Caiyha

Goddess of Flora, Fauna, and The Wilderness.

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Caiyha

Postby Gossamer on January 2nd, 2013, 4:28 am

Caiyha


ImageCaiyha is the Goddess of Flora and Fauna. Many a traveler has walked right past her without ever being aware of her presence. Some say that the gods Navre, Siku, Oriana, Eywaat, and even Bala are actually her children, and that she gifted them with their specific spheres as specialties of her own. She is incredibly easy to approach, but she abhors senseless slaughter and waste. It's been said that when she seeks retribution, she does not waste her time with Gnosis marks, but instead turned those malefactors into fresh food for any of her feral companions. But whether there is any truth to it or not... you decide...

Caiyha is, in essence, the goddess of nature. She has sometimes been mistaken for the Goddess of Life, but defers to Kihala in that regard. Some call her the First Witch, and her Gnosis marks are known to gift the bearer with Phylonura. Anything to do with plants and animals, flora and fauna, falls into her domain. The overgrown jungle of Falyndar is said to be one of her favorite places, but she loves the rough-strewn rock in the north, and the hardy vegetation that grows there, or the coral under the sea... Caiyha's touch can be found everywhere.

Her power comes from commanding (although she certainly wouldn't use that term) nature, from the various plants to animals of all sizes - from the tiny stinging ants to the sea dragons of the Charodae, or the enormous Tskannas of the Myrians.

Caiyha is serene and seemingly solitary, except for the plants and animals, and the occasional visitor, supplicant, or student. She is approachable and polite, but abhors senseless waste and destruction. She is fond of predator and prey, but is aware of the cycle she created with Kihala and Dira. The weaker animals die for the stronger, and the improvement of the species as a whole. She respects that. Like nature, she can be swift and merciless, but such an attitude is rarely invoked, except by those who waste.
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Caiyha

Postby Marcus Gray-Dawn on February 26th, 2013, 9:13 am

Night has fallen over the Sea of Grass and the bright beams of the sun have been replaced by the waining light of the moon and its many stars, and off in the distance a small fire flickers within the shallow darkness. Next to the fire a man and a horse sit gathering its worth as the fight off the winter cold. Marcus takes the large blanket and spreads it over Tarlok before sitting back down and leaning against the great beast. He takes the pipe from his mouth and exhales a deep breath into the air, causing the smoke and the heat of his breath dance among the cold night air. It had been many years since Marcus had left on his pilgrimage and he was relieved that he had the chance to return to his home, even as he sat half frozen upon the frosted grass. He looked up at the stars before turning his gaze to the beauty that lay before him. As the moon cast its gentle light down upon the ground the frosted tips of the grass reeds reflected the supple light, and as a gentle wind blew in the distance the blades of grass moved causing a dance of light. Marcus admired this great scence as if it were being done solely for him, and he began to think of all the elements that had to come together for the ballet to unfold. The moon had to be the right height in the sky, the grass had to frozen just the right amount, and the wind had to softly blow from the correct direction. When all these elements came together is created a perfect symphony of nature's glory. It was moments like this one that Marcus worshilped Caiyha, he then began his silent prayer as he had done so many nights before.

I thank you great Caiyha for once again allowing me safe passage through your lands, and for the food and water you allowed me to take. I believe that I have lived in a way that would please you to the best of my power. I have travelled far from home to admire all of your creations in their true beauty. Being home again fills me with great joy for I have missed it greatly, but also saddness for I know i will miss it again when I leave. My age is growing and I can feel the tiredness in my bones when I awaken and I know one day soon I will die, and my body will nourish the ground and the animals. However being hear im my homeland leave me filled with a sense of pride I had long thought disappeared and I know that this is the land I wish to die upon. I am your servant Caiyha and your will be done but I ask you for this. Give me a sign so I know i can stop my pilgrimage. Whatever you decide I shall forever remain your servant.


Once he finished his prayer he took his pipe and emptied it and put it back in his satchel, before pulling the blanket tightly arround him and gathering himself as closely to Tarlok as possible. He then looked onward towards to dancing reeds of grass once more before he began to drift off to sleep.
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Caiyha

Postby Colt on March 6th, 2013, 12:44 am

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41st of Spring
the empty hours before the morning

The eastern skies were just beginning to turn gray when the hunter opened his eyes. He could feel the indistinct chill of dew on the tent walls, as true dawn was still too far away to heat the world with the breath of spring.

