Daena

Daena are beings considered adjacent to both Angels and Spirits, serving key cosmic roles,<ref name="17.ze1"/> associated with Zoroastrian religion. They serve as guides for spirits and echoes, most commonly serving as psychopomps.<ref name="14.1e1">Ashumare dropped their arms to their sides.  They were still but the violent pencil scribblings weren’t.  They spoke, still musical.  “Abraham with the cracked glasses has a friend who isn’t his, a guide to spirits, painted in pretty colors.  Ashumare Ashumare, say what she looks like.”
[...]
There was one Lucy had remarked on.  That John had described as old and scary?
“A pretty lady… painted in pretty colors, like you describe.”
[...]
“Musser stole a Daena familiar.  A Zoroastrian psychopomp.  When seen by wrongdoers and murderers, she appears ugly, and she condemns them to eternal wandering.  Others she guides as a psychopomp will.”
“Bit crude,” Ann Wint said.  “I don’t like black and white tests of character.” - excerpt from Fall Out 14.1</ref>

Appearance

In at least some cases, Daena will appear hideous to the guilty and beautiful to the innocent.<ref name="14.1e1"/>

Abilities and Art

Daena have a powerful innate ability to shape and guide the spirits around them, directing their flow and using the ones they don't need as fuel for the ones they do.<ref name="17.ze1">Daena were those who managed key duties, in a manner that made them spirit-adjacent and angel-adjacent.  They were tied into the great wheel of creation, with a corresponding ability to manipulate or manage spirits.  Most handled one thing as a key duty, with the classic being that they were Psychopomps – guides of the dead.  There was one Daena on record as having handled seven, but the greatest were typically assumed to have five at a maximum.  Daena Farnaza had three: sorting echo and soul with an eye to the guilty, maintaining cycles of Nature, and dispatching those who defied the Fates. - excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref><ref name="17.ze4">Farnaza returned from the Spirit World, appearing out of nowhere, hands moving with spirtual flows to bring them into alignment, the ones that weren’t what she needed becoming fuel for the ones that were.
A purifying flame, to translate the fire around the Dog Meat into something that burned white and cleansing.
It fought hard, and actually acted as if it were burning, now.  It fell, scrambling to the side, and rolled, putting out the fires.
Hideous Farnaza prepared another arrangement of purifying flame, and the Dog Meat crouched, still burning in patches here or there, limbs overlong, a frog looking to leap, or a flea ready to spring a great distance. - excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.z</ref>

Most Daena have a singular cosmic role, most commonly that of psychopomp. Some Daena will have multiple roles, with the most powerful generally having five; only one example of a Daena having seven roles has been recorded.<ref name="17.ze1"/>

References

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