Bokvaettr anKaleth - Bestiary of Edwyna

Nôttsidhe, or the Night Wraiths, are a different story altogether. They’re much rarer. Nôttsidhe are wraiths in the form of young women that haunt the wilds with eerie screams. At first notice, however, it might sound as though a young girl is weeping deep in the woods. Once approached, they grab hold of their victim and, through their eyes, show visions of death. Their mouths hang unnaturally open with empty eye sockets. They will scream at an impossibly high pitch, driving whomever towards insanity with the visions shown and the sound of their screams. As seen further along in the passage, Nôttsidhe are not altogether entirely evil beings.

It has long been suspected that the origins of the Night Wraiths are in fact Aelindhe (Elven in Nidaenesse) maidens. This conclusion by most Kyllistidani scholars is drawn by three irrefutable facts: the sheer haunting beauty of the Nôttsidhe, the fact that they are only seen as female in form, and that solely women of the Aelindhe ever received visions of the future.

The visions shown to these women were, however, muddied. It was only after several decades of meditation were these visions ever made clear. The last vision ever granted was given to the High Priestess of Kyllista, Cellārie Calclaire, in the year 1265 3E. It was after fifty-six years she was granted clarity for the scenes she saw in her mind. It was, of course, the Keola anThrakvaine (The Punishment of the Gods), the desolation of the Northlands, that she had seen. High Priestess Calclaire sent word immediately to both Ilnjallr Ekraan, the King of the Northlands, and to Minnihas Bragaar-Nas, chieftainess of the People of Rylla. Upon arrival, King Ilnjallr crumpled and burned the High Priestess’ letter. The latter heeded the warning along with the prophecies from the priests of the Thrakvaine. With the knowledge of fore-coming doom, the People of Rylla abandoned the north, crossing south over the Nyrthr Mountains and the Samnûr, settling the Kyllistidane Islands.

With all these things being stated, the visions shown by the night wraiths are truth. We know, concretely, these visions to be undeniably true due to the events on the 14th of Haafik in the year 1022 4E. The high priest of the temple to the Thrakvaine in Ekraawell, Nyvan Hadafdyyg, visited the island of Drakath and had an encounter with a Nôttsidhe on the eastern side of the Old King’s Tunnel. As the account goes in Cavathor Munseim anEklem’s book, Straege anNôttsidde, or The Histories of the Night Wraiths, the high priest ran across it following the sound of sobbing coming from deep in the wood. When he and his party came upon the wraith, it showed them a vision of the genocide of the Havanthi and Aelindhe. Only the priest wasn’t driven to madness. When he awoke alone among the trees, he rushed all of his stricken friends to the capitol of Drakath. The doctors were amazed that he alone was sane, and questioned how. He told them that he also saw the vision, but he wasn’t affected by the horror, and that he was able to comprehend and process the images shown to him. He explained to them the images he had seen, the fires and screaming, but was dismissed. They told him it was impossible, that the Aelindhe and the Havanthi civilizations would never fall, and he was excommunicated from the church for ‘false-prophecy.’

When the genocide he spoke of started in 1700 4E with the burning of the first Havanthi fortress of Brûtez-Nata’akhan, and finished with the exile of the Aelindhe across the Nyrthr Mountains, the visions showed to him via the Nôttsidh came to pass. It was several years after the drawing of the Samnûrian Veil when a small scrap of parchment documenting the event was found. With the discovery of the Hadafdyyg Incident Report, High Priest Nyvan Hadafdyyg was reinstated to the church and given the rank of Yungr Vivôkon, or Minor Prophet.

Since that day, many priests of the church have tried to replicate the visions granted to High Priest Hadafdyyg, with varying degrees of unsuccessfulness. After several years of temple priests and holy men visiting the Kyllistidane to gain the foresight the Night Wraiths offered, the Kyllistidani Government passed the Bôke Laevih 1735, the Monster Act of 1735, that stated the Nôttsidhe as a dangerous entity, and that none should make contact. It became punishable by incarceration if one was not immediately reported to the Mathrmal. Since then, it became a lucrative, but always deadly, trade to catch a Nôttsidh, especially once the church in Ekraawell put a reward on the capture of one. Only one man has done so successfully.

Chapter eight of the Histories of the Night Wraiths describes the tale of Lûkyyl Havastran anEdevin who is the only man to successfully capture a Nôttsidh. He waited in the woods for 937 days until one finally wandered into his trap. With a box made of silver, lined entirely with salt, and soundproofed. He would have supplies brought to him as he waited for those two-and-a-half years for a Night Wraith to step into his trap. The trap itself was a soundproofed silver-steel box. Ingeniously, the box consisted of three parts: the inner shell made from pure silver, the outer shell molded from Ryduin steel, and in-between the two shells was packed with salt from the Sahakhampsin Desert. Along with all of this, the interior was completely sealed with Ironsheep wool. The Ironsheep is named so because its fur is naturally soundproof. The Kyllistidani use it for insolation of their buildings (and protection from the Nôttsidhe). The combination of these materials was nearly priceless, but the payoff from the reward the church in Ekraawell had set, was worth it. When he finally caught it on the 31st of Arfyrs 1739, by dropping the trap from above and sealing the wraith inside, he smuggled it all the way to Ekraawell. Upon arrival, High Priestess Alfanna Follaer reportedly paid Havastran an outlandish 5,600,000 Femuns. After inflation from the last years, he would have been paid roughly 148.65 billion Femuns. For reference, that is worth a quarter of the economy of Nidaeham -he could have purchased the entirety of the city of Kataines and her surrounding lands.

After the Nôttsidh had been given over to the church, who foolishly released it in the temple to the Thrakvaine to gain its visions, it promptly killed nearly every priest in the temple before escaping into the city. Its week-long havoc in the streets of Ekraawell was named Daege anCwytmr (the Days of Suffering). In total, according to chapter eight of Munseim’s book, the night wraith killed 16,438 people before the Mathrmal cornered and killed it.

Since then, it has been outlawed across Sûthryyg, Halpatokee, and the Sahakhampsin States to come into contact with the Nôttsidhe. Along with this decree was also passed a description of how to kill one should it find you:

Hide. For no man can withstand its gaze, nor its frightful screams. Only unawares is one able to kill the wraiths. One must stuff their ears full of candle wax -to ward away the screams -and then run a blade of pure silver through its heart. Preferably, attempt to stab the said creature through the back, not through the front, as the eyes of the Nôttsidhe will show you the horrible visions.