The Priestess of Ehlonna speaks...*cough cough* Hello again. I never did *cough* get a chance to thank you properly for saving my life. Please allow me to do so now.
Oh, I should be right as rain and sunshine in *cough* a few days. I'd be fine now, but Ehlonna has not answered my prayers since that day. Not even the smallest of blessings. I fear something terrible has happened...
What, the riddles? I don't... no, wait, I do remember them now. I had set Kelis, my apprentice, to researching some of the terms, and we had just put together some thoughts when the fire broke out. Why, I could think it was Titanomachy come again! No, no, I exaggerate, and you hardly came here for a sermon from the goddess.
Riddles wrote:Wouldn't you like to play? The players playing play playfully, play play with me!
The Maypole will fall at the comming of children, didn't you hear? Or is it the other way around?
Dance with ribbons and chop it down! Dance with flowers and raise it up! And then the spring will come again...
Ehlonna, strangely enough, has told us scarcely anything on the Fair Folk, and yet I have read that the other gods speak even less on the subject. No, don't interrupt me, I have a point to what I am saying. Through our scrying bowl Kelis contacted the Great Glade of our order, where the Library is kept. The archivist Fanera took an interest in the puzzle, and worked out a ritual to
find references to the Good People... you know, the Lords and Ladies? The ones who sent you the message? Yes, it is best to be careful with names. Where was I? Yes, Fanera cast a ritual to find references in the Library. And the only scrolls were old.
OLD, my good friend and keeper Ancor.
Old, Garron, to whom I am in debt.
Old, Pendarric. Older than the elves themselves. In fact, once Elves were born to this world of Human Mother and "Lordly" Father, that is the day no further mention can be found! A thousand times a hundred years in the past, and no further mention is made in the library. Fanera, an elf herself, trembled to find these scrolls.
I get to my point, I see the impatience in your eyes. You have somewhere to go, I can tell. But let us go over the first of your riddles. Ehlonna, in the oldest texts not even incorporated into the cannon, told us myths of battles between the Fair Folk and the gods. She did not say why they fought, only that they did. And in epic prose, the scroll says that the gods themselves were called "Players" by the Lords.
Your eyes widen, Melech. Do you think it strange that they addressed you with the same term they addressed your own god? But the gods never destroyed the Good People, though the scrolls say they tried. And yet you, you of all people, have managed to defeat one of their own, have you not?
As to the maypole, it often means the attribute of men... oh, don't blush, Ehlonna is not Pelor to be ashamed of the ways of nature! But I don't think they mean to cut anything off you of that nature, it'd make no sense. Kelis thinks it could mean mankind as a whole, but I rather think it would mean the WORKS of men. Our accomplishments, our deeds. Ehlonna spoke of Lordly magics, described them as "Ribbons" of power that somehow altered their pasts. A terrifying passage!
I'm sorry I cannot help beyond these allusions. Oh, but there were other riddles too, weren't there.
Riddles wrote: The Song of Drums is coming near
The Princess of Wolves has learnt to fear
In Dreams the Queen rides a walnut shell
And plays the drum, and plays it well
This one is easy. The Song of Drums? What could that be but war! Do you disagree, Notos? I saw you wince. What, you have seen this war already? Allow me to speak further.
The Princess of Wolves must be the ruling Lady of Silvia Forest. She commands the wolves that carried off the shepard's flocks-- now they plant grain instead, if the weather ever becomes more sane. And there is only one Queen who rides a walnut shell. I shall not speak her name! She, who is terrifying because alone amongst the Fair Folk, she
understands mortals. I shudder.
No more of that.
Riddles wrote: Lightning flashes, power trashes
Seeds to gather within passions
Remember back where you began
Raise up teeth of father's land
This one... I honestly don't know. Perhaps it is something directly personally at one of you? There was nothing in the old scrolls to help. The Fair Folk do not speak of fathers that I can tell, and their passions are so sundry I could hardly know where to begin. You're on your own for this one.
But finally...
Riddles wrote: Ratty rat is rupert rat
Rupert rat has ate the cat
Kitty cat has worn a bell
The bell will ring, we'll go to------
The weak overcoming the strong is the central theme of this silly piece of doggerel, and it's meaning is fairly obvious. Are you familiar with the Book of Creatures? I gave a sermon on it just last... but no, you did not stay, did you. Housecats were once dragons, thousands of thousands of years ago. Ehlonna tells us so, and it is pretty obvious to see, if you have ever compared a dragon to a cat. They have the same sort of... personality. Although dragons are more so.
The end of the riddle suggests that something belonging to the "cat" will cause a great calamity for everyone. Note the "we" at the end there? It suggests that the rat and the cat both are in danger. Alternatively, it suggests the riddleteller is in danger, but that's not typically how riddles work.