Marea, the Gentle Warden
Nature is life. It provides food and materials necessary for any soul and, although it is by no way inoffensive, those that learn to live in harmony with nature are forever thankful for the boons it provides. This is, in essence, what Marea embodies. Also known as the Gentle Warden or the Green Maiden, she is the goddess of Agriculture, Hunting and Foraging. In ancient time, she taught husbandry to the first mortals, how to take what they needed from her domain with respect and temperance, so that they may prosper in peace with the world around them. Marea serves as the link between nature and civilisation, tending to both equally in an effort to find balance, and allow both to grow under her care.
Sacred Attributes
The bicorn (Diokeras) is Marea’s symbol, both an attribute of many animals and a tool of control for farmers who plough fields and wrestle beasts with it. It is often but not always adorned with a disk representing either a seed, an eye or even the sun depending on the interpretation. Her Favoured Animal is the Deer and her Sacred Weapon the Bident, both echoing her symbol and its origin, with the legend saying that the first tool to be given to mortals by Marea was a bident crafted from the horns of one of her sacred deer. Finally, her Favoured Colour is Dark Green, the colour of lush forests, healthy crops and humble moss.Description
Common representations of Marea portray her as a woman dressed in greenery, often to the point of her skin and hair also having plantlike attributes. She is often represented as young, although witness account seems to indicate that she does not seems to favour any age, appearing not only in her prime, both also as an elderly woman or even a young child. One recurring attribute in her many apparitions seems to be the bident she seems to proudly carry everywhere with her. And although the tool is very common in the fields outside the walls of the cities, perceptive observers might just be able to link the dots thanks to the shades of green the goddess adorns herself in. Rarely, Marea takes on an animal shape, although she seems to dislike it. Invariably, it will be a deer or one of its cousins, be it an elk or a moose, depending on the local fauna. A male, proudly displaying her horns decorated with flowers and tangled vines. More often, Marea will talk through plantlife, even takes the appearance of some when resting or protecting a particular ground. This is perhaps the rarest form in which the goddess is witnessed, as often such appearance is meant to hide her deeper in the forests that makes up her domain.Personality
Marea is reputed for her kindness, which might be surprising considering the danger that often represent nature. The reason for this is that she is seen as a mediator, a caregiver embodying all the beneficial parts of nature while serving as a guide against its most hostile aspects. Of course this by no means mean that Marea is inoffensive. She has no qualms using her powers over nature against those that would abuse it, be it by depriving them of her boons, or dragging them deeper in the woods to never return. But in the end, Marea truly loves the mortal races, and although the carelessness of some of them toward nature deeply saddens her, she strongly believes that just as civilisation needs nature to develop, the reverse can also often be true. After all, the mortal races themselves are also part of nature as a whole, at least in her eyes. They have their purpose in cultivating the fruits of nature, and fullfill their role in the life cycle of the ecosystem. And should they divert too strongly from this role, the goddess would have to show a sterner side, guiding them back to the place they belong. Marea is a warden, a guardian and a bridge between nature and civilisation, a duty she takes great pleasure in fulfilling.Worship
Without surprise, the immense majority of Marea’s worshippers are farmers, foresters and many other whose life links them to nature. Especially prominent outside the safety of the cities’ walls, where learning to live with nature is mandatory, Marea also has a surprising amount of worshippers amongst the cities’ artisans. Woodworkers, florists, herbalists… there are many whose livelihood is dependent on the boons provided by nature, even when they themselves interface far more rarely with it. Yet, worship of the deity dwindles the more distance is made between nature and civilisation, and nowhere it is more felt than amongst nobility. In the majority of the Kaladean Empire, Marea is seen as a goddess of the people, of those that work the fields and venture away from the beaten path, and this makes the Green Maiden a far less appealing deity to the higher classes so far removed from nature itself. Marea’s clergy reflects this divide, with her priests and priestesses often preferring to live amongst the farmers where they are both better treated and where their boons are more beneficial. Just like their goddesses, Marea’s clergy focus on supporting agriculture and fostering relations between nature and civilisation. They are easily recognisable thanks to their green shawls and robes which they use to hide the smudges that come with working with plants, and it is not rare for farmers to replicate this look by wearing a green piece of cloth in honour of the goddess. This closeness between Marea’s church and farmers also has for added benefit that many amongst the lower classes of the population join the ranks of her clergy, allowing it to grow to become the biggest church in term of raw numbers, as well as one of the most widely spread. And even though her cult is far less relevant amongst the higher ranks of the Empire, she is still held with some respect as a goddess of healing and growth. There is one place where the cult of Marea is near universal, regardless of rank. The Lemon Isle is said to be blessed by the goddess, and indeed seems to benefit from her boons quite heavily, allowing the island to act as a bread basket for the Empire. Nobles and farmers alike recognize the influence that Marea has on their life, and it is here that her Great Temple can be found, near the city of Milea. The massive building is, like many temples dedicated to Marea, surrounded by farms in which anyone is free to grow their crops in exchange for a portion of the harvest. Said crops are stored in temples, which often makes them look-like granaries or barns more than true places of worship. This is not helped by the fact that nearly all ceremonies dedicated to the goddess are required to be performed outside, and that the goddess herself is just as prone to appear in the orchards surrounding her Great Temple, as she is to do so inside of it. For the most part, this leaves the temples of Marea to serve mostly as housing for clergy and storage space for offerings and harvests.Divine Domains
Holy Books & Codes
The Viridian Words
Divine Symbols & Sigils
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Favoured Animal: Deer
Favoured Colour: Dark Green
Sacred Weapon: Bident
Tenets of Faith
Holidays
3rd of Mareos: The First Cut (The first day of the great harvest, when the first crops are cut and gathered. Festivals are held in the fields all morning, leading to the first cut being made at noon so as to bless the harvest.)
Divine Classification
Deity
Alignment
Neutral Good
Realm
Church/Cult
Children
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