#tantas

Esta mañana al despertar me quedé pensando en como han pasado los años, como es que pasaron tantas cosas y también con eso se fueron tantas personas amadas, queridas...

Unas se fueron por elección, otras porque las circunstancias los obligaron a marcharse y otros más, porque ya no tuvieron un sitio a nuestro lado.

Es así, que mientras los cálidos rayos del sol de verano me ponen nostálgica, yo retengo en la memoria y pongo en mis manos un pasado lleno de personajes que lejos están.

"Erected to honor the Tantas

Special Shelters

Pilgrim's Refuge

While ballow trees were long seen as sacred by Athians, making it a crime to cut them down or otherwise harm them."

...

I managed to get a good screenshot of the refuge book to translate, so let's talk about the Pilgrim's Refuge! Because I think they're nifty :3

Long before the Break reduced Athia to the zombie-infested wasteland we know and love today, people traveled from all over Athia to worship the Tantas. These people were known as pilgrims, and they built refuges to house them in their travels—a fact I'm sure Frey and Cuff are very grateful for today!

But what's interesting about these buildings is, well, many things, really. First, they're made from ballow wood. The ballow tree is sacred to Athians, and as stated on that pamphlet above, it's illegal to "cut them down or harm them." They seem to be very fragile trees, considering that simply harvesting their sap will kill them. But ballow wood has special protective properties, specifically the ability to keep "evil" at bay. Doesn't seem to work on Cuff, but that's a different post for a different time.

So the refuges were built to house people who traveled across Athia to worship the Tantas, and keep them safe from not just the elements, but from the wildlife as well. That pamphlet also states that the refuges were built for the purpose of honoring the Tantas. These pilgrims were all about their Tantas! And you can see on the refuges themselves that the people who built them put a lot of love and effort into not only making a sound structure, but a beautiful one as well. There's not a single inch of the outside walls that is not painted with murals of four women and depictions of the ballow tree that gave the wood for the refuge.

Here's the thing though: those aren't our Tantas. And the mural in the center seems to depict a fifth Tanta, or at the very least conspicuously leaves room for a fifth person.

Who are these four women? They appear to be representative of the Tantas we're familiar with, but they're not the Tantas we know. Or they're not exactly the Tantas we know. None of them are wearing their signature, iconic regalia. At least Sila's counterpart (bottom right) has a sword and appears to be wearing armor. And I can figure out Prav's (top right) because she's blindfolded, and as the saying goes: justice is blind. Olas (top left) and Cinta (bottom left), though? Olas's wears green and has darker skin than the others, and Cinta's might be petting a cat? Maybe? And those are my only clues for who these murals are supposed to depict.

So, considering that the pilgrim's refuges were built centuries ago to honor the Tantas and house the pilgrims traveling across Athia to worship said Tantas, it's reasonable to assume that the four women depicted on the refuge murals are our Tantas: Olas, Prav, Cinta, and Sila. However, no one knows how long ago the refuges were built, nor how long ago the pilgrims began their pilgrimages. It's entirely possible that these four women are the predecessors to our modern-day Tantas. In addition, that conspicuous empty space in the center mural could have been left open for the First Tanta—who knows how long ago she'd passed her mantle of Tanta onto her successors? The space may have been left to honor the Tanta who started it all, who saved Athia and brought it into prosperity so, so long ago that no one even knows when it all happened.

We know that the Purge of Rheddig involved the Athian armies hunting down and killing any remaining Rheddig in Athia, "soldiers and civilians alike," as stated in the lore. This meant no taking prisoners of war and no Rheddig refugees remaining...as there'd be no Rheddig left alive in Athia.

That makes me wonder what Tanta Prav's ethics and code of justice were during the war with the Rheddig to permit such a purge. However, I also know this is set in a Middle Ages-like era, where modern concepts of wartime ethics aren't guaranteed to exist.

I don't mean dividing and binding him. I mean apparently keeping it a complete and total secret afterwards.

Why would they do that?

They knew what he was doing to them. They knew they wouldn't last. Like... we specifically know that Sila asked Cinta to take care of Praenost because she could feel herself slipping away. Cinta sent Frey to NYC because she knew her own time was coming. It's not illogical to assume Prav and Olas had similar moments of grim recognition.

But they didn't tell anyone?!

Why? Why in the world wouldn't they just... gather up their citizens and inform them of the situation?

Wouldn't it be totally reasonable, knowing that you're a powerful sorceress about to lose control of her powers, to warn the people around you? To perhaps evacuate them from the area before it happened? To let them know about the demon around your wrist so that, when the worst happens, they're aware of his existence and can guard against him, should he appear elsewhere?

They don't do any of this! They keep Susurrus a secret - even, apparently, from their closest advisors - and just... allow people to suffer and die once they lose themselves to his madness.

Sila literally kills her own people. Citizens of Visoria and Avoalet are intentionally trapped in their homes and forced to await the Break's spread and subsequent infection. These people are kept ignorant and helpless for... what reason?

As the Break spreads, scholars desperately study it, trying to figure out where it comes from and how to stop it, while the Tantas just keep mum on the reality of what's happening.

And afterwards! Years afterwards, when Frey arrives in Athia with Cuff strapped to her wrist, no one recognizes him for what he is. None of the Cipalians, even those who were alive and active during the fall of the Tantas, understand what they're looking at. And because of that ignorance, Frey likewise has no idea whom she assisting in his mission to destroy Athia once and for all. Susurrus slips under the radar because the Tantas just... apparently never told anyone why they were going mad. Just... I don't know. Decided it wasn't important, I guess!

Why are they like this? They claim to be benevolent rulers, but they withhold massively vital information from their subjects for reasons that are never even hinted upon, let alone explained.

Gosh, they creep me out.

La forma de amar no corre por la sangre que heredamos.

Se reescribe cada vez, en cada momento para cada uno de nosotros.

Te beso en el viento

Te beso en la brisa

Te beso cuándo amanece y cuándo anochece

En las olas del mar

En la oscuridad del bosque

Te beso hoy y siempre