#-specialty) in their ranks. that being said if the other witch disappearances are also from the everlasting (ie spider witch; lily witch- | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

salytierra · 7 years

Note

Hello there! :D I'm a huge fan of mythologies from various different cultures, so I was wondering if you could tell a bit about Spanish mythology? Anything from mythical creatures to popular legends. Thank you in advance! ^^

SPANISH LEGENDS AND MYTHOLOGY

Hello! Sorry for taking so long to answer. Unfortunately, this theme is not my specialty at all, but I’ll try my best to give you a decent answer :’D

PRE-ROMAN IBERIANS

Little is known about Iberian customs and beliefs. They had a very rich and flourishing culture and social life, but all the written testimony had been lost due to the fact that their writing has not bee de-codified yet. Apparently they were polytheists and, according to the late chronicles of roman historians during the invasion, had received a lot of religious influence from Phoenicians and Greeks, their permanent trade partners for centuries. There had been some discoveries like The Lady of Baza and the Lady of Elche that suggest a strong leadership by Priestesses in the religious life.

As for mythology, it had been heavily inspired by the Helenic beliefs about this part of the world. According to Carthaginian chronicles there used to be a temple where the “Columns of Heracles” were supposed to be, at the edge of the Strait of Gibraltar. Hannibal Barca is said to have sworn eternal hate to Rome in that temple. One of the theories also say that he gave name to the city of Barcelona and the Columns of Heracles are still present in the Spanish Crest of Arms.

Still, most of the known Iberian mythology is like: “here supposedly be a rock where something happened according to other people.”

A myth/legend/weird history thing worth mentioning though is Tartessos:

TARTESSOS

Tartessos is, crudely said, the Iberian Atlantis. Although to be fair Atlantis was probably made up by Plato but Tartessos has been definitively proven to have been real in the recent research. The problem is that nobody knows where the heck it was.

Supposedly it was a great coastline civilization miles ahead of its surrounding regions and of their time, with a rich culture and technology, that just disappeared without leaving any trace. It’s fall is mostly consistent with the fall of Phoenicia, around the Vth century BC.

Some theories say that Tartessos had been wiped out by a Tsunami, since its a region of heavy seismic activity, others that it just died out with the end of the Phoenician commerce or that the surrounding cultures caught up and they stopped being special, thus just mixing around and disappearing.

In any case, it’s a mystery!

THE CELTIC NORTH-WEST

Their legends and mythology are far clearer, more documented, and survive to this day. However, I don’t think I can surprise you with any of them because (according to my tour guide in Santiago) most of them can be found in other regions of Celtic descend, specially in Ireland.

Of the most “recent” (middle ages) The Holy Procession (the procession of the dead dressed in white that you can find walking around at midnight) comes to mind, also the meigas, sort of witches, and bruixas, their nice, cool equivalent that people liked.

St. JAMES THE MOOR-SLAYER

This is an individual legend but it’s very important. So, in Galicia they say rest the bones of the Apostle St. James (Santiago), which turned it into the hotspot for pilgrimage, specially after the Muslims in the east cut the christian pilgrimage routes to Jerusalem and started killing the pilgrims. So like, the next best option, and way safer, was the restplace of St. James, crossing the territories of the Catholic Kingdoms of Hispania.

PS: Leaving aside the fascinating legend of how his rests got there (it involves a stone boat, a couple of bulls and a truckload of scallops), the first touristic-guide in the world is believed to be a guide to the way of St. James, the Codex Calixtinus, written around the year 1135.

According to the Legend, the Asturian King Ramiro I was visited by the Apostle Santiago clad in battle wear the night before a big battle with the moors, and the next day, at the battlecry of “Santiago!” the troops of Ramiro won a seemingly impossible battle. From then on and through the centuries variations of “For Spain and for Santiago!” (Santiago and charge, Spain!, For Santiago and the Spains!, etc…) became the official cry of the Spanish Army and the apostle Santiago is the patron Saint of Spain.

PS: Around the same period we also find a lot of legends and lore related to the Templars and the military orders of the Peninsula (Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara, Montesa in Spain and Avis in Portugal)

THE LOVERS OF TERUEL

Sometimes called “the Spanish Romeo & Juliet” it’s in my opinion a way better story, not only it has been proven to have elements of truth in it, but because nobody is fucking 13!

