Art Exhibition: Etyries Goodears

This is a departure from the blog's usual format, which the translator hopes will be acceptable to the audience. Rather than being more translations directly from Mianmo, this is one of the translator's original works, as she has been tapped to provide a blurb for Seven Mothers, Seven Moons, Seven Wanes: How the Lunars Conceptualized their Past. The translator's work on The Lost Book of Etyries Goodears came to the notice of the curator in charge of the exhibition, and thus came about this commissioned piece describing a gorgeous Seventh Wane icon painting of Etyries Goodears herself.

This icon was recovered from the excavation of the Trader Temple in Furthest. Enough of the original pigments remained that professional conservator-restorer Katrin Dirim was able to recreate the icon painting as it existed during the Late Heortling period. Despite being an icon painting, which were usually modestly sized, this depiction of Etyries Goodears was set into an alcove in the Trader Temple, taking up the upper two-thirds of the alcove.

Introduction to the Lost Book of Etyries, Named Goodears

This is the opening to an exciting new translation of The Lost Book of Etyries, Named Goodears, which tells the story of the life of the Lunar Trade Goddess. Almost all existing materials from the Zero Wane leave Etyries' life before she met Teelo Estara a cipher, saying simply that she was a merchant's daughter (or the daughter of Issaries, which is a more poetic way of saying the same thing). These materials instead put emphasis on her redevelopment of the God Learner's Gamble and her role as the Goddess's Messenger, carrying carefully-worded missives written by Deezola and Irippi Ontor in Her name. This work, instead, contextualizes her in a way that turns the humanocentric narrative of the Hero Wars period on its head.

This work may shed new light on depictions of Etyries cultists wearing orange and red sashes around their midriffs, one end left to trail at their hip or behind them, and the "triangle hoods" that they are sometimes seen wearing in Heartland murals. Similarly, the references to Teelo Estara being distracted by "her Good Ears prancing" in The Ten Rules of Rule now make much more sense if we take this work to be authoritative.