The Pale Maiden
The Maiden, The Maiden
A tale of love and woe,
She cries for her lover and everything she calls home.
The Maiden, The Maiden
Her skin like pearls and glass,
She fell to rest beneath the waves though her soul it would not pass.
The Maiden, The Maiden
Drowned as an elven slave,
She roams the tide in a ghostly guise and leaving death where she sways
The Maiden, The Maiden
Spare us your mournful cry,
Save your tears for other years so tonight we will not die.
Summary
A banshee haunts the seas and her song brings ships to their untimely demise unless you sing the story of her life throughout the night.
Historical Basis
About 499 3E men started to return from the sea in mad ravings, floating on pieces of driftwood that remain after their ships were destroyed and hearing a strange song sung during the late hours of the night. At the time slaves were taken much more readily from elf tribes, and it started to circulate that there was a correlation between the elves and the ships. Some people believed to see an elven woman or a banshee that would lure ships to their death. A few brave souls survived the encounter with their sanity intact and sung of a chanty detailing the tale of a woman dying at sea after being taken from her home.
Spread
The myth has remained where it started, Freeport. Fairly common knowledge to all local residents to the point where it is almost concerning if you do not know the Pale Maiden's chanty. Citizens of the city-state will not readily discuss the Pale Maiden and will only mention her when they sing her chanty in order to repel her from their ship.
Variations & Mutation
504 AD
The sightings of The Pale Maiden were much earlier, but it was during this year that the story of her started to take shape. Her chanty was much more macabre due to the influence of Freeport being razed by elves two years prior. This caused the chanty to focus upon telling in graphic detail the cause of the Maiden's death and the agony she must have felt as she drowned. The reason for this was probably due to the belief that by reminding the Maiden of her painful demise she would flee to soothe her broken mind. The older versions of the chanty also did not contain any hint of begging The Pale Maiden to leave the crew alone since it was thought she could no longer understand sympathy as her existence was assumed to be fueled by pain.568 AD
Around this time Freeport had settled back into its own and gained a bit more levity in terms of its chanties. So as the mood of the city changed so did the Pale Maiden's chanty. The gruesomeness of it was forgotten entirely and the parts of begging not to be harmed were added. This change was most likely due to the people of Freeport acknowledging at least on some level that things more powerful than men must either be groveled at or taken down. The Pale Maiden is one to be groveled at and feared due to many normal people not knowing how to kill a ghost.In Art
The only notable influence of The Pale Maiden in art is her chanty. Older versions have been lost and the only one that remains is the one based down orally from older sailors to the new generation.
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