Zerah, goddess of Storm and Thunder
Oh, divine mother, bringer of justice and light, protect us, your children, from our foes, strike them with your lightning bolts and protect those sailors who worship you and do good to others before traveling into the perilous waters. You who killed or imprisoned many monsters, you who defended the Heavenly Palace, have now mercy on us and protect this our city and capital from the forces of darkness, tell the Lord of Light, who once walk upon us and watch us from his throne in the golden chamber that we proudly still follow his commands and teachings, and thus convince him to deliver his wisdom and blessings upon our people and our beloved Emperor, may our Empire be as eternal as your kingdom in the Heavens oh blessed lords!.The divine judge and punisher, the bringer of light, she, who punishes evil and blasfemy, these are some of the epithets that Zerah has for the Davidovian peoples, and especially the Ikarians-Blatians (and to some degree the Oronai too) who consider themselves as the sons of the goddess.
Origins
Zerah is one of the oldest attested Davidovian gods, she formed part of the Pompteiad (The Five Gods Of The Elements) in the proto-davidovian faith alongside Abbon Shabai, Tyr, Pyria and Van. In Davidovian mythology she is one of the eldest daughters of Abbon Shabai and Tyr. She has an elder sister Sek, goddess of the moon, and 4 younger siblings; Pyria, goddess of Fire and volcanoes, Alara, goddess of hunting, memory and magic, and the twins Meithon and Psephone (good of bravery and brutal war and goddess of strategy, chivalry and honour in battle) who trained the other daughters of Abbon Shabai in the martial arts. Zerah and her siblings were born before the War of the Gods, in a period of 5000 years after Abbon Shabai proclamation as King of the Gods. She fought alongside her family in the War of the Gods against Kair, god of death, the Sphenetai (monsters half human/half lizard), Van, god of the water, and Meterion the previous god of fire that was slain by Pyria. Also the mythology tells us how in her Medallion are contained the spirits of the Sphenetai and all the souls condemned by the goddess.The love that created a civilization
One sunny day, the story says, the goddess was walking in a forest near the lake known as the Hand of the God when she heard a very beautiful melody that came for the other side of some bushes. She decided to take a look carefully, so enchanted was about that music. And behind the bushes she founded a boy of around 18-19 years old sitting under a tree. He was playing the harp and he looked as beautiful as his music. Around him, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, every creature of the forest had come and sit around him and hear his music. The goddess who until then hasn't engaged to any other god, and had spent her life punishing mortals and monsters suddenly fell in love with this boy. She decided to also sit around him and when the young boy saw her, he stopped playing music as he was also amazed by the beauty of the girl that had suddenly appear and sit in front on him. But the girl told him to keep playing his lovely music and as the more music he played and the more they look at each other the more in love they were falling until passion overwhelmed them and both had relations that day under that tree. After that Zerah ask him about his name and the reasons why he was there, the boy replied: My name is Ikarus, son of king Davidion and i was under this tree because i wanted to be alone, because my father is going to war, to Dorstulon, the city of the Ten Walls and I've to accompany him and I don't know if I am ready to fight. The goddess replied: High and famous is Davidion, king of the humans west of the Hand of the Gods, whose piety is known to me and my family and after this she said, and don't worry I'll protect you forever both in war and in peace. The boy, confused replied: So, who are you, do you know my father yet i never heard of you, never when princess had been offered to me for marrying, I've seen you in the palace of my father yet you dress like one and you aura inspires something divine. I am a princess- replied Zerah, and my father is the Queen who sees everything, he who created your race and that of the elves, he whom light is now touching our faces. And after hearing this the young prince Ikarus bow in front of the goddess asking for mercy, for he had laid with a goddess and was fearful of have sinned, but she replied: Raise, young man, for what I need of you is love and not only devotion. After this encounter, the myths tells us that Zerah also visited Ikarus a couple of times when he was fighting in Dorstulon, and one day the goddess became pregnant and he gave birth to a son, Aterion, and when she presented him to the goddess Fer, the goddess of fortune and oracles she said this words: Behold a baby, innocent and fragile, who one day will become a brave warrior and a wise king, and many people will bear the name of his father that will descend from him