Not to be confused with the Whispering Sisters, worshippers of She Who Waits
The earth whisperers were priestesses of the old religion of Thring, and each petty king had an earth whisperer companion. These priestesses were transformed by their worship of the Pacharia. They lay with a king at the beginning of his reign and lay thier knives across his throat at the end of it so that the land would be the king and the king would be the land.
When Ulthar the Loved tore off the crowns of the petty kings and replaced them with lead diadems, the priestesses were driven from the castles of Thring. This seemed to signal the end of the old religion of Thring and the worship of the Pacharia. The priestesses’ voices could be heard in its caves and hidden valleys, but their numbers dwindled with the passing years.
Shara, the founder of Pontgate, was an earth whisperer. She wanted to revive the faith; she laid plans to build a temple to the Pacharia and called the witches of the wild woods to join her there.
Nearly two hundred years ago, the other four towns hired a coven of earth whisperers to punish trickery from Blindsnake. The priestesses caused the extra land claimed by Blindsnake to disappear. There are still apparently bottomless pits on the northwest edge of the town. Blindsnake officials arrested the earth whisperers for “making an illegal construction without prior planning permission”.
When the temple Shara built sunk during the Shuttered City’s attack on Blind Midshotgatepool (27.19), it did more damage to Shuttered’s armada than the five lords managed. Neither the sailors nor the earth whisperers were seen again.
Connections
- The earth whisperers are responsible for several seemingly-bottomless pits at the outskirts of the city (26.20.02).
- Henry Yaboon (26.20.08), a man of power in Blind Midshotgatepool has taken over the possessions of the priesthood of the Pacharia as his own.
- Some of the old ways of Thring are still kept in the Fourth Castle in Thring’s far north (18.11).
Hooks
- What is the Pacharia anyway?
- How did worship of the Pacharia transform its/his/her/their(?) priestesses?
- What did it mean for the king to be the land and the land to be the king?
- Where did the priestesses go after they sank it beneath the waves?