Sixteen Years, Two Months, Two Weeks and Six Days Since the Sky Fell

I am in a bit of a tight spot with my new studies.

The charms and curses and chicanery of my Great-Aunt Marjo pass for the spells of an enchanter, and more specifically, the illusionist as far as the stuffy-stuffs within the Tower of the Three. So far, everythings had at least one near identical counterpart in the Book.

But they've given me a spell that has no nearly identical counterpart. They call it the Personae Split ritual, which is meant to splinter the psyche - the thinking mind - and create a weak copy of the caster; apparently once the ritual is complete, one can split their thinking mind at will.

I've read over the ritual and it don't feel right at all. The entire thing makes my skin crawl and just doesn't sound right, though were I not already studying Great-Aunt Marjo's book, I'd not understand why - I know now that it because it is a perversion to our ways.

Long ago, back before even the Age of Turmoil, several of our women ancestors travelled alone without men. Only a few were Chovexani, Drabengri or Rashai, most were Kuriying Juvel that protected them all. They were kind to those they met, though they kept their secrets close to their own and away from the eyes of gaje. As they travelled, they offered solitude and protection to women in need, whether it was because their fathers disowned or harmed them or their husbands did the same or they were just spinster pariah's within their towns. Sometimes they even took in girl babes who were unwanted and made them Rom, raising them as their own.

Their charges that were older were made didikai and puyuria, and kept away from the secret rituals and worships, though many were taught to honor the Great Mother, the dark sister Shadow, and the Trickster; they were known to the gaje after a time as Tunare, Luclin and Bristlebane though admittably the gaje could only see one or two aspect of each diety. Many of the didikai and puyuria did not know why the women worshipped as they did, but many respected their patron Gods.

Back then, all gypsies followed the Trickster, as he blessed the free spirited Rom, finding them to his liking. His name was praised by all at the fires of our vurdon abiav, each vagonu and verdon painted with his symbol on its front or back.

But Rom are not the fools we are mistaken for, and the gyspies of old knew it unwise to ignore the other Gods who blessed them. The Great Mother tended to the open lands they loved, and the women who cared for them while Shadow kept them safe from the eyes of those who would slay them for their freedom.

These ancestors saw the face of goodness and light of the Great Mother, but they also saw the fury and the dark of Her as well. They believed that this is where the Shadow came from, for though She was dark, She was not evil.

Though only taught to the women, it was believed that the Great Mother tried to cast Her dark fury from Herself into the great shadow created by Her light...and so Shadow was called forth.

Having failed to cast Her dark fury from Herself, the Great Mother hid such things within the darkness Shadow was, and it was their secret alone to share with Her daughters...the first gypsies were Dal, not human, wandering the world long before the Marr brought about their line.

Though born from Her, Shadow was called Sister, for the Gods and their lineages and titles are beyond what we know as mortals.

She taught the natsia of girl-children of the Great Mother that were our ancestors how to call their shadows forth from the dark world that mirrored our own, so that in the nighttime when men preferred to strike them, there would be twice as many women to battle.

The dark sisters were twins of the light sisters, and their minds were a harmonious one; though independant of one another, they shared all and moved together as if they were still girl and shadow. Many dark sisters were identical in thought to their light sisters, however they often are what the light sister keeps themselves from being but long to be.

This Personae Split ritual does call forth a dark sister, or in the unimaginable case - at least to our line - a dark brother, but the being is but a pale impersonation of what it should be. They are deprived their independant sentience, their voice taken from them unless their light twin deems it needed, and even then it is not the dark one's own. They cannot even move unless it is to protect or at the command of their light twin.

It is the last of the tolerence I have for the Concordium. I politely thanked them for the scant training they gave, though they shall always claim to have given more than what was actual, and took my leave of them. I shall not be returning to them for training again.

Great-Aunt Marjo cites that near the mid-point of the time when Norrath tore Herself, most of the sisters left from this great line died horribly, and come the day the sky fell, all the remaining lost their dark sisters. I distantly recall Great-Aunt Selna, though I'd always thought her Great-Aunt Marjo's mother, for she was so frail and old.

I realise now that she was the dark sister, faded by the time when Norrath tore Herself, and lost when the sky fell. Without her sister, Great-Aunt Marjo faded as well, becoming unable to have even vague coherent thought within days, and we buried her before arriving in Qeynos. Thinking on the years between when Great-Aunt Selna died and when her light sister Great-Aunt Marjo was laid within the earth, I understand better the burden she bore.

Had I known - had I been old enough to be truly taught by the time the skies fell, perhaps I would have released Great-Aunt Marjo long before her mortal coil failed her.

Now, long after when Norrath tore Herself apart and the dark sisters were taken away, I do not know if the ritual to call one forth will work. No mirrors exist that were fashioned and blessed by the Rashai, so I shall have to craft my own from Alder wood, or see if I can get my hands on a Mystical Mirror from Maj`dul and sand down any carvings on it and inscribe the appropriate symbols upon it.

But knowing what Great-Aunt Marjo knew, and remembering Great-Aunt Selna, I cannot cast the Personae Split ritual - I cannot do that to my dark sister.


[OOC Note: Would Rhana have written all this out in her journal? No, since the lineage and history is already known to her. That which is in the dark blue font is not actually within Rhana's journal - it is provided merely so the reader is not lost.]