| Species | Lussiferda |
| Order | Faerie |
| Classification | Vaettir |
| Court | Wild Hunt |
| Sphere | Agony |
| Origin | All faeries are born Nameless and must be given a True Name; the lussiferda have painful Names |
| Lifespan | 2,000 years |
| Habitat | Subarctic to temperate woodlands |
| Food | The pain of others |
| Description | Tall, muscular feminine humanoids with their eyes missing, their throats cut open and bleeding. They carry their eyes with them, usually in a dish. |
| Procreation | The lussiferda can reproduce sexually, but most simply torment other fey until their Names are warped. |
| Esoterica | Lussiferda are beings of arnum, b'qar, poioumenon, and uafas. Like all faeries, they are users of The Tradition, a form of poioumenonic lore empowered by dream energies. They also use other Damaskian powers, other arnic powers, infernum, some forms of aether (esp. bestial), some forms of msawhat, gebvel, spirits, kor, blood energy, humors, mansam, and blasphemy. |
| The Tradition | The lussiferda have these basic fey powers:
When a lussiferda captures a fey, one of these things happens:
The lussiferda can sense where fey and vaettir are at night by special sight through their gouged-out eyes. Any single hunter can let out a call on a horn made of the horns of the bones of an innocent child to summon the rest of the Hunt. The lussiferda ride through the air on various steeds on one night of the year (the thirteenth day of the tenth month--lussinata). A lussiferda can control trolls with their rasping voices and demons with their blood. They can speak to spirits and the undead as well. Lussiferda are immune to fire and cannot be moved even with a team of oxen when captured. They have the power to predict the future when they are in pain. If they are on a Hunt, they can dismount into a chimney and enter a home. They can sense children who are mischievous and parents who hate them if they drop their blood on the roof of a house. Lussiferda carry a palm frond that causes intense pain if they whip someone with it. A lussiferda can lose most of their limbs and body parts so long as they are conscious to experience the pain, which they gain strength from. The lussiferda keep their eyes on a golden plate or in a cup of some kind. They can see with them as well as through their eye sockets, and the vessels emit an eerie light that helps them traverse the night during the darkest winter. Their bloody tears can cure illnesses and maladies of the eye for others. When they die, the eyes return to their bodies. |
| Glamour | The lussiferda can glamour themselves using certain ancient rhymes, but they can never hide their neck or eye wounds. |
| Weaknesses | If they do not speak their True Name backwards into that same mirror in half a minute, the lussiferda lose their True Names. They have a fortnight to recover it or they become targets of the Wild Hunt, corrupted into another kind of fey, or turn into a hag or boggin. Iron or steel will bind a lussiferda into powerlessness. An iron horseshoe nailed over a door will bar a lussiferda from entering a house. Most lussiferda detest tobacco smoke, and it can be used to stave them off. This is just a preference, however, and not a weakness. Qi, curacion, and sanguine light can harm them. |
| National Culture | For one night, the thirteenth night of the twelfth month (lussinata), the lussiferda ride in a Wild Hunt (oskoreia). They hunt any who get in their path, but they prefer innocent but mischievous children whose parents are angry with them or do not love them; noble princes who have rejected their brides; arrogant nobles and other ruling class fools; and newly recruited soldiers. The legends tell of a fey of unspecified nation named Lussi was a rich and noble girl of unspecified but apparently holy faith. She was forced by the laws of her Court to marry a fey man of an unspecified but different faith. She had consecrated her unmarried life to her Divine to devote her life to helping her sick mother, but the ruling lords did not care. She made a pilgrimage to the tomb of a figure holy to her faith. That night, the figure appeared to her in a dream, and she awoke to find her mother cured. She went to her betrothed and asked that, in honor of her faith, she be able to devote her life to distributing riches among the poor. Her betrothed denounced her and she was arrested. The legends then become unclear. Some say she gouged out her own eyes to discourage a suitor who visited her in prison and wrote poetry about their beauty. Others say it was part of her punishment. What is known is that fire did not work and she could not be moved, but a sword to the throat killed her. Her body was then ripped apart. In death, her eyes were