Episode 54: Workers of Death: An Introduction to the Workers of Death
An introduction to the deathfae who are workers of death.
Written and narrated by Ronel Janse van Vuuren.
Copyright 2023 Ronel Janse van Vuuren — All rights reserved.
Get the transcript here.
Music: Secrets by David Fesliyan (FesliyanStudios.com) and Dramatic Heartbeat by FesliyanStudios.com
Transcript
You’re listening to the Faeries and Folklore podcast by Ronel.
I’m dark fantasy author Ronel Janse van Vuuren. With nearly a decade of digging around in dusty folklore books, researching creatures of imagination that ignited my curiosity, I’m here to share the folklore in a nutshell and how I reimagined it for my writing in an origin of the fae.
This is the Faeries and Folklore podcast.
Hi, I’m your host Ronel Janse van Vuuren. You can just call me Ronel. In today’s episode, we’re continuing our exploration of the fae realm.
This episode is brought to you by my Origin of the Fae book series. You’ve met them on the podcast, now see them in action. Go to ronelthemythmaker.com/originofthefaeseries for more.
You can now support my time in producing the podcast (researching, writing and everything else involved) by buying me a coffee. This can be a once-off thing, or you can buy me coffee again in the future at your discretion. Go to buymeacoffee.com/ronel to support me.
Today’s Subject: an introduction to the workers of death
We’ve already met Ankou, the King of the Dead, and a couple of water fae that are also workers of death – such as Sirens and Merrows.
Now we need to look at other workers of death and deathfae.
Throughout this season, we’ll look at various creatures of legend, fae and concepts of death. Starting with:
How It All Ties Together: The Deathfae
You know what had inspired me to write about Ankou, to make him the King of the Dead. You can always relisten to the earlier episode about him for a refresher. Now let’s look at how it all works in my world. (In order of importance and rank.)
1. Ankou = in charge of all the dead.
2. Keeper of the Veil = keeps the realms separate, in charge of all the Workers of Death (everyone else on this list).
3. Dagda = in charge of keeping souls in the Underworld.
4. Vilas = judge who should live and who should die.
5. Merrows = keep souls until they go to the Underworld.
6. Sirens = escort the souls of their victims to the Underworld.
7. Black dogs = hunt souls that have roamed outside of the Underworld and take them back to where they belong.
8. Furies and Valkyries = escort souls to their place in the Underworld, keeping them to fight at the end of time.
9. Dullahans = escort souls to the Underworld.
10. Banshees, Aspis, Questing Beast and others = cause death to those marked for death.
Fun, right?
Obviously deathfae like mingling with humans as much as any other fae, so halflings are bound to be born.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this episode of the faeries and folklore podcast and that you’ve learned something new about faeries.
Remember that you can get a transcript of this episode in the description. If you’re new to the podcast, why not go and grab your free copy of Unseen, the second book in the Faery Tales series, on my website ronelthemythmaker.com? Loads of folklore, magic and danger await! Take care!
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You can now support my time in producing the podcast (researching, writing and everything else involved) by buying me a coffee. This can be a once-off thing, or you can buy me coffee again in the future at your discretion.
Want a taste of my writing? Sign up to my newsletter and get your free copy of Unseen, Faery Tales #2.
No-one writes about the fae like Ronel Janse van Vuuren.