He shifted in his bedroll, a disorganized thing that had been roughed to be more circle-like in shape than linear. He had always felt strange sleeping straight-backed.

The world was silent, and even when he pushed aside the tent flap nothing could be heard but the rustling of the cloth. And in the quiet, it could have been thunder.

He wasn’t quite sure what it was that had roused him so early. Perhaps something had happened and then vanished as he was on the edge of consciousness. Perhaps it was the strange buildup of tension that had come from traveling with Endrykas for two and a half seasons. Perhaps it had been the announcement the day before, requiring all male Drykas to marry. Perhaps it was none of these, or perhaps it was all of them.

Akaidras stood nearby, as still as the tree above him, and he was sure that the she-falcon was also resting in its branches. As they should be; all sane creatures were either still asleep or preparing for it. The hunter observed the stallion fondly for a moment, and then turned and walked into the grass.

He needed to think. He knew that many people thought him stupid or challenged in some way because he did not speak, but his wit was as sharp as anyone’s. And still he was plagued by concerns and worries buzzing about in his head like gnats, unwilling to let him be. Everything seemed to be coming together against him; the city’s noise, his difficulty communicating with others of his kind, and the announcement of marriage seemed to have sent it all settling onto his shoulders with a sudden weight.

His feet slowed, then stopped altogether at the crest of a small rise. With a tired sigh the hunter sat down, crossed his legs and faced the east. And, almost without thinking, he began to pray.

Just because he did no often speak Pavi did not mean he couldn’t understand it, and so he pulled words from the jumbles of feelings and images and colors that were his thoughts. He picked up a small stone from by his knee and turned it over in his calloused hands as he began.

Caiyha… Caiyaha? Cayha? Is that how it is said out loud? It seemed that even in his mind, his words were not the best. He settled for a more ambiguous, but more known term. Mother of All Creatures, Lady of the Wild. Acceptable. Perhaps You are aware of me, perhaps You are not. I know that there are many things that call You mother, and many that perhaps vie for Your favor, and so I do not expect it to be given to me. I am a human, and a simple one; I cannot hope to compare with others creatures of this world. But even so, I cannot deny, not to myself or to anyone else, that I am Yours.

And perhaps that it where all of this is coming from. Are all humans Yours? Or are they something else, something foreign? I know of the Drykas origin, but not that of humanity itself. Some say we are of the earth, the very clay of Semele, others of the wind, and still others say that we are of the stars. I’ve yet to see anyone, even my people, that are a part of the wild. Yes, the Drykas may live in harmony with it, but they are still different things. A bird may live in harmony with a tree, but that does not make the bird a tree.

But I have touched the wild before. For two seasons I was alone; no clans, no pavilions, no people. Just myself, Zulrav above me, Semele below me and You around me. I lived and hunted without laws, without money, and I found that I needed nothing but what You had to give. And in that, I found that, as the things of the world were open for the taking, so too was I open for the taking of the world. Things die so that others might live, and had I died, another might have lived through me. And what wisdom such thoughts brought me! Once I accepted death as it was, I no longer had need to fear it.

And yet here I am, not a half-hour’s walk from Endrykas. I wear woven cloth, and on my back are javelins made by the hands of the Drykas. By the hands of my people. For indeed, they are my people, as strange as that now is to me. And what odd creatures are they! To babble and shout as they do, almost as if they are afraid of the silence, as if some terrible danger lurks in the quiet. They are talking, forever talking, and yet they say so little. I can never truly be at ease with them, with their clustered tents and loud sounds and pungent odors. They crush me from all sides, deafening me. They are so chaotic in comparison to the mere two seasons that I lived beside You. But still I remain. They are my people, that much I know. It is where I belong, even if it is also where I do not belong.

And my people are strong, my Lady. They…
we… are passionate and powerful. We protect this land as the treasure it is, and when in the grass there is no one that can match us. We keep the Sea of Grass wild, and upon it we are free.

