Lore24 Mar 29: Aol-Nae, the All-Seeing Orbital Goddess

It is said that that the goddess Aol-Nae has thousands of eyes in the sky. Unlike the Sun or the stars, she can observe the world at any time of the day, yet she cannot see anything that is obscured from the heavens by a roof, a simple tarp, or even a just the clouds. She is deaf to almost anything that is said as well. She does, however know much of history, and can give her followers the knowledge on how to construct strange magical device whose powers cannot be replicated even by the most capable sorcerers. She is also one of the few beings who know the secret of reliably manufacturing steel.

Her followers are few and far between, as one needs a special artifact in their possession for her to even hear their prayers and answer. Some priests and priestesses inherit it from their mentors, and a lucky few find them in forgotten places or buy them from hapless explorers who have no idea of the power of the device they sell. In fact all of her spells and miracles come in the form of devices, most often strange metal boxes with some form if thin rods of unknown material sticking out of one end.

Her powers are vast and varied, but unlike other deities she is entirely dependent on her followers physically transporting her artifacts to places where her miracles are to take place. This makes her a supreme goddess in places where her followers live, but quite obscure everywhere else. Of course most places learned the hard way that when one of her priests or priestesses arrives, they are to be respected and feared. She can grant boons ranging from controlling the weather, to causing large metal boxes filled with raw ores of unearthly quality or strange edible pastes that can sustain an adult for three days per serving to fall from the sky. Then there is her most feared miracle, where a pillar of blinding light descends from the sky, capable of destroying an entire city in an instant.

Her biggest cultic center is the Iron City of Morgonda, where most of her followers live. She is also associated with the metal men, who sometimes live near large buildings or own strange devices with her name, spelled as A01-N4E, written on them. Her symbols are geometric designs made up of straight lines with circles on the end, a female figure with four arms and legs, enclosed by a square and a circle, and a small circle sitting on top of a larger one.

She usually depicted as a female of indeterminate age with her hair made out of vines or wires, spreading beyond the frame, as a flaming wheel, or as a kingfisher.

Her holy day is the 132nd day of the year, which her followers celebrate with singing hymns, burning branches fallen from sacred trees, and by anointing her artifacts with sacred oils. Curiously she doesn’t demand animal or grain sacrifices, famously declaring “what need so I have for those?”.

 Image by Timmon26

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