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The Four Palaces

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Written by Lawrence "Devil" Sjurn

Following Armiger's interaction with the local faith, the Followers of the Four Palace Goddesses, and later the acquisition of the supposed ashes of one of their deities, I thought it wise to consult one of the "cultural" advisers present at Khe Sanh to uncover as much information as possible about their origins. This is the limited information we were able to dig up.

The Four Palaces

Part of a wider "pantheon" know as the Đạo Mẫu (translates roughly to religion mother), the Four Palaces each represent a certain aspect of either Earth or the spiritual realm itself and are believed to have originated in the 16th century. The Worship of the Four Goddesses themselves seems to stem heavily from North Vietnam, which makes the NVA's apparent aggression towards the local "chapter" of followers highly unusual given where the religion stems from.

Whether or not this has something to do with the ashes recovered from the temple is unknown however given the locals concern over keeping them safe I wouldn't rule out that they stole them from the North in the first place, although I couldn't find anything that would suggest this.

The Four Goddesses

Each of the above mentioned palaces are ruled by individual goddesses, these are:

  • Mẫu Thượng Thiên, Ruler of Thiên phủ (translates to Heaven Palace)
  • Mẫu Địa, Ruler of Địa phủ (translates to Earth Palace)
  • Mẫu Thoải, Ruler of Thoải phủ (translates to Water Palace)
  • Mẫu Thượng Ngàn, Ruler of Nhạc phủ (translates to Mountain Palace)

    I'll examine the ashes we have at the camp, see if I can't figure out who exactly we recovered from the temple. Given the apparent reverence the locals have for the Goddesses I'd recommend keeping it on the low that we have a major religious artifact in our possession, might attract too much attention from the locals onto us.
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