Theories on Dark Mother

[wyrdhamster]

As I’m (very slowly) preparing my Beast chronicle about searching for the Dark Mother – I thought that topic about sharing your ideas on her existence or doings would be great plot creators. Any of this theories can be rebuked by pointing holes in it, in arguments below. Or show your owns theories. So here are my ideas on Dark Mother…

1. Dark Mother IS Mother’s Land – Dark Mother is not singular being. She is whole of Mother’s Land – and the Land is extension of her will. Calling her Echidna or Tiamat is only half of the story. Her true name should be Gaea, as she created whole universe. Begotten are just her Children marked with purpose with fulfilling dark deeds in this world. She is so vast and all containing, that even the progenitors of Families ( Anakim, Namtar, Ugall, etc. ) in the Land are only the closest to the real avatars of her being.
2. Dark Mother is Kinship races – Dark Mother lives in her Children. All of them. Each created ‘monster race’ have a shard of her power. On beginning she was singular being. With each ‘birth’ of the new race, she lost parts of herself, giving it to the new Children – vampires got her fangs and hunger, werewolves got her multiple shapeshifting forms and rage, mages were marked with her magic and obsessions. And Begotten recalled her memory and mind. Some monsters remember half of this truth – that’s why exists Circle of the Crone, Mysterium or Centimani. To return Mother in one being, each member of monster races must be sacrificed with unholy, epic Obcasus Rite – but who would do such thing?
3. Dark Mother is in the Underworld – Dark Mother is dead. Many myths ends with slaying the Tiamat, Echidna or other Monster Goddess. And they are true. Mother’s Land and her Communions are only after effect of her existence – ripples on water of universe, Dream shades of once all-powerful being. No, real Mother is in vast Lands of the Dead. Once killed, her physical form rot and was devoured by her Children. What’s left of her, her essence, her… soul? – moved as first guest to the Underworld, opening locked Land of the Dead before this act, literally starting the journey of the ghosts to the Ocean of Fragments. This is why Underworld looks more or less likes caves – this form is most natural representation of the Cave of Mother in Dark Dream, the very first Lair. Tale is that who finds her soul, laid in Underworld, may rebirth her once again, in flesh, by channeling her in his Horrorspawn. Can you find your dead Mother?
4. Dark Mother is Shadow Realm – Other, primal reflection of Material World that spawns countless monster being that are most concerned with how to feed their Essence hunger? Sounds familiar? Story is that on beginning of time, Dream and Shadow were one. There were no difference into what thought and take in high esteem humanity and the world around it. Just like Mother Land can be Gaea herself – so the Shadow is manifestation of ancient titan goddess. Werewolves parents, Wolf and Moon, were two of most noticeable Children of Gaea – or sisters, as sometimes is pointed on relation between Gaea and Luna. Point is that Gaea was Pangea – and Pangea was Gaea. And Pangea was a Dream, at the same time. But then come humanity – and after centuries – there come Sundering. It not only separated Flesh from Spirit – but the Dream from the Spirit a like. The problem is that very essence off Dark Mother – as greatest of Pangeans – is now locked in the Shadow Realm. Precisely, she IS the Shadow. Do not look like that on me. How to fix this – I simply do not know. Maybe recreating the Pangea will resurrect the Dark Mother in flesh?
5. Dark Mother is once Arcadia’s Ruler – Once Arcadia was beautiful primal land, exotic and dangerous, but the beautiful none the less. Dark Mother was one of its rulers, terrible but beautiful being of terror that spawned wild monsters, willing them into existence with her all-powerful magic. Huntsman were her subjects – and she ruled over distance humanity, from time to time sending Lessons on them in vain of living stories that were to teach humans of their place in universe. But then came rebellion. New Arcadian beings come to her – those Gentry, Lords and Ladies, were clearly weaker than her – but they were numerous. They dethroned her, ruling now Arcadia in pieces, leading they everlasting Feuds over who of them should be sole ruler of Faerie. As to Dark Mother, story is not clear – is she slayed by Gentry army? Or she was just banished, hiding in Mother’s Land? What’s sure is that even eons after those events, our Mother needs her army to take back what’s rightfully her and ours. And as her Children, we gladly answer to this call.

