So where do the Raven Mockers come from? Who or what created them? Cherokee myth gives us no hint. They just are. They always have been. Good and evil exist, pure and simple, and Raven Mockers are evil. Period.
That’s where the Casts come in.
“BEAUTIFUL BEYOND COMPARE”: KALONA THE BETRAYER
The House of Night series provides a compelling origin story for the Raven Mockers, a story reminiscent of the ultimate Christian villain himself.
As imagined by P.C. and Kristin Cast, Kalona is an immortal being who was originally a Warrior sworn to the Goddess Nyx. His oath bound him to protect her from Darkness, but when he turned away from her, jealous of her consort Erebus, she banished him from the Otherworld forever.
Kalona’s fall from the Otherworld bears several parallels to the legends of Lucifer, especially as portrayed in John Milton’s 1667 epic poem, Paradise Lost. Like Kalona, Lucifer was once the most glorious and beautiful of angels, a being of light. “Lucifer,” in fact, means “Light Giver,” and he is sometimes referred to as Morningstar or “son of the morning” (Isaiah 14). Like Kalona, Lucifer’s beautiful white wings turned black when he fell (though in Paradise Lost he loses his feathers entirely and gets big ugly bat wings, as his outward appearance starts to reflect his inward evil).
Not-So-Dark Secrets about Lucifer
Fun fact: The planet Venus—aka, the “morning star” when it appears before sunrise, outshining all the stars in the heavens—was once known as Lucifer.
Funner fact: The chemical that makes fireflies’ butts light up is called “luciferin.”
And like Kalona, Lucifer became jealous when someone else took his place as most favored of his beloved—just substitute the eternal Son in heaven (and eventually humans on earth) for Erebus and God the Father for Nyx. Though Lucifer and Kalona held exalted roles, it wasn’t enough. Both immortals’ pride got the better of them, causing their rebellion and expulsion from their beautiful homes.
In Untamed, both Zoey’s grandmother and Sister Mary Angela compare Kalona to the Nephilim, the legendary angels who fell from heaven and are said to have mated with mortal women on earth. Grandma Redbird says that Goliath (of David and Goliath fame) is sometimes said to have been one of the Nephilim, who were all of superhuman size and strength.
But while Lucifer (or Satan, as he is called after the Fall) rejected the notion of love and embraced his sin of pride—uttering the infamous line, “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”—Kalona continues to delude himself that he did it all for love. His is a perverted conception of love, however, requiring absolute control and obedience. In his scenes with Zoey, he professes his utmost devotion to her—until she questions or rejects him, and then he inevitably launches into an immortal-sized sulkfest.
In Burned, the Raven Mocker Rephaim tells Stevie Rae that he and his brothers were born from Kalona’s rage and bitterness at being tossed from the Otherworld. This is metaphorically true, though a bit of a stretch. After all, the Raven Mockers didn’t just pop out of Kalona’s head. For them to exist, he had to act—and act badly.
By connecting Kalona to the Raven Mockers, the House of Night series compellingly fits this fictional immortal being into existing Cherokee mythology. After Nyx’s rejection, Kalona dwelled on earth along with other fallen angels, according to Grandma Redbird. He appeared to the Cherokee people, who worshipped him in gratitude for their healthy crops and fertile women.
Of course, mere praise wasn’t enough for him. Kalona’s unspent lust (or what his supernatural powers of rationalization would call his unrequited longing for Nyx) drove him to sleep with the women of the tribe. The Cherokee grew disillusioned and spurned him, but rather than leaving, Kalona became rapacious and domineering, feeding his insatiable appetite for power and sex. Those he raped gave birth to the Raven Mockers.
Kalona’s second downfall is told through the story of another figure created for the House of Night—A-ya. Since mere human warriors couldn’t stop Kalona, “a creature of myth and magic,” the Wise Women got together to figure out how to defeat him. As an immortal being, Kalona obviously couldn’t be killed. But perhaps he could be trapped by his two weaknesses—his hunger for women and his vulnerability to the earth. So the Wise Women sculpted from clay a beautiful, irresistible maiden, A-ya, and breathed life into her. (A-ya means “me” in the Cherokee language, perhaps indicating that this maiden was to represent all women or even all humanity.)
