Uastra, the upholder of tradition, of harvest, and the preservation of the old ways. She is resistant to change and prefers tends to favour those who understand the past for the wisdom that it offers. Uastra is the first of the elves , having been raised to divinity by her mother Danu . She created the Shanata , and chose Nantillion the first member of the new race to uplift as a tertiary deity. She is married to Ranimsul . It is often said that he captured her heart by triggering her protective motherly feelings when she saw how scared Ranimsul was, for nothing really.
Tradition
Traditions are not created for nothing, they form around a need, or an old treaty, or a warning of things. They give a culture it's personality and should not be discarded lightly. Any gathering of people almost automatically and surprisingly quickly form their unique set of traditions, from subtle and unconscious to dramatic and written down. Worshippers of Uastra often catalogue traditions and pray to Uastra for a healthy and beneficial set when a new gathering takes place.
Harvest
Uastra is the goddess of harvest. Probably the most prayed for thing in the entirety of Heimr is a bountiful harvest of crops. Some farmers, especially elven farmers, pay lip service to Uastra every single day when they go to work but most simply pray to Uastra just before the harvest season in a grand mass to Uastra. Because this is the most prominent way to pray within Heimr it has also been the most studied. Several studies by several institutions have time and again proven that praying to Uastra seems to help improve the harvest, but they disagree wildly about whether or not the additional harvest is worth the sacrifices made to Uastra during the worship.
Preservation
Preservation is of course closely linked to "tradition" but it has a place of it's own in the religion. Preservation also speaks of closely cataloguing history. It speaks of physically taking care of your elders because they have wisdom that needs preserving for as long as possible. It also speaks of repairing an old home instead of building a new one, repairing a broken relationship instead of finding a new partner and repairing a sick company instead of sacking everybody and diving into a new market. People that need help doing these things or people that restore old artwork for instance often pray to Uastra. People that want to preserve their youthful appearance also pray to Uastra.
Evil vurses Good
The moral duality of Uastra stems from the clear line of where "preservation of the old" ends and "destruction of the new" begins. Worshippers of Uastra, both good and evil, often want the same thing and relatively rarely fight but their methods are highly different.
Good Worshipping methods
Uastra is often worshipped as part of traditional activities. Ploughing fields with traditional tools, preparing food in the way your ancestors did it, building houses in traditional styles, these can all be considered methods of worshipping Uastra. She will often be asked to give her blessing to those who respect the traditions. This way of life goes hand in hand with preserving the environment the way it was. If you cut down a tree, you plant another one. if something breaks, you ensure that it is restored to it's old state. This is the way of life Uastra represents.
Evil Worshipping methods
Evil worshippers of Uastra focused on uprooting the new. They are destructive to the extreme. Those who do not respect tradition are offered to the satyr, and anyone those attempting to make major changes to the environment might find themselves visited by the evil worshippers of Uastra. They are not above destroying young towns and replanting the forests in the corpses of it's settlers, or brutally assassinating progressive politicians.
Symbols
Uastra her colours are green and yellow, symbolizing the harvest and natural things. A bearded goat is associated with Uastra due to it's connection both with old things and the harvest. Pressed wheat and other major crops are obvious symbols of the harvest as are seeds and scythes. Old relevant records are also often dragged from dusty archives to be present at important rituals. Those records are however never sacrifesed and carefully places back in storage afterwards. When Danu claimed the "newfangled" and "fiery" violin as her instrument Uastra worshippers turned to the Vielle as their musical instrument of choice. The last symbol often used is anything associated with local customs or tradition, these vary from location to location.
Uastra is often depicted as a forever young elven girl holding a small scythe. Sometimes she is sitting on a stack of old book or records. In a popular image of her she is comically looking menacingly at a goat that is eating a piece of a record beneath her while sharpening her scythe. She often wears a natural dress of wheat or grass fabric. In most locally sold images of Uastra she is performing, enacting or symbolizing a local tradition and acts as a reminder to the locals. These are usually carvings in wood and can often be found in elven kitchens and living spaces.
Uastra has few nicknames, most worshippers refuse to call her anything but Uastra. But she has a few that stuck: "Preserver", "Reminder" and "Harvest lady". Making new nicknames and titles of Uastra is usually frowned upon unless they are very old local customs.
Angels Of Uastra
As her angels, Uastra created the scarecrow. They sit in the fields, often for years or centuries preserving the fertility of the land, and ensuring a bountiful harvest. Scarecrows can take many shapes or forms. Uastra's scarecrows do not only protect the harvest from birds. They protect the farm from those who want to disturb this ancient way of life. Mortals often build scarecrow bodies in hopes that an angel of Uastra will animate it in times of need.
Deamons Of Uastra
Her demons, the Satyr, are male humanoids who have goat horns and legs. They lure travellers with their magic flute play and than play them to sleep. Than they murder the young, old and sick, and keep the rest as slaves, they are not above tricking people into believing they are faun . Satyr make permanent settlements in the forests of Heimr, each settlement has it's own set of often bizarre customs and traditions for the slaves and Satyr to follow.
Realm
Main article: Divine realm of Uastra .
The divine realm of Uastra is divided into an old rotting, but never changing, woodland below and a healthy lush woodland above with terraces filled with crops.
Mandate of Uastra
Apart from the General mandate of the gods Uastra has expressed the following wishes from her followers.
General Uastra
- Value tradition
Good Uastra
- Preserve the environment
- Plant and nourish a tree or plant for every one you harvest
Evil Uastra
- Destroy change
- Uproot the new
- Kill the progressives