The Great Ravens

 

 

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"A black cloud enshrouded Moon's Spawn, followed by faint shrieking. A moment later the cloud spread out, fragmenting, and Tattersail realised what she was seeing.

 

Ravens.

 

Thousands upon thousands of Great Ravens. They must have nested among the crags and pocks in the Moon's surface. Their shrieks grew more defined, a caterwaul of outrage. They wheeled out from the Moon, their fifteen-foot wingspans catching the wind and lifting them high above the city and plain.

 

Fear lurched into terror in Tattersail's heart.

 

Hairlock barked a laugh and whirled to them. 'These are the Moon's messengers, colleagues!' Madness glittered in his eyes. 'These carrion birds!' He flung back his cloak and raised his arms. 'Imagine a lord who's kept thirty thousand Great Ravens well fed!'"

 

(GotM, UK mmpb p.74, UK Trade p.56)

 

 

'Magic was ambrosia to Great Ravens. They were drawn to it by the scent of blood and power, and within its aura their lifespans lengthened into centuries. Its musk had other effects as well.' (GotM, UK Trade, p.143)

 

Crone's thoughts: The Great Ravens were born like maggots in the flesh of the Fallen One and that, oh, that will damn us! But wait! Have we not been honourable guardians of the Crippled God’s magic?...A magic we can unleash, if forced to.(MoI, UK Trade, p.86)

 

Korlat: 'Crone believes the secret of her kind’s birth is not known to us. It is the shame of their origins, you see – or so they themselves view it. Rake is indifferent to its . . . moral context, as we all are...The Great Ravens are unnatural creatures. The bringing down of the alien being who would come to be called the Crippled God was a . . .violent event. Parts of him were torn away, falling like balls of fire to shatter entire lands. Pieces of his flesh and bone lay rotting yet clinging to a kind of life in their massive craters. From that flesh the Great Ravens were born, carrying with them fragments of the Crippled God’s power. You have seen Crone and her kin – they devour sorcery, it is their true sustenance. To attack a Great Raven with magic serves only to make the creature stronger, to bolster its immunity. Crone is the First Born. Rake believes the potential within her is . . . appalling, and so he keeps her and ilk close.’(MoI, UK Trade, p.91)

 

 

 

Great Raven Names

 

Crone

Hurtle

Kin Clip

 

Ravens! Great Ravens!

Your damning cawls deride

histories sweeping beneath

your blackened wings –

Shatter the day

O flags of night,

rend with shadows

this innocent light

Ravens! Great Ravens!

Your drumming clouds arrive

swoop’d sudden sheer,

hissing travails

from no place

t’ the other –

Shatter the day,

O flags of night,

rend with shadows

this innocent light

Ravens! Great Ravens!

Your beaks clatter open

disgorging the sweat

of straining dismay

the clack of bones

promised this day –

I’ve seen the sheen

of your eyes the laughter

that rimes the living

your passing but an illusion –

we stop, we stare

we curse your cold winds

in knowing your flight’s path

wheeling you round us

again, oh, for ever again!

Ravens

Collitt (b.978)

(GotM, UK Trade, p.462-3)

 

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