These three prophetesses are the leaders and main teachers of the Kendra, a convent of egoless prophetesses who revere Saint Agrimond, along with the ancient benevolent magic that their world was created with – Foundational magic.
Somewhat inspired by the Fates from Greek myth or the three witches from Macbeth, these three women are a maiden, a mother, and a crone, the oldest of whom is blind. The eldest of the High Madre is able to see that which is hidden, as a result of her blindness (or so she claims) and years of practice and study in the Ars Obscura or the art of magic, particularly magic that we on Earth would recognise as psionic abilities. She is able to find her way around the ruined Abbey the Kendra live in, unaided, and with shocking ease. She can also read minds, though not constantly.
The middle child of the three (they are in fact sisters, though they don’t look much alike) has a shaved head, a small, elfin appearance, and does not speak much. Rumour has it that she underwent trepanning (having a small circle of her skull cut out) to increase her telepathic abilities. The development of telepathic communication, or Mind-Speak, is something that the Kendra are yearning to possess.
The youngest of the three, who has golden hair and a moon-face, is perhaps the warmest and kindest of them all, but that is not saying much. The High Madre as a collective is famed throughout the Order of St Agrimond as a stern ruling body and not one to be crossed or ignored.
These three women allow Logan and his travelling companions into the shelter of their domain in “A Dark Heritage: The Nighthunter,”, and they perform a magical operation upon Logan’s mind to try to reverse his Ghost-induced amnesia. They also try to wash the evil influence of the Witch of Mount Wanslo from Noran’s mind using an old and somewhat cruel ritual involving a river of rather acerbic water.
IN OTHER NEWS:
The mini-documentary about the novel, its characters, and author is now complete. It began life on TikTok but migrated to YouTube. Here is a taste of it:
All the stories and poems you can read for free on the Resources page now have been updated with some cool artwork.
Issue 11 of Once Upon A Crocodile came out earlier this month, and we are currently doing interviews with the contributors here
And finally, HellBound Books have accepted a poem and a short cosmic horror story from me, which I am very much looking forward to seeing in print. More details on that later.
Nightwalks 