Ayniea - Deity of Life

[Mellie]

Ayniea

[Deity Logo Here]

Ayniea, the Deity of Life, is sometimes known to her worshippers as the Heart of Life. She is the patron deity for the country of Aurcaele. She is the twin deity of Streike, Deity of Death. Ayniea and her sister Streike were created by the Mother-Deity Fayana to create a balance in the world she and Moann had created. The two were the seventh and eighth deities of Setsuwa.

Table of Contents

1 History

1.1 Wages of Conflict
1.2 The Mercenary
1.3 Love's Mortality
1.4 Heart of Life

2 The Church of Life

2.1 The Four
2.2 The Archmagi
2.3 Priests of Life
2.4 Celestial Battalion

3 Grotto of Mialen

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History

The Wages of Conflict

Fayana and Moann were proud when they created beings to fill their planet. They had finally achieved what they were born to do, and could finally rest. They slept for several years, leaving the planet in the care of Paiia, Veria, Sriae and Miynie. When they awoke, they were shocked to find their world in disarray. The other deities had begun warring with each other over pitiful ideals, and had convinced the people that worshiped them to fight on their behalf. The mortal beings had no reason to second-guess the word of the deity, nothing to fear in following blindly.

Fayana and Moann were conflicted about what to do. Fayana - ever the good Mother - argued that mortals needed something to fear, so that they would develop more independent minds. Moann - the kind mother - disagreed, not wanting to see her people in suffering. Their argument continued for days, until finally they both gave up and went their separate ways to watch their people.

Fayana knew she could not just sit and watch. She went into hiding and worked on creating a solution to the problem at hand. Soon after, she reappeared with two new deities: Ayniea and Streike. Fayana sent her children down to the mortal plane to construct a new land - Ephilroa - which would become the Land of the Dead. While Streike began filling the new land with beautiful buildings of gem and stone, Ayniea returned to the surface and collected souls of five judges, who could stand and judge souls as impartially as she herself could.

As Ayniea was crossing through Moann's lands, the Mother-Deity noticed her. At first, she was confused. She thought perhaps it was Sriae, as the two were vaguely similar in appearance. She quickly realized, however, that it was a new deity - and she quickly became full of rage.

Moann went on a rampage through Niseca looking for her sister. She flooded villages, wrecked towns and caused massive hurricanes until finally, Fayana showed herself. The two argued. Fayana was angry about Moann killing her people, and Moann told her that if she hadn't created Ayniea and Streike, that her villagers would still be alive. It went on back and forth, the two slinging insults, spells, attacking each other's nations - and then Ayniea came forward.

She spoke to them both as if she were their mother, and them not her's. She explained life - having been born with a better understanding than anyone else would ever have: "Mother Moann, you do not see my sister's purpose, because you are refusing to look. Your people... They have no thoughts. They have no wishes or goals to pursue, as their time is endless to achieve them. They live on your whims, and follow your every display of love or conflict. With my sister... With Streike to guide them, they will find their own purposes, and build upon your world things beyond even your great imaginations.? These things will give them true immortality, and a bliss incomparable to that of Life itself."

Fayana regarded her daughter with great pride where Moann's had shattered. They agreed that Ayniea was right, and were able to move on, to continue with their more important duties. Before Ayneia could leave to finish her quest for judges, Moann stopped her. "If that is your sister's purpose, what is your's?" Ayniea did not answer.

Once Ephilroa was fully constructed and the rules were set into motion, Streike took control and began reaping the souls of those who had reached the end of their life. Ayniea was left with nothing, her only duty was to protect her sister. She summoned Streike to her, the two having what Ayniea knew would be their last conversation. As they finished, she hugged her sister, saying goodbye. She left her hands on her shoulders and said, "You can do it alone, now." She gifted the Deity of Death with the inability to be killed, destroyed, or in any way harmed - something she knew would be important. Then with that, she left Ephilroa, returning to the surface and then disappearing into the world.

The Mercenary
In traveling across the lands as a mortal, Ayniea came across a mercenary by the name of Derek. He was a simple human who was working for anyone with enough gold to drop into his lap. Her initial views of him matched that of all other humans she had come across in her travels: One-track minded, with no true personal goal in his mind; a waste. He spoke to her, and she refused to reply. She did not care to share her enlightenment with a wastrel such as he. She passed him by, and then stopped when she noticed a simple, singular action of his.

