Gwynna
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| Gwynna, the Earthmother | |
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| Domains | Life, birth, growth, plants, growing things, creation, the moon, motherhood, young animals, farming, fertility |
| Subsidiaries: |
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| Additional Symbols | lamb, sheaf of wheat, phased moon, basket, hoe, hearth, three stacked rocks |
| Colors or Aesthetics | Green, Gold, and White |
Basic Overview
Gwynna is the over-arching creator goddess who is held to be responsible for the creation of life itself and mortal sentient life in particular. She is revered throughout the Thracian world as a figure of benevolent positivity, and as one half of the pattern of life and death shared with her co-creator, the god Nul. Gwynna is additionally the matriarch of the gods themselves, having brought forth not just this pantheon but all gods in the distant mythological pasts where epochs passed in which the immortals battled for control, supremacy, and worshippers before being formally organized under the dominion of her last children, Verax and Vindikari, who came to bring order to the gods. In this way, she is a connection point that helps draw in and connect outside deities and absorb them into the larger Thracian context when needed.
As the goddess of life, Gwynna has a broad purview of domain interests. In addition to creation itself, she governs birth, growth, youth, motherhood, and fertility. She is also revered for the rebirth of life in spring, for the growth of plants and the success of agriculture, and for animals both wild and those kept as livestock. She is considered a generous and benevolent goddess, but because of her sheer vastness she is one who operates at a firm remove from mortal affairs. Prayers to her tend to take the form of desires that natural processes proceed according to best possible outcomes without interference rather than particular requests for divine intervention.
Gwynna is closely associated with the Moon, demonstrative of motion and the cycle of nature and the seasons. This association descends from the perception of order itself, the parent universal constant that brought Gwynna into existence at the beginning of time itself, became manifest in the existence of the Sun. Gwynna, then, as part of the moon or in deep relation to the moon, is still partnered with Nul who represents the other half of the cycle of life and death. While Gwynna's primary symbol is the forked horns of a crescent moon, Nul is represented by a black circle. This is often understood to represent a new moon, along with many metaphysical concepts associated with transitions and darkness. The moon always returns, expands, broadens, shines, and retreats, and so pass the seasons and life itself.
Gwynna is without a doubt the most widely and generally revered of all Thracian gods with temples across the world and secondary attribution in countless temples to the other gods. She is identified and connected to the creator goddesses of almost all other mythologies, and that connection helps to bring worshippers into the Thracian way along with their gods. She is perhaps not the most exciting of chosen deities, lacking the extreme glamour of some of the more dynamic figures, but positive regard for her is boundless.
While Gwynna is the patroness of life itself, her worship is not necessarily highly naturalistic. She is as much the goddess of the grain in the fields as she is the wolf in the wild, and the dynamic relationship between the wild and free and life constrained but bountiful is a part of the deeper mystery of her worship. Because she is a remote figure and not constant or directly involved in the lives of mortals, she is able to encompass much more than other gods with stronger opinions. Gwynna will not be invoked in a crusade against the development of land, but she might be invoked in efforts to counter destructive contamination or pollution. Gwynna cares both for the hungry fox and the chickens on which it predates, but her best love is almost universally considered to be for the mortals. As her most beloved creation, mortals (especially humans) enjoy privileged and somewhat dominionist positioning in the eyes of their goddess, such that in a dispute between her beloved fox and beloved chickens, the chickens would get the goddesses favor on account of their necessity to the well-being of the farmer.
Subsidiaries
In addition to her own benign work, Gwynna oversees the work of a collection of lesser demigods, the most prominent of which are Luprisca, Vestia, and Palles. Luprisca is the goddess of childbirth itself. While a figure of joy, she is also considered to be in collaboration with Tana, goddess of childhood mortality and servant of Valerian, to decide when the outcome will be unfavorable. This is not a battle between the two goddesses, one fighting for the child to live and the other for the child to die, but instead a collaboration and selection in which neither is strongly committed to either outcome. Luprisca is instead devoted to preserving the life of the mother, and is thought to exert herself to that end rather than on behalf of the infant. As such, Luprisca is both honored and deeply feared by expectant mothers, and offerings to Luprisca and Gwynna both are important for devotees expecting a child. Luprisca's emblem is the peacock, or the feather of a peacock's tail, possibly because of the contrast between the great beauty of the bird and it's mournful, haunting call.
