Name: Haelia
Epithets: Burrier of Cities, Lady of Red, Bringer of Storms, etc.
Brief History: Haelia has ruled over the southern deserts for as long as any mortal record can remember. Haelia has a long history of patroning great and bloody wars. If Haelia makes an appearance on the battlefield or before a battle, it is not likely either side will be able to count themselves true victors for the cost of life will be high. Haelia has taken several mortal lovers but has never taken a husband and has made it clear that she is far too fickle and free loving to choose a husband much less try bind a mortal man to herself to ensure his life is tied with her own.
General Attitude: She is usually fairly sarcastic and can be rather grumpy but her temper is easy (and dangerous) to spark. Haelia does not need an excuse to fight and will do so at the drop of a hat if she pleases. However, Haelia is not completely blinded by her wrath. She can be level headed even in brutal violence and is thus quite a bit harder to trap compared to other creatures of wrath and fire.
Classic Mythos: Haelia was born from a bolt of thunderless lightning striking a sycomore fig tree in the desert. (There is a grand temple at the spot she is believed to have been born from and she normally calls that place home.) She burned as a fire in the tree for ninety days and ninety nights before the first rains of the wet season came and tried to drown her out. A flock of vultures who had played and traveled far among the currents of heat Haelia had created with her games in the tree, banded together and sheltered the fire under their wings. But Haelia had no other form but fire and so, even as the vultures guarded her and fed her bits of dry wood, the heat cooked their wings, turning them black and burned the feathers from their head. When the rains subsided and Haelia had seen what she had done to those who had saved her life, she was ashamed and thus was cast into a mortal form. Since that day she favors the vultures and allows them to fly higher than any other in her skies, guards them from her storms, and summons them when a battle is finished to feast and guide souls into the afterlife.
Popular Opinion: Feared and respected. Though she is largely known for her dominion over battle and bloodbaths, she also holds dominion over the hearths that feed families and the forages and ovens of craftsmen and for that she is cared for by her people.
Common forms of Worship: Burned herbs and fragrant or colored ashes rubbed into pieces of flawed pottery or metalwork that cannot be repaired or remade. Animal sacrifices are also done occasionally to mark new buildings with their blood to sate her hunger for blood so that she will not burn the building down to get it.
Dominant Magic Abilities: Haelia has a wide domain over many types of fire from nurturing hearths to raging grass fires to the harsh sands of the desert. In moments of weakness, sands are the most natural and easiest for her to summon up. She does have the habit of huffing smoke out of her nose and mouth when she is in a particularly bad mood, though.
Appearance: Haelia
Ex-Assassins turned body guards
Thomas and
Tabitha.