But I cannot help but wonder… what would become of it, should we vanish? The storm of spring claimed so many of us, and the pox of winter so many more. We are weak, weak enough that another disaster might shatter us completely. Ours was a song of thunder, but now I hear only echoes in the wind. The people’s eyes are guarded and sapped, and bodies are lean with hunger and sickness. Our pride is but a tattered flag with rapidly fading colors.

And so the Clan leaders have issued an order: all men that do not have wives must take another by summer’s end, else they will face drastic punishment. This is a necessary step, I know, as with so many gone new children will be sorely needed. But as much as I agree, I cannot help but resist in my mind. I do not believe that this is something I will do… that I
can do. I do not even speak, and courtship is a ritual that is alien to me. I feel that to marry simply to produce offspring would be to condemn myself and whatever unlucky woman that becomes my wife to torment. I am a Drykas, yes, but hardly a husband. I have nothing; no great wealth, no pavilion, not even a name. Nothing but my strider to mark me as one of the people of this land.

But I see my people’s suffering, and every day it cuts me like a knife. I can see them dying, and I need to do something. I am a hunter; no one knows that as well as You. I am strong, and strong Drykas are precious few now. I know that I could do so much to help my people, and I know that I could do more atop Akaidras than in a tent. More than anything, I wish to help my people, but could I say the same if I had a wife to provide for, and then little ones to take care of? I watch my people grow more hollow every day, and never before have I felt so helpless.


He could feel the prayer coming to a close, and words soon fell away to more raw thoughts, to unrefined feeling and pictures and a terrible feeling of doubt. What was he asking for? A sign? Some kind of affirmation? Luck on his hunts? Luck on everyone’s hunts? Something, any action that he could take?

He shifted uncomfortably, and did his best to convey the dark vacuum in his heart. Asking for something, something that he did not himself comprehend. But perhaps, just perhaps… Caiyha would know what it was.

He stood, feeling much lighter than when he’d sat down. Just talking to someone, or even if he had just been pretending to talk to someone, seemed to have helped. He could convey all the things that he was unwilling to convey to his fellow, as for the first time, he could see all his problems; his worries and difficulties had been laid out neatly for him to peruse, and it made them just a bit easier to deal with… at least for now.

He turned and smiled and the now-pink sky, and then turned to walk back to his camp.
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Caiyha

Postby Colt on March 20th, 2013, 8:48 pm

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A small excerpt from this thread...

His steps were slow but steady. He circled the fallen beast until he was at its back, where its still-deadly claws would not be able to reach him. A roiling stone of disgust burned in the back of his throat, a disgust at the knowledge that he had done this terrible thing.

The lion half-rolled its head at the hunter’s approach and fixed him with a piercing, accusational stare. Though he knew the beast would not understand, he still signed my deepest apologies, friend.

The lion did not struggle when the hunter knelt by its head. It did not snarl when he put the knife under its throat. It did not make a sound when he ended its life. The pained limbs relaxed, the churning claws stilled, and its eyes glazed over. The hunter quietly closed them, head bent in respect.

Caiyha, he prayed, Great Mother of all creatures. Guard your son as he passes from this world. Forgive his death; it was a death without meaning. It was a death that should have been avoided. I swear to you that I shall treat his body with respect; he might have died in vain, but he will not be left in waste.
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Caiyha

Postby Tinnok on September 19th, 2013, 8:33 pm

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The 10th of Fall, 513 A.V.
5th Bell, in the Wilds of Falyndar


Bright eyes watched an iridescent beetle make his way slowly up the trunk of one of the great trees. There was no rush upon the half breed this day, no call to hurry or make the trip through the jungle fast, so for a while she climbed in time with the beetle. It was a slow process, as the insect often took the time to inspect the bark and moss with his antennae, making sure it was sound enough to continue upon, or perhaps merely mapping out his journey fully, to ensure the best root up the bumpy tree. Moving half of her body a few inches put herself quite in the lead of the beetle, so she allowed him to gain upon her quite some time, until she nearly lost the sheen of his back before following. He was unperturbed by her presence, and she did not aid him in his morning walk, as in truth she didn't know where he planned on finishing it.

