#sybilla

Ludger tom Ring the Elder (1496-1547), ‘Die Kimärische Sibylle’, circa 1538

LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster

realised there's a non-zero chance we get canon designs for some angels coming up (either through nicole's marketing or through the aq) so wanted to put down my ideas for nabu malikata, sybilla, and yohualtecuhtin before hoyo got there first

Sybilla，Blending Eva Green with historical blonde-haired, blue-eyed figures

Meanwhile, her son...

But! Since 5.8 is ending, I want to tell you a lil speculation of mine.

Okay, do you remember that Natlan alcoholic drink that is made from the aphids? Aphimead? You know, the one which Venti drank all the supplies of?

It's Xbalanque’s reference.

"Rada the fuck-" Let me explain.

Aphimead perhaps is inspired from xtabentún, a liquor with an origin from Yucatán Maya. Its made from anise and fermented honey from made from anise and fermented honey from the flower of the same name. Its predecessor, balché, is more associated with ceremonial and ritualistic purpose.

Now what it has to do with Xbalanque?

You see, The Mayan Hero Twins have many forms, and for Xbalanque, he has been associated with hunter, scribe, magician (Lyney reference??? Lmao), and bees/beekeeper (and many other aspects. Check out the paper in the link below 'kay.) He is associated with it under the name of Mok Chi'.

Now these multiple aspects of Xbalanque are really interesting I digress, the whole Maya belief is really interesting.)

[Xbeelanque lol]

Honey is important for the Ancient Mayans because this fermented, alcoholic honey had been used for ceremonial and ritualistic purposes.

Another aspect I want to point out is that Mok Chi' has aspects in which one of them is a form of a swollen man, also called gluttony man;

But, to prevent myself to straying further from the topic, let's go back to Mok Chi'. Since xtabentún is made from honey, it falls into Mok Chi's' domain.

"Okay... so aphimead is Xbalanque’s reference... sure..." Hold I'm not done yet.

Now I'll talk about the in-game connections.

There's one interesting quest where we helped to pollinate aphids flowers. It's called "Dreamy Paititi". In the introduction we were already got hit with:

...Flowers and dreams???

(Btw Erzulie is a family of spirits in Voodo that are often associated with water [as in the fluidity of water], femininity, and feminine bodies. Hm... now that Columbina has angelic motif, possibly draconic in origin, and a hydro... perhaps its an allusion to her and the seelies?)

(And Paititi itself is the name of legendary Inca lost golden city. It allegedly lies east of the Andes, hidden somewhere within the remote rainforests of southeast Peru, northern Bolivia or northwest Brazil. The Paititi legend in Peru revolves around the story of the culture-hero Inkarri, who, after he had founded Q'ero and Cusco, retreated toward the jungles of Pantiacolla to live out the rest of his days in his refuge city of Paititi.)

Then in the quest itself, we became more and more entrenched in hallucinations. We fought our own hallucinations of talking dog and cat. And to top it off, in the middle of the quest, we got:

...what the fuck...

Syrup mother??? Lord of the Crossroads a.k.a Lord of the Night/Yohualtehcutin??? Boat of the Golden Moon???

And PHLOGISTON FATHER???

The only entity that I think could fit that description is Xiuhcoatl. What now, he had a wife called "syrup mother"???

Then the quest ended with a description of Papa Witch Doctor, which, turns out, is another name of the Lord of the Night per the book of "Kompore the Cunning", who said had donned a human form and walked among mortals:

[Dreamy Paititi]

[Kompore the Cunning]

The "Papa" part could be referring to Papa Legba, a spirit in Vudou belief who stands at a spiritual crossroads and gives (or denies) permission to speak with the spirits. (Wait... so Legba could be Lord of the Night??? I could be wrong???) Then the witch doctor itself is a term to refer shamans who also acted as doctor in some indigenous societies.

Hmm... I wonder why Lord of the Night is called 'he' and 'they' despite the AQ already establishing her with female pronouns... (Genderfluid Lord of the Night yay?)

But straying again from the topic; the point is, this quest with brewblossom and by extension aphimead is connected to dreams and weird ahh implications to Lord of the Night. And remember, fermented honey used to be a ceremonial hallucinogen for the Ancient Mayans, just like what the Traveller experienced there.

"Okay, so-" But I'm not done!

There's another bee that is mentioned in in-game lore!

Sybilla, the Golden Bee of Remuria. She was implied to be an Angel who survived the last great deluge and was protecting the silver white tree (prob Irminsul) in an ancient city which was later found by Remus and founded Remuria. She then sacrificed herself to create Phobos, Remus' Grand Symphony, but not before foretelling Remuria's destruction to him which Remus' desperately stall with transferring Remurians into stone statues and subjecting them to the Grand Symphony. However, since Sybilla's vague will to make every humans happy, it backfired by making the Grand Symphony fulfilling the evil wishes of some Remurians to conquer and subjugate other ancient Fontaine tribes.

But last but not least... THIS IS A LEAK. TAKE IT WITH A GRAIN OF SALT: The Frostmoon is leaked to be named Kuutar. Kuutar is the moon goddess in Finnish mythology and with her sister, the sun goddess Päivätär (oh interesting. Sun mention... I wonder who else has a sun god as a sibling in myths...), they're the origin mothers of bees, wasps and hornets and appear in spells that were sung in order to prevent these insects from stinging.

Okay. What is it with angels and bees???

And what are you, Lanque.

Okay that's all. See you in Luna I!

[Almost forgot. This is the article where you could read abt Xbalanque’s many forms below]