Funnily enough for a short while this legend had been accused of being a copy of one included in the Decameron of Boccaccio until it had been discovered that the first instances of it date back to a whole century before the Decameron was written, so it may have been actually the other way ‘round.

Anyway, the events were supposed to have happened in the city of Teruel in the year 1217. A young boy Diego (sometimes called Juan) of the Marcilla family and the girl Isabel of the Segura family, grew up playing together and when their teenage hormones hit hard, fell in love.

However, even though the Marcilla family was important, it was not as important as the Segura family and Diego was the second son, meant to inherit nothing. There was no way he could marry the only daughter and heiress of the Segura family. So he struck a deal with her father: he’d go to war (meaning la Reconquista) fight hard, rise in rank and earn a world of wealth in five years. If in that time he returned rich, he’d marry Isabel.

So he left. Passed some years, Isabel’s father started insisting in her to get married but, and here comes my favorite part, she refused on the premise that she had to remain a maiden until 20, because no woman should get married before she learned how to manage a household. And her father, as any good middle-ages dad, that loved and respected his daughter, agreed with her.

However, when the five years passed and Diego didn’t return, Isabel believed him dead and agreed to marry Don Pedro of Azagra. However, right after the ceremony, Diego returned with great riches! Too late tho. His beloved was already married.

So he sneaked up into her and her husband’s bedroom at night and asked her for a kiss: “kiss me, for I’m dying!”. She refused on the terms that she would not be unfaithful to her husband, he asked her again and she refused again.

So Diego just dropped dead of heartache.

Isabel woke up her husband and told him what happened. He was like “but why didn’t you kiss him?!” so she told him she hadn’t wanted to betray her husband, so he was “you truly are a woman worth of praise.”

They sneaked him out of their home in the middle of the night and left him in a local church, so the husband wouldn’t get blamed for his death.

The next day the funeral ceremony took place and Isabel came, dressed in her wedding gown, and leaning over Diego’s body gave him the kiss that she had refused him in life.

And then she also fell dead.

The husband then told everyone in the church their story and the town agreed to bury them together, so at least in death they would be side by side.

Their inexplicably mummified bodies were discovered in 1555 during repair works at the San Pedro church, in Teruel, next to a document dating to the formerly stated year, corroborating the popular legend.

Since with time the fame of this story spread around Spain. The mummies now lay in a chapel and in marble tombs with exquisitely sculpted lids by the artist Juan de Ávalos y Taborda.

Written as a part of the @aphaskevent

Country embassy: Spain (in case it wasn’t clear… xD)

Sorry for not being able to tell any better stories, and this probably doesn’t answer your question, but I just thought it better not to talk too much on stuff I didn’t know about and focus on what I did.

#hetaliafandomhub #aphaskevent #aph spain #spain #spanish mythology #aph #aph ambassador #embassy board #kimanda #answers #pictures from wikimedia

64 notes · View notes

obscuraxrp · 7 years

Photo

The smoke settles to reveal LEE JIEUN, also known as ODESSA or SAGE, a 23 year old witch of Sunseong. She is a part-time florist and part-time psychic who appears to be adept in divination and herbology --- but like most things in Sunseong, there must be more to her than meets the eye.

FACECLAIM: Lee Jieun (IU), soloist

BIOGRAPHY:

Jieun, known as Sage to her Blossoms customers and Odessa to those looking for a psychic, was born in mid-May. Her mother was a single parent, struggling just to support herself. To her, Jieun was another burden she was not ready to take on. Hazy memories of a beautiful but worn woman fill Jieun’s mind when she thinks back on her mother. Jieun was three when she was taken.

