Alara's feather

Alara, goddess of memory, hunting and magic is one of the most revered deities in the Davidovian people's pantheon, specially in Seria, where its temple and its library at Sakouramish were one of the most famous places in the continent of Karia.

Wait... a feather?

This is a question you may ask, and not without reason. Davidovian peoples nowadays believe their gods have mostly a human form, while in the past their ancestors also gave these gods totemic animals, animals whose form the gods might choose to appear in the mortal realm and disguise themselves. This idea was forgotten in some davidovian religions like the Ikarian-oronai religion and most likely also in the Kallian religion, but it survived in the Seris and Crorai religions. In Seria it was believed that the gods could also transform into animals to disguise themselves among mortals and in order to not alert the forces of evil. Curiously enough the gods that the gods used to transform in were the same totemic animals associated with them in the old proto-davidovian religion.
In the case of Alara she is said to transform herself into a beautiful crane, allowing her to fly from region to region, from mountain to mountain visiting friendly creatures like the Tyrin. In fact it was believed by the Seris that Alara spend most of her free time in the Eastern mountains where many people through the ages have claimed to have seen a beautiful white crane flying around the region that emanated an special aura, while other have also claimed a beautiful lady with a bow and a gorgeous silk dress. Crane feathers said to be from Alara's crane form are very popular in Seria, and some temples across Seria claim to have feathers from the goddess herself.

History of the relic

One of these feathers was gifted by the Seris Emperor Yüttak VIII, the first emperor of the Yuutakid Dynasty to Blatian Emperor Tiberius VI. According to an anonymous chronicle of the Monastery of St. Siscius the Seris ambassadors carrying the relic were welcomed by the Emperor and the High Priest as well as the Senate outside the city gates and from there the relics were paraded in a procession across Blati's main street, the Royal Street, until it reached the Great Temple of Blati, were the reliquary casket carrying the feather was open to the public to venerate it.
In the years that followed a new, more luxurious reliquary casket was commissioned by the Emperor. It was made in gold with precious stones decorating the lid of the reliquary. The sides of the reliquary were decorated on one side with a scene of Alara, her parents Abbon Shabai and Tyr, and her sisters Pyria and Zerah fighting the Sphenetai during the War of the Gods, and on the other the goddess was represented on a throne, with a beautiful white dress, with the flame of memory and magic and the Perymenion, the book with the teachings of the Prophet flanking on the left by the Emperor Tiberius VI himself and on the right, the Empress Aegidia, both dressed in the finest Imperial garments.

Rituals associated with the relic

It is said that whoever prayed in the presence of the goddess will be granted protection against evil, and that was also applied to the cities that held these relics. So, the Blatians consider that, alongside the protection of their divine mother Zerah, their capital and their Empire would be saved under the protection of Alara too. There were specific festivals when the reliquary containing the feather was paraded across the city, one of these festivals was during the festival of the goddess Tyr when the relic, the statue of the goddess and icons of her were paraded again across the Royal Street to the Temple of the Roses, where the relic stayed for a week, protected by the priests of the Temple.
This very same relic was paraded through the Upper Walls of the city during the Battle of the Walls of Fire, also known as the Second Siege of Blati in 650 AP inspiring the troops that were fighting there in order to save the city from hordes of barbarians.
And nowadays, after the barbarians have been expelled from former Ikarian lands, the relic, accompanied by the Emperor and the Blatian Senate is also taken across Lake Bareotis and transported to the sanctuary of Alara at the foot of the Albine Mountains, where the goddess is said to have appeared to the Blatian troops fighting the barbarians there some decades ago. This procession is also done in order to guarantee the goddess protection over the Blatian people and their Empire.

Current Location

Great Temple of Blati