Mistra

Divine Overview

Portfolio

Mistra's is a simple portfolio, but one of the most fundamental to the creation of the Mortal Plane. She was responsible for the creation of the skies, distinguishing them from the Veil or the Void - depending upon the beliefs of the time. Mistra is also responsible for the emanations of her sky: the weather, but especially the rain and storms.
Mistra has an interesting carveout of Mae's portfolio, at least in Anharan beliefs, mountain tops. These are sacred to Mistra in all cultures, for their close association with the winds and birds. Both are viewed as her servants, especially in Anhara.

Appearance

Mistra is often represented as a large, white bird. Rarely, she is a confluence of winds and clouds taking the shape of a woman. More often than not, however, Mistra is represented through her avatars - various creatures allowing gods to interact with mortals post-Crossing Over.

Plane

The Choir of Mistra - also known as the Towers - is the highest heaven of Anharan culture. Their afterlife, it is a mountain, covered in a series of crystal towers, arrayed like pipes on an organ.
The winds of the most virtuous Anharans whistle through the heights of the towers, like chimes. Those unworthy both of the towers and of staying on the Mortal Plane as winds whip around in the tempest. As punishment, they exist as air elementals. Between the tempest and towers exist all birds from the Mortal Plane, and others created by Mistra which never descended.

Historical Overview

Primordial Origins

Mistra represents one of the greatest primordial fears of civilization, storms. In the Era of Legends, when cities were new, shelters and people were particularly susceptible to storms. This aspect of Mistra, praying for relief from dangerous weather, was her main origin in Anhara and the Litoric Islands.
In al-Tahat and the Boreal North, it was quite the opposite. There, Mistra was prayed to for weather, for fresh water in particular.

Creation Myth

Maru divided the physical tasks of Creation between four gods: Nemura, Mae, Lorun, and Mistra. Mistra was responsible for the skies and weather, as well as birds. Her domain was largely uncontroversial, unlike the battle between Nemura and Mae over the boundaries of the land versus the oceans.

Age of Rule

Mistra yielded control over her domains on the surface of the Mortal Plane to Vestria, her daughter, shortly after Creation. Vestria, one of the four Ruling Gods, controlled Anhara and has a portfolio that grew to include her mother's domains. Mistra remains associated with her most primal aspects - the destructive power of storms and the weather in general. Birds and winds have been largely subsumed by her daughter, however.

Contemporary Views

Anhara

In Anhara, Vestria has seized most of her mother's domains. Through a long, sometimes violent campaign in the Age of Rule, the College of Vestrial Priestesses have thoroughly supplanted worship of the Natural Gods with that of Vestria. Referred to in Anhara as the Old Gods, Vestria's priestesses have tried their best to associate as many of their aspects as possible with Vestria herself.
All that remains to Mistra in Anhara are her most primal aspects, the weather and the sky. Vestrian iconography has subsumed the winds, turning them into her servants and the spirits of the dead. However, despite whatever popular impression may be, Mistra remains the foremost Anharan deity when it comes to the afterlife.
Her primordial aspects still survive in the far reaches of Anhara: the high mountains of the Coquet Heights, the far-flung rural towns of the Vinelands, the swamps of the Westmarches, and isolated villages and vales in-between.

al-Tahat

Tahatis have a mixed relationship with both Mistra and her daughter Vestria. al-Tahat was once a green, tropical land, before Tahat's Wrath. The god Tahat, once a god of poetry and the arts, tried to seduce Vestria with his literary works. Spurned by her, he grew so angry his rage turned his land into a desert. While Vestria is largely disliked in al-Tahat, her mother is prayed to with a delicate balance.
As the goddess of weather and rain, the deserts of al-Tahat seek her help. Tahatis worship her for the right mix of rain without storms. Her winds can whip up the desert sands, and the collapse of thunderstorms brings sandstorms.

Boreal North

Litoric Islands

Nemura, the goddess of the sea, is prayed to by most of the people of the Litoric Islands for good weather and winds. However, in some of the most southern of the Litoric Islands, Mistra survives as the goddess one pleads to for a stormless sea and beneficial winds. Vestria holds no sway there, rather Mistra is sometimes adhered to out of spite for the Anharans.

Panag Rho

Divine Classification

Natural Goddess

Domains

Nature
Tempest

Portfolio

Flying Creatures
Mountain Tops
Rain & Storms
Skies & Weather

Titles

The Roiling Storm
The Wrathful
Tree-Splitter
Wind-at-the-Back

Gender

Female