Demeria (Goddess)

Element: Earth
Domains: The Land and Wilds, Harvest, Families
Cleric Domain: Nature Domain
Material: Since the extinction of the nostos flower in 1800ND in the Storms of Y'Set the favored sacrifice of the Harvest Lady has been earth rich enough for planting. It is a common practice for farmers to reserve a third of their fields when able, rotating crops after "Demeria's Share" has been blessed by the Goddess's seasons and slowly working Her favor across all their land.

Summary

The goddess of the Earth and its many fruiting plants extends Her influence to the home and family--in whatever forms they take. While the kingdoms of mortals make take their own stances, Demeria has never defined a family to any exclusion. With Her staff doubling as a crook to guide the flocks of animals, She has shared agriculture and domestication with mortalkind, but Her bounties are not known year round. The seasons are a lesson it is said, a means to teach Her followers the importance of planning ahead and weathering difficult times. Demeria is kindly without being merciful, a leader without tyranny.

Variations & Mutation

Scholars note with interest that Demeria, unlike Her fellow Divinities, cleaves most closely to the slain Titan Aspiria. There are some traditions that elect Demeria as mightiest of the Divinities as She has kept the corpse that is this world from rotting. Fanatics among this tradition hold that worship of the other Divinities weakens Her practice and puts the world in peril; these heathen sects stalk Halinor and sabotage the works of other worshippers--or end their practices permanently.

Cultural Reception

Carinthia does not openly worship Demeria, instead eking out life from land nearly barren and hunting animals growing ever more feral.
By contrast Aqualonde is the kingdom most taken with Her service, a fact evidenced from the top down. Little in the way of land is disfigured or changed, the dominant style of architecture and shelter being one in harmony with the landscape. The exception strangely hosts Demeria's greatest temple, elegantly fashioned from stones hewn from the Chilneauan range nearby. The capital Aqualonde is old construction hearkening back to the days of the elves' first separation many, many centuries ago.
Avosa Tevosa has a tumultuous relationship with Demeria as they have with Tyrachon. Trapped between the tempestuous ocean and the feral tropical peninsula, the pirate nation has grown up in an unforgiving household. Such is their zest for life that Demerian temples are still found outside the metropolis proper though one could never mistake their savage druids for Aqualonde's more meditative sort. The capital's worship focuses far more on home and family to the point where their traditional offerings of clay are always in the form of bowl or pitcher--never the raw earth favored elsewhere.
Tarwa'kem is a land short on widely available and farmable land, but with an abundance of clay. They too have taken to the more frugal practice of offering the raw, red dirt to the goddess.

In Art

Demeria is no elven waif; Her origins are from the west as a leader of the D'yadyans, and particularly there and in Tarwa'kem Her depictions remain most traditional--a bronzed-skinned matriarch with steel grey hair and the brightly adorned thawb and margruna of Her people. Tall, broad of shoulder, and commanding of presence--the west holds dear to these depictions lest they be lost along with their land.
Further east, particularly amongst the elves, Demeria is given robes as well albeit in the browns more traditionally associated with the arboreal druids. Her hair here is shown green and bounteous and Her expressions are more often meditative or peaceful rather than imperious. She is not a leader of the people here in the traditional sense but a spiritual teacher, and artwork softens to match.

Harvest's Embrace by Jandar Yelsys

"Beneath the nurturing embrace of Demeria, earth will flourish, offering abundant harvests and the warmth of a loving home."