Occasionally, out of boredom or curiosity she'd run her pinky finger over the shining shell, taking away the thought of the beetle, which were very precise and business like. He had some goal in mind, it was related to food, but harder and more complicated than merely foraging, as his journey seemed to indicate. Though it was slow going, and Syna steadily rose in the sky, Tinnok didn't quite realize she had reached the upper branches of the tree until a warm wind caressed her face, and yellow eyes gazed out over the thick foliage, soaked with morning dew and glistening just like the beetle's shell in the sunlight. Here she found herself an unoccupied branch and stared out over her jungle, chuckling at the possessive term she had graced it with.

"It has been some time since we've talked..." She began, feeling infinitely silly for addressing Caiyha like one would an old friend in a letter. "Since the Summer around when I met another of your servants..."She fell off a bit there, her smile fading into the recesses of her being.

"I think I always knew I was going to have to choose...between Myri and you...you are so similar in so many ways, Queens of your realms, vicious to those who oppose and defile what you love, yet motherly on the same side...but you have always been a parent to me, the abomination, and I know Myri would see me as the monster everyone knows me to be...that I ended up being." She sighed.

"I do not know if it was your influence, or hers, or both...or neither, but...I want to thank you for that moment in the woods, even if it wasn't your hand, just that...Dhani..." Her eyes closed and she breathed in the heavy air of Falyndar. A Tanager alighted upon a branch next to her and began warbling, waking up its peers, Tinnok's lips pursed and whistled along with it, a horrendous copycat, but one the Tanager seemed to enjoy nevertheless.

"I am free, and I know you are to to thank...at least in some part." When she next spoke it slid out as a whisper, and then prompty dropped down into the canopy, just another day in store for the Witch of the Wilds.
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Caiyha

Postby Eida on September 20th, 2013, 5:09 pm

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The 30th of Fall, AV 513

It was night and Eida didn't go back home yet. She had to talk with her, The First Witch. She was out at the Sea of Grass and she was just stading there under Leth's light. She wasn't sure what to do or say. Caelum's words however came to mind "Listen to the world, and to yourself."

So she did. She was listening, she heard the grass, as the wind moved them and she heard some animals' noises. That was Caiyha's world, the world that she liked. She was looking at wilds everywhere and was talking to her.

"Caiyha! I have seen your world, I have been in your world and I'm still in it. It's a wonderful world, I enjoy to be here. But somehow I have never realized if I could be help here.

I always thought my only god is Leth, my father, but I was wrong. I was blind and couldn't find any new meaning to my life. But one of my brother talked about you. I think we can understand each other. I have been told that you are wonderful and also scary. They may see me in the same way.

Once I disturbed your cycle of prey and predator. I have saved a calf from a pack of lions. I was wrong, but I tried to give them my food instead. Hope you forgive me. I'll always love Leth and respect him, and I think he knows, but I think... no I'm sure I can be more help to you! Please Goddess of Nature, let me help you in anyway, let me be one of your children also!"
She was staring at the wilds and still was focusing and listen to Caiyha's world for any answer if she gets.
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Re: Caiyha

Postby Phyolea on December 16th, 2013, 6:25 pm

Winter 33, 513 AV

Phyolea lamented the lack of a proper shrine for Caiyha in her current city. She created a monument from coral using her natural goddess-blessed gift: coral  manipulation. It was erected in the remains of a sunken trade vessel in Mathews Bay. It was a sculpture that contained some of the beauty found from her hometown, Charbosi.


"Blessed Caiyha," Phyolea began in her native tongue. "You have protected me all the days of my life. You have taught us to live in harmony in the waters and to work together with the coral, kelp, sweet reed, and the things we grow and harvest back home. You have given us great bounty and blessed our waters." Phyolea knew the goddess understood she spoke of Charbosi and the Charodae.


"But the waters were greatly disturbed back during the Massive Djed Storm of 512," Phyolea continued. "I have set out to learn how to heal this land... and this world. Please, grant us your power so that we may be good stewards within our waters and beyond. Please help us use the gift you have found fit to bestow upon us at birth. Please hear our cry and the cry of the waters."


Phyolea placed the best of the kelp she could find onto her carefully crafted coral altar. "Blessed Caiyha, live forever. May the land and the seas return as they were, return to their former glory. Bless us all." Phyolea bowed low and spent some time in genuflection and silence.


