Submitted: 31 March 1999

The Huntress: Goddess of Vengence

by Lochdonnan

Goddess of Vengeance

Her symbol is an Eight pointed star and a black widow spider.

Her face is a mask of carefully controlled anger. Her eyes perpetually stare and her lips are set in a tight line. She has the frame of a fighter and holds a scythe at ready in her right hand.

The story of the Huntress, told and retold through the ages of Elanthia's ancient past, from mythical tapestries:

A holy tapestry is divided into four parts. The first three depict the Huntress, a human still, saving the life of the King three times with heroic actions, risking her life to save his. In the fourth, she kneels before her sovereign, accepting the honor of being made his guardian. In the shadows, the Queen and her bodyguard Arachne look on in jealousy. By the way they are whispering, they seem to be plotting.

The plot has reached fruition. Carefully the Queen slips a potion into the Huntress's drink, sending her into a deep sleep. Arachne plants a dagger in the Huntress's hand, then raises the alarm, accusing the Huntress of attempting to kill the King. The Huntress is arrested and thrown into the dungeons.

The Huntress stands in chains at her trial. The Queen and Arachne testify against her, and the King is moved by their speeches. Only a lone guardsman is willing to stand up for the Huntress, but it does no good. She is banished to the desert, clad in a black death-shroud with only two day's worth of water.

Tired and dehydrated, the Huntress stumbles through the desert until she finds a cave in an outcropping of rocks. Entering, she finds a hoarde of immense spiders. Fighting bravely she kills them, then drinks their blood to ease her thirst. But the blood is poison, and finally she slips into death. The spiders, impressed by her prowess, build an altar for her, and lay her body upon it.

The Huntress's soul rises from the mortal realm to the stars, where she consulted with the gods. She swears her revenge to them, vowing to repay those who wronged her. Eventually she awakens to share her story with the arachnids, who vow to aid her plan. Silently, she steals back to the city.

A militia of citizens has been formed to protect the city. Not wishing to slay innocents, she steals a scythe and creeps into the castle. Efficiently, she kills the King's eight sons, and then the King himself. But the guards set upon her, forcing a retreat into the dungeons. The dungeons contain a surprise. The guardsman that attempted to defend her has been imprisoned there since the trial, as has Arachne for her knowledge of the truth.

The guardsman tends the Huntress's wounds, while Arachne begs the Huntress for forgiveness. Together, they go to slay the Queen. But as the Huntress kills her, Arachne stabs the Huntress and the guard as well. Angered, the guardsman stabs Arachne, and they all fall to the floor, mortally wounded. Unwilling to face death, Arachne bends to drink the immortal blood of the Huntress. As she drinks, she is bitten on the lip by a black widow spider.

The Huntress, her oath complete and her divinity assured, rises to the heavens and takes her place amid the stars. The faithful guardsman follows, ever to protect her in the night sky. However, the venom of the spider works within the blood swallowed by Arachne, twisting her now-immortal form into that of a giant spider. Thus the eternal rivalry was formed, to rage across the lands.

[Editor's Note: The legend as told above comes from the material and histories of GemStone, set in our Elanthia's very ancient past somewhere. Without official documentation or denial, many now presume that the Huntress mentioned briefly in our Immortal's book is this same Huntress. It makes sense! Since Lady Galya retold the legend for us all the other day, there has been a lot of interest and speculation. All of it met with stony silence from Guardian Mages.]