Crossing The Bar by Arcanist Davim

Crossing the Bar

A study on the Drowned Court

(Excerpt)

The Drowned Court is a Semi-Divine belief system held commonly by communities that inhabit various settlements close to, or on, the sea. Variations in belief and a lack of organised structure have led to many theories on the age of this belief system, with some suggesting that it predates the modern Calendar and started in the days of the Dominion, or even earlier. As we have no surviving accessible records from the Dominion, this is impossible to prove one way or another. Worship of the Drowned Court has often been passed down in oral tradition...
One of the various forms this oral tradition takes is in the form of children's rhymes, which by itself give us an indication into the beliefs of some of the worshipers...

"A sliver crown clenched in his fist
The Buccaneer will bring the mist
To all who see her lordly might
Countess Harkanen will bring the night
A mask of green conceals his form
The Admiral will bring the storm."
A children's rhyme heard in Port Villi, 826 PD

One interpretation of this rhyme is that it exists, like many myths, to explain natural phenomena that occur in every day life living near the seas...
The name Harkanen, as it appears here, does not match any historical or genealogical records of a Countess in any of the nations of Cadenza, it is unknown when or where this name appeared in the rhyme, although it is not used when referring to the Countess when making offerings anywhere else.