the gathered spirits put their plan into motion. They called a meeting with the Kami of Dust, deep in her cavern, to discuss something important.
When she arrived, however, the spirits launched their offensive and the lifeless crystals that she had given light pierced her from end to end. What the spirits hadn't thought of, however, when this ritual was performed, was that the crystal spears made from lifeless gems would weep for their mother.
Nor did they expect that when the stones wept that in their sadness and grief at being forced to perform this coup de'tat, that it would cause the kami of dust's body to reinvigorate. Constantly. Forcing her into a state of dying without death, for she still had her domain, but the ritual had assuredly killed her.
The spirits had unknowingly turned her into what the vast mines of Rhiness now know home. Her body's crystals, her tears, her blood formed these vast networks and still do, to this day. She is the cavern. She is dead. She is alive.
She will never know peace. This is the twinned consequence, for she has been unknowingly turned into a spirit chrysalis. An eternal cocoon of dying, so far unable to reform and unable to truly die.
The beings that gave her life punished those responsible. Their names, if they had any, were wiped from history.
But hers will never be forgotten.
Siorra, The Kami of Dust.
Trivia[edit]
Spiritual death and corruption may often take unique forms, so Siorra's condition and circumstance may not occur similarly to another spirit. Domain alteration and corruption does happen similarly to this however, and the lessons learned from this tale are cautionary ones for any wishing to protect and ensure the health of Rhyst and its spirits.
The mines of Rhiness are made up of the spirit's body. It is always bleeding, it is always trying to reform. It is why Rhiness is able to produce such high quality gemstones. They are made from a spirit's constantly dying form.
Ai and Phee gave her life on a whim. A lowly dustling turned into a spirit that would lord over a cavern. It was meant to be a funny prank, but pranks can often make a devastating turn. Whether or not they actually took revenge is up for debate. It could well be the gems themselves took revenge. I like to think Ai and Phee took it, but the interpretation is meant to be up to the reader. It's meant to be a mystery, in a way.
Siorra was talkative to humans, because she always liked to talk. It was a fun past time. Those that managed to ever speak to her in their life remembered it fondly. They're collected in memoirs and often go for a high price in Rhiness and the East.
Fox-spirit priests pray for her salvation while Rhinessian magi are researching ways to fix her. They do not want Arlandrian druids down there, for fears that Arlandria will attempt to fix her themselves. It's a point of national pride they want to fix her state. This is why no one is allowed into the mines but the East Rhiness Mining Company and select individuals and nobles. It's been an on-going process. There has been very limited success.