Rhya

Rhya is the goddess of summer, agriculture, fertility, love and nature in the Old World Pantheon, one of the older gods of the Human tribesmen that created the Empire. She is often worshipped in conjunction with Taal, the god of nature, as his wife, and is seen as the more merciful and gentle of the pair. As a result, she is often asked to intercede with her husband to calm his rages, cooling his wrath and ameliorating his stubbornness. She and Taal are the parents of Manann, the god of the sea, and countless nature spirits of forest, meadow, and valley.

Although she is most often depicted as Taal's wife, Rhya is an ancient goddess in her own right with roots that, according to eminent scholars, go back as far as the Old Faith. Thus, there are a wide variety of myths concerning her, many of which place her in child-bearing relationships with other gods. While it is true that Rhya has had children with other gods, so too does Taal. Rhya is both his consort and equal, and their relationship remains harmonious even as neither is strictly monogamous. As a good wife, she is beholden to his will, so oftentimes frost kills the lambs or floods take the crops, but in legend Rhya is known to keep secrets from Taal or outright stand in defiance of him until he relents.

Rhya is a modern incarnation of the goddess venerated in the Old Faith as the Mother Goddess or simply The Mother, who symbolises the earth and the fertility of nature, although this conception seems not to be a deity in the natural sense but an abstraction of the natural world and the life-sustaining magical energies wielded by druids. Many Jade Wizards are devoted to both Rhya and Taal in their original, combined identity of Ishernos.

The Tileans use a different name for Rhya, who in their northern territories is a determined protector of granaries against the attentions of rats. They call her Ishea, similar to the Elven goddess of nature and fertility Isha, probably due to their translations of the ancient scrolls left by the High Elves in their former colonies that once existed in what is now the southern realm of Tilea.

Several Imperial scholars have scoffed that Bretonnia's Lady of the Lake is clearly a misinterpretation of Rhya by people who eat too much cheese.

Rhya is also called "Bountiful Rhya", "Taal's Wife", the "Goddess of Fertility and Summer", "Mother of the Earth", and "She Who Sustains Life." Her title of "Earth Mother" is possibly tied back to the Old Faith interpretation of her and to the ancient times when the early tribes of Men gave up their nomadic lives to settle and farm the land.

Rhya is the goddess of community, well-being, love, life, health, fertility, and birth. She is the goddess of gentle nature often associated with its providential and giving side,[10a] the nurturer of people and the land. She is the huntress who provides for her kin, but also the goddess of farming and the harvest who taught Humans how to plant and harvest, and it is she who makes the grain grow each season and makes the fruit ripen on the branch.

Rhya is the goddess of the lands that Men have tamed, and cultivated lands are her domains. Where Taal makes the wild lands develop unchecked, Rhya looks after the fields, orchards, and livestock of Humans, instilling growth for healthy crops and meat for all. Rhya tames the wildness blessed and embodied by her husband, transforming it into maturity and wisdom.

Rhya is also the patroness of romantic love. Her purview includes procreation and she governs carnal acts, though few worship her openly in such a manner -- indeed such thoughts are considered scandalous and rude among most people of the Old World. Lovers may utter her name during passionate moments, which priestesses of Rhya claim is sufficient respect for the goddess. Rhya is the heartbeat which quickens in a mother's belly, the first birdsong of spring, and the bleat of newborn lambs.

Rhya's most devoted followers are farmers and hunters, but her worshipers can also be found among fishermen, and young lovers everywhere. When farmers pray to her for springtime rains, lads and lasses entreat her to turn the hearts of their beloved ones toward them. Rustic life is said to be "under Rhya's care" for good reason. If an individual lives in the countryside, she accompanies them from birth, as they grow, find love, marry and bear children of their own. Even at death she hands their soul to Morr, the god of the dead, and, in some traditions, expects their body to be buried to sustain future life from the soil.