Interestingly, this process is much like that described in tales of the golem in Jewish tradition. In Hebrew, golem stands for “unformed substance” or “shapeless mass.” To create a golem, one would sculpt a man-shaped figure out of clay and then bring it to life with some form of the word “God,” since God is the creator of all life. This could involve chanting the secret name of God, or writing the name of God on a piece of parchment and inserting it into the golem’s mouth.
The most fascinating animation method involved carving the letters aleph, mem, and tav into the golem’s forehead. Together these three letters spell emet, or “truth.” When you were done with your golem, you could “kill” it by erasing the letter aleph, leaving the word met, or “death.” While “alive,” the creature could follow simple instructions, but it couldn’t think for itself and it had no will, like a robot made of dirt.
This lack of will is crucial, because A-ya was literally made to love Kalona. She had no choice, no thoughts, and therefore no fear of him, unlike the mortal women. A-ya lured Kalona into an underground cave, where, as a winged creature of the air, he would be weakest. Deep within the earth, A-ya opened herself to Kalona willingly. As he penetrated her, she transformed back to earth, and he became trapped in her embrace forever.
With the loss of their father, the Raven Mockers became insubstantial creatures of pure spirit, no longer able to hurt the young and healthy. They sang a new song, swearing that one day Kalona would rise again and exact revenge. He would once again dominate men and violate women—and they would like it. In Aphrodite’s vision, Grandma Redbird held a paper with a poem describing his return:
Kalona’s song sounds sweet
As we slaughter with cold heat.
In Untamed, Kalona rises from the earth, bidden by Neferet and released by the shedding of Stevie Rae’s blood (“When earth’s power bleeds sacred red”). He fixates on Zoey, whom he believes to be the reincarnation of A-ya.
Through dreams, visions, and the power of her own intuition, Zoey slowly accepts that she shares part of this ancient maiden’s soul. But unlike A-ya, she can think for herself. She can deny the feelings within her that draw her so strongly to Kalona.
It isn’t easy by a long shot. Most other fledglings and even adult vampyres can’t resist his pull. He’s powerful and smooth-talking and ZOMG-hot. He claims to be Erebus, the consort of the very Goddess whom the fledglings and vampyres adore. He tells them everything they want to hear, how they should rule the world and bring back “the old ways, where once vampyres and their Warriors strode the earth, proud and strong, instead of hiding in clusters in schools…Vampyres are Nyx’s children, and the Goddess never meant for you to cower in darkness.” After two alleged human-on-vampyre murders at the Tulsa House of Night, his audience is primed for his leadership and liberation. According to one of Aphrodite’s visions, Zoey herself will reign with Kalona if she gives in to him.
For Zoey, the allure of Kalona is ten times greater than it is for anyone else, because the part of her soul that she shares with A-ya was made to love him. She recognizes his great beauty and the power of his temptation, but that’s not what attracts her most—she is drawn to him by pity and compassion, and holds out hope that he can return to Nyx’s ways.
But as Nyx says in the beginning of the series when she appears to Zoey in a vision and fills in her Mark, this is “a world where good and evil are struggling to find balance” (Marked). We see this struggle for cosmic balance enacted inside Zoey, as well—while part of her was made to love Kalona, part of
her was also made to destroy him. When she sees him kill Heath in cold blood, she realizes that despite Kalona’s occasional remorse, he has chosen evil again and again, and always will.
A PRICE PAID IN PAIN: REPHAIM’S REDEMPTION
Meanwhile, Kalona’s firstborn and favorite son, Rephaim, becomes part of another drama of choices, with an entirely different outcome from his father’s. Mortally wounded in Hunted’s climactic battle, Rephaim is saved at the beginning of Tempted by Stevie Rae, herself no stranger to darkness. Her recent death, un-death, and subsequent bloodthirsty rampage allow her to have sympathy for the fallen half-mortal spirit. She remembers that despite the intentions of Neferet, who brought her back from the dead, she was able to choose good and control her violent urges. Stevie Rae may therefore be the only person capable of seeing Rephaim’s humanity, and it is this humanity that she pledges herself to in Burned, as part of a bargain with the Black Bull in exchange for Rephaim’s life.