Vestia is the goddess of hearth-fires and the home. With Gwynna being the ultimate representation of motherhood, Vestia represents the strong influence women have over their home and families throughout history and across many cultures. The hearth fire is an emblem of the devotion mothers give to the health and safety of their family. Vestia is a popular patroness with followers of any gender as she represents the strength of family, the power of preparedness, and the consolation of community. Additionally, she is considered the safekeeper of virginity, particularly in cultures that place severe influence on its governance. Stones in fireplaces, chimneys, and foundations are frequently carved with her symbol, a cup or bowl bearing an eternal flame.
Palles is the god of livestock and the shepherds that take care of them. He is considered a gentle and benevolent figure who is given humble tributes and delights in the birth of newborn animals. Palles is known to love music and to take joy in solitary song, making him a romantic figure in art and literature. The figure of Palles is involved in a handful of tempestuous legends involving the wooing of other goddesses or virtuous mortal women, giving bountiful gifts and performing feats of devotion. He is not regarded as a rapacious philanderer, however, instead more of an immortal lonely minstrel falling in and out of love over centuries. His symbol is the shepherd's crook, often associated also with pipes and with Gwynna's lambs.
Mythology
Mother of all the gods, Gwynna first birthed life into the world and then filled it with all the plants, animals, birds, fish, and mortals. She created gods to rule over the mortals, as well, and for all of ancient times those gods competed and disputed amongst themselves in endless conflicts and conflagrations that would change the way they interacted with mortal life. In this constantly tempestuous time, Gwynna and her partner Nul conceived and bore many children, greater and lesser gods some of whom rose to great prominence and persist even to this day. Each had additional children with other gods and goddesses as well, and they are the founding root of the tree that is the entire pantheon.
With Nul, Gwynna bore eight of the most prominent of the pantheon. First came Marina and Nimbus, a pair to rule the sea and sky. After those two came Collen and Erixx, who reign over magic and knowledge. At fifth and sixth in the line came Thorin, ruler of the forests, and Valerian, goddess of fortune.
In an interim period, Gwynna and the goddess of inspiration, Ebude, came together to bore the son Coron, god of craft. Ebude is the daughter of Cyra, love goddess, who is herself the offspring of Thorin and Valerian. These pairings which would be regarded as incestuous and problematic in mortals are commonplace amongst the gods and not seen as ill-omened or inappropriate. The gods are divine, ineffable, and not subject to the same difficulties as mortals.
In fact each of Gwynna's children had more children of their own and more and more and so on until there were and are a great many figures of greater and lesser importance. With the gods so many and so disorderly, Gwynna and Nul knew they must create someone whose task was to rule. They were of divided opinion on how that rule should take place, both seeing different visions of balance and perfection, but their intention was strong nonetheless and late in the making of the Gods they begat the great twins, Verax and Vindikari. Verax was god of Truth and Justice, while Vindikari was the Goddess of Vengeance. Created to govern the Gods they oversaw the calming of the wars and squabbling and improved the order of all things.
Popular Myth
Gywnna's many children enjoy full and busy immortal lives without always being as appreciative as they ought to be of her divine gifts. Not only is Gwynna the source of their own lives and the world in which their worshippers reside, but she is also the creator of the nectar and ambrosia they eat and drink which makes them young and vigorous throughout their immortal lives. These godly consumables are kept secretly in a hidden garden far from the eyes of any visitor, tended to by nymphs in the wilderness and brought forth by them only at Gwynna's request. Mortals periodically attempt to burgle these treasures but meet a collection of bad ends, none the least of which is successfully stealing either one. The nectar and ambrosia of the gods is far too potent for mortals to consume and will burn through them like wildfire if eaten. Gwynna keeps her garden secret not just to moderate the healthy production of these bounties but to protect them from those who refuse to listen to sound advice.
Being very momentous and somewhat retiring, Gwynna does not factor personally in many of the exciting stories of back and forth that embroil the vast and troubled pantheon, but she can be moved to approval or disapproval by the antics of her descendants. One example of this is the romance of Palles as the goddess Helena, a servant of Vindikari who acts are a herald for judgement. Helena brought a declaration of vengeance to shepherds with whom Palles was passing an evening, enchanted by their lovely music and happy to share time and a meal with them as friend. He had disguised himself as a mortal for the occasion, and was entirely unprepared for Helena's declaration that these men would die for great wrongs committed against their neighbors.
