Guail-Màthair

Mother Dragon Guail Màthair (a.k.a. The Slicktongued, Necessary Liar, Sky-Splattered)

"Glory be to Guail, the Slicktongued who gave us the night. May her darkness not hide our true intent, and may her poison not infect our minds, lest we fall to her same fate."

Guail-Màthair is a trickster diety with associations with the Night, the act of keeping Secrets, and of Poisons, either their craft or their study. Her biggest mythological role pre-death is instigating the sacrifices of her elder sisters, who gave up their forms to invigorate the land and educate the flowering, floundering mortals in early Eddan history, becoming the World-Mountain Agartha in the process. Guail herself did not give up her body, instead having it torn in half, with her body and blood becoming the night sky.
Post-Death as her spirit lives on to speak with her faithful, she's generally seen as an antagonistic goddess, but one given praise for helping to create the world Agarthans know today. She is often prayed to for protection at night, and prayed against in order to keep secrets and poison far far away. But no matter how much someone tries to pray the goddess away from them, we all have deep secrets buried within our heart, and they eat away at us more than the most potent poison ever could.

---

---

Divine Domains

Guail-Màthair is mostly associated with the domains of the Night, Secrets, and Poison.
The first is because she made the night, painting the sky in her own image for a portion of the day in order for the land to be cooled, and because there were various creatures that needed to hunt at night as well as secrets the mortals wished to keep in those dark skies. When Clachfala-Màthair killed them in retribution, their blood was smacked across the sky so they would still keep the time of Night active as well as providing the darkness of space. In this aspect, she is worshipped for the bounty at the night and in order to protect people wandering in the night.
Secrets came from the first domain, as by representing the dark and those things that wander within it, so too did she represent all the illicit and shameful things that go on under the cover of the night. She is usually prayed against in this capacity, with those praying trying to push her influence away so a secret can be revealed. Of course, if someone is keeping a secret, they will want her favor on their side.
Lastly, she became the goddess of poison due to her association with Snakes and Spiders, both creatures who in their larger forms can have deadly effective poisons. This is another aspect she's largely prayed against in order to stave off the presence and effect of poisons. However, many scientests and poison experts value her representation and knowledge, praying to her whole-heartedly.

Holy Books & Codes

Only one divine edict has been recorded for Guail-Màthair, and it is an unexpectedly secret and hidden tome that speaks of all manner of secret magics and rituals for the purpose of obscuring information, but also revealing secrets that even the LAW of Magic, the undeniable arbiter of the world, doesn't want the world to know.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

• The number 9 - as she was the 9th Eldest among the Mother Dragons
• Snakes & Spiders - as venemous creatures that get into all sorts of situations, and due to their oft nocturnal nature
• Crude Oil
• Coal
• Sleek, wrapping banners or scarves
• Amulets of a sealed grin with a shushing finger

Holidays

While it is far from a public holiday, many of the few worshippers of Guail-Màthair make sure to hold extra devout vigil on the first day of the year, as they see her as the one who set the plan to make the world in motion, and give thanks to her on each new year that they live in that world.

