In the mountains of the Western Terrains of the Earth's most mountainous region, a pious village inhabits the surrounding areas of a rocky temple, serenely erected, boldly withstanding the ruiness visages of the seasons -- in honor of the Goddess of Chastity, Fertility & Hunt โ
[NAME] (
[NAME]). The Village is well-hidden in the area, draped in its meek and humble living, uniquely strengthened in its divinity and praise for the Goddess as a place where Elves and Humans live dutifully and in unity amongst each other as the heart of the physical realm to
[NAME]'s prowess. The Village is a sought after legend for the believers in
[NAME], and only the faithful are permitted through her graves to walk the path between the mountainous terrain and enter into the harmonious territory.
Rights of passage by living in the village are endured with gratitude. One of the most famous and dedicated rights is the Rights of the Cardinals. Every three years, it is custom for the Village to gift the Goddess one young, virgin female who has only just reached the likeness of her womanhood virgin. The young women's hand is spiritually sacrificed and solidified by oath in an elaborate and divine ceremony as she is ordained a maiden of
[NAME] and referred to as a Cardinal, a handmaiden who abides her entire life's work under the chastity of the Lรฝkos Temple and in honor, praise, and worship to and for the Goddess
[NAME].
Such great honor is bestowed upon the women who are deemed virtuous and chaste enough to be granted the gift of such a beautiful privilege. It is spoken quite ruthlessly, however, that the struggle of a Cardinal is not easy. Nonetheless, the true intricacies of the job are a mystery to the outside world. For such a case, the Cardinals are treated with utmost respect and revere -- as prophetesses and oracles, and women who cower from the likeness of the Cardinals are dismissed as unworthy and dishonorable disciples of the Goddess. As it has been passed down through generations of storytelling, the Goddess has bestowed ฮฮฉฮ (Life) upon the Village and all of its inhabitants. Should the Village fail to sanctify its Life with purity, the ฮถฯฮฎ (Being) shall be withheld; the waters shall cease to pour forth; the crops shall cease to produce and be plenty; the animals shall cease to be abundant and worthy for food; the women shall cease to be with child; the village shall cease to exist.
This Western Terrain, so veiled in its modesty has a hidden name. The power in its name is taught with great authority and law as the key to its virginity, and thus, even uttering the Village's name has been forbidden and only taught to the Cardinals sometime after their ordination has made them worthy participants as Key Holders of the Village. The Cardinals do more than just protect sacred traditions, but they are taught, as a known fact in the Village, to be huntresses, skilled and trained in the Arts of Hunting -- marked by Archery: Arrows and Longbows.
The honor of such a position in the Village's society is so high that families groom their daughters in prayerful hopes of becoming a handmaiden of
[NAME]. However, it is rightfully been declared law that Cardinals are to be Half-Elfin and Half-Human. Arrangements and Ancestry are studied prior to the like of Matrimony being considered between two members of the Village.
Malehood and his honors does not fall anything close short of that of a Cardinal -- holding other such authoritative positions as leaders and lawmakers, stoic to the cause. It is taught that although
[NAME] bestows such life into Nature, it is not without the Touch of the Male does her cosmic connection bend through Time. And so, the Lรฝkos Temple allows one Elfin Priest (Elfin due to longevity and mysticism) to abide his wisdom inside her temple. His piety is very old and carefully considered before the former's repose. Through his antiquity, his chastity is measured with extreme caution to prevent scandal or the wrath of
[NAME]. He is never to learn the name of the Village. As well, on the outskirts of the Village, there are various temples -- smaller in nature than Lรฝkos, which houses males who practice chastity and monasticism in honor of the Goddess
[NAME]. However, there is only one temple, which allows for females -- Lรฝkos Temple -- the Holiest Temple of the Goddess
[NAME].
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The Ancient Story of the Goddess
[NAME] is preserved in the tradition of the Village as a well-known tale often depicted and re-animated through gatherings and Hellenistic pleasures such as music or other theatrics. The most famous tale of the Goddess that is cherished weaves her history as thus:
Conceived scandalously by the King of Gods and his mistress, the Goddess
[NAME] climbed into the temple of her father's lap during her third Lunar Year of age and asked him to grant her six wishes - to remain a virgin, to have many names to set her apart from her brother, to be the Light Bringer, to have a Bow & Arrow and a knee-length tunic so that she may hunt, to have sixty "Daughters of Okeanos" to serve as her choir, and for twenty Amnisides Nymphs (Fae) as Handmaidens to watch her dogs and bow while she rested. Her father, the King of Gods, granted these wishes, and her most favored wish, the first one, to remain a virgin became her most important ฮดฯฮณฮผฮฑ (Dogma) to uphold.
ฯฮฑฯฮธฮตฮฝฮนฮฌ (Virginity) as an eternal virtue was so important that even during such a time that the chaste Goddess did allow her heart to open once to another God not of her own family, and her brother -- pious in his jealousy -- tricked the Goddess into shooting one of her arrows through the God's head. It was later made true that the now reposed God had plans of murdering every wild creature on Earth. For her brother's jealousy and her lover's foolery,
[NAME] has dismissed the likeness of friendship between male and female as not being anything but unchaste.
Her domain, reigning over prosperity, fertility, and chastity, many Mortals called upon her name -- often, in the midst of the night when the Moon had unveiled her own face -- for help in sustaining Life, and through wisdom of her past actions, she sought to continue such good fortune and set apart a village from the rest of the World. In this village, she also hid away the seed of her own heart so that she may not fall prey to another God and lose her ฮฑฮธฯฯฯฮทฯฮฑ (Innocence). In show of her mercy, understanding, and repentance upon her brother, she allowed males to dwell in the village alongside the females of her choosing.
Mortal Creatures of her choosing were Elves and Humans, alike.
[NAME] took a fondness to the Human Form, but she knew their wisdom and powers were limited, and from such knowledge, she drew the eloquent beauty and magic from the Elves. In her most sacred place of worship, Lรฝkos Temple, only chaste, virgin maidens -- of half-Elfin and half-Human are allowed to dwell inside the Lรฝkos walls, and to consecrate her adoration towards her brother, she set aside a seat for a male Elfin High Priest. Keeping the traditions of the Moon Goddess abundantly are a dogma for the Village to keep it from disease and decay by the powers of
[NAME] -- and thus, the Fertility of Life would be cursed.
The Moon Goddess now clothes herself from the Mortal World and is said to only intervene physically for specific reasons. The willful veil that keeps the Goddess from entering the Mortal World is said to be a garment that keeps her modesty abundant in fruits on the Earth, and during the rare and holy occasions that
[NAME] does show her face, it is under the moonlit night, as to use the shadows of the night as a covering of her zeal and image.
