Astreia

Long ago, when Theros was young, and the titan gods ruled, Anestor was a lifeless rock. Deformed sea gods fought Volcanalis for the land, both attempting to lay claim to all of the world. The earth was in a constant state of change, battered by the sea, storms and fire alike, but somehow, against all odds, a single seed floated across the sea, carried by wind, water and birds, finding its way to the center of the great land mass. It was a wonder the small seed was not destroyed or eaten by some wandering beast, hungry and traveling across the barren land, but it wasn't. It grew, at first into a small green sapling, and then into a majestic and towering ash.
The ash tree facilitated life of all kinds to grow. She was the Mother of the Forest, and at her roots ferns and bushes grew. Fairies born from the tree's many flowers, made homes in her wide reaching branches. Small crawling animals used her shade as shelter from wind and rain. For a century the oak tree grew, until one day, the tree bore a single acorn. The creatures, plant, animal and fairy alike, which called the tree their mother protected the acorn. They understood that it was special, but they were attacked.
Volcanalis came to destroy the grove. Keeping the acorn safe, the fairies fled, helpless to save the grove from the fire. They ran as the mother of the forest burned, but the fairies were injured. Their wings did not survive Volcanalis's heat, and their race was forever changed. They were no longer fairies, but gnomes. They protected their mother's acorn and wept for their loss.
Seven days after the grove burned, the gnomes returned. The Mother of the Forest was dead. There was nothing left. The gnomes felt that they had lost everything, but they dug a hole in the space where their mother once stood and planted the small acorn. The next morning, they were overjoyed to see it had grown, but not a sapling, a full tree standing even taller than the Mother of the Forest, and all around this new tree, a forest grew out of the ashes of Volcanalis's destruction. The gnomes were amazed when a woman stepped out of the tree. She was tall, with antlers upon her head and pointed ears. She was Astreia, and she introduced herself to the gnomes, they bowed before her. They knew that she was not just a woman, but their mother. She was the Mother of the Forest, a fey goddess, reborn. Astreia.
Astreia claimed the island of Anestor as her territory, with the help of her gnomes, she used her power to drive the deformed sea gods from her lands. Each day, new creatures were born out of the forest, and the gnomes defended them all as children of the mother goddess. Astreia loved them, and from her love, more life came, some created by her, others from across the sea, lured by the hope at a better tomorrow. Humans from the south fled the chaos of wild lands to Astreia's fertile east, and elves, children of nymphs and fey alike, sailed from another world, making their homes on Anestor's west coast.
All who paid their respects to the goddess were welcome, but the gnomes were always her true children. They had a special connection to her forest. They made their homes within her trees, and the best of them could hear her through the trees of the forest. All gnomes born with green eyes have this gift.

Divine Classification

Deity

Ruled Locations

• The Marcisian Grove