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brightshore:pantheon:ava

Ava

Pronunciation: AH-vah

Primary Domains

Ava is the goddess of Fire, Summer, Destruction, and Inspiration.

Appearance

Ava is typically depicted as an eye whose pupil and iris are replaced by the sun. While she is rarely depicted in a humanoid form, when she is, she is arrayed in the robes of a scholar, but bears the sword and shield of a soldier.

Traditional Interpretation

Ava is a goddess of energy, passion, impulse, and ingenuity. She is also the goddess of destruction and stoker of the flames of war. She is the gentle sunshine and the raging wildfire. Many of her priests speak of her duality and warn against her quickly invoked wrath. But despite the passion and energy that draws so many warriors to pray to her, many of her most devoted followers are scholars and scribes. Tradition holds that Menran taught mortals to speak, but it was Ava who inspired us to write, to document, to sing. As the goddess of inspiration, her clergy are some of the most innovative (and risk-inclined) researchers among mortals.

Lay Practice

Outside of the temples and libraries, people pray to the goddess more to appease and ward her away than to invoke her blessings. Her sunshine brings both energy and drought. Her flames offer warmth and injury if left alone. But many also pray to her to remove their weaknesses, to harden them through their challenges so that they may come out stronger for them.

Temples

Temples and shrines dedicated to Ava are brightly lit with torches, braziers, and polished reflective surfaces. It is the job of many of the younger acolytes and clerics to tend these flames and ensure they never go out. Most have a large, glass skylight to allow direct sunlight to shine on the rituals and congregants.

Rituals

Summer is the holy season for Ava. As spring gives way to summer, her temples ring out with the sounds of metal work and the furious scratching of pens on parchment, as the first day of her holy season is considered the best time to begin new projects and research. The summer solstice is the holiest day of the year, and is celebrated with competitions of all sort: wrestling, weapon demonstrations, and debates. At the end of summer, devotees burn offerings to the goddess in a rite known as the Day of Ashes. Most common are meat, bread, and incense, but many scholars offer the first copy of their research they have accomplished during the year.

Sects

brightshore/pantheon/ava.txt · Last modified: 2019/12/07 13:21 by jude