> [!infobox]+ Melora > > <div class="infobox-coat-of-arms"> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 5px;"> > <div class="character-name-container"><div class="character-main-name">Melora</div><div class="character-epithet">the Wild Mother</div></div> > </div> > </div> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 0.2em;"> > <img src="MeloraSymbol.png" alt="Melora" style="max-width: 250px; height: auto;" class="internal-image"> > </div> > <table class="infobox-table"> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Province</td><td class="infobox-data">Goddess of Nature, the Wilds and the Sea. Patron <a href="Deities.md" class="internal-link">deity</a> of hunters and sea travellers</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Alignment</td><td class="infobox-data">Neutral</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Symbol</td><td class="infobox-data">A wreath of natural materials</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Holy Day</td><td class="infobox-data">Wild's Grandeur, 22^nd Starfall</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Type</td><td class="infobox-data">Greater <a href="Deities.md" class="internal-link">Deity</a></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Home Plane</td><td class="infobox-data">Melora makes her home among the endless wilds of the <a href="Beastlands.md" class="internal-link">Beastlands</a>, though her essence is known to wander far beyond them, adventuring across the Elemental Planes</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Divine Champion</td><td class="infobox-data"><em>Not Known</em></td></tr> > </table> ### About The realm of Melora extends to wherever the seas shift and the land grows wild. As the keeper of the wilderness, the Wild Mother represents the wild creatures of nature, the rush of the angry rapids and the heat-heavy stillness of the desert. Hunters and the peoples of the wilds worship her, accepting her guidance to exist in harmony with savage lands, and those seeking safe passage across dangerous waters pray to her to guide them. Melora is the lover of [[Erathis]], the Lawbearer, a furious love that is tempered only when civilisation and nature are in balance, and together the two goddesses created the [[Humans]]. Before the [[Divergence]], she ruled the [[Wild Lands]] of [[Aekacira (Continent)|Aekacira]] from [[Melora's Grove]], and to this day the [[Wild Lands]] remain her truest temple. ### Depiction Immortalised through wooden reliefs and carved idols in hidden, overgrown groves and rural shrines, the Wild Mother is shown as a beautiful woman with green skin, nearly swallowed by a wild, tangled wreath of hair, leaves and vines that dwarfs her lithe form. Her holy symbol is a wreath of natural materials, though what it is made from varies greatly between her followers. Shepherds and farmers weave theirs from grass and wildflowers, often hung from a crook, while those who live by the sea fashion theirs from seaweed, and others still bind wreaths of twigs and branches from the forests around them. ### Divine Domains Many of the Wild Mother's clerics are granted powers of Nature, Tempest or Life. ### Holy Day Melora's holy day is Wild's Grandeur, which is celebrated on the vernal equinox, the twenty-second day of Starfall. The people of southern [[Stacia]] set aside this day to sail for no reason other than the pleasure of observing the natural beauty of their surroundings. Those who worship the Wild Mother take the day to appreciate the fruits and foods granted by the land and sea, leaving offerings of delicacies and small handmade crafts at temporary altars of twisted roots and grasses. ### Commandments of Melora - Protect the untamed wilderness from exploitation and destruction. - Slay abominations and other mockeries of nature. - Embrace and respect the savage nature of the world. Exist in harmony with it. ### History - #### The Age of Founding When the gods first arrived in [[Aeborhia]], it was Melora's beasts that roamed the land while the first sentient peoples lived as hunters and foragers. After watching over the creations of the other gods, Melora and [[Erathis]] created the [[Humans]] together, endowing them with hearts of passion and a spark of chaos that cursed them with short lives, yet blessed them with unquenchable ambition. During the [[Age of Founding|Schism]], Melora fought to protect the wilds from the [[Betrayer Gods]] and the [[Primordials]] they had allied with. Her greatest foe was [[Bane]], the Strife Emperor, who grew his armies by corrupting noble creatures into monsters and destroyed the wilds to fuel his engines of war. The two clashed many times, yet every battle between them ended in stalemate. Once the [[Betrayer Gods]] had been sealed away, only the [[Primordials]] remained. In 4539 BD, the final year of the [[Age of Founding]], Melora banished the last of them in the north of [[Stacia]], north of what is now [[Rexsall]]. The force of their banishment tore open the land, creating the great basin now filled by the [[Sea of Stillness]], and the elemental essences of the [[Primordials]] formed the four Elemental Planes. - #### The Age of Arcanum As the mages of the [[Age of Arcanum]] built their flying cities, those who could not wield arcane magic were left behind. Melora and [[Erathis]] helped guide these people, choosing [[Aekacira (Continent)|Aekacira]] as their home. While [[Erathis]] ruled the civilised lands from [[Kraesuine]], Melora ruled the [[Wild Lands]] from [[Melora's Grove]], on an island in the centre of the region. - #### The Dawn-War When the [[Betrayer Gods]] were released at the start of the [[Dawn-War]], Melora once again found herself facing [[Bane]], and once again their many battles ended in stalemate. Three years into the war, Melora clashed with [[Zehir]] somewhere over the Galaeron Ocean. Caught between them was Velder, a flying city of the [[Age of Arcanum]], which was brought down and lost. - #### Post Dawn-War With the [[Betrayer Gods]] sealed away, Melora left the [[Material Plane]] alongside the other gods at the [[Divergence]]. She now makes her home in the [[Beastlands]], an untamed plane of endless forests, sweeping grasslands, roaring rivers and towering peaks, where the sun, moon and stars wheel above wilds that have never known a road or a wall. Her essence, however, still wanders far beyond it, adventuring across the very Elemental Planes she helped to create. ### Modern Worship of Melora Melora is worshipped wherever the land grows wild, and most of all in the [[Wild Lands]]. There, the [[Appanoose Grasslands]] are said to be her open temple, where there are no stone cities, no kings and no walls, only the will of the wild and the guidance of the Wild Mother. Druids, shamans and beast-tamers interpret her will through bird cries, bubbling pools and shifting leaves, and pilgrims from across [[Aekacira (Continent)|Aekacira]] travel to [[Melora's Grove]], a neutral haven at the heart of the [[Wild Lands]]. In [[Aekacira (Country)|Aekacira]], she is a main god of [[Minraine]] and is honoured to a lesser extent in [[Kraesuine]], where she is worshipped alongside her lover. Joint temples to [[Erathis]] and Melora are common, such as the one at the centre of [[Reedmere|Reedmere's]] upper city, and her druids and the clerics of [[Erathis]] often work together to preserve the balance of nature and civilisation. In smaller towns, such as [[Lakegrove]], her temples often serve as the centre of the community. Elsewhere, she is honoured alongside [[Corellon]] in the [[Guewood]], and by sailors and coastal peoples across [[Stacia]]. Followers of the Raven Queen also show respect to the Wild Mother, as the caretaker of what remains when the Matron of Death's work is done. ### Known Worshippers of Melora #### Champions *Not Known* #### Other Worshippers - Matron Kassidra - An [[Elves|Eladrin]] priestess of the Temple of Melora in [[Zhavrin's Gate]].