LoreOneExalted/TheThirtyMaidens
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The Tale Of The Thirty Maidens
When Creation was yet young, long before the dawn of humanity, the Primordials that were shaping the world began to squabble over what paths and designs it would take. As they wove the Loom of Fate, and designed the gods that would oversee it, they broke into an argument over what aspects of fate were most important, and which were rightly subsidiary. The argument began to escalate, until Cytherea feared that the enraged beings might damage the Loom and force them all to begin Creation anew. So she proposed a challenge, to all the Primordials. Each would create one Maiden, who would govern a destiny. The Maidens would then fight for Creation, weaving fates against one another, until only five remained, and those would determine the guiding destinies of existance.
The Primordials, eventually, agreed, and each set to work crafting a Maiden. Then, over the course of a hundred years, the Maidens warred with one another, stealing each others' powers and portfolios until only five remained. It was these five that were granted all thirty of the world's destiny-threads, covering the thirty constellations that represented the Primordials. During the Primordial War, as constellations died, these Maidens shifted their responsibilities amongst each other to keep the destinies of Creation in balance.
The Imprisoned Maidens
Of the Thirty Maidens, only five sit in the skies. The rest are scattered about Creation, trapped so that they may not rise again to claim the dominions that were once theirs. Some of these Maidens are held by powerful sorceries, such as the Weeping Maiden in the Western Wyld, or the strange old man trapped deep within an Unshaped raksha. Others are bound to locations, powerful within a small area but unable to leave it - such as the Emissary of Nexus. Still more Maidens take the form of potent artifacts, such as that wielded firmly by the Perfect of Paragon. A few have even become locations of their own, their Essence suffusing every rock and tree of their domain, and are Level 5 Sidereal Manses. Regardless of their natures, they are bound. Each could be freed, but it would be costly and difficult.
However, there are also exceptions. Twenty-three Maidens are bound to Creation; four of them Maidens no longer have constellations, and are powerless. Two more have been destroyed - one was a powerless Maiden, and her loss was not felt (though the starmetal that represented her built the Orrery of Rathess), but another represented The Mask, and it was with her death that the Sidereals damaged the Mask forever. If Maidens still tied to a constellation are killed, that constellation will be forever damaged, removing not only Sidereal resplendant destinies, but reducing the destinies of Creation - when the Mask died, destinies changed so that secrets can never be kept forever. A similar weakening would accompany any other Maiden's loss. On the other hand, if one of the Five Maidens of the sky were to die, another of the thirty might be brought up to replace her, and only her own constellation would suffer for it. If a Maiden were released, her constellation would slip from the control of the Maiden in the sky, and she would approve or deny the Prayer Stips of that associated element.
