Seven Stars of Miran

The **Seven Stars of Miran** is a well-known Miranen folktale that illustrates the dangers of associating with foreigners and people of mixed race. It is also called *Mishue and the Seven Stars* or the *Daughters of Shan*, depending on local variance. While it is prevalent as a bedtime story, it is also a tale of caution passed from parents to children. The story is widely protested by members of the Order of Scripts as being both false and prejudicial.

## Cultural Context

Within their relatively closed culture, the Miranen people have always been unfairly judgmental to non-Miranen species, who are generally referred to as shan. As such, many of their fables and cautionary stories revolve around the dangers of interacting with foreigners. The Seven Stars legend is a sort of boogey man tale for children, one that instills a fear of anyone who does not meet cultural expectations.

Within communities, encounters with non-Miranen people are extremely rare, so much so that it would be very unusual for someone outside of a city such as Mi-Fe Cie to ever meet *shan*. As such, this prejudice towards anything other also extends to individuals who appear different, such as those with unusual features, disabilities, or deformities.

## Background

The legend of the Seven Stars of Miran is set within an ambiguous, though long past, time in Miranen history. Details have changed over the centuries to accommodate the differences in Miranen culture. Likewise, the location of the events described are often changed to suit the storyteller's needs.

The central figure of the legend is Mishue, whose name means "filthy water person." She is invariably depicted as female, and as some sort of otherwordly being, but they rarely put a name to her species. In most versions of the story, it is heavily implied that she is Hangesu. While the Hangesu are considered to be benevolent and history records them as helping the Miranen (as well as contributing to the construction of the Balai aa Hangesu), leaders within Miranen communities often resent the fact that assistance was ever needed.

Mishue's name is also the origin of the term mishu.

## Contents of the Legend

The Legend of the Seven Stars takes place just outside of a remote village, placed in whatever province is most familiar to the audience. The story begins with a massive storm and a woman falling out of the sky, landing in an empty field. Villagers put down their work and leave their houses, rushing to see what has happened and to offer help. What they discover is a woman lying on the ground, shining as though the clouds themselves have fallen from the sky.

The villagers mistake her for one of the gods and immediately begin praying. The woman gets to her feet and tells them to stop. She says that she is not one of the gods but that she is only a stranger who wishes them well. Thanking them for their concern, she tells them that she has traveled very far and she is only looking for somewhere to build a home. If they will allow her to remain in the village and build a home, she will bless their fields with crops and they will know health and happiness as nothing before. There is only one thing they must do: they must thank her on the anniversary of her arrival each year.

Naive and welcoming, the villagers agreed. They helped her to build a home and settle into their community. Over time, she became as one of them. She married a man from the village and gave birth to seven daughters. Fields flourished and the rivers ran flush with food, just as she had promised. Each year, the people from the village ventured to the place where she had first appeared to them, thanking her for her generosity and telling how grateful they were for her arrival.

The woman marries a local Miranen man and settles into a seemingly ordinary life, giving birth to seven daughters over the course of the years that followed. No longer was she the strange woman from the sky, but part of their society. They accepted her as they would any Miranen woman.

As time went on, the people of the village began to forget the promise they had made and slowly the number of people that would go to the arrival site to thank Mishue dwindled. Eventually, there came a year where not a single person went to offer thanks for Mishue's arrival.

The following morning, the villagers woke to find Mishue standing directly on the spot where she had first appeared. When they asked what she was doing, she told them that she was grieved because not even one person had remembered her. They had taken her for granted and enjoyed the gifts that she had given them greedily. But they had also given her gifts, her seven daughters. She told them that she would give back the things that they had given her in turn. As she said this, she and her seven daughters vanished into the sky. The myth does not say what happened to her spouse.

According to most retellings, the village was then visited by a series of seven disasters over the course of seven years: drought, famine, decay, illness, madness, terror and death. Each of these was also the name of one of the daughters (Helu, Hapeni, Kinute, Mehama, Lide, Saci and Mere).

## Effect on Miranen Culture

The legend of the Seven Stars is ingrained in Miranen culture and beliefs through both the general view of *shan* and *mishu*, as well as influencing common superstition. Most prevalent among these beliefs is the thought that having seven daughters (especially if there are no sons born in between the girls) is an ill-omen and foretells either death or misfortune. Within the MRU, this is demonstrated through the events of Moonlight Rose, where Ransir and Atan Sjiin are blessed with one son and seven daughters and meet a gruesome end very shortly after the birth of the last daughter.

The prejudice and fear created by legends such as the Seven Stars of Miran and other similar tales creates an environment of hostility for anyone who does not meet the standards of normality expected within a community. In many cases, that leads to individuals who stand out being exiled or shunned by their community. The strength of these beliefs are broad enough that they even extend to organizations who recognize and welcome *shan* and *mishu*, such as the Order of Scripts. While the Order is openly welcome of those who might not be received elsewhere, they also avoid arranging marriages that would lead to *corran-mishu* children.