[ajf115]

In relation to your ideas:

1. I don't think this really works. The Mother's Land is the soul of the universe, and there's so very much more to the world than fear. She could be a part of the Anima Mundi, but not all of it.
2. In my opinion, the connection with Kin is more to do with Beasts' themes of kinship with them than any actual physical (for lack of a better word) relation. Essentially, any Kinship is family-by-choice, rather than family-by-blood.
3. I could see this working, if it weren't for the fact that Beasts don't seem to hold any particular connection to the Underworld or the Shadow over any other realm (barring the Astral, of course). One way to spin it would be to have the Mother not as a single being but rather as something that transcends individuality. There is a Dark Mother who is the Mother Deceased, who is in/is the Underworld, there is the Mother Primal, who is in/is the Shadow and so on.
4. See 3.
5. Maybe. I don't really know much about the Huntsmen, but she's definitely not a being of the same kind as the Gentry. She's not lawful enough, and she doesn't care for contracts or bargains.

Here's my two cents: The Dark Mother is a collective theme of all Horrors - All Horrors have their themes - their Families and their Hungers. The Dark Mother is simply another one of these - a part of the definition of a Horror. To be a Horror is to be 'descended from the Dark Mother', thanks to the sheer universality of mother-of-monsters myths. You could say that the Dark Mother is the sum total of all Horrors, or that a part of her exists in all Horrors, or that she's simply a collective madness or delusion of Beasts, and the Obcasus Rites are simply a method of channelling that part of their themes in the same way that Atavisms channel a Horror's attributes. The division is, for the most part, academic. In short, the Mother is something internal to Beasts and Horrors, rather than something you could find and meet. Anything you meet that claims to be the Mother is a reflection of yourself and your idea or part or conception of the Mother, or else a liar.

[21C Hermit]

Meanwhile on the background, there’s a half-crazed Seer out there who keeps trying to connect the dots between the Mother and the Father. Whether there are any dots to begin with is itself a Mystery.

[ajf115]

Meanwhile on the background, there’s a half-crazed Seer out there who keeps trying to connect the dots between the Mother and the Father. Whether there are any dots to begin with is itself a Mystery.

What does a domestic between those two look like?

[21C Hermit]

What does a domestic between those two look like?

Gimme a holler when you find out - I’ll hear it from at least a continent away.

EDIT: And now I’m imagining an all-out war with Begotten of all Families and Hunger, Rampants, Unfettered and Incarnates on one side, and on the other side a legion of Heroes gifted with magical items provided by the Seers of the Paternoster and its Ministers.

[Demigod Beast]

The Dark Mother, in my games, is a Supernal entity from the Primal Wilds, Rank 8, that was exiled after the Exarchs took power. It embodied fear, and upon exile, took up residence in the Astral Realm.

[ajf115]

Gimme a holler when you find out - I’ll hear it from at least a continent away.

EDIT: And now I’m imagining an all-out war with Begotten of all Families and Hunger, Rampants, Unfettered and Incarnates on one side, and on the other side a legion of Heroes gifted with magical items provided by the Seers of the Paternoster and its Ministers.

This should be a fantasy-ish Shard. I'd play it.

[21C Hermit]

Another crazy idea: the Dark Mother was none other than... a human. No, not even a sorcerer, spirit-child, beast-kin or whatever. Just... a human.

This should be a fantasy-ish Shard. I'd play it.

Hell, with how the Astral works (or worked in 1E), we can have a realm in the Temenos where this exact thing is happening right now.

[White Oak Dragon]

I’ve been running a game for the last couple years, in which the CofD world was descended from the Exalted one. In that game, the Dark Mother was the hidden daughter of the Maiden of Secrets and the Ebon Dragon. She encouraged the lessons as a way of keeping her own descendants anchored rather than just reveling in their dark nature.

