To Lady Juliet, Royal Witch of Calatini
Royal Palace
Ormas
Merrilea

Dear Lady Juliet,

Thank you very much for your advice about my cleansing spell. I performed my spell on the anniversary of meeting my former betrothed, and now she is a faded memory. Since you were so helpful in this matter, I have a query that my mentors did not care to explain. (They told me ’twas beyond my ken and ordered me to return to studying the witch’s tongue.)

During the past two years of apprenticeship, a few Rhiannon descendants have visited to buy painting spells from my mentors to include in their larger spells. (My mentors are famous for their exquisite painting spells.) One of the Rhiannon descendants I met was a gypsy, while another was a noble scholar. How did Rhiannon manage to produce such disparate offspring?

Thanks for your help (again),

Mordred Thyme
Upper Warden
Oakmoor

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To Mordred Thyme
Upper Warden
Oakmoor

Dear Mr. Thyme,

Although most of the populace does realize this, the term “Rhiannon descendant” is a misnomer. Rhiannon lived over two millennia ago, but ’twas physically impossible for her to have born as many children as necessary to account for the number and diversity of Rhiannon descendants. Some claim Rhiannon bore a daughter after she settled on the isle of Orandia, but since she was well past childbearing years at the time, I doubt this claim is true.

Rhiannon descendants are actually descendants of early witches that performed a blood-kith ceremony with Rhiannon. When training early witches (both at her witch school in Oress and later during her travels with her husband across Damensea), whenever Rhiannon met a talented witch, she would cut her left palm and the witch’s left palm then press the wounds together for several minutes before sealing them with an incantation. The mixing of the blood and incantation further enhanced the talented witch’s power and control, and these benefits are passed on to a talented witch’s descendants, which is why Rhiannon descendants are more powerful than ordinary witches.

How and why people began calling these witches Rhiannon descendants is lost to the mists of time. However, one theory is the term possessed a better cachet than “Rhiannon blood-kith nephew/niece.” Another theory is the concept of “Rhiannon descendant” was easier to explain to the populace than the truth. A third is that the term is an abbreviation of “Rhiannon blood-kith descendant.”

Sincerely,

Lady Juliet, Royal Witch of Calatini
Royal Palace
Ormas
Merrilea