The Sisters are paired spirits of unbearable loss: one gathers despair, while the other guides souls who never found a place in the living world.
One Sister holds the grief. The other holds the one who could not stay.
The two at the empty cradle
The Sisters are never named separately. One is depicted veiled in black with empty hands; the other in white carrying a small covered lantern. Tradition warns against deciding which represents despair and which mercy, because each changes place through the night.
They attend deaths before, during or shortly after birth, as well as souls lost before any community knew how to name them.
Mercy without explanation
The Sisters offer no reason for loss and condemn priests who invent one. Their mercy is presence: grief may be held without becoming punishment, lesson or divine judgement.
Yet a darker cult asks the black-veiled Sister to take all hope so no future attachment can cause another wound. This numbness is considered the corruption of their mystery.
The white-thread houses
Small sanctuaries adjoin midwives' halls and cemeteries. Families may tie a white thread without giving a name, date or account. No proof of grief is required.
Clergy keep remembrance books with blank pages for stories a family cannot tell. The blank is treated as a complete record rather than an omission.
The lantern crossing
Once a year covered lanterns are carried to a river and opened one by one. The lights represent souls guided onward and lives whose absence still shapes the shore.
Elyndra's temples often participate, not to turn mourning toward fertility or replacement, but to affirm that the Green Mother and the Sisters can stand beside the same empty cradle without contradiction.
Notes and record
This article combines campaign record, spoken lore and the mythic account preserved in the Earin archive.