Hate (goddess)

Hate (Rockallian: Fuaith; Fernolian: Cáisei; Astrallic: Feuith), also known as Futa, is a in Rockallic mythology belonging to the Twenty-two. She is associated with hate, despair, grudges, and blood. More recently she has begun to be associated with the act of and with mental illness.

Hate lives in the World of the Twenty-two in a region known as the Red Bog.

Appearance
Hate is described as having a menacing and fear-inflicting appearance. She is a and takes on many forms, both natural and supernatural. Whatever she appears as, her defining feature are the cuts on her arms and legs from which blood perpetually oozes.

The story The Hate of Oneself describes her as follows:


 * ... a towering female figure, dark and imposing. Her eyes aflame, the left one dark red, the right one bright yellow. Her hair dark brown, nearly black, with one white lock, floating and waving around her head like a bed of snakes. Her tall body covered with a ragged shadowy black dress, but her arms and legs left uncovered. They are full of cuts, thousands of cuts, big and small, running across as well as up and down, and from the cuts oozes dark, almost tar-like blood, running down her body...

The story The Lands of the Mighty describes her as follows:


 * She strides in between the red and dead trees, into which she seems to morph. A little girl one moment, scared and shivering, wandering aimlessly through the blood-filled bog. The next moment, a frightening beast, out for blood, running straight into the unknown. Only thing those manifestations have in common: the limbs are always cut open, and from the wounds oozes blood, leaving a trail of despair and death.

Nature and functions
Hate is a member of the Twenty-two and lives in their associated homeworld, the World of the Twenty-two. Her residence is in the Red Bog, a vast expanse of. Unlike any other swamp, the Red Bog is not full of water, but full of blood, which is said to be boiling and to produce a despicable scent.

Hate is associated with - as the name would imply - hate, but also with despair, blood, and grudges. In the same way that the emotion of hate takes on many forms, Hate shifts shapes too. She does not take kindly to anyone or anything, and stays in the Red Bog most of the time. When she does come out, it is only to welcome those whom she chooses to accept as one of her followers, who are known as the Perpetrators of Hatred.

Self-hate
Hate is told of as not only a manifestation of hate towards others, but also a hate towards oneself. This is visually most obvious through the cuts on her arms, which are thought to be self-inflicted, though the story of why she self-harmed has been lost.

Hate as self-hating is rarely touched upon, and almost never directly. The only direct reference to her self-hate is from a small :

Legendarium
Hate is only mentioned once in the Legendarium, in the first chapter, in the introduction of the deities. Notably, she is the only deity mentioned only by name, with no description given:


 * Dragon; a beast of fire
 * The Guardian of the Roots
 * Hate
 * Time; always moving forward
 * He takes all with him
 * He takes all with him

Unusual is the line that is intentionally left blank. The significance of the blank line has led to an extensive scholarly debate, with many different opinions and theories.

Prose Legendarium
Hate is much more prominent in the Prose Legendarium, where many a story either features her or is entirely about her.

Tales specifically about Hate are The Hate of Oneself, Falls of Blood, One But Many, The Absorption of One's Own Mind, Eaten Away, The Death of a Man's Flesh, Boiling Blood, and The Way of Hate. The most prominent tales featuring her are The Lands of the Mighty and The Eyes of Knowledge.

Other attestations
Hate also features in a nursery rhyme, as mentioned above. She is also a popular character used in stories created on the internet.