Godsend [IC]

[The_Snark]

I. Of Athrea and her Sisters

The Derro say that in the youth of the world there were three goddesses of the waters. First and fairest was Athrea, the Light-on-Water, ruler of the sunlit shallows and the open ocean. Second came Meliandre, Whisper of the Depths, mistress of the deep sea and keeper of forgotten things. Last was Ethaile, Rider on the Tempest Winds, queen of the wind and rain, whose endless wanderings brought life-giving rains or calamitous storms according to her mood. Together they shared dominion over all the waters of Creation, and sang life into being; in those days the waters of the sea were sweet and good to drink, and all manner of beautiful and wondrous creatures dwelled from their domain.

Yet unknown to them, a terrible creature slept beneath the sea, and after a time the song of the three sisters woke it from its slumber. It looked up at the world, and at once both hated and desired it, and in particular the goddesses who had worked so hard to make it fair. It reached out with a thousand arms, seeking to claim the ocean for its own and with it drown the world. Dark-haired Meliandre was first to face it, and first to fall, for such was the beast’s power that no god or goddess could hope to best it single-handed; but she called to her sisters for aid before the end, and they came. Athrea held the tides in place to halt the monster’s onslaught, while Ethaile scourged it with lightning and killing winds until both she and it were utterly spent.

When at last the monster fell, Athrea saw both her sisters had perished, and wept bitterly for a hundred years. Her tears cleansed the titan’s poisonous blood from the water, yet alone and grieving she could not remake the ocean as the three goddesses together had. This is why the waters of the sea are salt, and give no life.


Is the story true? Yes and no; like many myths, it holds truth and falsehood in equal measure. Meliandre and Ethaile were quite real, and their purviews and character were much as described in Derro tales. But Athrea was in no way their elder, and they were not the rulers of the sea; rather, they were made to ornament the courts of the Titans, to sing and dance for their pleasure when they retired from their endless warring to take their leisure. But few indeed are the mortal tales that share this fact - for who wishes to believe their sacred goddess began life as a humble concubine? And what goddess would boast of that?

Of the battle itself, little is accurate; whatever her deeds in the war, Athrea does not care to tell tales of them. Indeed, the Titans themselves are all but forgotten in most of her followers' stories, sometimes presented as terrible monsters but only rarely given names - and certainly never credited with the creation of the gods. As far as mankind is concerned, Athrea’s origins are unknowable. Where does the sea begin? Where does it end? She simply is.

But the greatest secret - the one that no mortal legend speaks of, no matter how ancient or obscure - is this: the sisters of the sea numbered not three, but four. Gentle Alhuanna, Maiden of the Sea-Foam, who once walked the shores and welcomed others to partake of the bounty of the seas, refused to join the battle against the Titans. Though she never raised a hand against the rebellion, still she was counted among the Akuto at war's end, and banished beyond the edges of the world.