A small snail was crawling along the dusty road - something even she had not noticed. It was such a beast that would be trampled the moment an uncaring foot or unseeing carriage were to pass through the road. This cold-blooded mercenary picked up the small creature, and moved it aside into the shade of a thick bush, where it's chances of death were greatly reduced.

This small but valiant act drew Ayniea's attention, and she approached the man - he would be the first human she would make contact with after many years of wandering. She revealed herself to his eyes, her true face appearing to him. Derek, upon hearing Ayniea's mystical voice and laying his eyes upon her perfect face, became obsessed with her. He believed it was true love, and succumbed to her every wish.

After several days with the lovestruck mercenary, Ayniea wished to carry on with her travels. She planned to leave Derek behind, but he followed her. She considered stopping him, but made no attempts to do so - he generated curiosity in her; he entertained her. Ayniea, in a playful mood, decided to test the mercenary. She traveled into volcanoes, swam through the deepest of oceans and went beyond the farthest reaches of each continent. Despite the impossible odds, Derek found ways to follow her through it all.

Though common sense and good judgement - two things she was very well known for - told her not to, she allowed herself to grow a certain admiration for the man's dedication and undying love. A love that remained so very strong in him, despite the fact that she was incapable of returning such a feeling.

One day, she decided to give Derek an easier time, a reward for his dedication, and traversed through a beautiful field. While walking through, he began singing to her, words and a tune that made her take notice. His voice was beautiful and caused her heart to feel a squeezing pain, for her breath to shorten. She stopped moving forward and turned to him: "Join me in my travels."

The two spent endless days together, and the Deity of Life began to wonder if perhaps she was capable of mortal emotions after all. If her Mothers could feel anger, sadness, pride - could Ayniea feel love? She learned more about Derek, that he was once a very famous and popular warrior with the Fianese army. When his face was mauled in battle however, he lost his public popularity and fell into a depression that caused him to lose his job. "You feel happy to me," the Deity told him, touching the scars of his face. "I am happy because of you," Derek told her, causing her heart to feel squeezed tightly again.

They lived together for many years, and traveled the world making ends meet through Ayniea's healing prowess. Each year they were together she would approach him and ask: "Dear mercenary, do you wish for me to heal the scars of your face, and erase the pain of your past?" Each year he would tell her no. He would tell her that "The scars of my face remind me of my pain, and my pain makes me the person that you love. I would not trade all of my pain for every gold piece in the world, as there is no greater treasure than you." Love was something she would never claim to feel for Derek, but she would never deny it. She truly loved this mortal man. She finally had a purpose for her existence.

Love's Mortality
In her time of bliss with Derek, she forgot that all mortal lives must end. Even as he aged into an old man, she refused the thought he would some day be gone from her. Ayniea believed that perhaps love, a true and immortal love, could keep him alive. She was wrong. He was ninety four and lay on his death bed, the weight of life and human mortality baring down on him with it's heavy force. It was here that Ayniea left him.

She left his fragile hand that hung limp alongside his bed, left it twitching for the chance to touch her perfect skin once more. She left his scarred face, and the eyes that longed simply to look upon her beauty once more. She left his ears, though hard of hearing they wished for her voice to grace them once more. More than any of this, he wanted to sing to her the song from the field. He called her, but no matter how hard he wished, she would not appear, and the disappearance of his beloved bore down on his heart, causing it to fail. His soul followed Streike's reaper without question, never looking back.

Despite the mercenary's last thoughts, Ayniea had not abandoned him. No, she had gone to try and solve the problem of his mortality. No matter how hard she had preached the meaning of Death, it's power, and how necessary it was, she believed things were different now, that love made it different. It was a force more powerful than Life, and Ayniea was determined to make it more powerful than Death. Going against her own words, she broke through the gates of the Underworld with godly force that she had never used before. She broke through all the guard and came across the Judge's Chamber.

The judges had been chosen by Ayniea herself, and she knew they were all straight as a ruler and inflexible as the sun in their judgements. They would follow the rules to a tee. Ayniea knew this as she had written and enforced the rules herself, she knew they could not be bent for anyone; she would change that.

