#anaye

the bottom line is nothing beats talking to people from the culture. research is well and good but nothing beats the primary source of engaging with real people with real experiences. it isnt a matter of "well youre not X so you can never talk about X culture" cause that's just racism with extra steps.

however i always ask myself "why this? why me?" in the sense that there are a lot of fully open to fuck around with concepts that you can delve into without pause, so if you want to draw from a culture but dont know enough about it to know if its ok, why not try to find a similar concept from something like greek or norse mythology.

Tsetahotsiltali

From a cliffside lair

This big jerk kicks people down

To a gruesome death.

Image © Lorenzo Bonillo, accessed at his deviantArt gallery here

[The Binaye Ahani are among the Anaye, the alien gods of the Navajo. They tend to get mentioned in passing in monster encyclopedias, but @abookofcreatures has the fullest descriptions I’ve found on the internet. Each Anaye was born of a woman who had sex with something other than a man, due to a conflict between the sexes in mythic times. Yeitso was fathered by a stone, so appears as a giant covered in flint. Tsenahale was fathered by a pile of feathers, and so is a monstrous bird. Teelget was fathered by an antler and is a deer monster. The Binaye Ahani were fathered by a cactus, but I’ve never seen them depicted or referred to as being explicitly cactus like. Just limbless with horrible staring eyes.  I have not found a primary source stretching back directly to the Navajo, so I don’t know if this connection is explicit in the original source material or not.]

Binaye Ahani CR 11 NE Aberration This creature resembles a distorted giant humanoid torso, with only twitching stubs of limbs. Its eyes are deep and wild, and its mouth is filled with sharp teeth. It floats off of the ground despite having no wings.

The binaye ahani are grotesque limbless horrors with devastating electrical powers. They dwell in rocky desert regions, and tend to make their desert homes even more desolate by using plants and shrubs as target practice for the lightning beams fired from their eyes. They are paranoid and greedy, using magical birds to spy on their surroundings and extorting or robbing treasures from those around them. They are especially fond of precious metals, and most binaye ahani decorate themselves with gold and silver jewelry.

It is said that the original binaye ahani were born twins, and the creatures are typically spawned two at a time. They are asexual creatures that reproduce by budding—what appear to be stumps of limbs are in fact early stages of their life cycle, growing on their parent like a polyp. Binaye ahani live in tight knit family groups—the only time a binaye ahani is solitary is if they are the sole survivor of their troupe. Unlike many monsters with energy attacks, binaye ahani are not immune to electricity. In fact, they are vulnerable to it—battles between binaye ahani families are typically fast and exceedingly deadly, with the winners taking over the territory and treasures of the losers.

Like,

Is it appropriative to classify the various Horned Serpents of various native nations as related to Asian-type “Lung” dragons or African Rainbow Serpents in a setting? Or the Yupiaq/Inuit Qalupalik as related to European water-hags like Jenny Greenteeth and Peg Powler*?

On that same note, is it appropriative to try and make various “subtypes” of horned serpents to represent their variants in the various nations; from the one with the deadly spots and crystal wish-granting heart to the one who inflates themselves to overflow the rivers and can be revived by its children?

Is it appropriative to link the Arthurian Questing Beast to the Navajo Anaye as manifestations of the same metaphysical force, as monsters born from humans engaging in unnatural practices?

I mean this in the context of building a fiction-cosmology obviously; in real life that kind of cladeology would come off as insulting at best, and before anybody brings it up I do think that it’s any author’s duty to inform the audience whether they’re doing a variant departing from the direct ideas of the myths; especially when it’s a culture not their own.

Like how the name of the little coconut dudes from Moana, kakamora, is used for a more general group of “little people” in the lore the name comes from...

Yeitso

Greatest of Alien

Gods, slain by two heroes as

Their quest of good starts.

In which, gnawed by guilt

And regret, I attempt to

Atone for my sins.

Binaye Ahani

Ladies don’t get off

By using a sour cactus.

It leads to bad things.

Tsenahale

This is part of a

Cautionary tale warning

Of masturbation.