and rule the Earth with piety and bravery (thus prophesizing the birth of the Ikarian people). When the young Aterion grow up he has given the chance of becoming a god or a mortal, and seeing his father ruling his kingdom so wisely after Davidion had passed away, and believing that without him there will be chaos in his realm, he decided to become a mortal and the successor of his father and according to Ikarian chronicles, 2000 years after him and many generations of kings, one of his descendants called Valerian, became the first Ikarian Emperor. But returning to Zerah, she continued to look after Ikarus, who never married and continue to love her until his final days, and when he died Zerah feel pain and sadness for the first time, and so great was his grief she tore her clothes, destroying the necklace that contained the medallion of Etnari. She took refuge in a cloud above the Seris coast where she spent hundreds of years crying for her lover. Her tears became thunderbolts that when falling down into the earth began cutting and shaping the mountains below the cloud. This region is known today as the Pillars of Toshia, as Toshia is the name of Zerah in seris. Only after she saw her descendants thriving and once she had the chance to make her beloved Ikarus a god she found happiness again in her heart.A difficult personality
Zerah can be very benevolent and friendly (as well as intimidating as Yuya, the Seris adventurer and his friends can tell you, because they encountered her when they were searching for the The Medallion of Eitnari ) but also a ruthless and merciless goddess with those servants of evil either human or elf. In that regard she is similar to the character of the Blatians. She doesn't hesitate to condemn the souls of sinners, criminals, blasphemes, yet she is also the one that lead the righteous souls to the Heavenly Paradise and offers them a banquet and show the good deeds the deceased did during his lifetime to the rest of the goods, kind of justifying why they are in the heavenly realm.
by Callyxtus with heroforge
How to worship and appease her
Well, simply being a good person, a good father or mother, not offending the gods and offering sacrifices and prayers to her. Her favourite sacrifice is a libation of honey and a basket full of apples (as the tree under which he met Ikarus was an Apple tree).
Different "versions" of Zerah:
As Zerah herself explained to Yuya and his friends, the gods have no specified form, they are just a body that can be male or female and that change form according to how their followers think they look like. So Zerah might appear differently both in art and if you are lucky or unlucky to see her in person.- Ikarian/Oronai Zerah: She has short hair and golden eyes, she often wears a white tunic and has as weapons a bow with arrows made of pure lightning.
- Seris Zerah: In Seria she is known as Toshia Retains the same female body but has longer hair and uses an spear instead of a bow.
- Crorai Zerah: She is armed as an Crorai Knight and carries an spear made of pure lightning. She is often deficted with a Black tunic and with white glowing eyes.
- Zerah Thamaia: No one has see Zerah like this, but this is how its represented in the Valian colonies in the far east. Where Zerah was asimilated with the goddess of storms of the Nari peoples who had 6 arms, each one with different weapons. Thamaia means 6 arms in the Ikarian language.
The creator of a "little" catastrophe
Well, everybody is young and sometimes wild, so are the gods from whom humans and elves are modelled. And Zerah and her sister Pyria, who is always fighting alongside her, decided to have a competition in order to see who was the most powerful. They sat on an island (some myths point to the island of Vegus in the Blatian Empire, other to some island in the Kingdom of Cloudia). According to the myth Pyria took his bow and shot an arrow that crossed the continent of Karia from west to East and landed in the lands today occupied by the Nari peoples . Upon hitting the ground a huge explosion happened and the great mount Mei Mei,as the Nari called it, was born. Far from being impressed, Zerah took his bow (according to Blatian myths) or his spear (according to the seris ones) and broke the entire continent in two creating the Suris strait and the Interior Sea. This caused, needlessly to say, mass earthquakes and tsunamis, it forced the first humans and elves to take refuge in the interior of the continent and ultimately, because of the chaos generated, some elves decided to stop trusting the gods and their teaching, thus giving birth to the dark elves. Ultimately Zerah won the tournament but the consequences of her "victory" are still felt nowadays in Yeia, both in magical and geographical terms.
by Callyxtus with heroforge
Relics, places and events related to Zerah
Divine Classification
Goddess
Church/Cult
Age
inmortal
Children
Current Residence
Heavenly Palace
Sex
female
Eyes
golden
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
pale
Other Affiliations
Comments