Her mother had been a witch. Jieun’s father had left her with child when he discovered this. Disgusted, he disappeared without a trace before Jieun was born. After Jieun was born, her mother struggled to make ends meet and provide for the two of them. She turned more ardently towards the pursuit of magical knowledge, looking for a way to save herself and her child. Slowly she began to isolate herself from her coven. Then from their neighbors. Then, she stopped going to work. Finally, her mother cut herself off from Jieun, who was forced to feed herself and her mother on the donations of neighbors who saw her and recognized her plight. Perhaps it was fortunate, then, that an older woman down the street noticed Jieun. Fortunate, that she realized what was going on behind their apartment doors, even though Jieun did not. But, perhaps, also, it was unfortunate. For Jieun screamed and cried as, at three years old, two young men dragged her away from her home on the instructions of the old lady down the street. Unfortunate, as Jieun watched men and women beat her mother into submission because she was no longer a witch, watched as her mother was labeled ‘warlock’ and was separated from her forever.

Jieun, who no longer had a place to call home, would call it unfortunate for many years. Others would whisper how lucky she was when they thought she couldn’t hear or wouldn’t understand. She was ushered from home to home when someone could take her in, but the bond between witches in generally weak and she spent more nights in shelters than she did in homes. She found herself spending days in gardens, looking at flowers and bugs instead of reading the books that should have taught her instead. Jieun found that tea filled her belly better than water and that at least after she was done drinking tea, she could pretend she could predict her future in the dredges to help her ignore the pangs of hunger.

What was fortunate was the day that same old woman found her again, booked her on a train to Europe, and saw her fed and taught. After all, the child of a witch is said to be more precocious and more inherently magical. In an apartment on the outskirts of Paris, Jieun found herself alone, but for the first time in ten year, happy. It seemed that her years of make-believe had helped her develop a keen eye for divination and herbology. When applied and focused, she was quite good at both (and crafting potions). She had modest abilities in other areas; nothing to brag about, but she found success when she took her time, drained though she would be. But, times came when she was lonelier than she knew how to put into words. Happier, but lonelier. That was when she met Peppo.

Or rather, she summoned him. She was nearly twenty when she was preparing to leave Yonerra, the school she had learned to call home. For years, she had tried to summon a familiar of her own. Most of her classmates had accomplished it and had the most spectacular animals to call theirs. She, on the other hand, was preparing to leave the few friends she had ever had to return to an unimaginable life. Old enough now to be on her own, but still very much a stranger to her homeland. She had not been there in seven years. It was then, as she shut the door on her apartment for the last time that she heard the soft padding of footsteps behind her. He was not but a kitten, small, and light gray with black stripes. He asked if she was Jieun and after stowing him in her purse, they made their way through the countryside of Europe and Asia where Jieun caught a plane from Shanghai to South Korea.

CHARACTERIZATION:

-optimistic- a strange trait for a girl who grew up so negative. In her younger years, Jieun could never have been characterized as ‘optimistic’ but now it would be hard to call her anything else. Whether genuine or faked, is never entirely clear. But, she has a relentless optimism that is both infectious and utterly infuriating. -introverted- her preference, molded from years of solitude, is be alone. Other than Peppo, Jieun couldn’t care less to have company or to spend her days around people. Not that she particularly dislikes being around people, she just does not actively seek it out. Especially since her distasteful abilities mean she is safer alone and aloof. -awkward- Jieun is not particularly adept in social situations. Rather, she tends to stutter and fall over her words quite easily. This is exasperated when she is flustered, often because she is caught doing she shouldn’t do (like bringing Peppo basically anywhere) or something embarrassing. She is particularly embarrassed when customers from one of her jobs meets her at her other. -domestic- the type to sit home and cook herbal meals for her friends that will magically improve their health, or sew minor wards into the linings of gifts. She has a rather extensive herbal garden on her balcony and a plethora of spell books with different specialties to help her perform spells outside of her natural talents. Her favorite spell book lays open on her desk most of the time. -messy- domestic though she may be, she is not organized. Rather, her apartment is more often an array of clothes, herbs, books, and papers strewn about her tables and floors. Many of her wooden furniture are covered in carvings of different sigils to help Jieun remember the most important ones, though she does mix them up more often than not. -library-addict- the atmosphere reminds her so strongly of Yonerra, that she finds herself often gravitationally pulled towards them. If she is not at work or her apartment, it would not be odd to find her at the library closest to her house, or the one closest to Blossoms (thought she prefers the one near Blossoms because it has a nice section that is hidden from view where no one will see Peppo, or her practicing magic). -hopeless romantic- Since she was little, Jieun has dreamed of meeting ‘the one’ who would accept her despite her flaws and magical abilities. As a result, she has watched a few too many k-dramas and romance animes and has set herself up for unachievable standards. Worse still, is the fact that Jieun has never dated so her expectations have never been set straight. -dramatic- particularly when it comes to love, Jieun has a tendency to be overly dramatic because she believes this will give her the life she wants and make people like her, even though it tends to do the opposite.