[Cinder]

This should be a fantasy-ish Shard. I'd play it.

Same here.

It also plays well with the twisted Ying-Yang relationship between the Dark Mother/ Primordial Dream and Exarchs/Supernal where one mirrors the other I go back thinking about from time to time.

Which is a not-so-subtle way to say I want to play that game a lot.

[ajf115]

Same here.

It also plays well with the twisted Ying-Yang relationship between the Dark Mother/ Primordial Dream and Exarchs/Supernal where one mirrors the other I go back thinking about from time to time.

Which is a not-so-subtle way to say I want to play that game a lot.

Maybe that could be a project at some point. Once my exams are over, I'll have time to work on it.

[Cinder]

Maybe that could be a project at some point. Once my exams are over, I'll have time to work on it.

You just have to give me a call, my friend. I know for sure you have plenty of ideas I'd be happy to be a player of, this one included.

[ajf115]

You just have to give me a call, my friend. I know for sure you have plenty of ideas I'd be happy to be a player of, this one included.

I will, and I'd love to collaborate with you on that. But we're getting off topic. This idea:

Another crazy idea: the Dark Mother was none other than... a human. No, not even a sorcerer, spirit-child, beast-kin or whatever. Just... a human.

Is an interesting one. Perhaps the Dark Mother that Beasts know today is the result of an Astral 'founder effect', in that she - the woman - was some kind of ceremonial scapegoat or perhaps the mother of the first corruption of humanity (an ancient spirit-claimed, perhaps, or something altogether stranger) waaaaaaaaay back when, right at the dawn of homo sapiens sapiens as a species, and as the very very first of her kind - that is, the first woman-as-mother-of-monsters - she set some primordial precedent, an atavistic idea-template for 'where monsters come from'. Her role was the birth of a Supernal symbol and an Astral reflection. She was ordinary, some woman from a nameless tribe of whom no trace now remains, but the impact she had was orders of magnitude greater than she or any in her age could have conceived.

I like that. I like that a lot. It makes Her in some ways much more human, and Beast is an oddly human game.

[Cinder]

Is an interesting one. Perhaps the Dark Mother that Beasts know today is the result of an Astral 'founder effect', in that she - the woman - was some kind of ceremonial scapegoat or perhaps the mother of the first corruption of humanity (an ancient spirit-claimed, perhaps, or something altogether stranger) waaaaaaaaay back when, right at the dawn of homo sapiens sapiens as a species, and as the very very first of her kind - that is, the first woman-as-mother-of-monsters - she set some primordial precedent, an atavistic idea-template for 'where monsters come from'. Her role was the birth of a Supernal symbol and an Astral reflection. She was ordinary, some woman from a nameless tribe of whom no trace now remains, but the impact she had was orders of magnitude greater than she or any in her age could have conceived.

I like that. I like that a lot. It makes Her in some ways much more human, and Beast is an oddly human game.

That's one of the oldest theories I have about the Dark Mother, probably the first I had back before the Kickstarter happened and I had to fill the voids without a text. Never got around to decide which options I liked more: the first human who experienced fear? The first one that embraced it? The first one that opened a pathway to the Primordial Dream? The result of a cosmic event where a woman and the dark soul of the Astral met and recognized themselves in the other? You get the idea.

That, in a way, makes the Dark Mother something not "much" different from special kind of Beast, whose Nightmare might be fear itself or the Nightmare of Monsters. It also is still compatible with my other general idea that "the Dark-Mother-to-be" was something that always existed but that, when humanity happened, looked at people and found something special in them, something that could allow to make a glorious Family of monsters exalted by their very own humanity (and not the opposite). At which point she said bye to the Primogenitor and became the Dark Mother as we know her. Whether she incarnated into a human shape, merged with a woman she felt Kinship towards or something else, it's up to discussions.

But yeah, one of my favorite takes on her.

[ArchonAres]

I personally like to think of her as an original Gentry's cast off nightmares. An exiled piece of a fae as old as existence, whos casting off created the Primordial Dream and it's nightmare inhabitants.