Sja and Erith
Sja and Erith
GM Reference | Sja has found rest. Erith is still in motion.
Sja
What She Was
Sja was a grave hag, one of the pre-corruption Unmade equivalent to Sja-anat. Before whatever Rayze did to her, she was ancient, powerful, and grounded in a particular kind of knowing: the kind that comes from sitting with grief long enough that it stops being grief and starts being understanding.
Rayze found that useful. He manipulated her and, at her lowest point, convinced her to cut off her own leg. The specifics of why matter less than the result: the cognitive realm captured that moment, and Sja was trapped in it, looping, for an unknown period of time.
What the Players Did
The players entered the cognitive loop. They found the repeating memory of Rayze’s manipulation. To escape, they had to sync with the memory, which meant nearly severing their own limbs. They made it through.
They also found Erith. And through Erith, they were able to reach Sja: not to break the loop by force, but to reunite her with her daughter inside it.
Erith used her special tea. Sja rested peacefully after their reunion.
Current Status
Sja is at rest. Whether that means death in the traditional sense or something quieter that the cognitive realm allows for ancient things is not fully clear. She is no longer trapped. She is no longer in pain.
Rayze will have noticed the loop was broken. He used her as a cognitive anchor. That anchor is gone.
Erith
Who She Is
Erith is Sja’s daughter. She was near the cave, holding on to something, waiting for the chance to reach her mother. When the players found the loop, they also found her.
She is younger than her mother but not young. She carries a particular kind of steadiness that comes from choosing to stay near something terrible because leaving would be worse.
Where She Is Now
Erith is still near the cave. She is processing what happened. She is not done.
She will reappear in Act Two. When she does, she is carrying something of her mother forward: not grief exactly, but the weight of what she chose to do and what it cost.
The Long Arc
The unmade version of Sja-anat will eventually be Erith, not Sja. The daughter inherits the mantle through the weight of what she has chosen and what the world will ask of her. This is not something Erith knows yet. It may not be something she ever chooses consciously.
Do not rush this. Erith in Act Two is not yet what she will become. She is a person working through something. The transformation comes from what the campaign asks of her, not from a predetermined moment.
How to Play Her
Erith is direct in a way that does not feel blunt. She has been near the cognitive realm long enough that she speaks about difficult things without flinching, not because she is numb but because she has made peace with looking at them.
She is grateful to the players. She does not perform gratitude. She will help them when she can and tell them clearly when she cannot.
She knows things about the cave, about the cognitive realm in that region, and about the thin places nearby that no one else does. Some of what she knows she will share. Some she is still understanding herself.
Connections
- The players: They freed Sja. Erith owes them something real and she knows it.
- Rayze: He destroyed her mother. She knows who did it. She is not hunting him the way Retribution is. She is thinking.
- The cognitive realm: She has lived near the boundary for a long time. She understands it in ways that may become useful.
This content is part of the Shadows of the Ancient Dawn campaign. GM reference only.