Manzat

For adventurers who seek the favor of deities as they in their dangerous lives, Sendel Village offers a temple to their rather unique goddess. On the southern side of the keep is the temple of Manzat.

The Temple of Manzat is open for worship most of the daytime. Donations are gratefully and almost desperately accepted; the name of the Goddess will definitely be invoked on behalf of anyone making an offering (though the benefits of such blessings are dubious at best).
As a whole, the Temple is rather run down. Carpets are worn, curtains frayed, walls in need of fresh paint, and the ceiling leaks whenever it rains. The priests wear threadbare robes that have seen better days. The entire contingent of the Temple consists of the High Priestess Thea Cleves, two lesser priests, and Thea's two servants.
The main tenet of the Manzat faith is self­ reliance, epitomized in such slogans as:

"Guard your purse, then pray to Manzat."

"Success comes to those who don't wait for miracles."

As deities go, Manzat is a very minor goddess, if she exists at all. The legends taught about her in the temple have her staying out of great battles between the deities watching and weighing the sides until an outcome was inevitable, whereupon she would swiftly throw her support behind the victor (hence her title "The Adroit One"). There is no known instance of her manifestation on Niya-Yur (detractors claim this is because she lacks the power to do so hence, representations of her vary widely. The most common image of her is as a graceful young woman without a face, her hands held behind her back. Her sacred symbols are also a matter of the craftsman's preference, but most have a stylized "M" under a 3 band arch (rainbow) in them.
Manzat's followers are few and seldom exhibit the fanaticism of the very religious. (It is difficult to get worked up over a deity whose main message is "Do It Yourself.") The Manzat religion does not hold with blood sacrifices of any type and is somewhat neutral as regards the balance between good and evil.
Spoiler: Origins of Manzat

Manziʾat is in fact, an Akkadian goddess that has very little documented anywhere, and what there is, seems mainly to come from Elam, although she was also a Mesopotamian goddess as indicated by the sanctuary at Nippur and place in a Mesopotamian god list. dTir-anna is indicated by the fact that her name is Akkadian, and one assumes the goddess was borrowed into Elamite religion (and not borrowed from Elam into Mesopotamian religion.) Despite this, the extant Mesopotamian literature is largely silent about Manzat: the rainbow is mentioned mainly in astronomical texts according to the CAD entry for Manzât - as in "should the rainbow be seen in the sky" it means X. On a religious level, the Mesopotamian would of course understand this to at the same time be the goddess Manzât. Outside of astronomical texts, she is attested in a small scattering of texts, a few late incantations and a list of gods, etc. Whether the Elamites made a bigger deal of her or not, it seems unlikely that she was that important to Mesopotamian religion - her role in Mesopotamian magic seems to me to have been minor, whether or not she makes a brief appearance in the Maqlu text.
Akkadian Goddess Manzat, also known as Manziṣat, Manzât, Mazziṣat, Mazzât, Mazzêt (Akkadian), dTir-anna (Sumerian) (M) A goddess primarily of Elam. Wife of Šimut, an Underworld and herald god, with whom she often had a joint temple or shrine. Lugal-gida was her son, and the goddess Sililitu(m) her vizier. Her name is Akkadian for “Rainbow,” as is the Sumerian Tir-ana, literally "Bow of Heaven." She had a sanctuary at Nippur and four shrines in Babylon. Manziṣat has also been said to be a manifestation of Ištar and part of the constellation Andromeda. Tir-ana, "Rainbow," was a scholarly/literary name for the city of Uruk. (Black and Green 2003: 75, 153; Litke 1998 (1958): 166,167; George 1993: 166 #1353-1354; Tallqvist 1974 (1938): 361; Lambert in Reallexikon VII: 334-346). - Prof. Frayne on Manzat
Manziʾat is clearly said to be the sister to the Sun God Shamash, and held a very prominent role in Akkadian magic and incantation, given her role in the Maqlu text, an inscription on eight Akkadian tablets which concerns the performance of a rather lengthy anti-witchcraft, or kišpū, ritual.
Her name means "rainbow" in Akkadian. She went on to be adopted by the Elamites during the Akkadian occupation and became one of the most important Goddesses there.
However, it's her Akkadian beginnings I'm interested in. In the Green and Black book, her name is only mentioned in footnotes, which I find disappointing. and she doesn't even get a mention in Leik's ANE myth dictionary. All it seems to say is that her Akkadian name was written dma-an-za-at, and her Sumerian name was dTir-anna, meaning "Bow of Heaven."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mesopotamian_deities

Login or Create a Free Account to Pick your level:

Login

Create Free Account

Follow this world to unlock hidden bonus content!

Every person must plough their own furrow

Type

Religious, Monastic Order

Alternative Names

• The Invisible Lady
• The Adroit One
• Manziṣat
• Manzât
• Mazziṣat
• Mazzât
• Mazzêt
• dTir-anna