The Pillars of Toshia

The myth behind this natural wonder

Toshia is the name that the Seris give to the goddess of Thunder ( Zerah for the Ikarians and the Oronai). According to legend, when Zerah knew of the death of Ikarus, her mortal lover and father of their children, she became consumed by grief, and many storms and thunderbolts hit the earth at that time. According to Seris mythology, Zerah took refuge on a cloud nearby the Seris coast. Here she spent hundreds of years crying for her lover. Her tears became thunderbolts when falling from the cloud and these very same thunderbolts began cutting and shaping the mountains until they acquired the shape they have today. In fact there is a temple at the foot of the highest hill dedicated to Toshia (understood as a way of placate her sorrow by offering her sacrifices and also asking for her protection to those sailors that dare to cross the seas so that they might not encounter any storm).

Location and description

Toshia's Pillars are located in Southern Seria, in Shahin province, at the mouth of the river Ehin, near the city of Ziardah. The small mountains can be 80 meters high while the tallest can be 290 meters high and all of them are made of limestone and are covered by beautiful and dense forests. Only birds are brave enough to climb the tallest of the mountains and humans only dare to settle in the smallest ones or at the foot of the tallest. It is also at the small mountains where you find caves famous for its beauty and its minerals. They were also refuge for ascetics for centuries but today there are completely abandoned.

Toshia's Pillars at the mouth of the river Ehin by google

This geological formations are not only found on the coast but they can also be found a couple of miles inland. Its there where you find the tallest of these mountains. Finally some of the smallest mountains seem to have undergone a quite significant process of erosion and today they've formed little islands at the mouth of the river Erin, usually populated by communities of fishermen.

Toshia's Pillars in literature and art

Toshia's Pillars are a very well known touristic attraction in Southern Seria and quite renown across the country for their beauty. Hundreds of famous paintings of Seris art depict this place. It was said that the first landscape painting ever painted by a seris was a painting of Toshia's Pillars. The place has also captivated countless generations of poets not only from Seria, but also from places like Blati and the realms of the Nari peoples because of their beauty and also of the myth behind they supposed creation.

Great tears of sorrow She shed,

the skies and her parents cried,

Don't worry my dear, her mother said,

for his soul soon will came to our palace,

and on this earth you sons at your power

they still gaze . Take care of them, and,

although more tears for them you'll shed,

their love and piety for you will be greater

that the one shown by your dear lover.

— Maximus of Blati, ca. 567 AP

Dear Toshia, divine aunt of our people, the bearer of lighting and the one who punishes blasphemes and evil men, may your power protect us, sailors and fishermen, who wander the sea for a living, may we return safe to harbour and not encounter any storm at sea

— Prayer in an inscription at the entrance of Toshia's Temple