The Phoenix and the Moon

The skies above the Saeric Lands are ruled over by a single blazing sun by day, and a dappled moon by night. Folklorist scholars at the Universität of Rykfontein have marvelled at how, during the Hubraic Era, each country had attached a different name and mythology to the moon.
After the events of the Great Confiscation, these mythologies underwent a sudden and dramatic change. Now, in this modern age, a single myth has overshadowed all previous tales, and is shared across all of the Saeric Lands. It begins, "Everyone knows the story of the Phoenix; how She was slain and flayed by the cruel talons of the Raven. With the passing of the centuries, one thing that has faded from the minds of mortals: Her name. The Phoenix could take the form of a mortal woman, and Her name was Ferelith..."

Any Varsii droll teller worth his salt will tell you there is a face in the moon. The gents over in the Astronomy Department would argue that it's nothing more than a pareidolia phenomenon, while those sadists over at the Halls of Medicine would try to diagnose gazers with mass hallucinations. And yet, despite all this, I see Her... Saints help me, I see Her...

— Sevastian Kaen, Post-doctoral student in Folklorist Studies

The Phoenix as the Sun

During the Hubraic Era, there were many diffrent tales about the sun. The most enduring ones regard the sun as:

• An expression of the Phoenix's Power, made manifest in the sky;

• The burning nest of the Phoenix;

• Or the gates to the afterlife.

As the goddess of death, Ferelith's Powers as the Phoenix also gave Her control over rebirth. Because of this, humans during the Hubraic Age believed the sun influenced a woman's fertility, and there is still an unfounded belief in much of the Saeric Lands that a woman's fertility will be greater during the periods of spring and summer than during autumn and winter.

The Phoenix Illustration by Hartmann Schedel

The Phoenix as the Moon

The moon had always possessed a connection to the Phoenix. For some, it was the egg from which the new Phoenix would rise. For others, it was the realm where Souls went to earn forgiveness for their sins in life.
Some Folklorists have claimed that imagery involving a face in the moon did not begin to circulate in the Saeric Lands until after the events of the Great Confiscation. This, according to most Varsii droll tellers, is simply untrue. Regardless, the pervasive mythology now surrounding the moon. It claims that when the Phoenix's Soul left Her body, it was ruthlessly hunted by the servants of the Raven. Somehow, the Phoenix managed to hide from those who wished to capture and poison Her Soul, but it was too late. Her Soul was greatly weakened, and She had been cruelly seperated from Her Power; the death that greated Her was absolute and final. She knew that She would rise no more.
Ferelith's final, desperate act of defiance was to leave the Searic Lands and enter the vast expanse of the skies. She took refuge in the moon, using the last remnants of Her Power to burn the image of Her face into the rock. Despite the turmoil and sorrows inflicted upon our Souls, man can always look into the heavens and know that there was once a goddess who loved us unconditionally. In some small way, She watches over us still.

History

Of all the gods and goddesses to rise and fall in the worship of man, only the Phoenix has survived into the modern age. Raskvaerii scholars have traced Phoenix worship to the very earliest accounts of religion in the Hubraic Age. This ancient pantheon of gods were largely personifications of nature, with the Phoenix symbolising both death and rebirth.