Siahir, the Viridescent Hare
Xiarus, Thorn-Crowned Sage; Eurali, Presager of the North Wind
"Siahir! Guide of humanity,
benevolent north wind!
Foresight and remembrance
walk the path at her side..."
As long as there has been suffering, we have challenged the divine. Children ask their parents why the world is so cruel. Priests beg the gods to protect their people. Heretics cry out against the apparent indifference of the heavens.
In a long-forgotten epoch, one woman asked such a question - heavy with grief, pierced with pain. A question that drew the gaze of heaven.
The Viridescent Hare was one of the eldest Exalted, and one of the closest to mortals. As the immortal who holds the domain of time, Siahir once gazed upon past and future. She walked the thorn-choked path at her master's side, witnessing the myriad possibilities that lie ahead. She appeared in many places, under many guises - always offering choices. Always breathing hope into the long, dark road that we walk.
And although she has disappeared, she still left this world with hope: her myriad 'children', blessed with shards of her own power, able to guide us when she could not.
From the heavens, the north wind brought cool relief to the fields, carrying wisdom upon the breeze.
Aspect of Wisdom: Causality
"Go forth. The path is long and filled with thorns, and darkness shall gather behind and before you, and you will long to turn aside. But go forth, and I will walk alongside you."
Siahir's origins stretch so far into the past that they have practically been lost. She was the oldest known surviving Exalted for generations, up until her abrupt disappearance - after which her sister, Arvus, took the title. Scholars and priests still struggle to understand her, both as an objectively real demigod and as a 'character' in mythology.
That said, the majority of the stories about Siahir revolve around one thing: her grief.
Legends from the north call her a child - the sole survivor of her caravan's destruction, holding the tapestry of her people's history as it crumbled to ash. Others say that she was a mother cursed by a child-like demon - who was born, died too soon, and then returned to her womb in order to continue the cycle. Still more say that she ascended near the end of her life, after watching her loved ones pass on without her.
Whatever the truth is, the myths converge at the peak of her despair - when she cried out to the heavens, with the question that had hung so heavily over her life.
Why is this world fated to ruin?
And against all odds, the Skypiercer gazed upon Siahir, and gave her understanding.
Pathwalker, Pathwatcher
"She does not predict the future, nor remember the past. She simply sees all paths in the present, like we mortals could never hope to."
The power of the Viridescent Hare was not in raw strength. She was a demigod, of course, and could more than defend herself - she never needed to. Monsters would leap out to attack her, only to find that she had picked a different path hours before they made the first leap. Unwise bandits would do the same, and then inexplicably find themselves bruised and collapsed on the ground, as if the fight had been... skipped.
After all, what could threaten someone who had already charted all paths?
Siahir lived in the high, windy places of the wilderness. She never called mortals to her - their meetings were simply fate. They would find a young girl, or a woman, or an elder, sitting as if she had always known they would find her. She would tell them of things that were months or years or even lifetimes away, and how their choices might affect the future. Giving them possible paths forward.
Of course, there are never only two or three possibilities. And a single choice is rarely enough to change the course of history. But Siahir only ever spoke of what you strove for. She never offered judgement herself - only presented the choices.
Once, to a king-in-exile, she revealed that he could either flee his nation forever, or attempt a rebellion within the capital. When he rejected her advice, she simply nodded, stepped forward, and embraced him - an unexpected warmth from a girl as cold as the north wind. Then she vanished, leaving behind only footprints like a hare's.
He attempted to gain support from a neighbouring country, and was cut down by assassins.
Siahir rarely mentioned death in her prophecies and guidance, but she always made it clear that there are no guarantees.
And what would death matter to such an ancient, wise Exalted?
So Narrow A Road
"Then why did your 'Mother' pass down wisdom and prophecy? Why would she attempt to guide us if she knew that there was only one path forward?"
The Presager stands out among her brethren in two ways.
One: that her ascension to divinity revealed an aspect of Aspira's demesne that few have ever managed: power related to time. She discovered three new archrunes: tempo, stasis and farsight. Tempo could alter the flow of time; stasis could 'pause' time in a region; and farsight - her signature - allowed her to view the past and future as if they were in the present
And two: that she has 'children'.
Whether they are her offspring or just her favoured mortals, Siahir's 'children' are the only sky mages who can somewhat use time-related castings. Such a thing has not happened with any other Wyrpath - an earth mage can cast any runes under the demesne of Lapis, for example.
This, of course, raises several questions about the nature of the Wyrpaths, and the Exalted's domains. But it is also why so many believe that being a mage is inherited to some extent - for while there are some blessed 'children' with no mages in their ancestry, the vast majority descend from other 'children' of Siahir. Not all their offspring are mages, but every mage in such a family is a blessed sky mage.
These 'children' gather in the Verdigris Tower, constructed by Siahir herself, to study the weather and the streams of time. Now that she has vanished, they are the only ones who can guide mortals down the path of prosperity.
But recently, their path seems to have diverged from that of their 'Mother'.
And who will lead us forward if the guides have lost their way?
When you stand at the crossroads of myriad paths, listen to the cry of the cold north wind. Eurali shall walk the road at your side, guiding you towards destiny.
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