Therefore it is that Levana often communes with the powers that shake a man's heart: therefore it is that she dotes on grief. "These ladies," said I softly to myself, on seeing the ministers with whom Levana was conversing, "these are the Sorrows; and they are three in number, as the Graces are three, who dress man's life with beauty; the Parcoe are three, who weave dark arras of man's life in their mysterious loom, always with colours sad in part, sometimes angry with tragic crimson and black; the Furies are three who visit with retribution called from the other side of the grave offences that walk upon this; and once even the Muses were but three, who fit the harp, the trumpet, or the lute, to the great burdens of man's impassioned creations. These are the Sorrows, all three of whom I know."
"Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow" - Thomas de Quincey
Thomas de Quincey wrote about Our Ladies of Sorrow in his essay, "Levana and our Ladies of Sorrow", which was part of Suspiria de Profundis. He describes the Sorrows as companions of the Roman goddess of childbirth, Levana.
De Quincey says nothing about the origin of the Sorrows. He does reveal they are sisters. Perhaps, they were once mortals who fell foul of a curse.
Our Ladies of Sorrow have appeared in films. For the Three Mothers trilogy, Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi reimagined them as witches resident in purpose-built houses in Freiburg, New York and Rome. Separate from Argento's Three Mothers mythology, Demons 6: De Profundis (co-written by Daria Nicolodi but uncredited) features a witch by the name of Levana.
In the year of Suspiria's release, Fritz Leiber published his novel, Our Lady of Darkness. It is an urban fantasy that introduces the concept of "megapolisomancy" and features paramentals.
In Kim Newman's Dracula Cha Cha Cha, Mater Lacrymarum is a malign entity far deadlier than vampires.
Triple Goddesses
The triple goddess and goddesses that come in a set of three are common in mythology. There are the Fates of Greek Mythology, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, as well as the three-formed Hecate. The Norse had the Norns, Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld. The Celts had the war goddess, Morrígan but the triple nature is ambiguous and not well defined.How or if the Sorrows are associated with these goddesses is left open.
Call of Cthulhu
The entry in Chaosium's Malleus Monstrorum describes Our Ladies of Sorrow as three of Nyarlathotep's Million Favoured Ones. I prefer to think of them as entities in their own right.The Sorrows are incorporeal entities. They interact with living minds through dreams and hallucinations. To become a physical being, a Sorrow must possess a woman susceptible to her power.
Our Ladies of Sorrow presents them as a triple goddess. Together, they are Hecate. How this works is left unexplained. Perhaps the Sorrows are avatars of Hecate. Alternatively, they might combine their power to create a three-fold goddess.
Mater Lacrymarum (Mother of Tears)
Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”Jeremiah 31:15
Our Lady of Tears is the oldest. Her eyes are sweet and subtle. A diadem adorns her head. She carries keys that open any door to intrude on her sleepless victims.
Mater Lacrymatum is hot-blooded and passionate. She seduces mortals with a warm and friendly demeanour. It is a fragile facade, easily shattered to reveal a quick temper. An alluring smile masks ruthless streak unmatched by many psychopaths.
Her remit is grief, loss and mourning, especially of a child.
For possession, Mater Lachrymarum targets women who are mourning a death or bemoaning a major loss.
Unique Ability
Lachrymarum's Fervour - Our Lady of Tears can incite strong passions in a person. This takes the form of highly emotional outbursts; they could be anger, sorrow, excitement. The exact nature depends on the target and the circumstances. The strong emotional state interferes with rational thinking. The keeper should increase the difficulty of all skill checks, where appropriate, while this effect is in place. The ability works automatically on willing recipients otherwise a successful opposed POW check is required. The effect lasts for the duration of the emotional outburst or, at most, for the duration of the scene or encounter.Sample Avatar - Dr Karen FitzWilliam
Karen was never a bad person. Her fatal flaw was her compassion: she cared too much. She went to medical school, worked hard and qualified as a doctor. The ability to heal the sick brought Karen great joy and gave purpose to her life.She was unable to detach herself emotionally from her patients. Some illnesses defy treatment. Some lives cannot be saved. She strove harder and harder to avoid the pain of failure. Sleep deprivation and overwork took their toll. Mistakes were made leading to complaints and an investigation. She denied she had a problem and rebuked all offers of help. The medical board struck her off. The former doctor FitzWilliam was devastated.
