Lore24 Mar 3: The Grand and Majestic Emish

Emish is the most powerful of spirits, beloved by all, husband to Soo-Eh, friend to mortalkind, and just all-around cool dude. According to Emish, that is. You certainly wouldn’t think so after meeting him. He manifests as a creature resembling, but not quite a large wolverine. When manifesting in the south he will complain about the heat. When in the north, he will complain about the lack of sunlight. When in the east, he will complain about the dry air. When in the west, he will complain about the rain. Naturally, when when he’s in the more temperate zones, he will complain about all of these things.

Emish has a long, and complicated history with all nearly peoples in the world. When a new city is founded, when a tribe of nomads settle down to form a village, or even when a couple of families break off from their group, and seek to move elsewhere, after a few years, without fail, Emish will turn up, and demand to know why he wasn’t informed of the event. He will do this, even if contacted beforehand, claiming to have forgotten, and insinuating that people should really be more insistent. Having thoroughly annoyed everyone, he will demand food, lodgings, and anything he takes a fancy to as sacrifice. These are usually provided, not only because this makes Emish leave sooner, but also because for all his braggadocio and total lack of social graces, Emish is a rather clever spirit, and he keeps grudges for a long time. Antagonizing him can lead to him stealing all animals’ milk, causing women to be infertile, turning all fruit overripe, or any number of similar misfortunes, and he is very hard to get rid of, and he always comes back. After a while most communities just accept that he’s going to turn up every few decades, and try to please him so that he leaves as fast as possible.

 

Image by Tambako The Jaguar

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