> *“Sweet Mother, Ashen Mother, weeping we found your limbs burning, amidst a desolate throne…” —translation of an elven dirge, 105 RY* One of the most well-known gods of the East, Aimti is honored in various ways by many. To most, she is the beloved reason for good harvests and healthy-born children, the fortunate plenty and longevity, the keeper of all living things. She has an especially close relationship with her firstborn creations, the [[Elves]]. However, much like those children, there is quite the disconnect between the myths of Aimti and the reality of her nature. She is associated strongly with nature and growing things, but represents both the tameness of civilized agriculture and the ferocity of the wilds. ### Titles and Honorifics Most commonly, Aimti is referred to as the Life-Giver. Among humans, she is also known as the Green Mother, the Bringer of Plenty, or the Lady of the Harvest. These titles have permeated most of the East, but they are far from the only names she wears. Elves revere her as the Ashen Mother, the Elentári, the Weaver, or sometimes style her the Queen of the Undying. ### Symbols and Favored Weapon Typically, people represent Aimti with the symbol of a rose surrounded by a ring of thorns, though images of a woman draped in a cloak of leaves are also not uncommon. In the northern lands of [[Ash Kordh]] and [[The Mere]], her favored bloom is instead *niphredil*, also called elf-flower for its strange renewal. In elven tradition, the symbol of a flower is instead replaced with a blackened tree, reflecting the burning the goddess endured in [[Godfall]]. While most do not think of her as a warrior goddess, she is often portrayed holding a shortsword in elven depictions. This may explain the appearance and prevalence of elven shortswords, usually referred to as *saressë* (singular “*saress*”), blades of moonlight and strange steel found nowhere beyond [[The Vale of the Undying]]. ### Domains and Powers Aimti’s domains are life, renewal, growth, and nature—and, though this is far less well known, time. Elves credit her with the creation of both their people as her favored children and the weaving of the world itself. Most human accounts split the credit for the latter feat between her and the other gods of the East, but a few fragmented sources suggest that Aimti is an expression of [[Creation]], but not its creator. Whatever the case, she is a source of potent magic and unquestionably created The Vale of the Undying, the great forest of the Elves. While every god of Creation is said to have the ability to gaze beyond the present into the past and future alike, Aimti stands apart from the others in elven mythology as one who could pass forward and back at will, walking the currents of prophecy and possibility like a spider on an infinite web. It is said in older, fragmentary myths, that Aimti was the one who learned [[The Deceiver]]’s designs and used her knowledge of the future to shatter the darkness before the gods themselves could be completely overthrown by the powers of [[Void]]. Other evidence for Aimti’s connection to the control of time is in the incredibly long lives of her firstborn, the elves. As a people that do not succumb to the ravages of aging, they share some piece of her divinity, which some scholars have theorized as the origin point for [[Elf-Magic]]. ### Manifestations and Personality The true character and nature of Aimti is something that varies across myths, painting her as an inconsistent and often capricious character. Humans tend to view her as the gentle, yielding mother of all things living, but even they will attribute famines and floods to her displeasure. Scholars often suggest Aimti is a goddess of many aspects, and while some may be loving and gentle, others are far less so. She is growth and abundance, all the beauties of nature, but also the cold-hearted and sharp-tongued prophetess who only fools ignore. Aimti gives much of herself, but never without a price. Of all the gods, Aimti is paradoxical in nature, perhaps the least of her true self known despite being venerated in every corner of the East. In this, it is perhaps best to keep the elven description of her in mind: the softness of flowers, the cruelty of thorns. Aimti’s power has not been seen outside the Vale since Godfall, but it is rumored that a physical manifestation of her still exists within the shattered halls of one of the elven courts, preserved within a chrysalis of crystal and raw magic, waiting for a day where she will one day again be whole. The elven stories of Aimti since Godfall state that she slumbers in silence there, body and visage burned beyond recognition. Only a select few have ever heard her speak, a stirring prompted only by the twists of those chosen by Fate, much to their misfortunes. ### Worshipers Beyond the Vale of the Undying, Aimti has many worshipers of all races, most of whom dedicate themselves to peaceful agrarian lives and tending to nature. Human farmers are quick to pay her tribute in the celebrations of planting and harvest alike, while the wild people of the north honor her as they tend to the natural world around them. Midwives and mothers almost always invoke Aimti to ward off evil (ironically often including elves, at least in [[The Kingdom of Yssa]]) and beseech her for protection in childbirth. She also serves as a goddess of fertility and love for most of the East, though more often familial love than romantic, as [[Mode]] is often invoked for help in courting and charming. Within the Vale of the Undying, Aimti holds a sway over the elves almost equal to [[Tek]]’s hold on the [[Dwarves]], virtually monotheistic in her power. It is said every elf pays homage to the goddess who gave them life, an affinity the few half-breeds who exist also tend to favor. Aimti does not demand singular focus or the exclusion of other gods, but elven nature is a mirror of her own, and so they hold her in a special regard. The elven disdain for other gods also weights matters in her favor. ### Dogma and Anathema Because Aimti’s character varies so widely across different myths and cultures, her dogma is surprisingly flexible on most things. She is concerned with the preservation and creation of life and is said to look favorably upon healers and those who cultivate the natural world around them, extending even to those who garden or farm. As a mother goddess, it is often depicted that she has a special fondness and consideration for children. General tenets of the faith are to preserve life where it arises, treat nature with respect, and leave the wilderness be. Elves are said to obey Aimti’s sacred law, [[The Vessemë]], which prohibits the shedding of elven blood and absolutely forbids murder on pain of far, far worse than death. Anathema to Aimti is Void and all its servants, especially those living creatures that have abandoned their place in the natural order to serve it. While death can find its place in nature, the hunger of nonexistence is not to be tolerated in any form, and her faithful seek to destroy [[Sorcery]] and knowledge of it wherever it crops up. ### Enemies Though all the gods were once in alignment against the forces of Void, it certainly seems to be the case that the experience of Godfall soured the goddess incredibly on her allies. Aimti’s elven followers almost universally scorn the other gods, especially [[Sol]], as betrayers who abandoned their goddess to her fate in the aftermath. In addition, Aimti is in open opposition to the [[Demons]] and all other forces in the world that answer to Void. Even her human followers carry on the latter tradition, opposing [[The Imperium]] and other demons vociferously and occasionally abandoning their otherwise peaceful natures to stand against such threats.