Valaya

Valaya is the Goddess of Life.

Description
Valaya is the Goddess of Life. She is the symbol of divinity for all life and and healing, granting clerics who follow her the ability to fertilize land and cultivate life. She is thought to have sprouted deep in the Tenere Desert as a acacia tree. Though her exact location was lost to history, it is often said powerful followers of hers have been given visions of her transcended form.

Appearance
Her original form was a large acacia tree prior to godhood. When she ascended her physical body became an abstraction, her form appearing to followers minds. It is described as tree but also a forest full of living creatures. Her form is looking into all lives simultaneously, as a unity of life. It is heard that followers see themselves and their loved ones when seeing visions of her.

History
As the legend goes, Valaya was once a large acacia tree deep in the Tenere Desert. She was the most isolated form of life on the planet, hundreds of miles away from the next closest life form. This acacia tree was seen as a symbol of life, hope, and a means of survival to all life that encountered her. All creatures big and small, simple and complex, gave such faith to the tree that it grew and produced more, and took healing properties. Soon her legend grew, and so too did she.

Valaya is thought to have grow into the heavens and her exact location became lost. She has been known to appear to her followers, and skilled clerics are able to sprout a small plant which produces a beautiful fruit which has powerful healing properties.

Worshipers
Those who show faith for Valaya are often those who are involved in agriculture, or healing. Her temples are large and always have gardens that are tended by the clergy and those who have faith in her. The crops that grow in these grounds are more nutritious, and have healing properties which are used to heal the diseased and wounded. The crops that are grown are used to prepare meals in the evening for the hungry, and none are turned away from the feeding halls. The leftovers from the feast are then bundled into small packages and delivered to those in need in the nearby streets.

The temples of Valaya also offer funerary services as death is what feeds the growth of future life, bodies are typically buried in the ground as so they can be reabsorbed from the soil and continue the cycle of life and death. Great followers of Valaya have been reported to have beautiful flowers grow directly on top of their grave site.