kherezae

This is actually super fitting, a deeper read on healing.

I'm not sure anymore if I'll write this story, but something that's been rattling around in my head for years is this idea of star-crossed lovers: Aerlun and Damien meet in slavery and fall in love, and end up organizing a successful slave revolt. Aerlun becomes the leader of the newly formed government, but doesn't handle the power well and goes a bit mad in his quest for vengeance. Damien ends up feeling that he can't allow Aerlun to continue on this path, even if it means he has to kill him, which he eventually does -- but not before Aerlun makes a deal with a god to control his reincarnation in such a way that he'll come back with memories and power fully intact so that he can continue his mission. When Damien eventually discovers this, he makes a deal with a spirit wraith to welcome the spirit wraith into his body if the spirit wraith will help him follow Aerlun once he reincarnates. We end up following the star-crossed lovers through three incarnations before Damien is finally successful at essentially talking Aerlun down. So... after the initial honeymoon period, pretty much their entire relationship is excruciating conflict.

I hadn't previously developed any traditions to do with childbirth for my world, but I can think of a couple logical ones based on other aspects of my world. For one thing, in Josuld Auramancy is viewed religiously, so it would be natural for new babes to have their aura read by a skilled Auramancer. A fresh soul with no previous lives would be extremely rare and simultaneously celebrated and, to some degree, feared for; a lot would go into warding for the child's future, trying to ease their path and grant them wisdom as they make decisions in their future. In historical Somnion before magic was lost, people were born either as a Senset (a wellspring of magic) or an Eshen (a conduit of magic), so it would be natural to test a newborn babe to see which one they were. Depending on the era, location, and social class, it was often a sad thing if the baby was a Senset, because they were often treated as second class citizens or worse. Every Eshen sought out their sheerbond Senset, the one person with whom they could bond perfectly and perform magic at the highest level, and in most cases a sheerbond pairing was the strongest legal claim you could have on someone. Eshen were entitled to take their sheerbond Sensets with them wherever they wanted, so Sensets were often ripped away from their families. If a mother gave birth to a Senset, her neighbors might treat it almost like a funeral, bringing her condolences and food, etc.

The moon mark is a particularly cool dimension to this tradition!