Yeraiah

Home Plane: The Outlands

Symbol: An apple

Colors: White

Alignment: True Neutral

Worshipper's Alignment: Any Female

Area of Control: Femininity, Fertility, Strength

Clerical Domains: Earth, Healing, Strength

Center of Worship: Jechran

"Strength can be found not by emulating men, but by understanding the essence of feminity. We are, after all, the ones strong enough to bear children, not our husbands." –Teachings of Yeraiah

In ancient times, Yeraiah was one of the first goddesses to appear on Avlis. Originally, she was a mortal human woman whom Mikon fell in love with early on in his godhood. Though they never had any offspring together, Mikon loved Yeraiah deeply and elevated her the status of a lesser goddess around the time she began to grow old. With her newfound immortal vigor, Yeraiah began reaching out to the female inhabitants of Avlis, particularly those located in Jechran. She taught them how to survive in the wilds independently from the help of males, and she showed them the secrets of fertility and the power of feminity.

To this day, her primary worshippers are in Jechran, which is a nation dominated by female humans and elves. The tribes that worship Yeraiah ask for her help in daily life, love, and child-rearing. Though Yeraiah is particularly venerated in the home, she is also well-known to those who are close to nature and the warrior ways. Ranger and druid maidens of the forests and jungles are known to pay homage to her.

Deities like Yeraiah who are capable of producing druidic priests and priestesses each have a unique perspective on nature and the wilderness. In Yeraiah's point of view, Nature is the nurturing parent of all living things, and life is a circle. Those who are nurtured must also nurture others in return, and the cycle of nurturing must continue. Less focus is paid towards the disasterous aspects of nature, though Yeraiah and her followers are well-aware that there can be negative aspects to nurturing, which can sometimes be turned around and used as a weapon to smother unsuspecting dependents.

Yeraiah serves a complementary role to the warrior goddess, Dre'Ana, emphasizing the balance of strength and femininity in women. She favors the women in the world who are self-sufficient and strong.

The teachings of Yeraiah state that the balance of the land is tied directly to the fertility of women and their role as lifegivers and caretakers. She taught the women of Jechran the art of sowing and ploughing so they could survive and is credited for many of the herbal secrets that supposedly increase the chances of female births. Her focus on women and her drive for balance come from the belief that men habitually ill-treat the earth yet she, like a patient cow, keeps on serving them and, thus, keeping them alive. Particularly in Jechran, this emphasis on Yeraiah as a provider of bounty and maternal caretaker makes her double as a healer of the sick, although this aspect of the goddess is not practiced elsewhere.

There is no official structure known as the Church of Yeraiah, although she does have a large temple that dominates part of the city center of Myleah. This building acts as a focal point of offerings where pilgrims from all around Jechran periodically assemble to pay homage. Otherwise, Yeraiah's worshippers tend toward the druidic or ranger callings, and devote themselves to maintaining the balance of the lush forests of Jechran and the world.

By the general populace, both in and out of Jechran, Yeraiah is seen as the gentle nurturing Mother of Avlis, whom Mikon took on as a wife because of her endearing qualities and stern but infinitely wise and calm demeanor. Even women who do not worship her as a primary deity will come to Yeraiah or her priestesses for help with childbirth or conception, as well as matters of motherhood that occur later in life.

There are temples to Yeraiah in Mikona and Visimontium.

Yeraiah

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