Agiein

The wraith, named Agiein in sammonish'i myth, has many names; The Ancient Terror, The Dark Terror, The One Terror and the Master. Or, at least, it is likely that these are all different titles for the same entity. Mythology is notoriously inconsistent. Various names are used in various tellings of the same myths, and so we might be reasonably certain that other story fragments in which one of these names appears are referring to the same entity.

In waygar'i myth, The Dark Terror makes its first appearance at the end of the Second Epoch in Ardea, leading a fight against all the peoples of Doma. It makes a reappearance in the trials of the Great Man, being the main antagonist of the Great Man cycle.

The wraith does not appear at all in keshal'i myth, as far as research has been able to determine.

In sammonish'i myth, however, the wraith has a much longer life. Born when time began, Agiein is a non-corporeal entity born at the beginning of time, like the Emrys. In many ways, Agiein is the counter to the Emrys. The Emrys were many, Agiein was singular. The Emrys were creatures of light, Agiein was darkness. And, unlike the Emrys, Agiein lacked the ability to create.

Having grown resentful of the Emrys and their ways and abilities, Agiein sought to make itself master of all by subverting the gifts of the Emrys and turning them in on themselves (it is this aspect of the wraith that follows it in all myths involving it; unable to create life, it takes lives and distorts them, twisting them into evil creatures to do its will). Its first attack was successful, and Agiein managed to sew such discord in the ranks of the Emrys that it destroyed all but three - Enthe, Ula and Orin - two sisters and their brother, who are the primary deities of the sammonish'i.

Sammonish'i myth agrees with waygar'i myth with the Great Battles at the ends of the Second and Third Epoch, in which they joined forces with the waygar'i and keshal'i to fight back the wraith.

Interestingly, the sammonish'i and keshal'i both make an appearance as major players in the Great Battle that ended in the Third Epoch in the Great Man cycle, further lending credibility that the Great Man is less myth than history.