M O R A N A
"There can be no new beginnings without an end."
M O R A N A ♦ F E M A L E ♦ S L A V I C P A G A N ♦ D E A T H & W I N T E R
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I N C A R N A T I O N C O N C E P T:
Morana, who represents death in winter, is most commonly described as being ritualistically ‘banished’ each year. Some sources call it her death (and rebirth whenever she re-emerges), others a return to the underworld – I prefer the latter. Mainly because I want her to be facing with dying herself for the first time, dying as in ‘end of her existence’ rather than being forgotten (which she might have considered to be one and the same in the past). The traditions pertaining to her are, perhaps not surprisingly, somewhat violent – an effigy of her being torn apart, burned, then drowned. Though those rituals are presently done for fun (which ties in neatly with loss of belief and respect in her, something she’d want to reclaim), they used to celebrate the passing of winter and rebirth of spring in the past. The worship of her as keeper of souls and overseer of the afterlife seems practically nonexistent nowadays, and her first priority would be to re-establish that.
I think Morana might initially be conflicted that her presence as an Incarnation would mean stoking people’s fear of death to empower their belief in her. On the one hand, she would enjoy being brought back to prominence in people’s minds, the stories of her being recalled again, the renewed marks of her presence on the physical world and the people’s (collective) consciousness. On the other, she would fondly recall the distant past wherein she did not bring only terror and misery, but also inspired endurance in the face of hardships and hope for a better future. After all, once upon a time, life and rebirth were her domains as well, but they’d long since been attributed to others. I think her dearest wish would be to have that as well – but eventually, she’d have to come to terms with who and what she is right now, even if that is ‘only’ death.
Morana can spread decay by sapping vitality through touch and willful desire to kill or destroy, literally sucking the life out of her target(s) and making them wither. Even non-living objects suffer deterioration at her touch, if at a slower rate. A secondary non-voluntary effect of this ability is spreading cold, freezing those she reaps and the vicinity around her. The latter manifests as an unnatural, if temporary drop in temperature, and tends to cause side-effects in the local weather due to the sudden change (i.e. bringing about cold winds, obscuring mists, and snow or hail). She herself is unaffected by the cold.
More generally, she can sense the imminent death of mortals within a certain radius. She can ensure a safe passage to the underworld or the afterlife for the souls she handles. Though the latter depends on the belief of the mortals in question; if they believe in another deity, she has little to no power over their souls. She can very briefly stall – but not prevent – the death of a mortal, though doing so taxes her.
Knowing the Incarnations would find themselves mortal, I immediately thought that dying would be an ironic yet fitting thing to happen to a deity of death. Would an immortal being ruling over the dead not consider it natural that all gods too must eventually die? They may find the current events as surprising merely in their timing and the way they are occurring. Perhaps they would be concerned that deities of death faced their decline before all of creation – it would make more sense if they were the last to go – and question what sort of life mundane mortals may face without their presence. Perhaps they would be quietly welcoming of the reprieve in their eternal, lonesome duty. Perhaps they would, for the first time ever, truly understand what death means, facing the looming end to their own existence as they’d never had before – I think in the end, that would grant them greater understanding of who and what they are, identifying with the concept of death more deeply than ever. Of course, this would come after the standard trials and tribulations of an immortal turning mortal (and for unknown reasons, to boot).
I picked Morana relatively easily – it was something not quite familiar, not quite unfamiliar. I especially felt drawn to the fact that she used to be considered a goddess of both death and life. She is tied strongly to the natural cycle, and is also considered the personification of winter – while her abilities do reflect that, I am also interested in writing about the cycle of death and life in general (rather than having it be a strictly seasonal thing). I considered making rebirth (one of) her sphere(s) – one of the several concepts Morana is associated with – and the decision whether to do so or not was more difficult than expected. But since she’s been tied more so with death for a while, I figured that her divine sphere could (or even should) reflect that belief.
