Sea Mother’s Promise
The Sea Mother’s Promise is a seminal text in the halfling religion of Imire. It is a divine guarantee of a peaceful life, offered in exchange for following a set of six religious and ethical commandments. But though it has cornerstone of most halfling cultures for millennia, the apocalyptic sect of Ni Hüre Lena has long campaigned for the abolishment of so-called Promise-based law. They believe that the Sea Mother has never been in a position to make such a promise, and that she cannot protect anyone—not even herself—from the wrath of Aiki I and his Four Helmsmen of the Apocalypse.
The Promise
According to tradition, the Sea Mother appeared one evening to a wayfinder racked with doubt. She lifted the chin of the downtrodden halfling and promised him that if he could follow six simple rules, his life would be a peaceful one.
Frustrated, the wayfinder told the Sea Mother that he had no use for peace just then. What he needed was for the clouds to part and for his confidence to return.
The Sea Mother told him that she had no control over the sky, nor any control over his confidence or lack thereof. She couldn’t promise him a joyous life, nor even a life without hardship. All she could offer was a sense of balance, of calm, of peace.
Then, after a pause, she said to him, “What you do with that peace is up to you.”
And with that, the wayfinder nodded his head and prepared to commit the Sea Mother’s stipulations to memory.
The Six Conditions
Though the order of the conditions varies from one halfling culture to another, the following is the most common.
- Treat every person you meet upon the waves as if they are your family, unless they give you cause to act otherwise
- Do not steal the boat of another, nor any other fruits of their labors
- Never fish for more than you need, for their must always be food for those who come after you
- When the spirit of your loved one has sailed to the opposite shore, commit their body to the water so that the fish may be repaid for their generosity
- When you reach land, build your shelter sturdy and strong—so that generations to come may make use of it—but never build higher than tallest tree, so that you may show reverence to me and my kin
- Never stop exploring, for the world is vast and there is room in your mind and your heart for all of it
I mean, I feel as though Ni Hüre Lena are biased when the line 'never stop exploring' is involved. I like the origin story of the rules. They seem like sensible ones to follow. Peace is nice.
Peace is very nice. In the midst of a chaotic political situation here in the States, I guess I'm writing from a place of "This is what I would like the world to be like" a lot of the time this month.