Karen blamed everyone except herself. In her head, it was a conspiracy. Seeking to hit back at the profession that had destroyed her life, she fell in with a crowd of evil people. Now, she champions alternative medicine and pseudoscience. Karen is a spokesperson for the anti-vax movement, the face of quack cures and a fierce critic of "allopathic medicine".
Karen's pain and anguish made her an easy target for Mater Lachrymarum.
A tortured soul who bartered integrity for revenge
STR 55
|
CON 40
|
SIZ 55
|
DEX 80
|
INT 80
|
APP 75
|
POW 100
|
EDU n/a
|
SAN n/a
|
HP 9
|
DB 0
|
Build 0
|
Move 8
|
MP 40
|
Luck n/a
|
Attacks per round: 1
Armour: none
Weapon Skills: all base
Skills: Art/Craft (Writing Blogs) 50%, Charm 70%, Computer Use 40%, Cthulhu Mythos 90%, First Aid 90%, Medicine 80%, Pseudoscience (Quackery) 65%, Science (Biology) 40%, Science (Chemistry) 30%, Science (Pharmacy) 30%
Languages: English 80%
Suggested Spells: Cause/Cure Blindness, Cause/Cure Disease, Cloud Memory, Contact Mater Suspiriorum (no POW cost), Contact Mater Tenebrarum (no POW cost), Grasp of Tenebrarum, Shrivelling, Whither. She prefers spells that cause distress to her enemies and heals her allies.
Notes: Karen is not a bad person at heart. She does want to help the sick but she has lost her grasp of reality. Her hatred of the medical industry has blinded her to the truth. She is oblivious to the harm inflicted by her actions.
Mater Suspiriorum (Mother of Sighs)
Judah has gone into exile under affliction and, under harsh servitude, she dwells among the nations, but she has found no rest. All her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of distress.Lamentations 1:3
Our Lady of Sighs is the middle sister. Those who gaze upon her true face see a haunted woman. Her eyes betray lost dreams and a forlorn delirium. She wears a dilapidated turban that trails to the floor.
Mater Suspiriorum exercises emotional restraint. She neither weeps nor groans but sighs inaudibly.
She is associated with the outcast, the prisoner and the enslaved. Where hope is lost, Our Lady of Sighs is there. She is the guilt that haunts survivors. Of the three sisters, she is the meekest.
For possession, Mater Suspiriorum targets women who feel alienated or dispossessed.
Unique Ability
Blessing of Suspiriorum - Mater Suspiriorum is not without empathy. She can relieve suffering but at a cost. She offers affection to the target, perhaps a kiss on the forehead, a gentle caress or a hug. Painful memories are erased from the target who finds peace. It is, alas, short-lived. The victim dies shortly afterwards, seemingly of natural causes. It works automatically against a willing person, otherwise, Mater Suspiriorum must succeed at an opposed POW check.Sample Avatar - Yana Joseph
She was born Yana Al-Yousif in Syria. Her parents arranged a marriage to an abusive and unfaithful husband. She made of show of mourning his death but felt no sorrow.Yana fled her homeland to escape the violence that had widowed her. She ended up in a foreign country, alone, afraid and unable to understand the language. She adjusted to her new existence. In the refugee camp, she enjoyed an improved quality of life. She ate regularly. She took daily language lessons. Most importantly, she was free from the threat of violence. She changed her name to fit in better and to divorce herself from her Syrian origins.
One day, a group of uniformed men took Yana and many other refugees away. After a long journey, they arrived at their destination. Kind people gave the refugees proper homes and jobs.
