Teryel (Tifinagh ⵜⵔⵢⴻⵍ) is a powerful sorceress and dangerous ogress from traditional Amazigh (Berber) mythology. A frightening cannibalistic ancient Goddess, it is said that she gained immense magical abilities after ingesting a golden leaf from the Tree of Life and Destiny in Attala, a parallel dimension.
Also known as Tarir or Tirira (The Limitless or Unstoppable), Teryel is a famous insatiable and cruel female mythological character from the Amazigh people of North Africa.
Notorious boogeyman and bedtime story monster, she is associated with the common ogre from European folklore. Master of her destiny, dangerous, ravenous and rebellious, she is generally described as a frightening giant flesh-eating scantily dressed woman with shaggy long hair and an incredible force.
According to various oral folkltales and sources across North Africa ;
It is said that in ancient times, humanity came out from the Underworld which was called Tallast (Obscurity, Darkness), and then after finding the light, they settled the Earth, but women and men first kept living apart. After some time, women began to seduce men, and engage in the first act of procreation, by the power of sexuality, they dominated them, and the latter were under their entire control, unable to prevent their impulses, men were completely subject to women, bewitched and inebriated by their force of attraction, almost slaves, they accomplished all the tasks that they ordered them to carry out.
The situation remained unchanged for many centuries, until the day when men decided to build the first stone houses, thus placing women under their control which made them fall into male dependence. Channeling their powerful carnal powers within the abode, the reign of women gradually disappeared in favor of the reign of men, and it was now the turn for them to make the law. Except in the home (Taddart), where the women had not yet completely lost their powers of seduction.
Among all of the women of ancient times, few were those who refused this state of submission. One of them ; revolted by this new model, decided to found her own community far from the civilized world, so she left for a nomadic lifestyle in the company of people who remained faithful to ancient customs, these exiled women were called the Teryalin, or the rebellious ogresses. They were untamed warriors and savages. Living from hunting and looting, they set out at sunrise to conquer new horizons and kingdoms. The most eminent and powerful of them all bore the name of Teryel.
She was a master of witchcraft and war, her extraordinary mystical knowledge came to her from the leaves of gold that she ingested from the fantastical Tree of Life and Destiny, a vestige from the ancient world located in the mysterious parallel dimension of Attala; That she discovered after a perilous quest. The gold leaf gave her the power to shapeshift at will, as well as the control and knowledge of the invisible World, the guardian spirits and genies. After gaining her occult abilities, she was revered as a powerful magical entity, a Goddess worshipped by her people and the weak humans who feared her wrath.
She also was said to be the ancestor of all ogres, the first matriarch of the Waghzen, which she keeps under her omnipotent control, the latter fulfill all her wishes and pliedge complete allegiance to her until their last breath. Many wars took place under her command, pushing the realm of humans to the brink of extinction several times. Since then, in cities and villages, sedentary men fear the anger of the ogress Teryel, and her dreadful servants.
Although the ogress lives a celibate life, she has a biological daughter named Lunja, who unlike her repulsive dented and monstruous mother; Was blessed with phenomenal beauty and hair made of gold.
Teryel, roams the vast wild expanses where she shelters in caves and crevices with an escort of ogre servants at night. She revels from the flesh of little boys, places them in a large sack tied to her staff and takes them to her den. From then, parents taught their boys an important method to escape the ogress; It suffices to suckle her exposed breast when she catches them, as the law of milk applies, the young boy will symbolically become her son, and even an ogress like her does not devour her own offspring.
Teryel never seem to attack young girls, in most cases she is benevolent, but does not hesitate to punish adult women who are submissive and obedient to their spouses, on the other hand she will become the protector of women who were mistreated or repudiated by men. To the misfortuned women who invoke her help and who suffer from domestic violence, she will personally come to slaughter and devour their violent husbands and then take the poor victims into refuge; By making them her adoptive daughters. Teryel will teach them magic and fortune telling, offering them chance to a happy life far from the yoke of men and the civilized world.
It is since these times that any rebellious women were called the 'daughters of Teryel' or the Teryalin.
- Art by Robynn Frauhn
From r/mythology
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