Oria

Oria presides over the Lower Sphere of Water, and therefore holds dominion over the deep sea, darkness and all the things that live in it. She is associated with secrecy, hidden things and monsters and often also called simply the Mother, or the Mother of Monsters, since she is said to have birthed all the beasts of the sea. She is most often depicted as an unfathomably large shadow on the sea ground or a black shape in the dark, though depictions or even physical descriptions of her are rare. All that seems to be agreed upon is that she is too large to look upon at once and most of her remains shrouded in darkness at all times. She is the only god who is never depicted as even remotely humanoid, no matter which culture or clergy is consulted. In iconography a patch of black scales is most commonly used as a placeholder to symbolize her immense form. According to the myths Oria used to be even larger, large enough to fill the entire sea, but every time she gave birth to a new race of monsters, she sacrificed pieces of her own flesh to conceive of them, growing smaller with each birth. Her worship is wide-spread and almost all the folk of the sea pay some sort of tribute to her.

Oria is the Patron Saint of Drow, though this is technically considered to be more a case of adoption, after High Elves who had forsaken Illene started building cities in the Underdark. Seeing them struggle but willingly embrace Oria's favoured domain of darkness, the water goddess blessed them, making them hers. She is also considered the Patron Saint of Tortles, making her the only god with multiple Folk, though this is a point of contention, especially amongst the Tortle themselves. Though originally of the sea, Tortle culture has evolved in such a parallel to that of Humans that Udeah worship and rituals are much more widespread amongst them. Original Tortle culture, and with it any Tortle-specific forms of Oria-worship, if it ever existed, has been long lost as the first victim of the Gishoterelean war of expansion and its following colonization of Orupher.

The Drow themselves have of course entirely vanished from the Northern Worldsea post-Tremor, having lost their homes with the collapse of the Underdark. Oria might have offered them sanctuary in the city of Deephaven, somewhere at the bottom of the Kezh Union's sea, but it was done in exchange for secrecy, so the presumably largest locations of Oria worship are kept fittingly secret from the surface world. That is not to say there are no locations of worship elsewhere. Locathah and Triton both pay tribute, though in the case of the Triton Oria is only a distant second to their main religion of Mephine. Nevertheless, the temples in Dorquell are probably the largest organized clergy of Oria in the civilized world.

Oria herself has a reputation for being slow to move and even slower to anger, more than busy enough managing the vastness of her brood and their domain to bother with much of the rest of the gods. Her main connection to the pantheon is her complicated bond with her (sometimes twin-) sister Mephine. The sisters are locked in a never-ending squabble, constantly fighting over supremacy in all corners of the ocean. Outside of it however, both sisters have demonstrated time and time again that they are more than capable of standing together should an outside force require it. Most famous is their collective victory over Vightos, god of stone and rock, having carved out the hollow, crumbling mountains of the southern coastlines of Kezh in a war of attrition. Oria rarely ventures out of her territory and woe be upon the one giving her a reason to.

It is undeniable that Oria was involved in Lumorrs disappearance, considering it is her Veil that kept his existence hidden for so long. Unknown, however, is her reasoning, both for letting him disappear and for hiding the fact afterwards. Maybe it was malicious, maybe it was shame for her own actions, maybe she was just acting according to her sisters wishes. Being the goddess of darkness and secrecy, Lumorr, god of light and knowledge, could be considered her natural opposite and enemy, but opposition does not equal animosity. Rharasil, god of lies and illusions, would have equal reason to dislike a deity based on making discoveries, curiosity and truth, yet does not.

Last, but not least, one cannot forget mentioning Oria's various children. While Vightos and Emphion can be considered as acting like fathers towards Talris and Udeah has clearly maternal feeling both towards Essos and her Humans, it is only Oria who can be said to have anything resembling biological children. Once born, most of her brood go their own way and pursue life away from their mother, though they all obey her when she calls. Her children then go on to have children and create further monster species of their own, creating a seemingly endless interwoven family tree all leading back to her. Most notable amongst her brood are her three firstborns: Lomencthala, the Black Biled Worm, Hu'kk'loress, the Maw of Nightmares and Grg, the Shadow Limb, supposedly one being before they developed consciousnesses of their own and brutally seperated, killing their fourth and fifth siblings in the process.

In the present day Northern Worldsea, one would be wise to pay attention to Zz'oet, a much more distant offspring, warlock patron to Captain Rhak Silverbeak and recently the devourer of two newborn gods. Zz'oet has offered his powers to warlocks in the past, but his own ambitions have never strayed beyond satisfying his ever present hunger. One can only speculate what the newly powered up minor child of Oria and his uniquely ambitious warlock Silverbeak will attempt to devour next.