The abuse started soon after. It escalated from insults to threats and then to violence. Yana despaired and opened her heart to the Mother of Sighs.
By day, Yana helps refugees adjust to their new lives. They make a rich source of magic points. She works with the police, aiding their investigations into hate crimes. By night, she terrorises the dreams of those who have offended her.
One lost soul among many
STR 60
|
CON 60
|
SIZ 50
|
DEX 60
|
INT 55
|
APP 40
|
POW 150
|
EDU n/a
|
SAN n/a
|
HP 11
|
DB 0
|
Build 0
|
Move 8
|
MP 30
|
Luck n/a
|
Attacks per round: 1
Armour: none
Weapon Skills: all base
Skills: Bureaucracy (specifically related to immigration and naturalisation) 60%, Charm 60%, Fast Talk 60%, Library Use 65%,
Languages: Syrian 80%, English 40%, French 45%
Suggested Spells: Cloud Memory, Contact Mater Lachrymarum (no POW cost), Contact Mater Tenebrarum (no POW cost), Dominate, Enthral Victim, Evil Eye, Implant Fear, Implant Suggestion, Mater Suspirium's Embrace, Mental Suggestion, Mesmerise, Mind Blast, Nightmare, Send Dreams. She prefers spells that allow her to control others or enfeeble them.
Notes: Yana is known as a compassionate and supportive person. People do complain that they feel tired, drained, after spending time with her.
Mater Tenebrarum (Mother of Darkness)
And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?
1 Kings 9:8
Our Lady of Darkness is the youngest and most terrible of the three. She is a tall woman, never stooping to a shorter person's level. She wears a veil to mask her intense eyes.
She is the most rebellious of the three. Mater Tenebrarum delights in blasphemy and standing up to authority. Unlike her sisters, she carries no keys so she must find other ways to encroach in the homes of her prey. Her power is most effective against psychologically damaged people. She is the voice in the heads of the clinically depressed, schizophrenics and the paranoid.
For possession, Mater Tenebrarum targets psychopaths, narcissists and other women with psychological issues.
Thomas de Quincey wrote a whole book about her, The Kingdom of Darkness. He burnt it with many of his other papers. It is now lost.
Unique Ability
Heart of Darkness - Mater Tenebrarum seeks to find a person's weaknesses, phobias and character flaws so she can exploit them. She must touch the skin of her target and make an opposed POW check. If she succeeds, she gains a vague picture of the target's obsessions, addictions and weaknesses. For example, she may learn that an important politician has a cocaine habit but not where it is obtained, how much he uses or the level of his dependence etc.Sample Avatar - Michelle Constance Buckingham
Michelle was an only child. Her mother and father put her under enormous pressure to succeed. Michelle's wishes came a poor second to the ambitions of her parents. It was always "mother" and "father", never "mum" and "dad". Her name, "Michelle", was never shortened. Affection was a rare commodity in the Buckingham home.Michelle studied law, not out of desire, but due to parental pressure. She did well but she failed to excel. It was not good enough. It was never good enough. During the holidays, when her friends were out having fun, she was cloistered away with her books. Her mother never allowed Michelle a boyfriend.
The Michelle Buckingham who graduated was a cold and heartless woman. She had many job interviews but poor social skills held her back. Michelle's difficulties enraged her parents. After a short period of counselling, she landed a junior position with a law firm. Naturally, it was not good enough but it was a start. Michelle was happy to be working.
She made a name for herself when she successfully prosecuted her boss in a sexual harassment case. Winning was not enough; she destroyed the man. Michelle's ruthlessness got her noticed. She had her choice of job offers.
Mater Tenebrarum took notice. Michelle invited the Mother of Darkness into her heart.
Perhaps her most heinous act was to have both of her parents committed. The only contact she has now is the nightmares she sends to them.
