Lore24 Jan 2: The White Lady

The White Lady is one of the hundreds of Underworld deities mentioned in the clay tablets rescued from the ruins of the drowned city of Ab-Cir. She holds the keys to the nine gates of the Underworld, and the souls of the dead are only allowed to leave on her authority. Legends of heroes delving into the Underworld often feature bargaining with or straight-up threatening her to allow for the release of the hero’s loved ones. She is worshiped more out of fear than reverence, as in her displeasure she is wont to unseal the gates of the Underworld, allowing the spirits of the dead and other, even worse creatures to wreak havoc on the mortal world. She may alternatively bar spirits from entering the underworld, rendering the souls of the dead cursed to wander the lands of the living.

She is most commonly depicted as a woman wearing a long white dress and a white veil, or as a white snake or sparrow. Her temples are made out of marble where possible, and out of limestone where practical. The temples often feature sculptures of two great serpents, Serek and Habti, who guard the gates of the Underworld. Her holy day is the autumn equinox, when all albino household animals born during the year are sacrificed. Solar eclipses are also her doing, as she sends Serek and Habti to capture the sun, which she then imprisons in the Underworld, so that the Underworld gods can grow more grain using its life-giving rays. This is usually resolved by various gods journeying to the Underworld to convince, bribe or threaten her. Various trickster gods are also frequently dispatched to steal back the sun, which they usually do by disguising themselves as attractive young women and getting her drunk on date wine (she has a great fondness for both).

She has no well-established cultic center, but her greatest temple is the White Temple, a giant limestone ziggurat in Nashat-Ippur, where her priestesses carry great political power, as they can call forth the spirits of dead emperors and great politicians to offer guidance, legitimize claims, or barter for items of great value buried within their tombs.

From her champions she requires no great sacrifice, only that they hunt down and kill those, who summon the spirits of the dead without her consent (meaning mostly necromancers and corpse-demons), and to drink a full amphora of the best date wine they can find during her holy day, and solar eclipses. In exchange she gives the power to call forth the spirits of the dead, either to answer truthfully, or to temporarily serve the champion.

 

The Veiled Lady, by Raphaelle Monti. Image by unknown.