The Fox and the Moon: Lore
Hi! Welcome to our weekly Fred & Dan Newsletter Why Aren’t You Famous Yet? This is another behind the scenes look at our new script The Fox & The Moon that we co-wrote together. Here is our playlist curated to give the vibe. Enjoy!
In writing The Fox & The Moon, we knew it was important to have our own lore that explained the history of two ancient witch covens. Here is the “lore” of our script that we wrote in preparation:
Hundreds of years ago, two Ethereals (beings who evolved into having supernatural powers) fell in love and it almost tore two covens apart.
Ethereals, or what humans know as witches, have coexisted with humans since the beginning of time. They have evolved alongside humans, developing their covens and clans in secret but not completely hidden from sight. Ever see things you can’t understand? Some people describe it as “the matrix glitching.” Well, you’d be surprised how often Ethereals are behind these glitches.
A Celtic wizard, Aodhan (AY-O-DEN), was sent to the Americas, to uncover the power of a coven in the southwest called Zyanya (ZYAH-nyah). Aodhan’s father Eoghan (O-in, like Owen), the leader of the Tiernan coven, could not understand how these “savage” beings could have generated magical abilities that surpassed any others and wanted to know what the true source was, and if possible, to steal it. For he did not believe that these people who looked different and thought differently from them could have ever developed this power on their own - something sinister must be aiding the Zyanya.
When Aodhan arrived in what is now modern day Texas, he discovered a coven of witches who were so deeply connected to the earth they could derive their natural powers straight from the core. Their powers were their birthright, given to them by the first Ethereal- The Goddess.
Instead of trying to steal their power, Aodhan wished to learn more about it. The clan leaders were wary of him, but the daughter of the head of the coven named Yolotli (Yoh-LOH-tLee) showed him the ways of The Goddess, helping to connect him to the Earth and to a power greater than he had ever realized. The two, inevitably, fell in love.
Aodhan and Yolotli shared with each other their covens' differences and similarities. At this time of intense persecution for witches all over the world, these two covens found themselves in a moment of peace with humans. The Zyanya tribe was accepted as healers in the wider non-witch community that surrounded them. In Ireland, the Tiernans were able to grow their influence not only amongst witches but humans as well.
But Aodhan came from a society where women were considered less than. They were wives and homemakers. Yolotli’s coven valued women as healers and key members of their community. Many women and two spirits had led the coven throughout the past thousand years. The Zyanya were concerned on how Aodhan would influence Yolotli. Neither of the young lovers cared, they wanted to marry and unite the covens.
When Aodhan returned home to tell his family of the news, his father was furious. Eoghan did not want to bring these abominations of witches into his coven, into the Tiernan. Aodhan and his younger brother, Caden, who idolized him, tried to appeal to their father but he would not be moved. Aodhan made a heartbreaking decision. He decided to return to the witch and her coven and leave his family forever. What the two lovers didn’t realize was that their families had taken things into their own hands. Eoghan cast a powerful hex, preventing the mixing of the blood from any witches of either coven. The elder Zyanyas cast a spell to protect their lands from any fair skinned colonizer. They attached the spell to a pendant and gave it to Yolotli.
When Aodhan returned to the desert where Yolotli lived, he found his powers had gone and he was weakened, his age suddenly catching up to him. The two tried to undo the hex, but unable to access his powers, the wizard began to tear apart. To save her love Yolotli pulled from her own life source to give her magic more power. Between the Hex ripping their beings apart and the protection spell working at the other end to keep them apart, the two knew they wouldn’t make it out alive. In an effort to keep their covens from ruining the future of their species, they joined together to weave an unbinding spell. They hoped a future Ethereal would uncover the truth and break the hex.
The strain of the magic took its toll and cast them into oblivion, their souls never to be found past the veil. The only thing left behind was Yolotli’s pendant meant to protect her coven, the unbinding spell now magically woven into the seams.
Unable to take the guilt of their deaths, both families blamed the other for the lovers’ demise. The Zyanya family claimed that Aodhan was sent to steal their power and killed their daughter when he was unable to do so. Eoghan told everyone Aodhan was murdered by the “savages.” His hatred for the coven lived on in Caden, who held the grudge for his older brother’s death.
Hundreds of years have passed, but the legend lives on.
Aodhan’s younger brother Caden, Fox’s father, believes that his brother was killed by this coven in the Americas, but unable to find proof of the coven ever existing, the majority of the Tiernan believe he was simply lost. No one from either coven steps foot on the soil of the other. They don’t speak. They don’t acknowledge. Eventually the covens are erased from the minds of the younger generations, only the elders remember the tragedy.
That is until a young wizard named Fox makes a bet, and a young witch named Ix Chel accepts a dare. Only then do fates sealed hundreds of years before align and their two worlds collide.
And so begins The Fox and The Moon…