Otherworlds On Parade

Question: I've asked this question a hundred times before but I get the feeling my phone eats it: With Enech Overhaul drastically in the lead, could we maybe get a blog post on the REAL Tuatha Overworld and Underworld (and possibly general cosmology) instead of what's in Companion?

You sure can. Irish cosmology, coming up!

First of all, the cosmological landscape of ancient Ireland is one of those that really doesn't conform to the Underworld-Overworld-World setup of the Scion books, which used more obliging cultures like the Norse and Greek to base it. It's probably because of its general weirdness that the Scion books do such a hackjob on it, but that's no excuse for making up the shoddily-conceived likes of Tir na Marbh, no matter how much the idea of the Tuatha cooperating with the Welsh gods might otherwise appeal.

Other than the earth where humanity dwells, there are three to four major worlds in the Irish cosmology: the Overworld (Tir na nOgh), two Underworlds (Mag Mell and Tech nDuinn), and Faerie. Collectively, these are called the Otherworld by many scholars, since Irish mythology embraces a concept of all the worlds being apart from the world of humanity but also ephemerally close to it in some way.

Tir na nOgh ("Land of Youth") is one of the most misunderstood, which is weird because it's perfectly clear in the Irish sagas and most of its problems come from later people interpreting it through the lens of Christianity. It is not, contrary to confused popular opinion, an Underworld; the dead do not dwell here, nor is the disposition of souls part of its function. It is the home of the gods, and here all is beauty and contentment and art and peace, with no misfortune or danger, no old age or hunger, and definitely no bad guys to plague the gods who are busy enjoying it. It's to Tir na nOgh that the Tuatha retired when they left the World, and because it is conceived of as a beautiful land far across the western sea, there are occasional stories in Irish mythology of heroes attempting to reach it by sailing off into the sunset. A few mortals do live here once in a while, always because they were brought there by some god or quest, and they remain indefinitely since they can't age or die (in mechanical terms, they probably become Legendary Mortals the second they set foot in the place).

Mag Mell ("Joyful Plain"), on the other hand, is an Underworld, but is similarly pleasant and wonderful. It's owned and ruled by Manannan mac Lir, who dwells here with his seemingly neverending horde of fancy relics, and is the eventual destination for Irish heroes who die after glorious and honorable lives (like Valhalla or the Elysian Fields, it admits only the awesomest mortals to spend eternity in its sweet fields). Like Tir na nOgh, it's full of nothing but beauty, joy and eternal youth, and nothing bad ever touches its inhabitants. The same idea of a place far across the sea is preserved here - which makes especial sense thanks to Manannan mac Lir's involvement - and it is also sought after by sailing heroes once in a while, though it's not found as often as Tir na nOgh. An interesting variant tradition has been interpreted as saying that this Underworld is ruled over by the Fomorian king Tethra, who is mostly unattested in other Irish mythology; it's hard to say if perhaps he was considered its lord before the victory of the Tuatha saw him supplanted by Manannan, or if maybe in reverse he became an important personage in the Underworld after dying in glorious battle against the gods. He's also said to be married to Badb, a sister or alternative name for the Morrigan, which gives him another connection to the idea of death.

Tech nDuinn ("House of Donn") is the other Underworld, and the destination of everyone who isn't badass enough to be granted a golden ticket to Mag Mell. It's also an island, but unlike the first two was usually assumed to be much closer, in the neighborhood of what is now North Bull Island off Ireland's northeast coast. It was believed that below that island lay the isle of the dead, where all the souls of the departed traveled and were stored under Donn as the king. This particular myth is Donn's own fault, since he insulted Eriu - the personified goddess of Ireland, most likely Danu under another name - and was drowned by Manannan mac Lir for it, and therefore now holds court under the sea where he himself died. Not a lot is actually written about what Tech nDuinn is like, other than that it's underground, ruled by Donn, and not as happy a place to end up as Mag Mell, more likely a closer equivalent to the difference between Valhalla and Hel.

Faerie, finally, is a much younger but very entrenched world, the dwelling place of Ireland's vast hosts of sprites, elves, brownies and kobolds. It's generally believed to be inside or beneath the hills of Ireland - thus the word Underhill often being used as an equivalent name for it - which are often accorded respect as fairy places, but beyond that there are as many different ideas of what Faerie is and who's in it as there are counties and villages in Ireland. Some split it into two courts, one good and one evil; others split it into courts revolving around the seasons or the Virtues; still others believe it's a single unified realm ruled by a fairy king or queen, and of course the identity of that king or queen also differs from place to place. Much later English writers, taken with the charm of the legends of Faerie, have also muddied the waters a great deal - Shakespeare, for example, who invented the fairy queen Mab in his play Romeo and Juliet (probably basing her on some form of the Morrigan), or the invention of the fairy king Auberon in the thirteenth-century French epic poem Huon de Bordeaux. There are also several traditions that claim that the fairies are in fact the Tuatha de Danann themselves, who went Underhill to escape Christianity after the coming of the Milesians, and therefore there's also some muddying of the waters between Faerie and Tir na nOgh, depending on who's telling the story. It's an epic mess, and we couldn't even try to tell you which way is "right"; that's a call for every game's Storyteller to make.

A thing that does not exist, however, is Tir na Marbh ("Land of Death"), which was invented by Scion purely in an attempt to plug something in where the usual Hades or Hel or Mictlan would go. We have no idea why they did this when there were two perfectly good Irish Underworlds already hanging around - maybe they thought Mag Mell was too nice/the same as Tir na nOgh, and Tech nDuinn too obscure? - but it's a pretty terrible conglomeration of random things and should probably be ignored, like most of the Tuatha chapter of Companion's attempts at worldbuilding.

The idea of the Tuatha collaborating closely with the Welsh gods, however, is a great one, since they clearly know one another well and appear in each others' epic stories, so keep that. Just throw away all the Underworld junk surrounding it.