The Seven and the Eighth of Power
The legend of Din's pantheon
The names of the three Golden Goddesses are known by all and for ever. Din, the goddess of power. Nature, the goddess of wisdom. Farore, the goddess of courage. Revered by all who walk the goldland, the piece of the world which they created and breathed life into. They are the oldest known gods and yet never have faded from the fragile, temporary minds of mortals. They never succumb to myth, which overtakes truth again and again. The currents of the rivers of time race and rage. Infinite small stones of memory may tumble through its rapids, or float along its gentle bends, but they all eventually settle in its bed. Sometimes shaken loose and resurfacing, sometimes buried. These three names are no such pebbles, they are the peaks of the tri-topped mountain which envelops the river, the mothers of its endless banks. They are the beginning of all, and as such eternal.
There are more names, however, of a stature greater than pebbles and lesser than mountains. Smaller gods that make up the pantheons of the Golden Three. Sentinels, guides, judges, tricksters. Their true names and forms are known only to their creators, and in the minds of mortals their faces and stories shift over the ages, like the shape of the riverbed changing with every small stone added or lost.
It is not a bad thing. Truth is so often relative and it is the mortals who tell the stories of these gods that give them meaning. Many people have lived for millennia on the goldland, of vastly different races and cultures, unified by their worship of the same gods. There are two distinct nations, in two corners of the land, who chose Din as their deity of highest worship. The Gerudo, a proud race of humans, with pointed ears and uniquely tall stature, who live in the southwest deserts and their surrounding valleys and highlands. The Rito of the north, an endurant race of bird-folk, whose feathers and wings allow them to soar high above the ever-wintrous mountain range they call home.
There is a legend about Din’s pantheon, which takes two different shapes, according to the tongue of its teller.
Its simplest form, the highest truth which is the root from which the two tales grow, is as follows; there once were eight, noble beings who embodied all the forms of power. Then seven, who fought for good, against one, who betrayed them.
According to the Gerudo, these beings are called the Heroines. Each one mirrors another. Tarheem and Khaheem, the guardians of Mercy and Vengeance. They stand at the shoulders of Enteshar, the guardian of Victory, and represent the two paths a warrior may take after the battle is won. There is said to be equal capacity for shame and honour in both. Askhas and Amer, the guardians of One and Many. One, the power of an individual, the way a leader may crack a whip over the backs of their followers or inspire hope and strength in them. Many, the power of a collective, the way a thousand hands could build a city or destroy it just as easily. Atesh and Maseh, the guardians of Fire and Sand. Both elements that are regarded as ultimate, unconquerable forces of nature. Sand, which swallows and erodes, but also offers stone with which to build homes and roads. Fire, which consumes and burns, but also offers warmth to combat the freezing desert nights. Sand smothers Fire, and Fire turns Sand to glass.
The one who once stood across from Enteshar was Enhezam, the guardian of defeat.
In an age so long past that gods have lived and died in the time since, there was a great war. Said to be the war that birthed all wars, ignited by the evil that birthed all evil, waged between gods, and their armies of followers; mortal and demon, willing and slave alike. The Heroines fought in this war on the side of good. Only there was a turncoat amongst them, Enhezam, who in a dark hour turned against her sisters, the other Heroines, and her mother, Din. She pledged herself to the God of evil and his cause. When the war was over and the evil defeated, she was spurned by the demonic forces, who believed that by joining them she had cursed them. Discarded then at the feet of those she betrayed, the other Heroines did not welcome her back into their sisterhood, and she was exiled, doomed to wither and rot in solitude forevermore.
Before, Enhezam was the guardian of all those whose lives were lost in battle, protector of their dignity and their memory in the wake of Defeat. Now, her name only means traitor.
According to the Rito, these beings are called the Hunters, and the myth most told of their origin is more symbolic than historic. Rather than being the children of Din, they are said to have hatched as mortal Rito like any other. One Hunter was born to each of the eight Rito tribes from which all their people are descended. Each of the eight tribes embodied a form of power, in honour of Din, and each of the Hunters were a champion of their tribe.
