Blade Maidens: What Fools These Mortals Be – 31

“To most, Mara is the queen of the seas. The tidebringer and shiptaker. As shifting and implacable as her domain. But to her devout, to the Brine-blessed, her domain is far, far more. They view Mara’s violent storms and mercurial waves as acts of passion.

Believing her to be the most (somewhat ironically) fiery of Telos’ many gods, prone to acts of blistering intimacy that can shake the very firmament of our realm. It’s this view that draws my attention most. Gyvenia the Rootmother is most widely associated with love and love-making, unsurprising given her stewardship of the harvest and fertility. But by regarding Mara as a figure of sweeping romance of a different kind, the door is opened to consider the Gods’ domains as malleable. That their personalities and proclivities shape their actions just as much as their abilities.

I’m sure most of you can relate in cratering to passion’s flame. Whether it is after a few drinks at the tavern or with someone you’ve courted for months, it can take as little as a shared glance to light the sparks. Sometimes with even the most unlikely of partners.

Who is to say the Gods are no different?”

– A passage from High Rector Krasis’ thesis, On the Nature of the Divine