The Prophecy in Flame and Smoke

Born at the twilight of the Classical period of the ancient Grecian empire, Iole was a human in her mortal life on Earth.

As a child, Iole possessed the gift of sight- she was often seized with visions of the past and future, as well as sensing apparitions of atmospheres and entities. This both delighted and alarmed her- at times, what she saw was comforting, such as a favorable outcome for a neighbor, or a passed-on loved one roaming around. Sometimes, she could foresee vague flashes of a calamity or a sinister entity.

Her parents, convinced their child possessed divinity, took her before their local priestess to confirm their child's gifts. The priestess confirmed Iole's gifts and with her parents' blessing, Iole was raised from a young child and trained rigorously to inherit the place of the priestess who mentored her.

Iole took great pride in her duties and maintained an orderly yet austere temple. She also oversaw several shrines along the road to her town. The goddess she mainly served was Leto, the goddess of motherhood- she also served Hestia, goddess of the home and hearth.

Iole remained unmarried and devoid of the company of men, as her vows and positions demanded it. However, her social standing and being consulted by the people in her town more than compensated for her lack of a spouse and family.

With her experience growing, she also became an oracle. Initially, she was locally esteemed for her accurate predictions. Iole learned from the priestess before of certain areas where she could absorb energies to receive clearer visions. As her predictions increased in volume and gravity, her reputation reached the ears of other officials from other towns, and gradually, higher officials (exegetes of the Hellenic religion)  from the cities began venturing to test the veracity of her abilities. Iole's abilities were valid, and though offered positions at other temples, Iole remained devoted to her specific temple, considered the area sacred where she and she alone would be contacted by the gods and goddesses.

Her life passed contently, though she always dreaded a calamity reaching her town, and sadly, with all the favorable predictions, she was forced to accept future disasters and hopefully prepare people for the next disaster.

One such disaster was not as black and white as she initially predicted.

A sizable band of invaders from the North, across the small isthmus of her region, hailing far from the River Tanais, reached their borders.
They were horsemen, no doubt similar to what the ancients encountered and assumed were centaurs from a distanct, given their violent nature and seemingly stuck in the saddle of their horses.

The band overtook her town, though most deserted the center of the town. However, Iole remained with the Temple, determined to protects the temple and its golden and brass instruments for rites and divination against the invaders. Believing her gods and goddesses would protect, she refused to flee.

A number of invaders attempted to abduct her, and had nearly successfully done so when their (apparently so? Iole had no idea what they said, as they were foreigners speaking a foreign tongue) leader stopped them, impressed with Iole's stoicism, even with the threat of death and other crimes against her.

Though some miles from her temple, Iole and the leader were left alone. Relieved she escaped death and worse, Iole was impressed with the leader's sensibilities. For the first time in her, Iole was overcome with passion, and the leader, seized with passion as well, both had intimate relations. Iole remained with the leader for a week, guilty she broke her vows. She felt a tenderness for the leader, and questioned her current life.
But when the leader and his band were forced to flee because they were outnumbered by a larger detachment of soldiers from the nearby city, Iole fled back to her temple. She still thought of the man from the River Tanais, and felt a pining for his company, even though neither understood a word between each other and she never learned his name.

Within 3 months, Iole discovered her pregnancy. Fearing the people's outrage at this sign of her broken vows, as well as the gods's anger, she lied to her followers, claiming the gods ordered her on a pilgrimage to a mountain for a message. To the nearby mountain she went, but instead of a divine message, she waited six months, and by herself, she gave birth to triplet daughters, born from herself and the leader's brief union.
Upon her return, she brought the daughters back, claiming the gods directed her to a poor farmer's family to find triplet girls to raise as new oracles and priestesses. (She was relieved they all resembled their father, not herself.) The people, so devoted to Iole for her years of service, had no suspicion of her pregnancy.

Iole raised the girls in the art of divining and the rites and mysteries of the temple. She also loved them, as only a mother could, though she never revealed the truth of their parentage to them.

Now with three children in her temple, Iole felt more content with her life. Though she longed to see the man from the River Tanais some day, her life was busied with her duties and three children.

Wars erupted constantly, and her peaceful town soon became deserted. The new king of the nearby city came to the temple, demanding intercession and victory from the gods. Iole explained she had no control if the gods answered her supplication, and foretold an upcoming defeat the king should heed.

The king, reckless with youth and desperate with terror, was outraged. He eschewed all sanctity and had Iole and the three daughters beheaded by his men.  Iole had watched her daughters killed first and was so struck with terror, she did not even notice when her own head was lopped off.

So Iole died, and into a new afterlife she was transported to. It was not the Hades she expected, but an unusual realm, only people by women now transformed into all sorts of creatures. She herself was transformed into a deer-like creature- still human, but also like a deer.

Trying to set order among the terrified and disorderly women, Iole learned many hailed from her Hellenic time and region, so she rallied them to build settlements as they all had in their mortal lives. She also encouraged the women to takes arms and defend themselves from the other monsters in the wilderness.

This group of isolated and transformed women soon became an order- they called themselves the Fury Sisterhood, or Furies, for short, naming themselves after the divine entities of vengeance and retribution from the chthonic order.

Eventually, after helping founded the Furies, Iole also took it upon herself to help erect a temple for spiritual guidance and sanctuary for her fellow women.

Gradually, the settlement grew into a city, with its own senate, forum, schools, and government. She headed the temple and many of the women consulted Iole for guidance in their isolated afterlife.


Though mourning her separation from her daughters, Iole remains hopeful she will one day be reunited with them, as well as her parents, and perhaps the man from the River Tanais.

Iole serves the city as its priestess of its temple, as well as a head councilwoman in the government- she is considered a founder of the city and a founder of the Fury Sisterhood.

Though proud, seemingly harsh, and cold, Iole regards each of her sister among the Furies as an equal, whether the younger ones she sees in a motherly light, or the oldest one, whom she defers with fillial attitude, or her peers with soratorial respect, Iole has accepted her role in the afterlife with gratitude.

She still divines, her gift now even clearer in this realm. Like all oracles before, she ventures to the chamber below, where with sacred flame and vapors, she enters a trance of frenzy in which the visions seize her and she can predict the future and see the past.