In Tempted, Rephaim saves Stevie Rae’s life to pay her back for saving his, to rid himself of that debt. But in Burned, Rephaim saves her for another reason—because he loves her (though he wouldn’t call it that). When Darkness in the form of the White Bull is torturing her, Rephaim is able to heal himself, fly to her, and break through the circle she’s cast, all because he is connected to Darkness. Just as Stevie Rae could sympathize with him because she has touched Darkness in her past, he is only able to save her from Darkness because of Darkness itself.
But it’s more than that. He only convinces Darkness to let her go by finding the humanity inside himself, the part his human mother bestowed, the part that lets him say, “I’m here because she’s here, and she belongs to me.”
Saving her life the first time cost him nothing, but this time he must offer himself to Darkness in her place. He suffers even more than Stevie Rae has, for his immortal blood is more irresistible than hers, and because he uses Darkness to gain enough power to heal and break the circle, so he must pay his own debt as well as hers. It’s only Stevie Rae’s bargain with the Black Bull (Light) that saves him. They belong to each other.
World’s Biggest Losers
The word Rephaim refers to an ancient biblical people possibly related to the Nephilim (or fallen angels—remember them?). The Rephaim, also called the Rephaites, were thought to have been a race of giants. King Og of Bashan, the last of the Rephaim, is described in Deuteronomy as having a nine-cubit (fourteen-foot-long) bed. (Interestingly, the term for dead people or departed spirits may be rooted in a similar Hebrew word, repaim.) The Bible doesn’t mention that these people committed any major crimes other than living in the Promised Land, but that was enough to warrant wiping them out.
A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
So why would P.C. and Kristin modify the Raven Mocker myth, creating such a fantastic origin story in the form of Kalona?
Two words: Free. Will. Throughout the House of Night series, Zoey is faced with choices. She doesn’t always make the “right” one. Her actions sometimes even hurt herself and others (Loren Blake, anyone?). But as is often repeated, the Goddess Nyx’s greatest gift to her children is free will. Love and goodness are meaningless without the ability to choose their opposites.
Like Lucifer, Kalona had a choice between light and darkness, and he freely chose darkness, not only when he fell from the Otherworld, but again and again on earth. By making Kalona’s rage and pride the source of the Raven Mockers, the Casts give the Raven Mockers a thematic reason for existing, rather than being mindless “evil spirits” who came from nowhere. And as we see with Rephaim, even these creatures born of rape and blood have the capacity for love when shown compassion and understanding. They are, after all, born of human women, and have humanity in them.
Despite Zoey’s status as A-ya reincarnated and Chosen of Nyx, she can still choose darkness. Darkness can take the form of not only active evil, but also inaction—choosing her own happiness and peace at the expense of the world. Many times she wishes to be normal and not carry the burden given to her. The fact that Zoey has more than one possible path is illustrated explicitly in Aphrodite’s visions—they are never what will be, but what might be—and more than once, Aprhodite has competing, contradictory visions. The future is always in flux.
Zoey is highly imperfect, as are those who surround her—friends, boyfriends, enemies, and protectors alike. Characters who are initially drawn to darkness—such as Stark, Aphrodite, and Rephaim—make hard choices to be heroic when it counts, even if it means losing who they think they are, or even losing their lives. As Stevie Rae returns from the dead, she has a long, difficult journey back to Light. Kalona himself has the potential to turn away from pride and toward love, but by the end of Burned, he has made his choice of Darkness forever clear.
It could be argued that the ability of these characters to make mistakes, to fall—to fail—is part of what makes the series so appealing. As in life, there are no guarantees, and Zoey does her best to muddle through and do the right thing, despite exhaustion/injury/near-death, confusion, and major boyfriend drama. It’s all Nyx asks of anyone who serves Her.
Because without choice—without freedom—love is hollow. You could win someone over by giving them a love potion, and at first you’d be happy just to have their affections. But soon, it would feel empty. You’d know that they had no choice, and that their feelings weren’t earned or real.
