Welcome to the first world building post! These posts will tease short stories and new pages for the website’s wiki. Today, this post does both.
“Shahzade,” Nikias said, his tone gentle but firm, “You know I can’t see her. I can’t hear her. She’s a ghost.”
“No, she’s a churel.”
Nikias swallowed hard. A vengeful soul of an impure woman wasn’t something to trifle with.
“Does that matter?” Nikias asked, keeping the worry from his eyes, “You know how to banish wayward souls. Give her peace.”
The Shahzade took a deep breath. His hand was raised above the scroll. Faint, pale green fog began to pour from his fingers onto the scroll, setting the glyphs aglow. The matching glyphs by the window began to glow faintly, and Nikias started when suddenly the outline of a woman was visible on the other side of the window. More accurately, the outline of the desiccated corpse of former-Khanum Aliyah Madiaran, wife of the Shah and mother to the Shahzade.
Churel.
- “Death of the Khanum”, L.J Stanton
The Real-World Myth
Churels are vengeful spirits of primarily Hindu mythology, although there are modifications on this myth throughout the Middle East and Asia. All share similar features. They are creatures born in the death of a wronged woman, a woman who dies in childbirth, or is ritually impure. They are extremely ugly, with saggy breasts, black tongues, and backward feet.
For more information about the real-world mythology, see the links below:
The Churels of Cala
In the world of Cala, within the Mists of Aldruin novels, churels are particularly nasty vengeful spirits born of wronged women. Women who are executed for crime they either did not commit or for a crime they believe themselves innocent of, who die at the hands of a lover, or who die during childbirth are all particularly prone to becoming churels.
Spirits are the only form of mythical creature not banished to the mists and the Gods Islands, as they are self-propagating. Benign ghosts are born of souls unwilling to pass on because of unfinished work. When that ‘work’ is vengeance, they are perverted into creatures such as the churel.
The above quote is from a short story to be published here this Friday. Death of the Khanum provides a small window into the lives of Merikh and Nikias decades before The Dying Sun is set, when Merikh is a young boy and Nikias still has his hair. All character back story shorts will be tagged as spoilers, even though they won’t provide any earth-shattering ones.
Thank you for reading!
-L.J