Athera - Goddess of Peace

Athera is the goddess of groves, and her presence is felt wherever there is calm. She is also regarded as a goddess of serenity, comfort, and healing. Any waters blessed by her are known to cure sickness and madness. They can also calm the dying, giving them peace and a natural passing. Athera is a pacifist (unlike her brother, Tempus - God of War) who avoids hostile action, even if threatened. She meets challenges by strategically withdrawing, a course of action that in time always leads opponents to overextend into an untenable position in which their reinforcements have been converted to her side.  

Worshipers, Clergy & Temples

  In a world brimming with evil deities and their servants, ogres, goblins, warring nations, and other hostile forces, it is not surprising that Athera's philosophy of peace and calm has failed to catch on. Still, legends speak of heroes who embraced the cause of Athera and abandoned warfare forever. One race of beings who travel against the tide of war are the ondonti, a pacifistic orcish race.   Pacifists and lovers-of-nature often find their way to the Serene Goddess. Many are vegetarians and herbalists who desire to take no life, but the ranks of the Atherim are studded with hardy adventurer-priests who serve as envoys to other faiths, act as go-betweens with urban worshipers (often guiding them to and from temples), and carry items and messages from priest to priest within the faith. Although it is part of the making of a priest of Athera that an individual must travel the lands widely enough to pray in at least nine sacred temples dedicated to the goddess. Most Atherim settle in one grove or one secluded temple and live their lives thereabouts. Some Atherim have integrated into cities, attempting to spread the word of their faith, and attempting to sway the populations towards peacefulness, but often with limited results. One notable example is the Atherim of the Azorius guild in Amadira, where they participate in upholding agreements, and encourage people to remain peaceful in their dealings with eachother. It is a fractio of the guild that behaves this way, as many uphold justice through the ideals of Braccus and Yrasil, where punishment and judgment plays a larger role in maintining order.   Athera's clerics rarely resort to any sort of open confrontation, instead working subtly. It is a mark of skill among Atherim (especially adventurer-priests, known as "Freewalkers") to defeat foes with defensive spells, making an enemy defeat himself through misdirection and manipulation.   Atherim usually spend their lives tending unspoiled places to ensure that they survive and even flourish in the face of human and other depredations. Priests of Athera replant burned areas, purge areas of plant diseases, construct boulder firebreaks, irrigate wooded areas, and clear streambeds to make rivulets flow more swiftly or create dams to slow runoff and encourage the life created by small pools. They even make bargains with nearby foresters to cut only in certain areas and leave other woodlands alone.   Athera has a hatred of indiscriminate and greedy woodcutters, those who use fire as a weapon, and avaricious millers and careless beings who foul rivers and other waters. Her clergy are pledged to work against such individuals by whatever means seem most prudent for long-term success. They rarely resort lo any sort of open confrontation for as long as possible as it tends to bring attacks down on the clergy - but hidden priests can work in opposition unhindered.   Atherim are also charged with observing and recording what sort of birds, beasts, and plants dwell in what places and the changes in the amounts and locations of such flora and fauna over the years. They are to report such things to their superiors on a regular basis so that the senior clergy members, working with those of Silvanus and Mielikki, can interpret long-term trends in regional ecologies, and can work to maintain balance in this regard, that life may flourish.   To raise funds for personal and church support, priests of Athera may act as herbalists, gardeners, or as potion-makers in service of others. They also provide spiritual guidance, and commune with gods in exchange for coins to further their charitable projects. Some exceptions do exist. The Norixius clan of the Amadacian desert, for example, are unusual in that their primary income is through mining Mystrium and providing it to the city of Amadira. They walk in sand dunes unlike their religious brethren that primarily associate themselves with greener and wetter climates. They hope to slowly but surely return the desert to a lush and vibrant forest, either through magic or the cultivation of oases.   Many people come to Athera for desperate healing, or else for help in overcoming memories of a violent past: a single event that affected them, or an accumulation of violent experiences.   The clergy of Athera are all taught to swim, and often teach this skill to nonbelievers in return for small offerings of food and coins.  

Vestments

Priests of Athera dress simply in white and blue robes decorated with water-colored (blue, green, translucent, and opalescent) semiprecious gems and embroidery in water patterns. Specialty priests don a series of sheer robes, each in different shades of blue and green. The sleeves and hems of the garments are artfully cut to look ragged like tossing waves or water ripples. All clergy wear Athera's symbol as a holy symbol; the sky-blue disk is fashioned of painted wood and fresh fern fronds are planted or affixed over the painted ones on the symbol whenever possible.  

Hierarchy

Atherim are organized in a simple hierarchy where a dozen or so priests, each of whom may have up to 14 underpriests dwelling with him or her, report to a senior priest who in turn reports to a grand priest responsible for a realm or larger region. Clergy of senior years, many accomplishments, or higher rank are styled Exalted, and traveling Freewalkers rank between full priests and senior priests. From the ranks of the Exalted come the leaders of temples to Athera, most of whom preside over communities with open-air sacred places of worship called Henges. A leader of a Henge is called a Keeper.  

Temples

Priests tend to worship and make pilgrimages to one of Athera's nine sacred temples and henges. However, small temples exist in or near great forests and cities.  

Rituals

Clerics and druids of Athera pray for their spells once per day at a time selected after great personal reflection. Prayers are usually made when bathing or floating in ponds or streams, when standing under waterfalls, and in small chambers, caves, or forest bowers given over to regular meditation. Many forest paths in woods dwelt in by ATherim cross streams by means of log bridges bearing tiny huts with holes or nap doors in their floors, permitting modest clergy to immerse themselves for prayer or bathing. These arc the most favored meditation spots for Atherim.   Prayers must he performed upon awakening, at sunset, and at least once during the dark hours, and may be performed at any other rime as personally desired. In woodlands and remote wilderness areas, worship of the Serene Goddess should be done unclad or as close to it as is possible in a given circumstance. Startled woodsmen tell of certain adventurer-priests standing in pools to pray with their weapons drifting in midair around them in slow, enspelled orbits so as to be ready at hand if danger came upon the scene.  

Tenets/Goals

To assure peace in the world, so that all creatures may thrive among each other without pain, suffering or conflict.  

Orders/Followers

The church of Athera has a circle of a few peacewomen and peacemen who have formed a group known as the Arbitrators of the Quiet One. They freely go to areas of conflict and attempt to serve as mediators in longstanding disagreements that have led lo violent acts. They listen to both sides and try to find a middle ground without polarizing the issues through overt statements of moral judgment. They prefer to find resolutions that get at the heart of a problem so that once dealt with it does not flare up again in months or years.   The monastic order of Athera is the Disciples of the Yielding Way, sometimes known as the Brothers and Sisters of the Open Palm. These monks guard sacred sites where many peacemen and peacewomen dwell and travel the countryside gathering information for isolated temples and henges. They do not ever seek to provoke violence, but are quite deceptively deadly when defending themselves, their charges, and their holy sites.  

Divine Domains

Peace. Also associated with: Tranquility, Serenity, healing, growth and life.  

Divine Symbol