Brava
The Healing Sun
Sister of Hana, Brava (Brah-vah) represents the Sun. She is only one-half of a whole divine being, with both sisters representing darkness and light. The commonly accepted tale is that the two sisters made their ascension sacrifice in the form of each other. In this way, they are doomed to never meet again, with each sister dying as she sets and being reborn anew as she rises each day. Some cultures interpret the two as lovers instead of sisters and some even consider them as two parts of the same being split in two.
Some say that Brava represents the light side of the two sisters, playful and warm. Brava represents meetings, beginnings, energy and restlessness. Brava is the patron god that most clerics and priests pray to. As such, she has a reputation as the patron of healers and medicine.
Depictions of her in statues and art often show a woman with a golden laurel crown, often bearing injuries or scars. There are no popular tales of Brava being physically manifested, but the sun in the sky is considered her manifestation that gazes down upon her followers each and every day.
Churches of Brava are often built taking in mind the position of the sun, doing so in a way that the sun will shine perfectly through their many stained-glass windows as it rises and sets.
Divine Domains
The Sun and Healing
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Brava is represented by a sun, a circle with blazing tendrils creeping out in all directions. In depictions of the goddess herself, she is a woman with a golden crown, in white robes, and holding a blazing sun between two hands. Sometimes she is holding a sceptre with the blazing sun sitting on the end of it.
Tenets of Faith
Brava is the patron saint of Clerics and Healers. She smiles on those with charity, those who are playful or warm, and those who dedicate their time to help others. As representative of the sun, she also represents beginnings, energy and restlessness.
Holidays
On the 21st of Curia, the summer equinox and longest day of the year, many of the larger settlements in the realm celebrate Sunspire. On this day, festivities include a feast, as all good festivals do, as well as dancing and drinking. The purpose of the festival is to give thanks to Brava for her healing magic. Honoured guests at these parties are the Healers and Clerics of the town or city in which the festival is being held.
The main event of Sunspire is the raising of a large may-pole, called the Sunspire, with golden streamers twisted around it by dancers. When the sun goes down, a mage will set a large glowing orb at the top of the Sunspire to light the rest of the festival as if the sun never left. When everyone is tired and the party begins to wrap up, the sun at the tip of the Sunspire is extinguished by having it dissolve into millions of magical fireflies that flutter off into the night sky.
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