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| quote = 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 = {{Aspect|Heart}} {{Aspect|Winter}} {{Aspect|Knock}}
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.
== Apocalypse ==
== Appearance ==
Her Scarred Serenity primarily appears as an elderly woman, scarred, blindfolded, and clothed in rags. She sits on the cold stone slab intended to be her tombwhere she was embalmed, attended by servants and kept live alive through strong magic. She may also appear as a large black bird, blindfolded and incapable of flight.
== Principles ==
== Locations ==
=== The Fansus 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 ===
=== Tools ===
'''Stigmata {{Aspect|Knock}} 12:''' ''There are wounds too deep for even Her Scarred Serenity to healclose, 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''
=== Ingredients ===
'''Indissoluble Ink: {{Aspect|Heart}} 4, Pigment''' ''For The paper may crumble. The walls may crack. The canvas may be stained. The words , and illustrations alikethe murals, this should ensue and the paintings will remain long after that the texts never cease to be read, lingering like memories.''
'''Tattered Feathers: {{Aspect|HeartWinter}} 12:'''
=== Influences ===
'''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.
== Relationships ==