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"Mother" Mah was the youngest of the Elder Gods[1], as well as the weakest, and was responsible for creating Zaros, Seren, the Mahjarrat tribe, and the Muspah, and was the only known Elder God to have deliberately created life for purposes other than protecting Elder Artefacts or building worlds. She also created the Mahkorat, Mahserrat and Chelon-Mah tribes, although the Mahjarrat came first.

Wahisietel (as Ali the Wise) first mentioned her in Tale of the Muspah as a "cruel and archaic creator-god" who created the Muspah[2], which is further elaborated on in Wahisietel's memory from the Mahjarrat Memories miniquest.

Mah makes her first appearance in Fate of the Gods, first dormant on the Freneskae volcano but awakening eventually after Zaros has been reincarnated. She later appears in Children of Mah where she meets her demise.

History[]

Muspah NPC

The Muspah, said to be creation of Mah.

Mah egg

The egg from which Mah hatched.

Mah's face

Mah enraged.

According to Mahjarrat legends, she is an evil goddess that is said to have created the Mahjarrat atop a volcano, which led the Mahjarrat to call her Mother Mah. Apparently, ancient Mahjarrat were said to take a pilgrimage to the volcano in order to speak with her and learn magic, construction and other aspects of survival. When she slept deeply, hordes of Muspah - powerful beings created by combining her most fearsome creatures - are said to have spawned from her dreams, with the only known way to stop them being performing the Ritual of Rejuvenation to awaken her. When she got angry, she is said to have created earthquakes and avalanches, with the similar Ritual of Enervation, or reproduction, being the only way to calm her and prevent it.[3]

Wahisietel believes her to be nothing but a myth, as both she and the Muspahs had not been sighted for thousands of years before his birth.[3] Despite this, both the Rituals of Rejuvenation and Enervation remained part of Mahjarrat culture while they remained on Freneskae.[3] Upon being approached by the Menaphite gods Icthlarin and Amascut, the Mahjarrat voted to leave Freneskae for Gielinor. After Amascut was disgusted by the Mahjarrat and went into Mah's volcano, a "great bellowing roar" came from it and rocks rained from the sky. While unable to prove it, the Mahjarrat Bilrach believed it to be caused by Mah. [4]

When the Mahjarrat arrived on Gielinor, and when Azzanadra told Zaros of Mah, he did not question her existence, and on his suggestion, they resumed the rituals, as on Gielinor, the Ritual would instead rejuvenate the Mahjarrat. While the modern Mahjarrat disputed whether or not Mother Mah truly existed, they continued to mate only during earthquakes due to the legend.[3]

During the previous cycle of the universe, Mah was creating planes along with the other Elder Gods. For some reason, Mah became fascinated with life in that cycle, creating butterflies. This was something the Elder Gods had never done before, and therefore Jas assumed an illness had befallen Mah.[5] She was corrupted at the start of the current cycle. Seren suggests that one of the other Elder Gods, possibly Wen, was responsible.

Unlike the other elder gods, it is said that she preferred to work on her own.[6] In truth, she was thought stillborn by the other Elder Gods and was left abandoned on Freneskae. However, she survived and took residence there. The lack of Anima Mundi severely stunted her mental capacity, and she created Zaros and Seren to be her dolls. Zaros eventually came to resent Mah, and he departed Freneskae, while Seren stayed behind, attempting to care for her creator as best as she could.

Each day, Mah became weaker and weaker due to the lack of anima. She slowly fell comatose, having frequent nightmares. Her nightmares would cause horrific creatures to form, as well as cause earthquakes and other assorted natural disasters. Occasionally Mah becomes semiconscious, but does nothing but scream and hurt herself and the planet. For these times, Seren taught the Mahjarrat to drain Mah's energy and create more of themselves. This would return her to sleep, easing her pain and preventing destruction. Unable to help Mah any further, Seren left.

Fate of the Gods[]

After countless nightmares and dreams about Zaros and Seren, Mah finally awakens in the Sixth Age of Gielinor. During Fate of the Gods, when the World Guardian travels to Freneskae to either help or sabotage Zaros, the Elder God stirs, first unconsciously sending muspahs to attack the adventurer during a nightmare, before finally becoming fully conscious. Screaming in a fit of unparalleled rage, she tries to attack the adventurer and Zaros, but the latter teleports them away to safety just before Mah could crush them. Mah later falls back into a comatose state.

Children of Mah[]

A few years into the Sixth age, the remaining Mahjarrat realise that their energy is draining at an alarming rate despite having completed a Ritual of Rejuvenation only a few years ago. Zaros, Zamorak and Seren, each individually, also note their energy is being slowly siphoned from them. Zaros, having returned to Gielinor, confronts the Mahjarrat at the ritual site in The North and offers salvation and freedom from their Rituals of Rejuvenation. He asks the Mahjarrat to meet him on Freneskae at the Ritual of Enervation site. There the Mahjarrat find that Mah has dreamt a monstrous ritual stone into existence that pierces the clouds and also "pierced through the Abyss and into Gielinor," as an attempt to reclaim her energy and siphon it back across the worlds. As Zaros, Zamorak and the other Mahjarrat prepare to siphon the last of Mah's energy, which would nullify the rituals they had done for so long, Mah's night tremors reach their peak. Zaros asks the player to head up to where Mah dreams and intercept anything she might spawn.

The player finds Seren with Mah near the ritual stone. The Mahjarrat ritual has destabilised Mah, and Seren can no longer soothe Mah. Seren tells the player that if she tries to stop the ritual Mah may descend into terrors and untold destruction of Freneskae. She asks the player to enter Mah's nightmare and find a way to calm her.

The player enters Mah's nightmare and attempts to drive back and combat her nightmares. Her first fear consists of the Muspah, which the player defends her against. The next fear is of the Mahjarrat themselves, which the adventurer also defends her against. Her final fear is of both Zaros and Seren, which is also quelled. Seren realises that Mah's core is corrupted by a spiral of blue crystal, an icy corruption like a scar, that she sees running through her deepest essence, torn into her core, and says "you are like this because someone close to you willed it." She tells the player that Mah's sickness originates there, and that Mah's energy is irreversibly depleted by the ritual and that she will never wake up again. Seren realising that it is too late to save Mah, and now understanding that Mah has lived an agonising existence, mercifully kills her. Seren is heartbroken by the loss of Mah and blames Zaros for his role in her destruction. Later, a saddened Zaros tells the player that he senses something dormant residing within Mah's remains, which will be useful for his future plans. After the ritual, the various nightmare creatures Mah dreamt manifest into corporeal beings.

Trivia[]

Elder god concept art

Concept art of Mah.

  • She was not one of three Elder Gods that appeared in the Origins of Gielinor video[7] residing on Freneskae.
  • Before the release of the Mahjarrat Memories, Mah was unnamed and was referred to only as "Freneskae Creator-God".
  • Mah is the ancient Etruscan word for "five", possibly referring to her being the fifth elder god to be born.
  • It is stated by Mod Rowley that if Mah hadn't been stillborn, there wouldn't have been any mortal life. Mah would understand the potential for life to become conscious, and would have suppressed it in previous cycles (whether instinctively or knowingly). The Dragonkin homeworld was therefore possibly the last one created before Freneskae, and this should have set off alarm calls that whatever led to Mah's current condition actually started back then. Rowley also suggests that Mah always carried a sense of childlike wonder, with Jas as the font of wisdom and experience. What Mah's corruption and lack of Anima Mundi actually caused was predominantly the loss of memory. [8]

References[]

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