Eryssa

The goddess of history, patience and time

Appearance and Personality

Being primarily worshipped by Corpsevines, Eryssa prefers large bodies, but she has no one preferred one. She will often change her exact appearance depending on how she feels on a particular day. In general, her body will be many meters high and appear as a mixture between her three favorite races. This means part of her body will be some kind of stone, mixed with different types of wood being merged into or growing from the stones. On top of this, many different kinds of plants are growing out of both the stony and the wooden parts of her body. She often collects plants she fears will die out and nourish them on her body, until she can find a habitat where she can plant them making sure they can continue to thrive.

As the goddess of time and patience, she likes to take things slow and never likes being in a rush, a quality she shares with her wife Velora which, along with them both caring a great deal for nature, led to them quickly becoming close friends. Similarly, both she and Velora are on bad terms with Orrix, believing the persuit of wealth and greed are responsible for the slow destruction of nature. They used to hold similar reservations against Volkaa, until the tragedy of Grundarimm after which they slowly warmed up to him.

History

Eryssa is the oldest of the lesser gods, born from the especially strong devotion of Corpsevines. She spent most of her years observing Moonspire, recording all major events but never interferring. Neither did she care much for any of the other gods, usually not attending the blood moon celebrations in Lunara's palace, or spending much time with any of them otherwise. With a few exceptions, namely Volkaa and Orrix, her opinions on these gods were fairly neutral.

This slowly started changing as she met Velora. Being the god of longetivity, she seemed to be the first to understand Eryssa's way of life And the two quickly grew closer, eventually becoming lovers. Through her, Eryssa gained a deep appreciation for life on moonspire, plants in particular, which led her to start collecting endangered species on herself and replanting them in places where they would flourish. One notable instance of this was the Everbloom, a flower that was once common all across Moonspire, but that slowly started to die out. Velora tried everything she could to keep the flowers alive, trying many different locations and methods of care. When nothing seemed to work and the flower was in danger of fully dying out, Eryssa took the last surviving one onto her body in hopes of someday finding a suitable location for it to survive. Only after studying the plant for many years, did she find a way to preserve it indefinitely. Inside the Moonveil Fen, she created an area protected by a magical barrier. Within this barrier, she created the perfect conditions for the everbloom to thrive and placed the flower inside. She dedicated this place to Velora with whom she had now spent many years together and the two eventually got married in front of the last everbloom. This place is now called Velora's sanctuary and Eryssa and Velora's wedding, along with the story of the Everbloom is to this day still celebrated by Corpsevines through many songs dedicated to them.

Both she and Velora never fell under Ryxos' influence, though he might have succeeded had it not been for Volkaa. After the Fever of the Deep took hold in Grundarimm, and Velora became friends with Volkaa, he warned her of the whispers, telling her to be careful of Kalia and how she planned to overthrow Lunara. And while they did not believe most of his claims, when they heard Ryxos, they were still careful. Combined with both of their slow natures, this was enough to hold off his influence at least until The Marking arrived. While Eryssa sometimes accompanied her wife during the blood moon festivals, on this particular night she was not present, preferring to watch the blood moon celebrations of the Corpsevines in the Skywood Grove on that particular year. When the first Moon Stones fell from the sky, she immediately recognized something was wrong and made her way to Lunara's palace. However, once she arrived it was too late. She could only witness the end of a brutal fight that had taken place, leaving Lunara imprisoned in the moon, and her wife badly injured. While Velora did manage to survive her injuries, she was not the same, her godly powers sealed and her spirit broken. Eryssa now spends all her time trying to heal her wife and restore her to before the events of the marking.