Throughout the Eirenic Verses, characters often refer to Saint Luridalr, who changed the world forever with an earth-shattering magical act. While she was briefly discussed in the post about the Five Bremish Saints, her backstory shares a deeper explanation of Breme’s history.
Much of this is discussed in my free novella, Saint Luridalr and the Peony Phoenix. (It is $0.99 on Amazon if you would prefer to buy things there.) However, if you haven’t read that short brief, this will give you the gist.
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Luridalr’s Early Life
Even before its founding, the tribes that would one day become Bremish had a deep love of poetry and a rich oral tradition. Tribespeople would settle into their winter camps and tell stories of far back in time, when their goddess Poesy created the world.
There were other deities, of course: those of agriculture, horses, or the sea. Above all, though, they valued the goddess who had given them the gift of storytelling and helped them learn how to express themselves through verse.
Poesy gave them no miracles and performed no magical feats, but she was nevertheless an omnipresent force; every storytelling session opened with a poem in her honor.
One tribe, the Seinn, were known as masterful tale weavers; it was said that the deity taught them the Seintt language, soon adopted by all tribes to communicate more effectively. As such, it was no wonder that one of their younger tribeswomen soaked in this adoration of the spoken word. Seinn Luridalr Breme had devoted herself almost obsessively to this craft, even to the exclusion of marriage and childrearing.
In fact, Luridalr had been unusual from the start: she was born with odd marks on her fingernails that none could decipher. These were the marks of Poesy’s favor, which would soon become an omen of her extraordinary fate.
Many whispered that she was so in love with the goddess that she must spurn the touch of men; only a woman’s embrace would satisfy her. Such conjugal bliss would be the closest she could ever get to her unknowable, untouchable deity.
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The Invasion from the Sea
Yet one day, Seinn Luridalr Breme and her fellow tribespeople were confronted with a force they would never have expected: a small squadron of sailors arrived on their shores. At first, the groups lived in harmony, even creating a patois of their disparate languages called Seinish.
But this was not, and never could be, enough for the avaricious newcomers. These more technologically advanced people got to work overtaking the Seinn’s summer camps, burning their boats, and stealing their women.
The newcomers butchered and pursued them, seeking even more resources for their growing population. Many of the Seinn’s finest hunters were killed, and though the people fought back, they had never developed a warlike culture; they and the other tribes had always lived in cordial respect for one another’s hunting grounds or camps.
A long and devastating march toward the country’s interior left them ravaged by disease and malnutrition. The dead were dropped in sinkholes they found, but there were too many for the tribes’ involved burial rites. And still the invaders chased them.
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The Peony Phoenix
It is said that one of the invaders abandoned her people out of sympathy for the Seinn tribe. Legends say that this was an ethereal pink phoenix, born of the sailors’ wishes as they floated on the harsh seas.
The Peony Phoenix comforted the Seinn as they were relentlessly hunted across the land, though she took a special interest in the young poet Luridalr. Even in Luridalr’s darkest moments, as she grew weak for want of rest, the Peony Phoenix stayed by her side.
The two developed a deep bond: a spiritual union that went beyond nationality. This love empowered Luridalr to motivate her fellows with rousing poetry as they shambled across the lands.
Given that their pursuers were fresher and more powerful, many believe that the Peony Phoenix worked in secret to frustrate the tribe’s antagonists. It’s been said that this mythical creature would sneak into the invaders’ camps at night and torment them, breaking their weapons or burning their supplies. Certainly, something mystical must have happened to allow the Seinn their escape.
But despite the phoenix’s intervention, the chase continued. Exhausted, demoralized, and perilously ill, Luridalr and her fellows arrived at an empty plain, sure this was the end.
Luridalr, with her last strength, recited a beautiful elegy that begged the goddess Poesy to take pity on their souls. She expressed her wish for some barrier that would protect the Seinn from their pursuers, that would allow them to thrive in comfort.
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Mountains Made of Words
While Luridalr had been speaking metaphorically, the goddess Poesy listened. Suddenly came a tremendous rumbling, then a roar – then the Rimuk Mountains, which cracked the earth in two around Luridalr and her last remaining relatives.
Beside them came an explosive geological formation, with one single slot around where Luridalr had stood. The mountains stretched to the very heavens, crushing many of the paltry settlements the enemy had set up.
It is said that Luridalr’s lover, the mystical Peony Phoenix, gave up immortality to save her life when she lay dying from the strain. Thus her lover was made into a mortal woman who would stay with Luridalr until death.
One could imagine that the invaders were terrified of this sudden appearance – and furious that they were denied further expansion. The Seinn and their fellow tribes quickly poured across the barrier and covered it as best they could, creating the country of Breme.
Since then, they have remained in eternal strife, fighting at the Rimuk Pass where Luridalr had stood. The formerly peaceable tribes grew an insatiable bloodlust and proud martial tradition, desperate to protect what had been given to them by Poesy.
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High Poetry is Born
More than that, they discovered that Seinn Luridalr Breme had been touched by a strange magic: the ability to make things come true through poetry alone. Poesy gifted her High Poetry and soon began bestowing this on other women that had helped her. The original poetess was canonized as a saint, as were some of the first High Poets.
Soon enough, girls were born with the same sigils as their founder: Bestowed Poets, blessed by Poesy at birth.
Saint Luridalr spent the rest of her life learning the secrets of High Poetry, having retreated to the Rimuk Mountains. She and others discovered that while some women were marked as Bestowed at birth, others could achieve the status through extensing training.
Those willing to endure this difficult course could be inculcated into the art by a cruel ceremony, the Sigillum, once they had pledged themselves to the goddess.
Thus, High Poetry remains a powerful force throughout Breme. Bestowed Poets play a crucial role in healing, defense, and even politics; few Council members would be willing to confront a High Poet on any manner. They work as a type of shadow government, influencing politics by offering or refusing favors.
And, of course, many girls find themselves dreaming of being like Saint Luridalr. Some, like Cerie Korviridi, are willing to go through incredible measures to achieve such a skill.
Together, these women serve as a reminder of their country’s founding – and a powerful defense against all odds.