Palles was so shocked that he revealed himself and got into an argument with Helena about it, insisting that terrible people deserving of judgement couldn't possibly be capable of such monstrosity so surely there was some great mistake. This was a dire offense to Helena whose mistress doesn't make mistakes. The shepherds got well out of it right away as the immortals argued, meeting their own fate later. Helena argued that the beautiful and the terrible go hand in hand, Palles that beauty speaks to purity of heart, it was a great dispute and can be rendered fictionally in many plays or stories. Neither one of them had a great argument, because neither was willing to attribute much complexity to the mortals in question. Both of them mortally offended, they sought redress from the other, greater gods to settle their dispute about the relationship between beauty and goodness. Because they were not important and not behaving with great dignity, they had trouble getting much of a hearing. Gods and Goddesses might side with one, the other, both, or neither, but wouldn’t devote much time to the reply or have any patience with ongoing debate, so it would become a fresh argument immediately after each consultation. Some gods even deliberately made the argument worse in purpose just for the joy of seeing them fight about it. This was particularly true of Ixius, the demigod of madness in service to Erixx, who thought their discord was funny.
The two did spend a whole lot of time together, full of righteous indignation and outrage, and through testing their philosophies and arguments against one another got to know each other pretty well.
The last person they decided to consult was Gwynna, whom Palles had not wanted to trouble particularly given that his ongoing histrionics were certainly causing a bit of dereliction of duty. Gwynna, however, was stirred to more than just a mild disapproval. These two were fighting about her beloved mortals while both having only the faintest fickle notion of what mortals are about or concept that their lives mattered at all. She gave them both a pretty severe talking to and assigned them an arduous task they had to complete together. They were to live as mortal for a year together (sometimes year and a day) so that they could find out the truths they were missing when it came to mortal goodness.
It turned out that being mortal was complicated, a lesson well learned by both who went on to be more sympathetic towards their lessers in the future. Additionally, they shared a passionate apology and protracted love affair during the enforced exile, from which they produced a gifted mortal son whom they named Penitus. Because they were mortal when it happened, by Gwynna's rules, the child was mortal also, and this meant that Palles and Helena had a great deal of time to learn about the birth, life, passion, suffering, decline, and death of a mortal life - a term of education much more extended than had originally been clear from Gwynna's decree.
Worship
Simple Devotions
The simplest and most widespread devotional act for worshippers of Gwynna is the creation of little cairns of stacked-up natural stones. These tend to be three stones high, balanced vertically and placed to be visually striking. They can be found everywhere. The number 3 is sacred to Gwynna in art and song, but it is not necessarily the case that the cairn must be three stones high. They are very seldom more than five or six, however, and evaluation of the quality of the tribute is entirely qualitative, so it is not better to have more stones but instead to have chosen particularly good ones that stack very nicely. Only natural stones are used. These cairns represent the primal connection to the earth and the manifestation of creation, and making them is both an offer or tribute and a meditative practice.
Inside of homes, cairnstones are not used. Instead, worshippers of Gwynna will have household objects and commonplace articles inscribed with the humble symbol of her horned moon. Prayers invoking her are made ad hoc and without formality, and a family shrine might feature anything from a bundle of grain stalkes to carved figures of the goddess, lambs, small baskets, and so on. Practices are extremely variable, as she has taken on the universality of aspect in all creator goddesses.
Major Religious Centers
Temples to Gwynna abound throughout the world. They often include features such as hospitals for expectant mothers and places to care for sick or injured animals as well as charitable undertakings particularly when it comes to feeding the poor. Methods for achieving priesthood in any given temple vary and there is no international governing structure or order of knighthood associated with her worship.
Formal Orders
There is, however, the Sacred Ring (also called the Sacred Ring of Gwynna). This is an organization that helps to coordinate between priests and temples in particular with regard to the pursuit of philanthropic emergencies and to care and tend to the spiritual needs of those in rural places. The Sacred Ring serves to facilitate cooperation not just between temples of Gwynna but also other religious groups and is considered fairly nonpartisan, religiously speaking, but most of the members of the group are priests of Gwynna. Membership is achieved through apprenticeship to a current member of the group who provides instruction in collaboration and community service as well as skill in medicine for people as well as beasts. Novitiates must be ordained in the priesthood in good standing in their own temples. Members who complete their apprenticeship are called "Priors" or "Priors of the Sacred Ring" and wear a sash or belt braiding together strands or cloth of green, gold, and white, the colors of the goddess. They are often found moving through the remote places of the world making sure no one need go hungry, godly, or unattended. They can be relied upon to find themselves called upon in the wake of major disasters.
The Sacred Ring has a strong relationship in particular with Nul's Order of Solace, whose mandate includes providing religious and particularly funerary services to those in need. While the Sacred Ring is not a martial order, it is not innately pacifist either. Priors, like many servants of Gwynna, tend towards non-violence in a general way out of respect for life but do not consider it a major mandate of their service. Nature is red in tooth and claw, after all, and priests or priors of Gwynna can be quite adamant in the defense of those they consider their charges.
Presence in Alba
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