Her Scarred Serenity

Her Scarred Serenity
"Unlike what my father may tell you, there may in fact be prices too great"
Origin	Light
Titles	Our Lady of Scars, The Scarred Maiden
Names	Ryo, the Last Augur
Aspects
Date of arrival	Long before the Collision.
Owner(s)	A Blessed Feline

The Hour called Our Lady of Scars is not as she was, before the Collision. She has been scarred and reduced by the sacrifice she made, to save the Hours and the twin Mansi. She fully expected to die, but she lived. She does not regret what she did, nor what she didn't. Now, she is the patron of the wounded, the scarred, and the mutilated, invoked in moments of weakness and futility. She does not grant strength, not as her father does, though she wishes she could. She grants determination, resolve, the power to persist another day and another day and another day. She also grants the wisdom to know when strength and resolve are futile, when it is better to flee or to cease. And perhaps most importantly, she grants oracles, as something to give for those with nothing else to give. She is often invoked for protection, not so that all goes well, but in case all goes wrong. She is sometimes invoked at sickbeds, when it is known that the patient has no chance of recovery.

History

Before the Collision, Our Lady of Scars had another name, and another set of Aspects. She was Our Lady of Visions, patron of historians, archaeologists, and oracles. She strived for truth at all costs, and found more than she could ever have expected. From scattered fragments of knowledge, she pieced together a prophecy, foretelling the Collision. Her aspects were Lantern and Heart.

When the Collision occurred, Our Lady of Visions sacrificed herself to mitigate it and its effects. She fully expected this to be her end, as did the Names and Long who served her. They recovered what they assumed to be a corpse from the epicenter of the Collision and took it to the Chamber of Chrismation, wherein the corpse was anointed in sacred oils and embalmed in preparation for being laid to rest in the Silent Sepulcher. Despite her effort, many Hours had been heavily wounded in the Collision, and their bodies had been moved into the Silent Sepulcher to die. At the completion of the funerary rite, however, Our Lady of Scars rose to sitting position and spoke a powerful word of Winter. This word petrified the dying Hours in the Silent Sepulcher into icy beings at the threshold between living and dead, unable to live and yet unable to die. The Scarred Maiden is now the protector of these faded Hours,and cannot permit them to die as such would lead to them returning as Gods-from-Nowhere and likely devour what remains of the twin Mansi. As a reward for saving them from Nowhere, or perhaps as a way to torment her for not allowing them to die, these faded Hours grant their protector oracles and revelations through the scars she acquired during her sacrifice, which she sometimes passes on to her followers.

Appearance

Her Scarred Serenity primarily appears as an elderly woman, scarred, blindfolded, and clothed in rags. She sits on the cold stone slab where she was embalmed, attended by servants and kept alive through strong magic. She may also appear as a large black bird, blindfolded and incapable of flight.

Worship

Servants

Rao, The Last Augur

Locations

The Mansus

The Silent Sepulcher, also called the Hall of the Halted or the Threshold-Tomb, is an ancient chamber in the Mansus, at the threshold to Nowhere, and was filled with Winter influence by an unknown Hour to serve as a morgue for dead Hours and slow their descent into Nowhere upon their death.

The Histories

The Summit Monastery:

Items

Tools

Stigmata 12: There are wounds too deep for even Her Scarred Serenity to close, ones she splits into pieces and gives to her followers to bear.

As a gift: It cannot be healed, only given further. Keep it somewhere where the bleeding won't get in the way

Immaculate Corpse 12:

Ingredients

Indissoluble Ink: 4, Pigment The paper may crumble. The walls may crack. The canvas may be stained. The words, and the murals, and the paintings will remain long after that, lingering like memories.

Tattered Feathers: 12:

Books

Accounts from the Deluge: The Predictions We Made The first of three enigmatic scrapbooks by "Straggler"

Before reading: A combined scrapbook and travelogue by the enigmatic "Straggler". The first volume, written before the Deluge, gathers a haphazard variety of seemingly meaningless and unconnected texts, including receipts, notes, and shopping lists.

After reading: As one progresses through the gathered nonsense, first patterns and then prophecies slowly begin to emerge as Straggler's intent becomes clear. There is no doubt Straggler was an occultist, there is no doubt they knew about Deluge before it happened, and there is no doubt they tried to warn others through this book.

Yields: 2, Dread

Accounts from the Deluge: The Precautions We Took The second of three enigmatic scrapbooks by "Straggler"

Before reading: A combined scrapbook and travelogue by the enigmatic "Straggler". The second volume, written during the Deluge, gathers a wide variety of seemingly unconnected means people used to protect themselves against the Deluge, including routines, superstitions, and aphorisms.

After reading: As one progresses through the gathered rabble, first patterns and then rituals slowly begin to emerge as Straggler's intent becomes clear. There is no doubt Straggler knew how to protect themselves, there is no doubt they tried to save others, and there is no doubt they, at least to some degree, failed.

Yields: 4, Dread

Accounts from the Deluge: The Losses We Endured The third of three enigmatic scrapbooks by "Straggler"

A combined scrapbook and travelogue by the enigmatic "Straggler". The third volume, written shortly after the Deluge, gathers a wide variety of seemingly unconnected ways people mourned those they lost, including funerary speeches, tombstone inscriptions, and poems.

After reading: As one progresses through the gathered mourning, first patterns and then laments slowly begin to emerge as Straggler's intent becomes clear. There is no doubt Straggler mourned Her Scarred Serenity, there is no doubt they knew they were dying as well, and there is no doubt they wrote the book as penance for their failures, in an attempt to enter the service of that scarred Hour.

Yields: 6, Dread

The Last-Word Tantra:

Before Translation: Enigmatic musings by the deaf monk Atzak concerning a single word once spoken to him by his mentor, in Sanskrit.'

After Translation: A series of warnings, meditative exercises, and protective rites one needs to preform to safely read a "Word of Words", which Atzak claims is important to understand "The grandmother of languages".

Before reading: "The Glory is dead. The goddess Vak is dead. Our Lady is close to death. But yet, she will protect the Monastery from the Deluge, as she protects the body from the wound during surgery, as she protects the soul from evil during Mansus-dreams, and as she will protect the mind from the Word I will record. Here are the rites of protection..."

After reading: "Many words can protect, but this one needs to be protected against. Few corpses contain words, but this word contains a corpse. All languages contain words, but this word contains a language. Herein, the grave of threefold Vak, the goddess, the word, and the language."

Yields: Scholar: Vak

Rites

Speaking-Scar Rite: The assistant is ritually wounded, embalmed in aromatic oil, and laid to rest. If the proper words are spoken at the proper time, the contacted spirit should arise from the wounds. The assistant usually survives, though never unharmed

Lore: What are the words?

Influence: What power is present?

Follower🗡: Who will be wounded?

The rite does not kill the Follower, instead giving them a Wound.