A ruthless lawyer lacking a soul
STR 45
|
CON 60
|
SIZ 60
|
DEX 40
|
INT 75
|
APP 50
|
POW 200
|
EDU n/a
|
SAN n/a
|
HP 12
|
DB 0
|
Build 0
|
Move 8
|
MP 40
|
Luck n/a
|
Attacks per round: 1
Armour: none
Weapon Skills: all base
Skills: Accountancy 40%, Art/Craft (Draughting Contracts) 75%, Computer Use 60%, Fast Talk 60%, Law 90%, Library Use 80%, Persuade 80%, Psychology 75%
Languages: English 80%, French 65%, German 60%, Italian 60%
Suggested Spells: Cloud Memory, Contact Mater Lachrymarum (no POW cost), Contact Mater Suspiriorum (no POW cost), Dampen Light, Dominate, Enthral Victim, Evil Eye, Implant Fear, Implant Suggestion, Mental Suggestion, Mesmerise, Mind Blast, Nightmare, Send Dreams, Words of Power and possibly others. She prefers spells that allow her to control or attack others psychologically rather than physically.
Notes: Michelle is unable to emote and, therefore, any skill checks in situations requiring the understanding of a human being's emotional state or for her to empathise either fail automatically or are made with a penalty die.
Powers and Abilities
Dreams - all three sisters can invade the dreams of sleeping mortals. They implant nightmares, the nature of which depends on the victim and to a lesser extent the nature of the Mother. SAN losses are possible for the worst nightmares. If a Sorrow chooses to respond to a Contact spell, she may do so in a dream or more likely a nightmare.Avatars - to physically interact with the real world, a Sorrow must possess a vulnerable woman and supplant her personality. The avatar ages at the normal rate, therefore, a supply of replacements is needed if the Mother is to stay active in one place. The abilities and spells of individual avatars vary. The mechanism of possession is left undefined and should be defined by narrative requirements.
Power Bases - an avatar can create a power base in a building or other well-defined site. She uses it to build up a reservoir of magic points. This resource is available to her when she is in the building or on-site. Residents may complain of bad dreams, ghosts and sleep paralysis. An avatar can leave her power base but she loses connection with it and must rely on her personal magic points. She regains access to the building's magic points after she returns.
Night Hags and Hag Attacks - a night hag is a non-corporeal entity that a Sorrow sends to a sleeping person. Traditionally, the night hag appears as an old woman. In reality, the night hag can appear as anything. If the Sorrow considers the victim to be a threat, she chooses a form that causes maximum distress to the victim. SAN loss is a possibility.
The Sorrows favour the hag attack as a method for draining magic points from their victims. A typical drain is 1D6 points. No magic points are regained that night and the sleeper wakes feeling tired and unrefreshed. The builds up her reservoirs of magic points by harvesting them this way. She can also use them to top up her personal supply.
Ghosts and Hauntings - a Sorrow can manifest as a ghost or apparition in both the real world and in a dream. She can appear in her true form or as any of her avatars, past or present. The response to a Contact spell may be in the form of a ghost. Many reported hauntings may, in reality, be due to activities of the Three Mothers. Not being true ghosts these forms are immune to Command Ghost and similar spells.
Spells
An avatar can have as many spells as deemed appropriate by the narrative. The Sorrow only imbues an avatar with a fraction of her power. There is no reason to assume that they should be consistent in their spell lists.Call Spells - It is unusual for the leader of a Coven worshipping a Sorrow to know a Call spell. The spell only works if the caster is female. If the spell succeeds, the nearest avatar is drawn to the caster and her congregation. They had better hope the called Mother is not in a bad mood. Call spells automatically succeed if cast within the confine's of an avatar's power base but the avatar cannot be Dismissed.
Call Mater Lachrymarum - Our Lady of Tears bestows her Call spell so that the coven can call her a gathering of the cult. She then feeds on them to heal an injured avatar. She drains hit points, magic points or attributes, randomly from her cultists, until she is fully restored. She may kill the caster to prevent her from Calling her again.
