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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Talking Skulls in Walton's Prince of Annwn

See, I told you magic heads and talking skulls are cool.

From Prince of Annwn, by Evangeline Walton

These quotes are from a conversation between a couple of dead heads, and some even more dead skulls, at the gate of Death's palace.

"Man's head is among the Mysteries. It sees, it hears, it thinks, it speaks. Man has only one other power that matters: movement [. . .] it does not endure, like a skull."

. . . and the skulls keep those powers, in these Welsh-mythology based tales in the book. They see, hear, think, and speak.

"Yet there is great power in a head, the Seat of the Four Powers. Our old folk used to keep the heads of their dead as honored guardians, who could see further than men. They cherished them as loving kinsmen and good councilors."

and get this one, for those who want to unleash the Sons of Morte or Acerak's kids on the world:

"I have heard of a skull that spat upon a woman and got her pregnant [. . .]"

So even death won't stop a good man. Or maybe, not stop an evil man, either.

And yes, I use a lot of talking skulls and councilors beyond death in my games.

1 comment:

  1. Cool, I really like mythology and folk magic it has its own logic as to how the supernatural behave. The magic in GURPS Magic and other magic systems works as though there is some supernatural energy to use in a world where the laws of physics work normally. The magic in mythology and folk magic works according to its own laws and ignores the laws of physics. Anyway, that kind of stuff is really cool and interesting to me.

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