Embodying Victory was the Chitiawa tribe, who stood out for wearing ornamentation of their prey and displaying trophies from their hunts. Some did it to honour the piece of the cycle of life they themselves were part of, to emphasize their unity with the prey they’d bested, and show respect for the life of the meat that sustained them-- and some did it merely to boast their strength. It depended on the character of the individual Rito. There was the Hoghrhn tribe, of Mercy, in which healers and morticians were equally revered and sacred practises. They valued peace and life, but also did not shy away from death. There was the Houhn tribe, of Vengeance, who valued justice above all else. They did not forgive and they did not forget, and to make an enemy of one of them was to make an enemy of all of them.
Embodying One was the Wikwik tribe, which lived atop a blustery peak topped by one massive tree, and inside the hollow center was where the tribe’s chief resided. It was a harsh place to live, but they believed that one who could not survive in their own home was not worthy of their tribe’s name. And, a chief that could not see to it that all their fledglings lived long enough to shed their downy feathers of youth was not worthy to lead them. There was the Karakip tribe, of Many, which lived in a deep basin within the mountain range blanketed by a thick forest. They made their nests not in individual crafted shelters, but under the evergreen canopy, in a tightly-knit community that relied on one another for warmth and care, which was shared amongst the tribe in abundance.
Embodying Ice was the Ureet tribe, which made their homes on open glacial slopes and in frozen tunnels, choosing to embrace the power of their frozen lands rather than resist it, and harnessed it. The tribe produced many elemental mages of ice, and they were one with the snow and frost. Their unique plumage was pure snowy white, and intense icy blue. There was the Awra'aa tribe, of Fire, proclaimed to be the natural opposites of the Ureet. They lived even deeper inside the mountain, and tended to great stone hearths that burned without cease, and hot enough to rival the earth’s core, the furnace of the forge god Temna. Far from the sun, they brought the flames of the sky with them into their great underground caverns. Their plumage was as dark as the charcoal their talons were dusted with.
Embodying Defeat was the Hu'waoo tribe, which produced many great and wise seers, who read the stars like it was the language they knew from birth. They believed not in conquering the cycle of nature, but deferring to it. They believed there was honour in surrendering to the great everlasting, ongoing defeat, as it was not the end, and the key to true power lied in embracing the endlessness of ending.
The legend which is sung by Watarara, the holy bards of the Rito, describes the age of the first snowfall, the winter that birthed all winters, the glacial era that tested the mettle of the first Rito, and pushed them to the very limits of survival. Snow fell endlessly, burying all but spare scraps of vegetation. The frozen winds whistling through the treetops were a death knell. The air was so cold many eggs did not hatch. Prey was scarce.
Even the Ureet were overpowered by the sheer magnitude of this winter. Even the Awra’aa’s hearths were weakened, threatened to be snuffed out. Even the Wikwik could not endure it, and the Karakip were not enough to keep each other shielded from the elements. Even the Hoghrhn could not abide the cruel season, and even the Houhn hadn’t the strength to oppose it. Even the Hu’waoo couldn’t bear to bow to nature which had become their foe. A foe not even the Chitiawa could overcome.
The eight tribes had always been separate. They were prideful, and constantly fighting each other, even before this legendary age of ice, and since the first of endless snowfalls blanketed the region the animosity between them only grew. But the Rito as a whole were in danger of being wiped out, fighting a losing battle against the elements of nature. They were desperate, and one day, at the coldest break of dawn the feathered folk had seen yet, the eight tribes met at the tallest peak in the center of the compass of all their villages. They agreed that if one tribe fell, the others would surely follow, and for the first time since the birth of the sun and moon all eight tribes agreed to work together. Cooperation was the only thing that would promise their people a future. And so each tribe chose their most skilled hunter, to form a party that would venture deeper into the mountains than any Rito had ever been, towards the mountaintop that breached the clouds. The Hunters set out, flying into the winter storm with frost tipping their wings and their bows in talon. They prayed to Din, the goddess of power and the sun, that they would find enough food to feed every mouth in all their villages.
High upon the glistening cliffs they explored, the hunters found great blue-furred horned beasts which they had never seen before. The beasts were many, their thick hides and dense fur protecting them from the mighty winter better than any other animal. They were powerful, smart creatures, prey that matched the calibre of the Hunters. It was Rito tradition to honour one’s prey by using every part of the animal, leaving none to waste. The meat of the beasts they hunted would fill the bellies of their tribe’s children, the bones would be carved into tools and ornaments, the hides and furs made into clothes and nesting.
