Duranian Anahita
Anahita is a legendary figure of Central Euran folklore and crypto-history, purportedly an immortal survivor of the Duranian civilisation. According to ancient myths in the Eklesia region of Constancia and neighbouring lands currently under the dominion of Oportia and Zeed, she is described as a "living relic" of the those ancient peoples who inhabited the foothills of Mount Duranian before their eventual assimilation and disappearance by the 9th century AN. Unlike the benevolent Zurvanite divinity of the same name, this Anahita is characterised as a predatory, chthonic entity, a vampiress who occupies an ancient fastness, furnished with the spoils of ages, overlooking the time-worn trade routes of the innumerable caravans proceeding from the Gulf of Aqaba towards Nivardom and Mehrshahr.
Historically, the "Anahita Mythos" gained traction among 18th-century Constancian explorers and administrators who reported a pervasive dread among local copper-miners and shepherds regarding the "Red-Haired Mistress of the Summit." She is often framed as a personification of the Mount Duranian itself: beautiful, aloof, and lethal. Oral traditions suggest she possesses an "eternal memory," having witnessed the passage of the Babkhan Empires, their fiery self-immolation, and the Bassarid intrusions, viewing each successive wave of humanity with a nihilistic detachment. The atrocities of the Harpy of the Rodopi, concurrent with the Third Euran War, became conflated in the popular memory of remote rural and nomadic communities, with the old folk tales of Anahita.
In local superstition, Anahita’s presence is heralded by a distinct lack of wildlife and a haunting stillness in the high-altitude valleys. She is said to descend from her jagged ledge only during specific lunar alignments to "slake her hungers," preying upon the youthful and the vigorous. While she primarily targets local villagers, legends frequently detail her fascination with "outsiders", warlords, scholars, or monks, whom she lures to her heights. These figures are purportedly subjected to a brief, intense period of intellectual and carnal "toying" before their lifeless remains are discarded into the ravines below, joining a millennium’s worth of "husks."
Modern cultural analysis views Anahita as a manifestation of historical trauma and the anxiety of extinction. As the purported last of the Duranians, she represents a folk memory of a vanished culture that was a long time in dying; in this mythical conception turning instead into a parasitic shadow that feeds on the lineages that replaced her own. Her depiction in art and literature emphasises the contrast between her vibrant, youthful appearance, marked by flowing red hair and ornate ancient jewelry, and the cold, necrotic reality of her existence. She remains a potent symbol of the "Eternal Return," a reminder that while empires crumble, the hunger of the past remains ever-present in the high places of the world.
