Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Riddles from Holy Selmat

Scholars in Selmat have a tradition of unfun, oblique riddles that are meant to make you better understand creation. These are not those. These are the riddles told for fun, to test wits, or as passwords into some occult gatherings.
(Answers in white)


I am flat and I am round
I seldom glance or pry
Yet each time you’re before me
I meet your anxious eye.
What am I?

(A mirror)

I play mother to any man.
My face is long, my flank is broad.
You wound my husband to make him your friend
And kill my son to feed a God.
Who am I?

(A cow)

I eat what no one else does,
but never eat what no one has.

(A vulture, or other scavenger)

Though you shall be within me,
No seer foretells me.
Though you have always lived within me,
No dwarf remembers me.
What am I?

(The present. If you aren’t using this in Holy Selmat, you can just say “man” instead of dwarf.)

Small but strong
Mindless but dutiful
Not hot but burns you
Tiny but can cover you
What is it?

(Fire ants)

Deeper than a lake,
Darker than the night,
Older than the city,
Agent of the right.
What is it?

(A dwarf. This only really makes sense in Holy Selmat.)

Two parents have I, though not a man.
I am born from heat of fire and flame
to kill, or provide a crafter his livelihood.
Solve the riddle, speak my name!

(Bronze)

1 comment:

  1. I really liked the last one, the riddle could be reworked to suggest a metal though.

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