Mazu

## Early Life

As a child growing up on Ithun, I saw the way my mother fought and protected our lands. When she landed on Ithun with the rest of her sirens, their life’s work became to protect the land from intruders. Watching my mother develop technology that connected her back to the water, I also began to understand the deity that ruled Ithun. My twin sister, Marin, took after my mother. Typically, sirens only have one child, but Mom had some genetic mutation. And somehow Marin and I became even more powerful because of it. Marin felt a connection to the physical land, and that is why she became the siren to replace my mother. I valued the deity more than I did the violence. I learned something more from watching Mom. Fighting and protecting mean nothing without a deeper understanding of the land. That’s why I became a Shaman. Marin was the best siren anyways, so there was no reason to compete. I valued the deity too much to use violence in its name. Mom resented me for it. She was always angry that she didn’t have two perfect siren daughters. Why couldn’t Mom love me and respect me for wanting to heal instead? All she knew was violence, and she couldn’t accept that I didn’t want it. What difference does it make? I know that I was meant to be a Shaman even if she doesn’t. At least I have Marin. We run away together and go on land where Mom can’t see us. I go heal wildlife and Marin participates in battles. We complement each other.

## Becoming a Shaman

The most important part about being a Shaman is the land deity. The Song of the Gods is at the core of every fundamental path a Haifisch can take. Once you can internalize The Song, you can almost hear the deities. Every plant and animal and water droplet plays a note in The Song. It is beautiful and raw and intertwined. The way I honor this connection is by being a Shaman. No human or cyborg or android can understand this connection. They see the land as something to conquer, to build, to destroy. If they knew that every single element of the planet created the Deity, would they still try to destroy it? Probably. The Song is weakened on land, and maybe that is why they don’t get it. These Invaders spend remarkably little time in the water considering how important it is to Ithun. “How We Arrived First” is our tale, a defensive mechanism gifted to us from The Song of the Gods. The Planet God took the Haifisch poem and transcribed it into our tale. Humans also do not understand the Planet God. They think that if they can hear The Song of the Gods, they become Planet God. How foolish. The Planet God is everything. It is the planets and the water and the air and Us. It is not a person to become. It is in everything we do and see and eat and breathe. You find this connection within yourself, not in some “Heart” that they call it. The land is in us and we are in the land. This is why I am a Shaman. This flow of energy from our Planet God is how we Shamans find our peace.

As a Shaman, you earn your Στάλα as your final step. The Στάλα represents the physical symbol of one's connection with the Planet God and The Song of the Gods. Στάλα translates from Greek to mean “raindrop”. It represents a tiny fragment of the deity in your possession, which helps a Shaman physically connect to Ithun. The Στάλα can form whatever shape you construct it to be, with a drop of pure Ithun rainwater inside. Mine is a Navaja, called “Διπλής όψης”, a small combat knife. Being born from a Siren it only feels right to have a weapon of my own. Your Στάλα has to be constructed from Ithunan elements exclusively; my knife is made from trees with medicinal leaves and stone from the sea floor. The Στάλα provides a way to control your spiritual connection with the physical world. It gives a Shaman the ability to become one with nature, which improves healing abilities and personal strength. My knife got its name Διπλής όψης (meaning dual-sided) from its ability to both heal and harm. Διπλής όψης has both abilities, as it can heal wounds in allies with the raindrop, as well cause harm with the stone.