TITANS OF THE TUATHA DE DOMNANN

PANTHEONS

The winner writes the history, that much is true of the history of both humans and the divine. For the Titans of the Tuatha Dé Domnann, the winners have determined not only who’s “good” and “bad,” but who’s even a member of the pantheon itself, as opposed to falling into Titanhood. Those who claim themselves as Titans follow the lead of Domnu and use her name as a banner. A relatively lesser-known pantheon, the Tuatha struggle to survive in the modern age of The World, and the Titans even more so.

BALOR -- THE EVIL EYE

Aliases: The Deadly One, King of Drought, The Piercing-Eyed, The Smiter

Balor died. Everyone knows this. Everyone knows that after he locked his daughter up in a tower — so she could never have children, thereby warding against a prophecy that his grandson would kill him — his daughter became pregnant by the son of Dian Cécht. Everyone knows that Balor set his grandson adrift on the sea to kill him, and that Lugh returned as a grown man and threw a spear through his grandfather’s single dread eye. The stories of Balor’s death, and the hole his great and fiery eye burned into the ground, forming a deep lake, are told to children and form one of the best-known stories of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Lugh handsomely rewards bards who tell the most flattering and elaborate versions of Balor’s death.

Balor died, and his body tumbled into the hole his dread eye burnt into the earth. Balor’s body lay still on the drought-wracked earth until his mother, Domnu, ran from the sea, screaming her agony and grief. Her tears filled the deep basin, and her screams shook the earth, causing waves which carried his body to her empty arms. He’d been her first favorite, the child she bore during the Incarnation that loved Buarainech, the best-beloved and most mercurial of her children.

Whether the tears of the primal mother brought her favorite child back from the dead or that Mantle passed to another one of her doted-upon children, Balor walks the earth again, much to Lugh’s chagrin. After that terrible war, he slept for several centuries, content to leave the World to its own business. His eye stayed closed, and drought did not plague Ireland, nor famine touch her shores.

Two centuries ago, he woke, and resumed wandering the length and breadth of the World. Whenever four of his servants pry back the seven lids on his single massive eye, he gazes upon the land and grasses dry and leaves wither. Forest fires break out when he blinks the first lid. The sea warms when he gazes upon it.

ndeed, in recent centuries Balor’s realization that he can warm the waters and raise mag- nificent storms has made this one of his very favorite hobbies. He’ll never forgive Lugh for that spear to the eye, and while his grandson celebrates those bards who tell the story of his death, Balor seeks out those same bards and wreaks havoc upon their lives. He never kills them directly, instead causing them misery and heartbreak. Family farms fail, loved ones fall ill or meet untimely ends by tragic accidents: dried- out old trees fall suddenly, a beloved infant succumbs to heat stroke, car engines explode.

Balor had enough of children centuries ago, and unlike other Tuatha Dé Domnann, he has no desire for progeny. The others create and adopt in order to increase their numbers, but The Deadly One has no plans for such things. Lugh still lives, after all; his first child didn’t work out so well for him. Of course, Balor’s plans don’t usually work, and he’s the king of the accidental Visitation.

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