Physical Description

Body Features

As a Mother-Dragon, Guail-Màthair was described as a slick black serpant of a dragon, with small and thin wings that worked more like gliders than typical dragon wings. Her scales were pitch black yet radiated a strange shimmering luminescence, with eyes that flowed like liquid along her silhouetted head, the color of pale moon light.
When Guail-Màthair incarnates into a mortal vessel, they usually are not seen, staying in the darkest of shadows. But, the few recorded reports of her incarnation speak of a Gemborne as dark as the moonless night, with pure white eyes adorned with a snakeskin cloak and various luminescent metals along their horns, hair, and hands.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Guail-Màthair was the 9th born of the Mother Dragons, hatching from the Perpetual Egg that was left behind by Uilenobith, the goddess of space and the void that birthed them all. She never held much animosity for her siblings or the void they flew in, but found everything underwhelming by a large margin, and gained her status as a trickster goddess by inventing tall tales of the world beyond their nest.
After the Mortal Forms transformed, and Faith began to connect mortals to the divine, all of the sisters came to the material plane along with what remained of the Perpetual Egg, and got to work doing their work for the mortals. Guail was extremely uninterested in teaching the mortals anything, and deigned to paint a cavern of darkness to nest in. However, when asked to provide the world with a shell of night in order for the nocturnal animals to play, and for the mortals to speak and run in secret, she was more than happy to oblige, for worship of course.
Eventually, however, many of the more intwined sisters feared that the mortal species were at risk of falling to their doom before their life had really begun, and Clachfala-Màthair, a vigiliant and dutiful goddess, flew on a world-wide expedition in order to prove that the mortals would be fine as they were. Guail, however, tagged along, as she hid in her speedy sisters shadow. As she travelled along, she saw the oh-so-righteous Clachfala grow doubt and pessimism for the state of the mortals.
But, if the most stalwart among them was going to give up, that would certainly sway too many of the others, and they needed to stick around and help out the mortals so they could get the strength of their faith! And so, under the cover of night, Guail hurried back to their home and found their eldest sister. She was a kind and an emotionally fragile soul, Saphir-Màthair, and Guail used it to great advantage.
Hearing that the mortals of different locations were wandering aimlessly, without much knowledge of how they could continue to exist or the skills to do so, Saphir was immediatley distraught, and could only think of one option to take in order to preserve the life of the mortals: She would dive into the very crust of the land and spread her corporeal form amidst the mineral and the gemstone, so that the mortals could have fortune and material in which to begin the work of crafting.
Guail had no idea that Saphir would go to such measures, but found it an interesting and invigorating outcome. For the rest, they'd be goaded on by this sacrifice, either out of duty for the mortals or grief for Saphir, either response goaded on by Guail herself. For you see, not only would this be a great way to keep their source of Faith alive, but if less sisters were around to take care of them, than those who remained would get the lions share.
By the time Clachfala returned to their home, seven of their kin had sacrificed themselves into the land to give the mortals resources and, most importantly, knowledge to use those resources. Beside herself in grief, Clachfala asked the siblings who remained where their kin had gone. Guail lied at first, saying that they had come to the decision on their own, either as service and suicide, and that the bright nights had been a result of her inconsolable sorrow.
Of course, that's when Marmor-Màthair, the 10th born, revealed that Guail had told the sisters and jumped the gun, and did nothing to stop their sacrifical actions, and in fact spurred it on in many places. In a fit of fury, Clachfala tore off Marmor's head, their only crime being the bearer of bad news, and threw it to the heavens while scattering their scales across the horizon. For Guaile, their warlike sister tore her body in half, using their ink-like blood to create a night that will come and go on it's own without the traitorous sisters help. 
Despite this, however, Clachfala had just killed two siblings, and so many others had died. She decided that now was the time for her to follow in their footsteps, engraving the land with her sense of justice and the desire to expand their minds.
More dragons gave their lives, and the land they left behind is not just the rejuvinated world of Edda that life sprang from, but also the giant World-Mountain Agartha that is supposedly the mound the other Mother Dragons gave their lives at. All because of a devious scheme by a tricky snake that did not end well.

Gender Identity

The Mother-Dragons are referred to as such due to their role in creating and nurturing the people of Agartha. As Gods, that is divine concepts outside of mortal identity, they don't really prescribe to mortal notions of gender and could therefore be anything. However, when responding to their faithful and taking up mortal incarnations, they do often choose female-presenting people as hosts, and do not seem to mind being referred to in feminine ways.
Guail specifically seems to enjoy taking the persona of a Femme Fatale, playing the dangerous seductrous angle of a gendered performance.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Obviously this all comes from The Mother Dragons faith, and so it pertains to their telling of the worlds creation. However, Guail-Màthair is credited with various things, including:

• Created the night to cool the world and allow those who needed stealth to thrive some freedom
• Guided the mortals in the art of secrets and subterfuge, for better or worse
• Helped their kin learn the truth of poisons and toxins, leading to better understanding for healers as well
• Instigated the plan that created the world as we know it

Mental Trauma

Her physical death at the hands of Clachfala-Màthair still scars her to this day, and often any worship that involves the pantheon as a whole needs to keep the two at opposite ends of the procession, and in conversation with the goddess once must not mention the War-Mother unless absolutely necessary.

Intellectual Characteristics

Guail-Màthair is the mother of secrets and deception. This ranges from deceipt and manipulation, but also stretches to lies of mercy and white lies. Some secrets do need to be kept, and some creatures need to work in secrecy to keep on living, so is it really all that bad?
Guail-Màthair is genuinely a trickster though, and in the past has given all sorts of riddles and tricky passages to would-be heroes in order to test their mettle and mind, especially their ability to think outside the box.

Morality & Philosophy

Morality is a difficult thing to parse for the Gods, as they are essentially living stories, and stories are beholden to their themes no matter what. Guail-Màthair herself is a unique point of contention however. All signs point to her being a malevolent goddess, and she often takes off an antagonistic role in stories and worship, where people pray against her deific domains more than they pray for them. However, it is her machinations that created the land of Edda as we know it, and fully ingrained the other Mother Dragons into the lives of the Agarthans, putting her in an oddly benevolent role as well.

Divine Classification

Antagonistic God

Alignment

Neutral Evil

Church/Cult

The Mother Dragons

Honorary & Occupational Titles

• The Slicktongued
• Necessary Liar
• Sky-Splattered
• Inkblot Dragon
• Mother of Night

Date of Birth

At the dawn of Faith

Date of Death

At the dawn of Mortals

Circumstances of Birth

Awoken by mortals faith

Circumstances of Death

Murdered as retribution

Birthplace

Outside Time and Space

Place of Death

World-Mountain Agartha

Pronouns

SHE/THEY/IT

Sex

Worshipped as Feminine

Gender

Worshipped as Feminine

Eyes

Flowing, liquidy, moon-white

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Slick black scales that shimmer like oil

Aligned Organization

The Mother Dragons

Other Affiliations

• Agartha
• The Slick Tongued Kin