restored, and she rose again--not undead, but a being of pain, for the torment had altered her Name. She predicted an end to the current rulers and death and destruction beyond, and with her was borne the lussiferda, those who ride with her to Hunt. On Lussinata, there are many rules for those in the area where the lussiferda hunt: no work but tilling the fields or similarly necessary work are allowed; those who sleep that night take risks (all night parties called lussevaka are often held to keep people awake and safe); and certain tasks must be completed before the solstice. The lussiferda live in bands of 25 (13 days, 12 months). Each band is considered to be a sisterhood called a systerskap. Each one is led by a jagardrottning who gains her rank by cruel dominance. Every jagardrottning is a daughter (literally or figuratively) of a jagaremordare, who is one of the 25 riders who ride with the Eyeless Mistress, or ingen alskarinna. She is chosen every year through a violent tournament judged by the Manifest (manifestera). The ingen alskarinna leads the Hunt for that year and must be challenged the next year during the tournament. While not hunting, the lussiferda engage in many common tasks among their bands: crafting the dishes they use for their eyes (diskmaskin); selling and trading (forsaljningskvinnor); making saddles for their dread mounts (sadelmakare); crafting knives and cutlery for their feasts and for torture practices (bestick); working the land (boender); making glass (glasmastare), especially stained glass; and writing tales of torture and torment for their own entertainment (forfattare). On the rare occasion a lussiferda gives birth, the child is raised by the band until they are old enough to Hunt, and then they are brought to a fair held each year in the darkest forest where new bands are formed. These fairs are for those who have been converted (willingly or through torture) or those born as lussiferda. Being raised by the lussiferda is a cruel experience; they are extremely abusive to ensure the child is shaped to be just like them. When the lussiferda meet, it is a grim festival. These happen five times per year: New Year's Day, when new bands are formed; the tournament where the new ingen alskarinna is chosen (winter solstice); the summer solstice, when they join together to be burned collectively (which does not harm them, but allows them to commune in pain); Halloween, when they torment their slaves together; and lussinata. |
| Combined Culture | When all of the Hunts come together for the Great Wild Hunt, they answer to the inmortal Master of the Wild Hunt (at present, the Erlking). This happens every seven years. The united Hunt is chaotic. All national, social, and cultural boundaries dissolve as the Hunt rides out throughout all of Lyrilla to take fey, vaettir, and mortals who have violated The Law of the Hunt, an ancient law about when, where, and why one must hunt, but which has implications beyond the mere act of hunting. The seven parts of The Law of the Hunt are
This can be taken metaphorically, however. For instance, a police officer who makes a wrongful arrest (5), a lord who is too stingy (7), a wasteful farmer (3), a builder whose materials are not good enough (6), etc. will be likely prey. Those captured during these Hunts belong to the Master of the Wild Hunt alone. The Master will decide their fate. The role of huntsmen in this Great Wild Hunt is to be the bulk of the hunters. The lussiferda are the Hunt's cruel harrowers, the ones who are sent after the very worst violators of the Laws of the Hunt. |
| Other Courts | The lussiferda are sought after by the Kindly Court, who know the arts to heal them. The Summer Court views them with pure terror and will kill them if possible. The Winter and Unseelie Courts require they convert if they leave their Hunt, but then will be enslaved. The Unkindly Court flees them in terror no matter what. |
| Mortal Interactions | The lussiferda are feared by all mortals who know of them; mortals go out of their way to avoid them. The lussiferda take innocent children and torment them. |
| Notables | Lussi, Lussiferda Manifestera; Lampa, Witch of the Coldest Night |
| Special Classes | Ingen Alskarinna; Jagardrottning; Jagaremordare; Jagare; Diskmaskin; Forsaljningskvinnor; Sadelmakare; Bestick; Boender; Glasmastare; Forfattare; Ljusbarare (light-bearer); Trollherder; Demonkontroll |
| Sample Stats | PRO %B12R%ATH 12 STR 12 Immovability 20 Fire Resistance 24 AWA 14 Sight 16 WIL 13 ROG 12 Vanish (30 seconds) Glamour 7 Whistle 11 Horn 11 Troll/Demon Control (WIL) Riding 11 Palm 14 Ponomancy (AWA) Eyeblood 12 |
Topic revision: 28 Jun 2021, SallyJaneBlack
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