SPECIALTIES:

-divination (rank II): Jieun is particularly talented when it comes to divination, but her specialization within this field is reading tea leaves. However, she has found success with crystal balls as well and has managed to open her mind to such a level that on occasion she will receive random, unprompted visions. These she may or may not be conscious of. When she is unconscious during her visions, they are often conveyed through a long monologue, though these spiels are uncommon for her. In fact, it is generally rare for her to receive random visions at all and they are normally triggered by something and cause her to feel exhausted afterwards. She is fairly good at interpreting stars and constellations as well as dreams, but when she wants more concrete rather than abstract fortune-telling through these means, it involves a much longer and more complicated process that is highly draining. As a result, she sticks almost solely to tea leaves and crystal balls, dabbling in smoke reading when requested by a customer. -herbology & potion crafting (rank II): Jieun is particularly gifted at identifying and growing medicinal and magical herbs. As a result of this natural gift, she spent much of her time at school practicing her potion making so that these skills would be more ‘marketable’ and helpful. She is particularly skilled at making healing and medicinal potions, as this is an area she concentrated on quite fervently. She is dreadful at making love potions, but can adequately make any other potion someone may request of her. -animal familiar (rank I): Jieun is not super great at conjuration and she can only ‘conjure’ Peppo. However, she has a close bond with Peppo, her familiar, which allows her to decipher his meows as if he were speaking Korean. He understands her when she speaks Korean to him as well.

#obs: follow #*lee jieun #*iu #parental neglect tw #abandonment tw #violence cw

1 note · View note

obscuraxrp · 7 years

Photo

The smoke settles to reveal KANG DANIEL, also known as LOTUS, a 20 year old human of Sunseong. He is a university student and florist who appears to be gifted with precognition – but like most things in Sunseong, there seems to be more to him than meets the eye.

FACECLAIM: Kang Daniel, mmo trainee (produce 101)

APPEARANCE:

notable physical characteristics include a minor case of heterochromia iridium (mismatched eyes), with a hazel right eye and a light brown left eye, and standard lobe piercings.

BIOGRAPHY:

his story starts off like any tragedy does, with a bright, naive child who only sees the world through rose-colored glasses and lives only golden tinted days. the boy’s world is one of vivid colors and glowing lights, with even rain appearing as something happy and wondrous to his wide and impressionable eyes. his childhood is one of blooming flowers and blossoming plants, with an earthy petrichor clinging to his every movement.

he spends his days in his mother’s garden, always smiling and always laughing.

(perhaps, if you really tried hard enough, you might still smell the subtle scent of soil on his clothes.)

he’s still a kid when his roots are torn out of the ground and moved elsewhere. his father doesn’t come with him.

he finds himself chasing after the man’s shadow on the late, lonely nights where he would stare at the deathly still ceiling from his small bed and wait for his mother to come home from work, missing the warm smiles and gentle touches that had been painted over by indifferent pats on the head and lackluster quirks of lips. soon, the world around him grows grey and cold, and his smiles grow smaller and smaller.

it is only when the grandfather enters the picture that the wilting blossom begins to rejuvenate.

he begins to spend more and more of his time in the elder’s store, marveling at the beautifully crafted jewelry, and how the smooth metal almost felt otherworldly against his skin.

they grow closer and closer, his mother becoming farther and farther away, and in his head, the store becomes his real home, his grandfather his real family.

on his eighth birthday, he receives a pair of silver earrings. his mother immediately disapproves and forces him to return them.

the boy is left devastated when his roots are upturned once again two years later when he opens the apartment door to find a small, neatly wrapped box at the doorstep.

