Manannán mac Lir

The Tuatha sea God commands great respect from a pantheon whose Worldly home and multifarious Otherworld realms are all islands. Manannán usurped the position from his father, the Fomorian Ler, and now governs passage to Tír na nÓg. He claims the Isle of Man, to the east of Ireland, was named for him. It’s hard to argue the point with several Axes Mundi leading to the Irish Otherworld hidden in the mists there.

Manannán fostered Lugh as a son and entrusted him with several of the magical treasures in his copious cache. All Scions, not just his own, may benefit similarly from the sea lord’s generosity if they travel to the Otherworld and suitably impress him, though what impresses him is never clear. His incarnations manifest as merchants, sailors, guides, and jesters with hidden agendas. When the Gaels drove the Tuatha into Tír na nÓg it was Manannán who divided the fairy realms between them, for he knew them better than any. He splits his time between ferrying worthy souls across the ocean to the Underworld and wandering the World disguised to show off his pranks to mortals.

People call upon the Scions of Manannán for guidance in travel and adventure, and especially as chaperones to the Otherworld or messengers to the dead. Dealing with them is rarely a straightforward affair, though, whether because the Scion herself has ulterior motives or because she gets caught up in someone else’s shenanigans by accident. The sea God’s children stumble across deeper mysteries with alarming regularity, consistent with rumors that Manannán predates most of the Tuatha and has seen realms long vanished into the fog of prehistory. The Gods whisper that if anyone could discover a lost Godrealm and claim it for the Irish — or discover the truth of Danu and Domnu’s murky history — it would be a Scion of Manannán mac Lir.