Orunmila (WTA)

Orunmila is a totem of the Mokolé.

Overview

Orunmila, the daughter of Gaia and Olodumare (sister to Selene), is the very essence of memory. She resides in Yathamaya, reportedly in a glorious palace of soapstone and flowing waters. None but her most ardent followers know how to find her, and only a rare few spirits in the Umbra even know she exists. Orunmila is remembered differently by separate cultures, and usually only those who develop a respect of memory as a strength over writing and recording. The Greeks knew her in a different incarnation and called her Mnemosyne. It is said by some Gumagan of the Shrouded Sun that a songline of memory occasionally crosses a babbling brook of forgetfulness, and in this union lies the path to Orunmila.

She is described as a silhouette of a woman, a shadow of rainbow-shifting colors. She recalls any memory of anyone who is living, but has no ability to reconcile their meanings, merely observing images passively. It is she who gives the names of all things.

Traits & Ban

  • Background Cost: 7

Traits

She grants her children Eidetic Memory and can tell them the true name of anything or anyone they can show her (through memory - Orunmila is angered by photographs and drawings brought into her palace). Orunmila does not give her children an avatar as she already knows anything they remember; if they have need of her, they must travel to her place in yathamaya.

A few with Mnesis are said to remember a clutch in Northeast Africa that belonged to her long ago, but none can remember why she left.

Ban

Orunmila's children can never write or record what must be remembered. They cannot perform Rites that requite drawing or pictures and cannot enjoy tattoos or other markings. They must abandon drawing and writing and do all their storytelling through Mnesis and with their powers of expression. They cannot own printed media of any kind (a fetish with an inscription or glyph, a book of recipes, a pen) or write down any information (including glyphs) or videotape themselves. Violating this ban usually leads to a loss of Orunmila's boons; since she does not communicate, the Mokolé must journey to her realm and apologize in person, offering chiminage to again receive her favor.

References

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