E WHO DWELL on the earth under the stars, hear this tale and beware Ur-Carath, queen of the deep, who rules over endless seas. Her world, Idiru, is one of pure waters uninterrupted by dry lands. Such a place was made by her own power, high magic learned from her most terrible father.

Ur-Carath was begotten by the Great One, Kala, lord over many realms, of men and fair folk alike. He was crafty, a most ancient entity, and like his cosmic kin did work many wonders unfathomable to lesser folk.

Now, Ur-Carath’s realm was host to many chimeric beasts of her own creation, beings made in the black depths beyond the reach or knowledge of men. These beasts she sent out into the dreams of mortal folk, giving them nightmares as she preyed upon their fears, a power taught her by Kala. She and her kind had fed on man’s fear since the dawn of time. Their emotions were the source of the Old Ones’ power.

Despite this, Ur-Carath never slew the ones she assaulted in the world of dreams, her corporeal form did not thrive on bloodshed. Kala saw in her heart a pity, perhaps even empathy for the ant-like men dwelling on the plane beneath. To one older than time itself this fleeting thought of kinship to man born in the mind of a High One was a blasphemy.

The father admonished his progeny—she should meet with a cruel fate for her careful treatment of their cattle. The ones below were born to serve, ever mastered by their cosmic lords.

But as Kala’s eye watched his daughter across the eons, he saw that Ur-Carath would soon become strong enough to challenge him. His rule over her was iron, and his will was for her to remain his vassal forever. In her strength she withdrew from him and denied Kala the precious spirit-food which she produced, and defended the lowly humans from his hateful wrath. Fearing the great strength of his child, Kala at once came and did battle with her with his armies.

Their fight was long and fierce- many of their servants perished in the great battle they waged. Entire worlds split asunder by their might!

N THE WANING days of the Great One’s conflict, Aedthenn, a child of Ur-Carath lived as a huntress in the dark waters, slaying the enemies which were sent by Kala the Adversary.

With might and magic she reigned supreme among the warrior women of the world-sea, her spear never missing its mark.

The servants of Kala knew her well, and marked her for death, though their efforts faltered always.

Ur-Carath made Aedthenn’s flesh like calloused armor, and her eyes wide to pierce the blackness of the depths with ease. Her teeth were like swords themselves and her flesh glowed with ethereal light. If any man of the earth beheld her in her glory, they would surely be undone in terror.

DARK AGE SOON CAME. Even Aedthenn and her mighty sisters would face trials yet unheard of, for Kala in his wisdom had crafted a most sinister plot against their master, the slumbering dream-eater.

The Adversary came like lightning and invaded the deep world with his full might, striking down many servants of Ur-Carath with his fell weaponry and sending his dark emissaries to hunt the sea-sisters.

One by one the sisters were hunted down and slain until only four remained beside her: Aedthenn the Silver, Nerei of the black sky, Eleska Star-Eye, Dreameater Geise, and Loterian the Unseen.

These five were the last defenders of their lord.

ALA CAME ALONE, his splendor and might like the sun in their eyes. Aedthenn readied her spear there, in the cradle of her dormant master whose power had waned in the Great Ones’ war. Aedthenn and her sisters bared their fangs before the evil one, his laughter shaking the watery realm to its foundations.

“Children, you are brave, but faced with my great power you will invariably die. I shall not kill you, but I shall make you share in your master’s fate, which is this...”

Kala’s mind touched hers, and she recoiled at his powers as he showed her visions of pain.

“...your master, Ur-Carath, was born of my own flesh, and she rebelled against her father—a grave sin! None of my ilk shall be stronger than I! So now she will reap the fate of those she hunts. You and she shall be stricken down to the waking world! You will live out your lives among the mortals like cattle!”

The five sisters fought bravely against their foe, filled with rage and determination. The magic and mighty weaponry of their hand did at first drive back the dark beast Kala, but his power overcame them.

Their lives were spared as their bodies withered from the heat of battle, for a crueler fate than death for them awaited.

N THE END, among the destruction of her world, Ur-Carath fell, banished by Kala to the mortal realms, stripped of her power to feed on the dreaming fear of men. As the defeated one fell through the halls of time to the place where mortals dwell, she slept, dreaming a dream of her own. A plane of white flowers stretched far and away before her, and there was a great tree—the world tree—rising up so that no eye could truly perceive its breadth or height.

Ur-Carath felt the calling of death at her back, but forward she was pulled to the life set before her. Then she beheld the sun over mankind, and was made new. Her body became like a newborn babe, and her eyes no longer did see the cosmos as the old lords did. The brilliance and color of the world filled her mind as her form became much like what she once hunted.

She lay newborn among a reef in the seas of the earth as a star-blessed child, and beside her stayed her five warriors who raised her up in the ways of their old world. They had been stripped of their powers, cursed to remember their ancient might as they hunted above the waves for their prey, luring them with familiar lullabies. Though much of the strength they once commanded was lost, some magic still remained, and they lived on through the ages, their power waxing and waning with the moon.

Starchild Ur-Carath grew there, nourished by the care of her children. Nerei cradled her every night as she dreamed of her lost world, longing to return yet forgetting the deep dark as she rose anew each day to live in the seas of the earth. She relished the tales that Eleska told her, of their dreaming hunts led by Geise, the dark depths of Idiru, and the wondrous beasts therein.

Aedthenn and Loterian taught her the ways of hunting men, how to sing for them, to lull their minds into a trance. Ur-Carath grew stronger by the day, and away from the prying eye of Kala would surely rise again to the status of a goddess.

T IS SAID in the ancient legends of fishermen that Aedthenn and her sisters still stalk the dark waters, luring men in to feast on their dreams. Their tireless work nourishing their queen until she grows strong enough to challenge Kala once again.