Just as no human in their right mind should be satisfied with a love potion-derived relationship, no true deity should want to force obedience and devotion. God himself puts it best in Paradise Lost, when discussing the rebel angels:
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have given sincere
Of true allegiance, constant faith or love,
Where only what they needs must do, appeared,
Not what they would?
There is no destiny but what we choose, and Nyx wouldn’t have it any other way.
JERI SMITH-READY is the author of the teen paranormal novels Shade and Shift, as well as the award-winning WVMP Radio adult vampire series, which includes Wicked Game, Bad to the Bone, and Bring on the Night. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two cats, and the world’s goofiest greyhound. Visit her on Facebook or Twitter, or at www.jerismithready.com.
{ The Otherworld Is Greek to Me }
Trinity Faegen
FROM CHARACTER names to story elements, P.C. and Kristin Casts’ House of Night series is a treasure trove of allusions to Greek mythology. Nyx’s origins are in Greek myth—she appears in Hesiod’s Theogony, Homer’s Illiad, and other ancient Greek texts. Aphrodite takes her name from the Greek goddess. But the references to Greek myth that fascinate me most are those related to Nyx’s Otherworld. The Casts have taken the ancient Greek’s Underworld and added their own imaginative twist, creating a colorful, intriguing new answer to the eternal question, “Where do we go after we die?” Just like the Underworld in Greek mythology, selective visits to the Otherworld by the living are allowed. Also just like the Underworld, some visitors can never leave. And while the two aren’t identical, there are enough similarities that it’s interesting to compare and contrast.
The uncertainty of the afterlife is universal, a timeless question without an answer because all the experts are gone. With the field wide open for conjecture, there are countless myths and stories about life after death. Ancient civilizations across the globe had their own (often eerily similar) explanations for what happens after death, but thanks to rock-star writers like Hesiod and Homer, Greek myths remain the gold standard.
Afterlife of the Ancients
In ancient times, Mesopotamians believed the dead dwelled in the Great Below, the Land of No Return, ruled by Ereshkigal. According to Alice K. Turner in The History of Hell, mortals lived on Earth, but patches of the other world adjoined this one. Similar to Greek myth, there are descent stories of mortals and other gods who visited the Great Below, some of whom returned to the li
ving and some of whom didn’t.
In ancient Egypt, the afterlife was complicated, and the journey to Sekhet Hetepet, ruled by benign Osiris, was perilous. There were gates, portals, and the Hall of Justice, after which, if the dead made the cut and their heart wasn’t eaten by the monster Ammit, there were further dangers that could only be overcome by following instructions in the Book of the Dead. Unlike in Greek mythology, no one traveled to the other side unless they were dead, but the Otherworld of the Egyptians was so complicated, it’s easy to see why. Nobody but a dead guy would go through crocodiles, snakes, giant beetles, and the risk of having their heart eaten by a monster.
Back in the day, ancient Greeks didn’t think of the Underworld as a bad place. It was simply where people went after they died. But it was still dangerous. Very few living mortals visited the Underworld, but those who did were considered heroic. Who but a hero would attempt to visit the land of the dead?
One of the most famous of these visits is in Homer’s Odyssey, the story of King Odysseus’ ten-year journey home. After fighting the Trojans for ten years, he’s really ready to return to his kingdom and be reunited with his loyal wife, but things don’t go as planned and he faces one obstacle after another. Circe, a witch he encounters along the way, tells him he should seek the advice of a wise mortal, but since the guy she’s referring to is dead, Odysseus will have to visit the Underworld to find him. He and his crew set sail and travel to the cave at Taenarum, in Greece, a portal to the Underworld. There, Odysseus sacrifices a young ram and a black ewe to the god of the Underworld, Hades. As the beasts’ blood flows into a trench, Odysseus calls on the spirits to rise and meet him at the entrance to the cave. The wise mortal gives him the advice he was seeking, and he speaks to several other helpful spirits, too, before the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, sends some not-so-savory spirits to the cave and Odysseus books a hasty retreat.
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