GhraewajTidasushistoryghostsèÒ) üqþ} ùýGhraewaj and the Harpiesù On the twelfth of Hearth Fire every year, the people of theHammerfell township and barony of Lainlyn celebrateRiglametha. Riglametha in the Banthan dialect of the ancientRedguard tongue means "grateful-offering" and is afestival of the graces the gods have granted the people ofLainlyn over the centuries. Tradition dictates theperformance of a number of plays about the great momentsfrom Lainlyn's past, and one of the most popular is Ghraewaj,which may be translated as "The Crows Who Were Punished" or"The Crows Who Punish." Old Redguard is somewhat vague withits objective case.ö The story of Ghraewaj, as any Lainlyn child will tell you,is of the wicked sisterhood of daedra worshippers who craftlies, curses, murders, and suicides to hurt the people ofLainlyn. Most of all, they use their beauty as a weapon todrive men to mayhem. Their leader, the temptress Noctyr-a,seduces the unnamed baron of Lainlyn and is about to forcehim to commit suicide to prove his love, when the baronessarrives. The baroness tricks Noctyr-a into wearing abeautiful white robe from the baroness' closet: "See how therobe glows with the lumniscience of pearl, but the inside issoft, feathered with down." Noctyr-a puts on the robe andthe trap is sprung: the robe is magical and transformsNoctyr-a into an giant black bird. The baron, no longerenchanted, slays the great bird and calls in his cook. The sisterhood has, by this time, taken over Lainlyn castleand turned it into a orgy-filled den of decadence. At theheight of their frenzied debauch, the cook arrives with anenormous roast to keep their energy high. They dig into thedeliciously prepared meal, and at the crescendo of theirgorging, the baron and baroness appear to tell them allöthat they have just devoured their leader, Noctyr-a. Thewomen scream and caw and suddenly they too are transformedby the magic of the robe, into harpies, vicious half-birdcreatures. The interesting thing about Ghraewaj from a scholarlyperspective is how much the story has changed and continues tochange over the years. In some versions of the story, Noctyr-ais an innocent peasant seamstress and it is the baroness who isthe cruel and wicked leader of the harpies. Noctyr-a praysto Dibella and is given the charm to make the magical robe,and she and the baron live happily ever after once theharpies have feasted on the tranformed baroness. During thelong reign of the virgin baroness of Lainlyn, Viana the Pure(2E 120 - 2E 148), the baron was portrayed as a willingconspirator of Noctyr-a. The harpies thus have two birds todine on. It is unlikely that trying to find the truth in the story isprofitable research. Harpies are indeed a common nuisance inthe Iliac Bay, particularly around Lainlyn. They do havetheir own tongue, and the few who have mastered it and notbeen devoured by their interviewees suggest that the harpiesöhave no more idea about their origins than we do. In adifferent vein, one of the best known of the Daedra Princes isnamed Nocturnal, who is often portrayed as a beautiful darkwoman holding two black crows. It is not a difficultetymologic trick to derive the name Noctyr-a fromNocturnal, or vice-versa. ö