Would albinism in a medusa be considered abnormal or auspicious? The post about serpentism has been giving me a few ideas.
Good question! I had to give this a lot of thought, and this is my conclusion:
I think albinism is possible in medusas and it does happen once in a while. But how society reacts to it depends on the culture. I think many would not care, but Serpentists and Middayist have strong opposing opinions.
Middayists believe that those with albinism are cursed, because they cannot accept Solahi's (the sun goddess) blessing. They believe that the god of darkness, Luzkuro, has cursed albinos with his dark energy, but the reason why differs depending on who you ask. Some say it's the mother's fault, because she sinned while she was pregnant (more specifically, she did not keep her environment or body hygienic enough to ward off Luzkuro). Some blame the father, or both parents, or even the child themselves. The point is, the albino person in question cannot participate in the most important Middayist ritual: sun worship. Some Middayist try to "cure" their albinism with woo remedies.
Overall, Middayists view an albino medusa as a bad omen. Medusas usually become leaders in Lamaish culture, and they do not want a "cursed" leader, as they believe it will invite Luzkuro to plague them all.
As for Serpentists, they consider albino medusas a special blessing from Maa Drakatowa (the dragon goddess). Albino medusas are almost always blind, but blindness actually gives some mages an edge in spellcasting because it forces them to focus on their other senses. Vision is not important to spellcasting, and in fact, visuals can actually cause mages to lose focus on their powers. Serpentists believe that these blind albino medusas were not robbed of their sight, but were instead blessed with abilities to see into the spirit world using secret senses known only to them.
