Mavuun, the Cradle Without Child

Domain: Loss, Emptiness, Mourning Unspoken
Titles: The Silent Mother, She Who Waits, Keeper of the Grief Unnamed
Symbol: An empty cradle on fire
Origin Among Mortals: Mavuun was born in the hollow places of the heart — not where grief is wept aloud, but where it is swallowed. She took shape in the quiet rooms where no child ever cried, in the pause after news too heavy to speak, and in arms that held only memory.
She came not from death, but from the void left behind. From absences. From endings that had no beginning. From love that had nowhere to go.
She is the goddess not of mourning itself, but of grief that cannot be named.
Nature of the Cradle Without Child: Mavuun is quiet, still, and present. She does not offer comfort — she joins you in the ache. She speaks no promises, offers no explanations, gives no path forward. But she is there, where no one else is. And in that presence, she brings the first fragile form of healing: witness.
She is not the cradle, nor the child — she is what remains when both are gone.
To mourn in her name is not to cry out — it is to sit in silence and let the ache breathe.
Manifestation & Imagery: Mavuun appears as a shrouded figure seated beside a burning cradle — never touching the flame, never flinching from it. Her eyes are veiled, her hands always folded. When she moves, it is to adjust blankets that are no longer needed.
Her symbol — an empty cradle on fire — is found carved into charred wood, embroidered into grief-cloths, or left unmarked at shrines where flowers never wilt and ash never gathers.
Worship and Followers: Mavuun’s worship is solitary. Her shrines are always unattended, yet always clean. Dust never gathers. Flames never go out. Offerings are left without words — a toy, a ribbon, a single stone. No prayers are spoken. None are needed.
Her followers are often those who have endured unspeakable loss — miscarriages, vanished loved ones, failed dreams, empty wombs, or the loss of something they were never allowed to name.
They are called the Unheld, and they gather only when they must — to clean her shrines, and to sit beside the flame in silence.
After the Dark Awakening: When the world fell, so did so many lives unborn, hopes never realized, and families torn by war and magic undone. In this era, Mavuun does not walk — she waits. Her presence has multiplied.
Shrines to her now appear in ruins, burned homes, broken nurseries, and battlefield edges. She says nothing. She needs say nothing.
Many Weavers say they feel her presence most when their magic fails and someone is lost without even the grace of a scream.
Notable Sayings & Myths:
“The world remembers the names that were never spoken.”
The Ember Blanket: A tale of a woman who wrapped a cradle in fire to keep grief from consuming her. Mavuun sat beside her until the flames died — and remained after.
The Ashroom Garden: A grove where shrines to the Silent Mother sprout from the earth after storms. No one tends them. No one knows who built them.
The Quieting Cradle: A myth in which Mavuun rocks an empty cradle until the stars weep and the winds forget how to howl.

“Not all emptiness is absence. Some is what remains when love has nowhere to go.” — Mavuun, the Cradle Without Child