◈ EMPYREANRanni's Doll
Empyrean flesh discarded, soul lodged in porcelain
Ranni's Doll
"Cursemark carved into the discarded flesh of Ranni the Witch. Also known as the half-wheel wound of the centipede. This cursemark was carved at the moment of Death of the first demigod, and should have taken the shape of a circle. However, two demigods perished at the same time, breaking the cursemark into two half-wheels. Ranni was the first of the demigods whose flesh perished, while the Prince of Death perished in soul alone."
From the Cursemark of Death description
Ranni's Doll is the body Ranni uses after she rejected her Empyrean flesh. To steal a fragment of the Rune of Death, she had to slay the body she was born into; the Two Fingers' cursemark was carved on that flesh, and as long as it lived they could find her. So she killed it, hid the corpse in the Cathedral of Manus Celes beneath Caria Manor, and poured what remained of her soul into a porcelain doll she had kept since she was small. The doll was a gift from her mother Rennala, modelled on a younger Renna, the snow-witch she would later impersonate at the Church of Elleh.
The doll's body has costs. It cannot eat, age, or dream the way Empyrean flesh dreams. Ranni sleeps for long stretches inside Ranni's Rise, indistinguishable from a children's toy on a chair, and only the Tarnished's intrusion wakes her. Seluvis, the puppet-master, attempts to slip Ranni into one of his dolls during her quest, she throws him out of her court for the offence. When the Age of Stars dawns at Ranni's coronation, she does not return to a body. The doll-shape becomes the form of the new god, carried away into the night sky on the back of a great horned spirit.
A pleasure to meet thee, Tarnished. I am the witch Renna. I'd heard tell of a Tarnished hurtling about atop a spectral steed.
Indeed, I am the witch Ranni. I stole a fragment of the Rune of Death, and used it to forge the godslaying black knives. I have slain the body I was born into, and cast it away.
A cloth doll depicting a dancer garbed in blue. An ancient heirloom of some sort. The dancer in blue represents a fairy.
