One of the high kami and the master of all cleverness, Nuadem Meduan is the spirit of trickery and mirth. They are sometimes described as the "sacred jester" of the ascended spirits. Naturally, no singular account of the mortal being that became Nuadem Meduan exists, nearly all stories told are slightly different by design. No one can quite agree on how old they were or what occupation they might have had or what gender they may have claimed, but all the tales agree that Nuadem Meduan was of the
Saka, the wandering humans, who hold the trickster spirit in the highest position of honor on the Wheel and often speak of her as a mother figure, albeit a strange one.
Sakaian Myth of Meduan
Saka tradition tells that Nuadem Meduan was a mischevious young woman who liked to get out of chores by mastering a thousand lies. She was adept at feigning illness, at not being found, and especially at manipulating her elders. She kept an open ear for rumors (and spread many more herself) that she might fill the heart of anyone who caught her shirking with rage or sadness, or she might tell them such a wonderful story that they sat and listened until they had forgotten why they had been upset. She could tell jokes and play tricks that would leave herself and her audience striken with such laughter that they could not move for hours. She could make any man fall in love with her with lies of love. She could set two brothers to a blood fued with lies of hatred. Such a person will always inevitably learn to lie so well that they even fool themselves, or so the Saka believe, and it was such with Nuadem Meduan. She convinced herself that she was the cleverest being to ever have wandered the ever-moving world, and she believed it with such faith that the kami took notice. One such spirit, Satya Kowan, the deceiver, took her unspoken challenge. Satya Kowan was a powerful spirit that could lead wanderers to their deaths. It approached Nuadem Meduan in the guise of the one man she had ever truly loved, and with such a disguise did it lead her far from clan and kin. Once there was no hope of return, the disguise was discarded, and it challenged Nuadem Meduan to prove her cleverness, else he would take her to the spirit world. She agreed, but only on the condition that the spirit give her his divinity if she should win the contest. Meduan asked Satya Kowan to solve her riddle, which took a full hour to tell. The spirit sat pondering so deeply, he did not notice when she simply took his divinity and wandered into the spirit realm herself while he was distracted. So it is that Nuadem Meduan ascended, and it is said that to this day when a wander travels too far away from his people, he might come across a naked spirit pondering a riddle with no answer.
Kami of Trickery
As the spirit of all jokes, Nuadem Meduan frequently visits the world of mortals to entertain themself. They appear in a different guise every time, save for when visiting the Saka who revere her as the highest of all spirits, then she is the patch-cloaked mother. Meduan might appear as an old man to offer his advice to a lowly servant in hopes of causing chaos, or as a beautiful lady to tempt a lord from his vows. They take tremendous delight in disguising themself as another being of power to lead trusting followers astray. The Saka practice a tradition of welcoming all strangers at their fires and treating any lone traveler with the utmost respect, a tradition that the spiritual and paranoid across all Fujiyama have adopted, lest it be a test of Meduan. They are not a malicious spirit, often offering genuine help to those who gain their favor, or they might trade a gift of precious gems for a genuinely funny joke. They might help a jealous lover take vengeance on rivals, or they might bless a child to be filled with eternal mirth. Spirits that branch from Nuadem Meduan are chaos incarnate, such as the spirits of explosives or the kami of trecherous landscapes. Some of the more powerful kami that serve Meduan are the spirits of comedy that only appear to make someone laugh and then leave again. The nature of Nuadem Meduan and their underspirits cannot be truly described, cannot truly be understood, and as such they are the only divine beings of Fujiyama that can be found on other continents from time to time.
One of the Artifacts of Skaldor was a gift from Meduan when they visited a young Skaldor in the guise of an exiled fool, claiming to have been too funny for the Sun Empress.
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