Niginni, the Loam of Thesilae

Niginni (/naɪd͡ʒɪniː/) is the goddess of nature, balance, cycles, and tranquility. She is worshiped primarily by farmers, sailors, hunters, and druids.

History

The Age of Twilight

Niginni was woven by her mother, Vimeri, from the threads of Ether she gathered off the tails of the Primordial Spirits. As the years wore on, and Niginni grew in size and power, she began to emulate her mother's bent for creation, eventually forming Thesilae and all its inhabitants from clay and stone. Her elder brothers, Lanush and Thesridan, gave these creations life, while Hasra (the eldest of all Vimeri's children) granted magic to the world. This marked the end of the Age of Twilight, and the beginning of the Dawn.

The Age of Dawn

The first waking years of Thesilae and its mortal peoples are known collectively as the Age of Dawn. Little is definitively known about this era from a historical perspective, but myths and legends focusing on this time abound. It is during the Age of Dawn, for instance, that Brasaan ascended to godhood.

Braasan slays the Delenaen Goat

Brasaan was a hunter from the cloud giant clans of the southern continent, who made the error of slaying the sacred Delenaen goat, Eòsalas thereby angering Niginni. In her fury, Niginni bid Brasaan to carry the corpse of the goat up to the highest peak of the nearby mountains and bury it at the foot of the waterfall there. Once Brasaan's quest was complete, the goat's spirit rose to gift them a bow made of its own golden horns, before returning to the Ether. Brasaan pledged themself to Niginni's eternal service as further repentance for their actions, naming the mountains and the waterfall after Eòsalas, and protected both from the intrusions of mortal-kind for the rest of their life.
Over time, Niginni came to love Brasaan. When the time came for their soul to rejoin the Ether, she granted them with divinity instead, and they have remained at her side ever since.

Hylkor plunges the world into Chaos

The texts are unclear when, exactly, Hylkor was cast out of his clan and left to die in the Ma'sali Forest. Popular theory suggests that, by this point, Brasaan had already slain the Delenaen goat, but had not yet risen to godhood. Regardless, when Hylkor was abandoned by his people Niginni took pity on him, and directed the forest to protect the infant and raise him into adulthood.
In his adulthood, Hylkor was respected as a wiseman for many years. But eventually, he began to believe that the world's balance was all wrong, and that nature should not be so subjugated by mortal kind as it was. He believed their roles should be reversed- the natural world should be subjugated mortals, not the other way around. Niginni rejected his ideals, however, and this caused Hylkor to fly into a rage. He rampaged for countless years, spreading famine and disease with the aid of the demigod Ruthenax, destroying nature and causing mortal suffering on a mass scale unlike any seen before or since. His rampage was brought to an end only when Brasaan, who had achieved godhood, created a snare capable of capturing Hylkor and locking his soul eternally in a divine cage.

The Age of the Sun

At the height of this era of prosperity on Thesilae, Niginni created the sacred tree Adeldenaustra and its guardian dragon Marelad as a gift for her beloved mortals.

Description

Appearance

Niginni is typically described as a beautiful young woman with light brown skin and a smattering of freckles across her face. In this form, she has long, honey-brown hair that falls in loose ringlets around her shoulders, and wears flowing peplos held together with finely-carved wooden pins that she has been known to gift to her favorite champions.
Her second most common form is a dryad.

Personality

The Flowering Matriarch is a somewhat reclusive goddess. She rarely interacts with her mortal creations, instead watching over them from afar and attempting to encourage them towards harmony with the world.

Worshipers

Among Niginni's most devout worshipers are the farmers, sailors, and druids of Thesilae. Farmers pray to her for plentiful rain and bountiful harvests. Sailors for peaceful skies and seas. The common folk might throw up a prayer for pleasant weather before a festival or market day. Druids are the least numerous of her worshipers, but they are also the most widely and deeply respected for their understanding of the cycles which permeate all of the natural world.

Clergy

Niginni's clergy has five ranks, one for each petal of the white jasmine, which is Niginni's sacred flower. In the wider world, clerics are invariably all referred to as the Winds of Niginni. Within the temple, their titles are: East Wind, West Wind, South Wind, North Wind, and Skydancer. Each of the four winds has a Skydancer at its head, but all members of the clergy are otherwise equal in authority. The Winds of Niginni preach harmony with the natural world, and encourage mortals to minimize their destruction of the natural world while in pursuit of advancement and growth.

Druids

Of the very small number of druids which live in Thesilae, nearly all of them follow the edicts of Niginni. They have similar motivations to the Winds of Niginni, but live closer to nature and have a greater focus on the care of the world's flora and fauna. Rather than isolating themselves from civilization, many druids watch over settlements and serve as advisors to the heads of government for those settlements in matters involving the natural world.

Edicts and Anathema

Edicts

• Ensure the health of crops and vegetation

• Protect plants and animals

• Promote natural cycles

Anathema

• Hunt for sport or mistreat animals

• Raze or pollute natural environments

• Spread plague or pestilence

Artifacts

• The Divine Petals: A necklace of emeralds, which resemble leaves falling from a tree. It was created by Agren, the smith of the gods.

Places of Worship and Holy Sites

Deity Information

Titles
Loam of Thesilae
The Flowering Matriarch
Classification
Ethereal God
Portfolio
Nature, Cycles, Balance, Tranquility
Symbols
White jasmine flower
Divine Realm
-
Alignment
Neutral Good
Gender
None¹
Presentation
Feminine
Pronouns
She/Her

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Worship

Worshipers
Common folk, farmers, sailors, druids
Holy Days
-
Major Temples and Holy Sites
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1. Gender is a mortal concept, which the Ethereal Gods, being immortal beings with no experience of mortality, do not adhere to.