he opens the door to the familiar store with a wide beam, holding the open black box in one hand, only to smell iron and see red seeping across the floor, with knocked over and emptied shelves covering a body he doesn’t want to look at, a body he doesn’t want to even think for a moment is -

clunk.

a silver earring falls out of the box as it falls, hitting the wooden floor with a clink, and disappears under the large burgundy recliner that he had spent many lazy summers lounging on and listening to stories.

the sound breaks him out of his stupor, and he turns quickly, feet moving to get him somewhere, anywhere, anywhere but here. In his fear, he loses his footing, and he vaguely remembers almost making it to the door before his body lands on the wooden floor with a crack.

he wakes up in a hospital bed barely remembering his name, saying the first words that came to his mind.

“where’s grandpa?”

his mother, disheveled from lack of sleep and ruined by worry, lets out a soft cry at her son’s curious expression, and says the first thing that would soothe his poor heart.

“he’s sleeping now, dear.”

the kids looked at him weirdly nowadays, he found, pointing at his eyes and making faces.

as he begins to pick back up pieces of his memory, he finds holes and loose ends - his grandfather had passed away of old age, and his mother had requested him to stay away from the store for the sake of honoring his wishes. funny thing was, he couldn’t remember the last time he had visited the old man.

they called him names for his strangely colored eyes, laughed at the fact that he only wore one earring - a gift from his late grandfather. There had been two originally, his mother had said.

that was weird. he only remembered having one.

it didn’t bother him, though. to be fair, he thought himself strange, too.

it wasn’t until they started calling him a supernatural that things began to change yet again.

“look at the witch! he’s trying to save his familiar. ”

he outstretches a hand towards the skittish feline, holding onto the tree’s trunk with one hand.

here kitty, kitty.

“you know, my dad told me that really bad witches snatch children away from their families.”

“really? don’t let him get down, then!”

slowly, carefully, it inches towards him, about to touch his hand when -

thunk.

a rock bounces off the branch, scraping against his palm and causing the cat to lose its footing.

no!

and in that moment, he loosens his hold on the trunk and presses his feet against it, ready to jump.

screams. he hears them faintly, growing louder in his mind. and for a split second, he sees his twisted and broken body on the ground, eyes wide open and unseeing. he sees every horrified face, every pair of eyes trained on him that were as wide as saucers, swimming with fear. he sees the cat struggling to remove itself from his limp and useless arms.

a hot white pain bursts through his head at the grotesque image, and as time slowed, his arms move on their own, instead grabbing onto the branch and swinging his body over to catch the creature by its scruff.

he hears the shouting of teachers as he hung onto the tree’s limb with one arm, head buzzing and black spots covering his vision.

they fade away as his grip slips and his arm is relieved of its strain, and he sinks his face into the feline’s fur as he falls into warm, firm arms, eyes closed.

from that day on, his head was constantly swarmed with visions and sleep was hard to come by. quickly falling into an endless cycle of pain and fear, constantly slipping between reality and dream, the boy became an exhausted, empty shell of his former self. every step hurt, every sense was heightened, and visions of himself getting scrapes, bruises, hell, even paper cuts haunted him.

soon he stops going to school, stops leaving his room, stops getting out of bed because it was simply too dangerous.

his mother gives him a ring one day, telling him that it was a “good luck charm”. he doesn’t buy it, but wears it anyways - an apology for the worry and anxiety he’s inflicted on her.

he doesn’t believe it, of course, until the depictions of his death that hang around his dreams, the fear of his future injuries, suddenly don’t seem as bad, don’t seem as harmful. breathing seemed so much easier for some reason; nerves were only small distractions.

and for once, he thinks.

he begins to think that not everything he saw was a truth set in stone; at least, it didn’t have to be.

he starts to realize that he has a power - a power that could change his life.

so he takes a step into the outside world, and, for once, he’s not afraid of it.