Everyone in the Underworld began to rush to the defenses of the place, attempting to keep Ayniea out. Most could not hold a candle to her anger and power, but those blessed by Streike were able to fend her off for a short while. Despite even their great power, they could never hope to fend off Ayniea's wrath. As the Deity came close to victory, Fayana appeared.

Fayana told Ayniea to stop this madness before it was too late, but the Deity of Life could not llisten. She lashed out at Fayana and a battle erupted between the two. Ayniea's anger was so great, that it made her magic more potent and she was able to overpower even her Mother. She used her power over Life to cause Fayana's body to go rigid and useless, imprisoning her soul in it's physical form. Ayniea abandoned her prone Mother and ran deeper into the bowels of the Underworld.

The imprisonment of Fayana was not taken kindly by the other deities, most specifically Moann, who could not understand how Ayniea could do all of this for a single useless human. Moann, full of wrath and fury told Streike she had to "deal with the problem any way necessary".

Streike cast Fayana out of her self-imprisonment and then began to track down Ayniea. At first, Streike was just going to talk to her sister. She knew that Ayniea had an appreciation of words, and would take them over a battle... But she underestimated the love her sister felt. Streike found her and began explaining what Ayniea had told her many years ago, how Death was the most important facet of Life... Streike even went on to tell her that as much as Ayniea felt love that "We cannot love the way mortals do. Your Derek's true love was never fulfilled, because his eyes met the face of a true deity, and forced him to worship you in love's stead."

Ayniea, angry at what Streike was telling her, slapped her sister with so much force that the deity was flung back onto the surface world. Embarrassed and frustrated, Streike reported back to Moann who got even angrier. She gifted Streike with half of her own power, and sent her back down to the Underworld.

Meanwhile, Ayniea had found what she was looking for - the heart of the Ephilroa. From this spot, she would release her own divine life force and give Derek, and the thousands surrounding him, immortality. She knew this would end her own life, that she would destroy herself in saving her love. She knew Streike was wrong - Ayniea was capable of true mortal love, the love that she had for Derek would be unmatched by any other. She also knew that her sister was right about one thing - Derek's love for her wasn't as true. His love was based on her natural magic. From the moment he looked upon her true form, he was powerless to love any but her. In killing herself and giving him another chance, she knew he could live on and find his own true love.

Streike appeared once more before Ayniea, but did not appear angry. She did not attack her sister. She simply placed her hands on the deity's shoulders: "We are the same, now." It was the exact thing that Ayniea had done to Streike when the Underworld was first constructed. It made Streike undestroyable, unkillable, by any means possible. Ayniea knew this, and she knew her plan was now impossible to execute.

Tired and battered from her time in the Underworld, Ayniea finally fell to her knees and gave up. Anything she would do now, would be done simply out of revenge, something that she was not capable of wanting. Ashamed of herself and her actions, she refused to move from that spot. She would sit there in her shame, a reminder to herself and the other deities of what she had done.

After many years of kneeling in that chamber with Streike's watchful eye taking care of her, she decided what she was going to do next. Rising back to her feet, she finally returned to the surface world. She looked all over for the body - now a skeleton - of her dead lover. She restored his flesh with ease, bringing back the wrinkled skin and grey hair. She examined that face, with each scar she had memorized over the years... This man that she had never known in lover's flesh, but who stayed faithful to her all of his life... He deserved the burial of a King. She went to Aurcaele and found the tallest mountain, it was here that she buried the body of her love, erecting a tomb in respect to him and his dedication to her.

Heart of Life
Once he was buried deep in the soil, she stood on that spot and stared hopelessly at the ground, as if she could somehow see through it and at the body of her most dedicated follower. Here she stayed for hours, days, months and even years. Years turned into decades, and into centuries and the woman was no longer a woman. She had formed into a beautiful weeping willow covered in white blossoms that became known as the Derek Bloom.

The Church of Life - what Ayniea's followers called it - built their capital location around this tree. It is said that if you gaze upon the tree, smell the Derek Blooms and listen to the wind singing through its willows, you become a true worshipper of the deity.

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The Church of Life

The Church of Life is, bar none, the most popular and widely known religious sect on the planet. Some of it's more enthusiastic members dare to call Ayniea the One True Deity or Lord of Creation. Some in fact believe her to be the One who created the entire planet and all life on it. This of course, is not true, and is mostly propaganda pushed forth by The Four.

