That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road

That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road (Rockallian: Céig gCáilin Púcha eor an Chreach nan Réoi, Fernolian: Cá Mercha tYsbryd ar an Déibhéid na Fhóirdh, Astrallic: Ceaiga Chaillina eoubheuir an Deaibheaid nan Reaui) is a goddess in Rockallic mythology, belonging to The Thirty-five. She is associated with silhouettes, assassins, the unnoticed, and the unknown. By her very nature not a lot is known about her, as all her attestations in the Legendarium describe only how distant and unnoticeable she is. Mythology surrounding her does suggest that she, at times, exercises her power over lesser individuals across the Nine Worlds, and that those who choose to follow her after being approached by her are known as Silhouettes.

Name

The real name of the Goddess is unknown even to the other deities. In the Prose Legendarium, Fate refers to her as That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road. In the Legendarium itself, she introduces herself to one potential Silhouette:

"Who I am," she says

"Is of no importance

Some call me That Girl Over There

Some call me Unknown

But I call myself

That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road"

In another verse, she speaks of why she has no given name:

Nuo aon mianu vieit Ax dein conuin meriao A gus protero A gus arein mia ta Ax mianu Co nu anmu aio

"Nobody knows me But those whom I visit And protect And even to them I am But me Who has no name"

Attestations

Modern day interpretation of That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road, from 2008.

Legendarium

In the Legendarium, That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road appears only twice. Her first appearance is in the chapter Mialnin, where The Thirty-five are introduced:

That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road

Whom no one really knows

Forest, father of trees

Who covers all land

Sprig, trusted tender of

All young and vulnerable plants

As with all deities, her introduction covers only two lines, and the most important aspect of That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road is seen to be the fact that she is unknown.

That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road's second appearance is at the end of the chapter Ialm, where she is said to appear before a potential Silhouette. In this case, the Silhouette is also a Forgotten One, a follower of the goddess Girl in the City, Hidden in a Corner, goddess of invisibility amongst other things. The sub-chapter she appears in, called Aon Ril Eilasa or "One Last Time", describes her interaction with the Forgotten One, and how the Forgotten One refuses her advances. Though at the very end it describes the one instance in which the Forgotten One will accept the advances:

But one time at Afternoon

The Forgotten One will agree

And become of two Deities

Both forgotten and unknown

Never visible

But as a silhouette

And as she agrees

That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road will know

Girl in the City, Hidden in a Corner will know

And Hidden will know

That at the end of the cycle

The Forever-Silence will commence

The verses are the first reference to the Forever-Silence in the Legendarium, the predicted end of everything. The life cycle of the All-Tree is said to come to end with the Forever-Silence, and that all Deities will disappear with it, and the Forever-Silence is heralded by the Forgotten One accepting the offer to become a Silhouette as well. The reason for this is given in the next verse:

But one will survive the Forever-Silence:

The girl both unknown and forgotten

For she is forgotten and unknown

And thus nonexistent

So she cannot disappear

And will be left behind alone

The girl who is both a Forgotten One and a Silhouette will be, by virtue of being both unknown and forgotten, in a state of nonexistence that is even more non-existent than Nothing. Why this is the case is not exactly known, though scholars generally agree that it is because it is common knowledge that Nothing exists, whereas nobody knows that the girl exists — only that she will exist or may already exist, and that by virtue of her state being unknown and her life forgotten, she does not exist at all.

Prose Legendarium

That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road is only mentioned once in the Prose Legendarium, in the story of An Fer in an Citera, or "The Man in the City". In the story, a man asks Fate about those Deities one cannot see.

"There are five," spoke Fate.

"There is Hidden, who can travel between worlds. She can leave her existence behind in one world, and let it reemerge in another. She is the only one who can do so without finding death."

"There is Ever-Dream, who is chased by many, for what she possesses is what everyone desires. But it is hers to keep, and she does indeed keep it to herself. She will never be caught."

"There is That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road, whom you see only in the distance, but a silhouette. Her face, her life, even her name unknown to you and to everyone. You will see her, always, forever, again and again, but never know her."

"There is Girl in the Valley, at the Riverside Sitting, whom you spot from atop the valley edge, but once you come closer, she disappears."

"And there is Girl in the City, Hidden in a Corner, whom you never see, for you are not interested in her, and you have forgotten about her."

Worship

Worshippers and followers of That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road are known as Silhouettes. There is however a great distinction between worshippers and followers here: a worshipping Silhouette worships That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road, but is not protected by her, whereas a following Silhouette is approached by That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road herself and becomes unreachable to the rest of the world when agreeing to become a follower.

Association with missing persons

A story exists outside of the Legendarium and Prose Legendarium known as A Missing Person, written sometime in the 16th or 17th century, which describes the goddesses Girl in the Valley, at the Riverside Sitting, Girl in the City, Hidden in a Corner, and That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road as the three goddesses that watch over persons who have gone missing to their contemporaries. It reads about That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road as follows:

But some people do not run away, nor are they outcasts: all they do is, quite simply, disappear. Never to be seen or heard of again. These are the people that have come under the protection of That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road.

They have not died, but to anyone but themselves and their fellow Silhouettes, they are as good as gone. Forever. They cannot be spoken to, they cannot be reached, they are barely, if at all, noticed. They live the remainder of their life almost always out of sight of everyone, they exist but as a small, lonely person in the distance. Sometimes you see them, there in the distance, at the end of the road: your friend, your parent, your sibling, your lover who has been missing for a very long time and whom you have not heard anything from for years. And you run up the street, trying to catch up with them, only for them to disappear. And as you sit down, disappointed, saddened, you realise that what you chased was only a ghost at the end of the road.

Relation to other mythological creatures

It is generally accepted that That Ghostly Girl at the End of the Road is related to Lady Loneliness, one of the deities in Dogric mythology, and to Fòinna, one of the deities in Romic mythology.