Call Mater Suspiriorum - Our Lady of Sighs is the least dangerous Mother to Call. She may take the caster as a new avatar. It is also possible that Mater Suspiriorum may remove the knowledge of this spell from the caster's memory. A Called avatar syphons magic points from the members, starting with the ones with the lowest POW, to replenish her own supply or to add to her reservoir.
Call Mater Tenebrarum - Our Lady of Darkness is the most dangerous Mother to Call. She does not take kindly to her minions summoning her. If it suits her needs, she takes the caster as a new avatar. If the rest of the coven survives is a matter of Mater Tenebrarum's whim or whether she considers it useful.
Contact Spells - this class of spell is more common than the Call spells in cults worshipping the Three Mothers. The caster should have a very good reason for wanting to Contact a Sorrow. None is known for her tolerance or her forgiving nature. Contact spells only work for female casters or are twice as difficult for males.
Contact Mater Lachrymarum - if the spell is successful, the Mother of Tears contacts the caster when she is in place related to death, for example, a morgue, cemetery or a place where someone recently died. If the caster displeases Mater Lachrymarum, she either permanently blinds or kills her.
Contact Mater Suspirorum - if the spell is successful, the Mother of Sighs contacts the caster when she is alone. If the caster displeases Mater Suspirorum, she either inflicts memory loss or a permanent insanity on her.
Contact Mater Tenebrarum - if the spell is successful, the Mother of Darkness contacts the caster when she is in darkness, most probably at night but possibly in a darkened room. If the Caster displeases Mater Tenebrarum, she suffers a cruel and unusual punishment.
Grasp of Tenebrarum - similar to Grasp of Cthulhu but without the strength drain.
Mater Suspiriorum's Embrace - the caster embraces and kisses a willing victim. The victim loses 1d10 points permanently from each round. The body shrivels until it is little more than skeletal remains. The process is not painful. The victim experiences a feeling of bliss as the burden of life slips away. A person witnessing this loses 1D2/2D4.
Megapolisomantic Building - this spell is only known from the rare book Megapolisomancy: A New Science of Cities. It details the method to construct a building that accumulates magical energy in large cities. Long term magic effects draw on this energy to power them. In game terms, magic points are syphoned from persons going about their business. A fraction of persons in the vicinity lose a magic point, which goes into the building's supply. These stored magic points power autonomous spells with continuous effects. This removes the need to recast a spell. The area of effect of the spell is restricted to line of sight of the enchanted building. Spells cannot be used that have a one-off effect, such as Call, Contact, Enchant and Summon spells, or ones that require a mind or the caster to be involved, such as Dominate, Mental Suggestion or Send Dreams. If the spell has material components, they must not be consumed by the spell and be incorporated into the building somehow.
For example, a megapolisomancer wishes to curse an individual. To do this he casts Evil Eye on his victim but ties the spell in with the building, paying the normal cost of the spell. Henceforth, after coming within line of sight of the building, the individual suffers the effects of the Evil Eye.
Casting this ritualistic spell is a long and arduous process. The building is specifically designed and carefully placed. Its construction must be closely supervised to ensure no flaws creep into the design. Finally, the caster completes the enchantment sacrificing 25 POW and 4D6 magic points in one final ritual. If the magic point expenditure manifests as hit points, the loss is permanent and results in an indefinite insanity. Sanity point loss is equal to the number of magic and hit points lost.
Optionally, the building may attract paramentals or other Mythos creatures.
Tears of Death - the caster concentrates on a victim within line of sight for two rounds. After expending 2 magic points, the caster makes an opposed POW check. If successful, the spell lasts for 1 round for each 2 magic points above the two already spent, inflicting 1D3 damage. The victim sobs uncontrollably crying tears of blood. Each time a damage roll inflicts the full 3 points there is a 10% chance of permanent blindness in one eye.
