A thousand year war ended one day with love. Goden, the son of one Emperor, and Hallber, the daughter of a rival Empress, married. On the night before their wedding however, a prophecy was delivered: The couple would unite the kingdoms and have one hundred children, each with a feature from their mother that would lead to Goden’s death. Everyone dismissed the ominous warning as they would surely not have one hundred children, it was impossible.

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After their third child was born however (another happy and loved infant with Goden’s face and Hallber’s heart) fear began to take root in Goden’s mind. He began to see his children’s pure hearts as a threat; a feature from their mother that would turn them against him. His love became resentment and he grew cruel towards his children who drew closer to their mother. In a fit of jealous paranoia, Goden murdered all three of his children while Hallber slept. He had her all to himself again.

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I’m afraid to say that the cycles of love, birth, jealousy and murder repeated many times over, until Goden and Hallber had indeed had 100 children between them. Each one had been murdered and each one became a ghost to torment Goden more. In madness he came to believe that Hallber, once from a rivalling nation after-all, had planned the prophecy. He attacked her but as he did, a hundred cherub-like ghosts surrounded them both, protecting Hallber under a shower of a hundred hearts (all of which matched her own) before killing Goden in a shower of one hundred arrows.

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Glazed stoneware, slip and sgraffito decoration with 24ct gold detail. (2025)

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