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http://zermoth.net/mabi/library/view/en/200-01-002
The Goddess Who Turned into Stone
Contents
Introduction
Body
Conclusion
Introduction
Anyone who has ever entered a dungeon has seen the statue of the winged goddess carrying her sword. Though she looks at peace, there is a hint of sorrow in her eyes as she looks upon adventurers. This statue has been made to commemorate the wonderful Goddess Morrighan who sacrificed her life to save us humans during the war.
Long ago, the evil Fomors constantly invaded the human world, killing countless innocent lives. Many lived in fear of their invasion, lost their lives, and some were even taken into slavery. Those who could not take the abuse attempted to fight back, but the Fomors were too powerful and intelligent and humans were no match for them.
Things turned around during the second war at the Mag Tuireadh plains as humans defeated the Fomors and chased them out of Erinn. However, we must remember, the sad tale of Goddess Morrighan during the first of these two wars...
Body
Goddess Morrighan is one of the three goddesses of Erinn who represents War and Revenge. However, despite the fact that she is the Goddess of War and Revenge, she is not a violent or a vicious goddess. As a matter of fact, she blesses and encourages the warriors that go out to battle, and when soldiers are wounded and defeated, she helps them seek revenge. She has such deep compassion for humans that everytime we were threatened by the Fomors, she protected us from their evil grip.
But it all happened during the first war of Mag Tuireadh when the war was almost over. It was the first war the humans, represented by the Tuatha de Dananns, faced the Fomors. The cunning Fomors used Tir Bolgs, another human clan, and put them on the forefront of the battle, making it difficult for the Tuatha de Dananns to fight.
Thankfully, Tuatha de Dananns were able to defeat the spell bound Tir Bolgs under their mighty King and Warrior, Nuadha. However, during the last battle, with victory close at hand, Nuadha was seriously wounded on the arm by a Fir Bolg warrior named Sreng. Nuadha was immediately taken to the Rath to hideout.
Raths are fortresses that were made specifically for the war against Fomors. It has been inactive for many years after the war and now they are known as dungeons.
Although victory was clearly leaning towards the Tuatha de Dananns, the refugees that were hiding out in the Raths began to panic as they saw their great leader wounded.
This is when things got worse.
The Fomors were waiting for the Tuatha de Danann leader to retreat to the Rath. Through the secret passage of the Fomors, they invaded the Rath from the inside and begin attacking.
In the middle of the fortress where our soldiers and our leader was resting ungaurded, the Fomors appeared without warning. A passage way opened from the land of Fomors and they continued pouring in, slaughtering all the people inside the Rath.
The fortress of the humans turned into a slaughter house as the Tuatha de Dananns were on the brink of defeat.
King Nuadha tried to fight off the Fomors with his wounded body, but it was no use.
Just then, the black winged Goddess Morrighan appeared.
The Goddess used her power to stop the Fomors from coming through to the Rath. Many were able to escape while the Goddess held off the Fomors.
However, the Fomors did not back away. Even for the Goddess of War, it was too much to single-handledly take on the entire army of Fomors. The Goddess slowly began growing weaker.
As the last resort, the Goddess used her remaining strength to cast one last spell. She had to use her body as collateral to seal the passage of the Fomors. The Fomors were forever trapped inside the seal of the Goddess, stuck inside forever. The few remaining ones in the Rath were killed by human warriors.
However, what people didn't realize...
The magic the Goddess used required a tremendous sacrifice. The Goddess herself had to turn into stone... That's how much she wanted to protect us.
After the war, as a commemoration of their victory, humans set up stone statues of the Goddess all throughout Erinn to remember and honor her sacrifice. These are the statues you see inside the dungeons.
The Goddess, who lost her physical body in Erinn, ascended to the land of gods, Tir Na Nog. She is there right now... watching down on us from there.
Conclusion
And like that, Goddess Morrighan allowed the human race to flourish in Erinn and disappeared.
Now she can only be seen as a statue in the dungeon. But one strange occurrence has been reported. People have said that if you place an item at the altar of the Goddess, you are transported to another place.
Although the Goddess turned into stone, people started to believe once again that she was still watching over us...even in Tir Na Nog...
and that's why people call her the Protector of Humans,
and Warriors and people revere her.
The Goddess is watching over us....forever.
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