Hiatea (hee-AH-tee-uh)

Hiatea is the giant goddess of nature, agriculture, hunting, females, and children.
Her symbol is a flaming spear.

Power Level = Greater deity
Alignment = Neutral good
Symbol = Flaming spear
Favourite Colour = orange
Portfolio = Agriculture, childbirth, hunting, nature
Domains = Animal, Family, Good, Plant, Growth,
Worshipers = Giants (particularly female giants)

Description

Hiatea's avatar appears in the form of a tanned giantess, a lithe figure with long legs of varying heights. Known appearances had her standing at a statuesque 10 feet (3 metres), a huge 30 feet (9.1 metres), and a gargantuan 70 feet (21 metres) tall. Her hair is golden-red and tied back from her face, showing clearly the hazel-brown shade of her large eyes.

Personality

Hiatea is strong, confident, and an exceptional hunter and gardener.

Hiatea has two aspects. From her Firbolg upbringing, she had an affinity for community, agriculture, and family. Once she discovered her true patrimony, she reinvented herself to include skills as a mighty hunter and protector.

Possessions

Hiatea wears leather armour and carries a bow, and a quiver of arrows. Along with a spear that flames on her command.

Activities

Hiatea communicates frequently with her priests and druids, sending omens in the form of distinctive shapes in the fires, or in flaming spheres within dying embers. Her community priests may see omens in the dreams of children. She may also send omens in the form of a gigantic (2-foot wingspan) yellow-gold moth that spirals around flame. Her priests perceive messages in its path of flight.
Those who capture the moth alive will be invisible in woodlands for up to six days following.

Worshipers

Hiatea was worshiped by titan giants of olde, and still is by many giant species, especially females. Firbolgs and voadkyn (wood giants) of both genders are particularly fond of Hiatea, and considered her to be their special patron.

Hiatea taught that nature is both creator and destroyer, and that admitting defeat is the worst shame a giant could bear. Still, some prices are too high to pay even for victory, for Hiatea is a goddess with tendencies toward good.

Hiatea's priests typically have one of two roles, although the boundary between the two can occasionally be fuzzy.
PRIESTS OF THE STEADINGS = There are the community priests ("priests of the steadings") who tend to agriculture and the raising, protection, and education of children.
PROTECTOR (SENTINEL) PRIESTS = There are the protector (or sentinel) priests who patrolled woodlands and forests and kept an eye on other races. Her voadkyn protector priests go out of their way to maintain relations with the wood elves.
Among the firbolgs, female clerics may be somewhat more numerous than male ones, though males and females are considered of equal merit in all of Hiatea's sects. The highest priests of Hiatea belong to no community, instead visiting the giant steadings only to issue orders to the priests of the community.
All of Hiatea's clerics must be capable of surviving and hunting in the wilderness. Those who loose this ability because of age, injury, or other ailment tend to retire.
Once a month or so, the community priests accompany the sentinel priests and the faithful on a ceremonial hunt. Once a year, usually in the spring, they select a particularly challenging creature to kill.
Making family decisions without consulting a community priest of Hiatea is considered a minor sin by the faithful.

Mythology & Lore

Her mother is the sky goddess Ka'Rami, ruler of The Plane of Air, according to some myths, a mortal giant. Ka'Rami hid her pregnancy from Hiatea's father, and had her daughter raised by firbolgs so that he would never learn of her existence. Ka'Rami never mentioning which God was the father.

When she came of age, a messenger was sent to Ka'Rami to tell Hiatea of her true parentage. Hiatea proved herself with a series of daring feats, culminating in an epic battle with a great monster, a Massive Hydra with fifty heads, and sometimes as a tarrasque. She was sometimes said to have used her spear to slay an enormous Hydra, preventing its heads from regenerating by cauterizing them with fire.

Hiatea brought a trophy of her kill to her mother, who recognized her valour, swiftness and worth, accepting her openly as one of her own offspring. Upon learning of her existence, her sister Misty was overjoyed and celebrated by creating mighty mist that flooded Esau, washing away great evils in the process. The mist then settled over what is known as Fogi Island.

Type

Religious, Primacy