The Church of Life spreads far and wide, with several churches found on each continent. There are at least two of these churches found in every major city that allows free religion. For the villages and towns that are more isolated, or too small there are churches situated at 'muster points' where settlers from all different areas can attend, no matter which village they hail from.

Each church is heavily protected, no matter how small. Each of them is decorated with a number of runes and symbols which are hidden from the eye with complex spellwork. These magical traps react instantly if the church is under threat, and have a number of negative effects. Anyone attempting to attack the church building or a member of the congregation near the church at the time of attack will be struck by a barrage of offensive spells. The effects of the spells are not completely clear, but some have walked away from their failed attempts deaf, blind, crippled, forever drunken -- or haven't walked away at all.

For a church that claims to love all things peaceful and natural, they have an interestingly brutal way of dealing with their problems... Potential trouble-makers often disappear from the scene or find themselves publically executed for being heretics.

The Four
The Four are the leaders of the Church of Life, and the ones who make all the final decisions. Whatever they say goes without question, and if you do not appreciate or agree with them, you are free to choose a different religion; for which you are likely to be branded as a heretic, for which the consequences are extremely brutal.

It is NOT known to anyone but themselves, but The Four are the most corrupt individuals on the face of the planet. They use their power and influence to achieve their own personal gain while claiming that they have alleigance to the glorious Ayniea. Although there are some conspiracy theories that The Four are not to be trusted, those who tout it are viewed as insane and heretical.

The Four are not known by their given named, and are to only be addressed as "The Four" or "Holy Ones". There is not much known about them other than the fact that they wield extreme power, and that they are each of a different race.

The Archmagi
The Archmagi are the second in commands in the Church of Life, and answer only to The Four. The Archmagi span the continents, and every grouping of churches answer to one Archmagic. No individual Archmagi is known as famously as The Four, but church-goers are most definitely aware of who their Archmagi is.

Priests of Life
The Priests of Life are those who have dedicated their lives to th following and worship of Ayniea. After passing a myriad of tests, they visit the religious capital of Mialen, and visit Ayniea's tree. Upon this visit, they become true Priests who hold the true word of the deity. In fact, upon seeing the tree, smelling it's blossoms and hearing the wind in it's willows, they fall into a immortal love with the deity.

These priests are some of the kindest people on the planet, and have no malevolent feelings towards anyone. They all have incredible patience in all they do, and find themselves meditating often. Many who see the great power and respect these pacifists have are jealous and want it for themselves, but they do not realize the sacrifice these priests make.

A Priest of Life must isolate himself fromt he rest of the world, and never communicate on a personal level. After visiting Ayniea's tree he becomes incapable of love, and abstains from sex. If one of these priests talks to someone, it is because they are preaching the light of Ayniea. If any priest is caught fraternizing or worse, having sexual intercourse with another, they are branded as heretics by The Four and burned alive, their names living on in shame.

The Celestial Battalion
This battalion functions as a form of law enforcement for the church, doing all of the dirty work. When dangerous heretics or revolutionaries surface, it is the few elite members of this Celestial Battalion who rise the challenge to hunt these men and women down. The members of this force are few and proud - and have a tendency to be? sadistic.

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Grotto of Mialen

This Grotto is the entire of foundation of the religion of life, and if it did not exist the entire religion could be an incredibly different experience. This Grotto is where Ayniea's trree was formed, and where the Capital Church of Life was builty. The sacred tree exudes positve energy and is a beacon of life for miles around, attracting many healers to the city of Mialen.

The Grotto is rumoured to be incredibly beautiful, full of colourful flowers and creatures that only exist within the Grotto. No one but for The Four, the Archmagi and Priests of Life have seen it, however. For all that is known, it could just be a dying tree in the middle of an empty field...

In fact, that is exactly what it is. The Tree flourishes or dies based on the state of life, and of the religion of life. Due to The Four's tyrannical reign, the Ayniea's tree is slowly dying. Still, once a year, new priests come to to the Grotto in order to get approval from the tree and become true Priests of Life. It has become difficult to tell if the new priests are experiencing the same magic and becoming true followers, or if they are just getting approval from The Four.