Grasp of Tenebrarum, Mater Suspiriorum's Embrace and Tears of Death originally appeared in Our Ladies of Sorrow.
Paramentals
From his window there thrust itself a pale brown thing that wildly waved its long, uplifted arms at him. While low between them, he could see a face stretched towards him a mask as narrow as a ferret's, pale brown, utterly blank triangle, two points above that might mean eyes or ears, and one ending below a tapered chin... no snout... no, very short trunk-a questing mouth that looked as if it were sucking for marrow.
Our Lady of Darkness - Fritz Leiber
Paramentals are spirits that haunt cities. Whether cities create these creatures or they are drawn to them is unknown. When they manifest, they create corporeal bodies from materials that happen to be available.
They are malevolent creatures described as "midway in nature between the atomic bomb and the archetypes of the collective conscious."
How, or indeed if, they are linked to Our Ladies of Sorrow is unknown.
STR:3D6+6
CON:3D6+6
SIZ: 2D6+6
INT: 2D6+6
POW: 3D6+6
DEX:2D6+6
Move: 8
Hit Points:
Attacks per round: 1
Armour: non-magical attacks inflict minimum damage
Attacks: physical attacks (if any) depend on the physical form. Sanity attack, see below.
Habitat: large cities
Sanity Loss: none or up to 0/1D6 depending appearance and if it is recognised as a supernatural creature
Sanity Attack - paramentals attack the sanity of mortals. A successful opposed POW check causes the target to lose 1D10 sanity points. The normal temporary insanity rules apply. The re-appearance of a paramental that inflicted a temporary insanity onto a character may cause a relapse or a bad episode of that insanity.
Tome
At any particular time in history there have always been one or two cities of monstrous size-viz., Babel or Babylon, Ur-Lhassa, Nineveh, Rome, Samarkand, Tenochtitlan, Peking-but we live in the Megapolitan (or Necropolitan) Age, when such disastrous blights are manifold and threaten co conjoin and enshroud the world with funebral yet multipotent city-stuff.
Megapolicy: A New Science of Cities - Thibaut de Castries
Megapolisomancy: A New Science of Cities
Description: A dirty grey, short print run bookLanguage: English
Date: ca. 1890
Author: Thibaut de Castries
Sanity Loss: 1D4
Cthulhu Mythos: 0
Mythos Rating: 0%
Study:1 week to read/3d4 hours to skim
Benefits: skill checks in Art/Craft (Architecture) and Occult
Spell: Megapolisomantic Building
The book is a treatise on the construction and use of buildings in cities to create and perpetuate magical effects. In game terms, a properly prepared building stores accumulated magic points and uses them to power a continuous or long term effect, for example, a curse. See the spell Megapolisomantic Building, above, for more details.
In the last years of his life, Thibaut de Castries hunted down and destroyed as many copies of his book as he could find.
References
Literature
"Levana and our Ladies of Sorrow" - Thomas de Quincey from his Suspiria de ProfundisDracula Cha Cha Cha - Kim Newman (a.k.a Judgement of Tears)
Our Lady of Darkness - Fritz Leiber
Roleplaying
Malleus Monstrorum specifically, the entry regarding Our Ladies of SorrowOur Ladies of Sorrow - Kevin Ross
Films
Suspiria (2018) most closely matches the vision of Our Ladies of Sorrow presented in this post. In the other films, they are witches rather than supernatural entities. For such powerful and feared beings, they were surprisingly easy to kill.Suspiria (1977)
Inferno (1980)
Demons 6: De Profundis (1989) (a.k.a. The Black Cat a.k.a. Dead Eyes)
Mother of Tears: The Third Mother (2007)
Suspiria (2018)
Web Links
Wikipedia's entry on Suspiria de ProfundisGoodread's entry on Suspiria de Profundis
Goodread's entry on Dracula Cha Cha Cha
Goodread's entry on Our Lady of Darkness
Wikipedia's entry on sleep paralysis
Wikipedia's entry on the night hag
