Thaera
 | This article is incomplete because it is pending further input from participants, or it is a work-in-progress by one author. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. Note: To contribute to this article, you may need to seek help from the author(s) of this page. |
| Thaera Tiraiya (Khadenz) Tareia (Kuredt) | |
|---|---|
Goddess of the Stars and Night, the Hunt, Seeking, Archery | |
| File:Thaera.jpg Artist's impression of Thaera as goddess of the hunt | |
| Weapon | Kerufevë |
| Artefacts | Sidereal Crown |
Thaera (Khadenz: Tiraiya; Kuredt: Tareia), also known as Taerya, is the Ethlorek goddess of the stars and night, as well as of the hunt, seeking and archery. She is a higher deity in the Ethlorek pantheon and is the central figure in the Trellinese state religion, Thaerinism.
Background
Etymology
Origins
Thaera's origins remain highly contested, within both Thaerine doctrine and academic circles. No pre-Migration sources survive naming her specifically, though the Ethlorekoz certainly had a goddess sharing many of Thaera's attributes. The first appearance of the name Thaera in a textual document is from 263 BC, when a declaration by the new king Temuir I praised his "predecessor and fathers' mother, the lady Thaera". This quote has given rise to two principal scholarly camps - one which maintains that Thaera is the first queen of the Trellinese, later deified and taking on the unnamed goddess' role, and the mother of Temuir's father Amadar, and another which argues that the line refers to her as the mother of all the Ethlorekoz and that there was no Queen Thaera.
Thaera in mythology
In old Ethlorek mythology, Thaera was considered a relatively minor member of the higher pantheon. The Aqvatanzian people were mainly settled and pastoral, and had little interest in hunting or searching as pursuits or narratives. Indeed, it is believed that worship in the Tanz River Valley centred on figures such as the river god Tanas, of the Tanz, and Arnyü, the chief fertility deity. During their migration towards Trellin, however, the Aqvatanzian/Ethlorek peoples came to associate more strongly with the Thaerine motif of seeking and paid greater reverence to the goddess because they navigated chiefly by the stars, which were associated collectively with Thaera.