The party of eight ascended the tallest mountain with their bounty in tow. Above the clouds in the twilight, they could touch the sky from their perch. As they made their campfire, the spark they struck met with the flames from the sun itself, and it set ablaze not only the humble logs, but also something within themselves. For overcoming their strife, and reaching that peak, the Hunters received a blessing from Din. It was the Rito Burning Heart, which would allow them to not only survive the even harsher winters to come, but to thrive in them. A source of power that would be the core of every Rito, of every tribe, heedless of their individual strengths or weaknesses.
That night, while the other seven slept, the Hunter of Hu’waoo threw snow on the warming embers of their fire. With no other traces of the sun around them, they were hidden from Din’s sight. As the cold crept in, he stole away with all the food. When the remaining seven Hunters awoke at dawn, they realized what had happened, and would not let the villages depending on them to suffer because of the selfishness of one Rito. They tracked the eighth down in the frozen mountain pass and decided that if he thought others were a burden to him, then they would release him of all his burdens. He was cast out, with only his own bow and Burning Heart, to ever wander in solitude.
The seven returned to their homes with the bounty they rightfully caught. Their fellow Rito were overjoyed at the feast they were to have, and the gifts they had been given from their goddess. But they were also horrified to learn of the actions of the eighth Hunter. The Hu’waoo were afraid they would all be condemned because of his selfishness, but the seven Hunters declared that the division of their people would be of the past, and the tribe was not to be punished for the crimes committed by one man. The winter may be cruel, nature may be indifferent, but they could choose not to be.
So all the Rito tribes united and from that day forth shared everything between them; their food, their ways, and their songs. No one knows what became of the eighth Hunter, but as the honoured Seven were immortalized in the elements of power they embodied, it is said that so was he.
Summary
The Gerudo version of the myth is more about the trials faced by the Heroines as created deities under Din, whereas the Rito version focuses on the story of the Hunters ascending to their deitic state. The Gerudo consider these gods to be existing entities that are part of the greater realms, present to be worshipped and prayed to, turned to for guidance and discipline. To the Rito, while the Hunters may be invoked or worshipped as gods for any number of reasons, they are seen more as figures of the past. Paragons of the forms of power who existed in ancient times, but whose continued existence is merely in spirit. They may have ascended in the realms, but their time as physical beings is long, long over.
For the Rito, the legend of the Seven and the Eighth is meant to teach important values about honesty, cooperation, dignity, and honour. The story is what defines the Hunters. But for the Gerudo, the legend of the Seven and the Eighth is more just a keystone piece of the whole history of the Heroines, and they are primarily defined by their existence alone, rather than specific events-- even the Guardian of Defeat.
Historical Basis
Actually, the war referred to by the Gerudo and the trial and subsequent banishment of Enhezam, is technically the truest version of events, as that was the God War, in which Din's Pantheon did fight, and the Guardian of Defeat did pledge allegience to Demise. However, the truth is Defeat was imprisoned, not exiled.
It doesn't technically matter which version is historically more or less accurate, for as I said, truth is only relative and it is not history that makes something true or meaningful.
Related Trivia
The statues of the Seven Heroines in the Gerudo Desert were finished construction in the year 1140. The statue of the eighth Heroine was only magically banished from its original holy site several centuries later, some time after the first Calamity and after the dissolution of Hyrule, when the worship of the Heroine Enhezam became outlawed in Parapa.
Unlike in Parapa, the Northern Rito nation never truly forsook the Eighth.
The Burning Heart spoken of in the Rito legend is something all Northern Rito are said to have, though some are commended for having a particularly remarkable one. One who is considered a paragon of rito strength is said to have 'the burning heart of the eight'.
The main constant between the different representations of the pantheon of Din is what the forms of power are that each figure represents. Only one differs based on regional interpretations, being an element of nature that is not universal like Fire is, though the core premise of the form of power remains the same, as well as its place as a mirror to Fire. The Gerudo call this one Sand, and the Rito call it Ice. Here is a list for reference:
- Victory-- Enteshar, Chitiawa.
- Mercy-- Tarheem, Hoghrhn
- Vengeance-- Khaheem, Houhn
- One-- Askhas, Wikwik
- Many-- Amer, Karakip
- Sand-- Maseh / Ice-- Ureet
- Fire-- Atesh, Awra'aa
- Defeat-- Enhezam, Hu'waoo
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