After quite some time, Phyolea set out to achieve her goals. She would bring peace to the world one way or another. Please protect the land dwellers, she prayed silently as she swam away.
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Caiyha

Postby Dravite on October 7th, 2015, 11:24 pm



Dravite prays to Caiyha, Semele, and Zulrav.

2 Spring, 515 AV
Morning

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“No one but the gods will put me on my knees for I am Windborne,” these words Dravite mouthed in front of the makeshift shrine the Emerald Clan had erected for the Feast of Life. He popped the skin on the pad of his left forefinger with the tip of his new steel dagger to draw blood, a line for each of the gods he worshiped brushed across his chest in blood.

“Zulrav of storms, Semele the mother, Caiyha the first Witch,” his lips knew their names better than the shape of his lover’s mouth, “Thank you for the new tide, the health of my kin, and the wealth of the plain this spring. Guide my spear so that I may protect my blood and feed my people this night and each night until my body is returned to the earth.” He bowed forward and kissed the feet of the wooden statue carved in the image of Caiyha and scattered a dash of yellow wild-flower petals into the burning plate set in her hands before getting to his feet.

The air was thick with rich, pleasant smelling scents, burning spices and oils from near and far. His gaze lingered on the hotplate for a time while his mind was far away, thinking of the hunt ahead of him. It is nothing to spend a whole day under the sun and return empty handed, for such is the life Drykas choose and he would have it no other way. Fasting wasn’t easy, not when the thought of the feast to come weighed heavy on his mind. Silently he promised the gods that his first kill this spring would be dedicated to them and his mouth watered at the thought of spearing a rabbit, fat from eating the fresh spring grass.

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Caiyha

Postby Khida on June 14th, 2016, 3:35 pm

Excerpted from Kindred Spirits.

Spring 65, 515 AV
morning

When she looked towards the source of the cries, shading her eyes against the low sun, Khida could see the horse in the distance -- head and shoulders and the line of its spine all standing out above the grass. It reared up and lashed out with both front hooves, trumpeting another angry call; its target was something low and sleek and hidden from the Kelvic's view. Not glassbeaks, then, but some predator all the same. Predator and prey, Caiyha's Cycle at work.

Caiyha.

I don't know if you want this hunter to take this prey, she thought of the goddess, to the goddess, whose domain she lived by -- whose domain she now meant to impinge upon, in however small a manner. I don't know if you care at all. Certainly all prey contested their predators, as Khida had done in the past and would do again in the future; that was challenge inherent to life. But the Kelvic herself was not prey, not here, not now, not yet -- and the one who was prey, was not her sibling or child or indeed family to any recognizable degree. Involving herself in this would be involving herself in a confrontation otherwise not her concern -- doing so not as predator, or scavenger, or any other role she knew to be found among strangers in the wild.

Khida could not say why she wanted this, why she felt it so imperative to intervene. She could only acknowledge that she did, that she had changed with the passing seasons. In the time before her bond, a horse would have been little more than animated terrain from the perspective of the falcon -- part of the environment, a part which she could not eat and which would not eat her. Its risks and dangers would not have been her risks and dangers, and so altogether immaterial to her affairs. But here and now, with this horse at hazard, this horse who even from a distance seemed to have the profile of a Strider... this horse, she could not simply abandon in its need.

I don't wish to offend, she continued in silence, transfixed between that need and a lingering caution of that nebulous, powerful deity who for all she knew might be watching right now. Or who might be a million miles away, in some other wilderness or in the gods' realm beyond the sky, not invested in this confrontation in the slightest. But... I cannot leave this one be.

A predator was a hazard the Kelvic could contest.

I will not walk away.
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Caiyha

Postby Rhydian Lamoze on July 2nd, 2022, 4:39 pm

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"It is now that I call upon thee, Caiyha, goddess of creation. I would like to thank you for each and every one of the multitude of creatures that you have brought to this world. Not just them but the plant life as well. It is thanks to you that I can not only make and meet new friends, whether they be mortal or animal, but that I can enjoy delicious meals. You are the goddess of creation and yet to me, you are so much more. I vastly appreciate you and everything that you have done. Thank you."

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