CHARACTERIZATION:

a delicate balance between sanguine and grounded, daniel is a star that tries to hide its glow by blending in with the others. he tends to shy from the spotlight, preferring to remain as a background character, although his work ethic and modesty tends to attract more attention than he seeks. he is candid - although easily embarrassed - and carries a strangely endearing charm to his subtly awkward persona, whether it’s by the way he smiles or interacts with others. despite being the designated “straight man”, daniel is exceptionally agreeable, and, unfortunately, an owner of a bleeding heart. a supernatural sympathizer and animal lover with a knack for putting anyone in his vicinity at ease, kang daniel always speaks from his heart and with a strong moral compass.

however, he is often a little too grounded; a natural worrywart and inherent skeptic, daniel frequently views the world through jaded lenses, internalizing much of his conflict. he is, in fact, often overwhelmed due to his inability to control his specialty, and subsequently carries a heavy burden on his shoulders, second-guessing himself on multiple occasions and showing brief moments of indecisiveness or being consumed in thought. at his very worst, he can appear either much too insouciant or exceptionally perturbed - with occasional fits of silence or emotional meltdowns thrown into the mix - although he has a good sense and tends to shut himself in during these times to avoid troubling others.

SPECIALTIES:

Precognition [Rank I] (20 pts) precognition, often characterized as foresight or some form of supernatural premonition, is the ability to fathom future events moments (or even years) before they occur. thus, the holder is capable of altering their actions as to bend time to their will - assuming that they are able to manage their ability well, of course.

Limits:

daniel’s ability currently only operates as a form of danger intuition; when threatened, he unconsciously casts a spell in which visions occur in brief “flashes” that, when uncalled for, can quickly overwhelm the mind, drain energy and render him vulnerable - this is due to an unconscious internal barrier that prevents him from utilizing the entirety of his power.

likewise, he can only see into the immediate future, and is incapable of controlling when “flashes” occur due to lack of mastery. however, his ward allows him to mitigate the impact / shock value of their content, and he can sense them seconds before they occur, causing the likelihood of complete vulnerability to be exceptionally unlikely.

on the other hand, depending on how emotionally charged the visions may turn out to be, the probability of backlash from the spell (manifesting as - on a smaller scale - migraines and sluggishness, and in the worst case scenario, momentary blindness, paralysis or unconsciousness) is fairly likely - effects can last from a few minutes to an hour.

Ward of Time Reduction [Major] (10 pts)

manifestation: a sterling silver earring - horseshoe circular barbell (right ear)

background: having received a pair of earrings at a young age from his grandfather (and later losing one due to unknown causes), daniel frequently refers to the remaining piece as his “lucky charm” - despite being completely unaware of the magical properties that it holds - and is always spotted wearing it.

ability: highly in tune with its user’s emotions, the earring is capable of “slowing down”, or simply skewing the wielder’s perception of time so that they are given extra seconds to think or process thoughts. symptoms include experiencing a “lull” in surroundings, as well as various other visual effects.

limits: the ward’s effects occur only within the mind, and are purely internal - thus having no impact on any external sources. Its powers only span a few moments, and when not utilized properly, can appear as simply sluggishness or a figment of the wielder’s imagination.

Ward of Calming [Major] (10 pts)

manifestation: a plain, silver ring (right index finger), with a width of roughly four millimeters - incapable of rusting and with the inscription K.D. on the inner ring.

background: a ring given to him by his mother, who hoped to “cure” his fits as a child with a ward from a supernatural friend of his late grandfather. despite initially wearing it as a reminder of his family and home, he begins to wear it permanently after experiencing complete vulnerability once taking it off.

ability: also exceptionally empathetic, the ward enables a calming feeling that slows abnormal increases in heart rate and immediately stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. this ward is also capable of using its owner as a vessel for its magic, therefore allowing them to spread this effect to other hosts through contact.

limits: the ward works of its own accord, only activating once it picks up on discrepancies within the user’s nervous system, and is tailored specifically to and only for daniel. this renders it useless if any other person were to attempt to utilize it. the magic is purely initiated through touch, and its benefits are unable to be bestowed upon the other lifeforms it comes into contact with unless two requirements are met: (1) the host (i.e. - daniel) is wearing it, and (2) the host has made physical contact (that hasn’t been broken) with said lifeform.

Unspent: 60 pts

#obs: follow #*kang daniel #*produce 101 #death tw #bullying cw

2 notes · View notes