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doorsclosingslowlyWith the bright eyes and the grimace on his face, he looks more real than the furniture that surrounds them. He looks the way the old, old tales of Wrath Returning from the Moons Unscathed and Triumphant sound. He looks like he’s come to bring Savage home. (Riches and Wonders)
“Who was Wrath, brother?” Maul whispers. It’s not quite an apology for today and as close as he’ll ever manage. Entirely by accident, those are also the words that are always used, the child’s call for the Elder’s recital. ¶ Maul doesn’t understand why there’s a hitch in his brother’s heartbeats. He’ll never find out, but still he falls asleep with the soft age-worn cadences of strength and worship and ownership, of terror, of a man and a witch and a child and the long journey to bring that child back home entering his ears for the first time—for the thousandth time—for the first time he can remember. (The Opening Act of Spring)
The legendary Return of the First Nightbrother is looking at the baby in Savage’s arms and frowning, deeply and unhappily and confused, as if he’s never seen anything this small and loud before. As if this is the first time he’s ever seen another nightbrother. ¶ “This is Maul,” the Mother says. ¶ She pushes the myth-boy forward. ¶ He doesn’t want to leave Her, that much is obvious. Maul is red but he is not Wrath. The First Nightbrother stood before the Woman he slept with and demanded She release their child, and his Return drags his feet while he walks towards another nightbrother and his bottom lip trembles. He—Savage grimaces. Yes, he’s sleep-deprived, but he should not think these unkind thoughts about a child. He smiles at Maul, and he hopes it looks warm and steady, and not muddled and headached and terrified. He probably doesn’t succeed. Maul continues looking unhappy. (Without the protection and infancy’s guard)
the legend of red wrath, the first nightbrother, and his eventual rebirth is a set of interconnected myths. shared background worldbuilding. they’re not supposed to neatly add up to a single story, partly because i like making stuff up on the fly to fit into the flow of the respective scene, and partly because it’s a legend that has been told and retold and adapted and interpreted and challenged so many times. wrath is actually a pretty controversial figure, too: he is the first nightbrother, after all. he promised the Witch his own return, as long as he could take his son with him first; he promised to serve her later, and now, here they are. viscus, who stands tall and watches every time a brother from his village is taken–who bears witness as his punishment–viscus hates him. wrath is the story of a man who sold his sons and their sons into eternal slavery because he was too weak to leave his child with the Mother to die. viscus is a man who lets his brothers be taken, because he knows they are too weak to win against the Sisters, and at least this way they have lives to live before the Selection. viscus hates wrath, and he hates…
stinger does not listen to how wrath is coveted, deep-drunk and wrapped in irascible’s arms. his love for stories is as dead as the rest of him, after he was taken by the Sister and taken and rejected, but the deep familiar rumble of irascible’s beloved voice and the kisses on his bare chest, for a moment, soothe.
it’s savage’s favourite story. he dreams of being as strong as wrath, and able to protect his brother. standing in the village square, barely passed over and aware that one day, he will not escape, he dreams: of someone to protect him. savage’s wrath is ever-changing. he is clever, in the story told to feral, using tricks and intricate traps. he perseveres, stumbling through the marsh for years, to gorge who stutters and is often ignored or ordered to shut up. he loses an eye; he makes the kill; he is terrified. he is kind. he will never abandon his family, not for anything and not even when his family believes he is not worth the cost, especially not then, savage tells maul. his versions all tend to cut off after wrath has found his son, though.
Anyway, in the time-travel au i will not start writing (knocks on wood) the nightbrothers very quickly figure out that, whoever this familiar-but-too-old-to-be-the-child-traded-off-planet new red guy claiming to be the return of wrath may be, he definitely somehow knows savage, because the wrath legend that maul is using to blag his way to a position of power is very very obviously one of savage’s idiosyncratic special child-adapted versions
(whether maul is actually the son of dathomir reborn as talzin believes, the return of the first nightbrother, does not matter. to him, it is a tool)
#idk i just really like the idea of maul coming along with a conception of history as events fixed and written #and totally giving the game away #because the story of wrath is a *story* #it's true but not in the way events are true #also i like the idea of maul--who has been utterly alone for another decade or more by this point and thought he lost his bro forever #being recognized instantly as *savage's brother*
stinger does not listen to how wrath is coveted, deep-drunk and wrapped in irascible’s arms. his love for stories is as dead as the rest of him, after he was taken by the Sister and taken and rejected, but the deep familiar rumble of irascible’s beloved voice and the kisses on his bare chest, for a moment, soothe.
it’s savage’s favourite story. he dreams of being as strong as wrath, and able to protect his brother. standing in the village square, barely passed over and aware that one day, he will not escape, he dreams: of someone to protect him. savage’s wrath is ever-changing. he is clever, in the story told to feral, using tricks and intricate traps. he perseveres, stumbling through the marsh for years, to gorge who stutters and is often ignored or ordered to shut up. he loses an eye; he makes the kill; he is terrified. he is kind. he will never abandon his family, not for anything and not even when his family believes he is not worth the cost, especially not then, savage tells maul. his versions all tend to cut off after wrath has found his son, though.
Anyway, in the time-travel au i will not start writing (knocks on wood) the nightbrothers very quickly figure out that, whoever this familiar-but-too-old-to-be-the-child-traded-off-planet new red guy claiming to be the return of wrath may be, he definitely somehow knows savage, because the wrath legend that maul is using to blag his way to a position of power is very very obviously one of savage’s idiosyncratic special child-adapted versions
(whether maul is actually the son of dathomir reborn as talzin believes, the return of the first nightbrother, does not matter. to him, it is a tool)
#idk i just really like the idea of maul coming along with a conception of history as events fixed and written #and totally giving the game away #because the story of wrath is a *story* #it's true but not in the way events are true #also i like the idea of maul--who has been utterly alone for another decade or more by this point and thought he lost his bro forever #being recognized instantly as *savage's brother*
[originally posted 2018-06-14]
