Legend of The Goddess Calling
Iele are described in the stories that have been handed down to us from our ancestors as particularly beautiful young women, phantasms of the night whose bodies are as light as the wind and who walk naked or covered by diaphanous veils. These maidens of the night hide in the heart of the forest, and the moonlight is the only one that has the power to bring them out of their hiding places. Once they’re on, they get into a frenzy and dance until sunrise, away from the longing eyes of mere mortals.
They are said to be virgins whose beauty can charm even the strongest minds and souls. Their presence feels like a cold scent of wind that pierces your skin and reaches to your bones, and their body is outlined by a bright light that can blind you if you look directly at it.
Legends say that they feed only on what the forest offers them, their only food source being flowers. They quench their thirst only from the water of the springs, which then remains cursed and will no longer be able to be consumed by human beings, because they will go mad on the spot and go in search of the nymphs, a journey that will bring their end. Another version of these stories say that the water touched by these fairies does not bring death, but leaves the one who drank from them crippled or disfigured until the end of days. This is also the reason why in the past the locals of the villages in our country covered their wells, because they wanted to prevent the children from drinking from there and poisoning them.
No one lived to tell what such a fairy looked like, for those who fell under their spell did not escape alive. The victims of these virgins are generally young men or men in full power, who when they see them are mesmerized by their beauty and simply lose their minds. They then end up catching up with them in the choir and dancing until they take their last breath, leaving only ashes behind and their bodies inexplicably disappearing.
It is not clear whether the ghosts are fantastic beings that punish those who dare to look at them, or if they are evil creatures whose purpose is to bring bad luck and curses upon people, but one thing is certain: anyone who caught sight of them was condemned to death.
The mystery with which these nymphs of the forest were shrouded and the terror they gave birth to in the souls of mortals is also demonstrated by their folkloric name: iele, which comes from the plural form of the feminine personal pronoun ‘she’. They can never be called by name, for this audacity might arouse their anger, and audacity pays with one’s own life. They never walk alone, but in groups of three, six or nine, magical numbers of our race, endowed with a strong folkloric charge.
The only ones who can call them are, of course, the witches, who through their practices manage to deflect this curse on their peers. Elves cannot be tamed, but they respond when summoned and leave only pain behind.