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Guardian of the Earth

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Name: Stavaque

Meaning: Earth Born

Other Names: Erda, Earth, Terra, Friy, Githa and Mother Nature

Gender: Female

Normal Form: A Sphinx

Dragon Form: An Evergreen but more commonly and Earth Shaker (as pictured)

Clans Descended From Them: Unclear

Allegiance: Light

Homes: Stavakida

Relatives: Created by Alumina and Folab, Sister of Elctirnaba, Kotani, Amnara, Coreladid, Cassilado, Astrano, Quelaton and Gimnla

Mates: The Stag, Taur, Killian and Unknown Dragon

Offspring: Cassila, Kyros, Sigur and maybe one or two others

Suggested Voice Actor: Pat Caroll

Theme Songs: The Great Migration by James Horner

God of: The Earth

Greatest Ally: Amnara and Coreladid

Greatest Enemy: Elctirnaba and Quelaton

Comic Appearances: Unclear

 

Many legends abound of the goddess of the earth but here you will find only the limited legends about her. If anything, Stavaque is much more of a mystery to the world of Yedidya as she only ever appears when she is very angry. Born the first of the elements she leapt onto the barren crystal of Yedidya and slathered it in earth. Following at her heels Amnara watered the land and in a second circuit Stavaque raced around and filled the ground with grasses. But then Coreladid howled over the land and some of it burnt and cracked under heat, Astrano flew over it and froze sections and then Quelaton twisted around it and great mountains and wide canyons were formed. Angered Stavaque grew wings and flew over the land to try and heal it, but little grass grew, so she watched her younger siblings muck about and gripped two great islands of earth together and smacked them hard. Yedidya shook under her fury for the first time and her four younger siblings stopped and hid from her.

Then Stavaque new her land needed nourishment and when she had planted whatever she could from the dreams of Cassilado and herself, Stavaque grew breasts. She then lactated* over the ground and the mighty forests and pasture lands developed. The flowers erupted at the sensation of her warm breath as she strolled amongst the world and soon the dragons appeared. They ate everything and Stavaque begged for advice. Alumina gave her the gifts to create great life and gave it to all the other gods, but to Stavaque she gave a greater task….

“What you create here, dear sister, will be the food for my dragons but they will never kill for fun or they will risk your wrath. Your favoured beasts you create may be given the gift of protection in any form you wish.” Stavaque was startled but the curious words and in her first attempt she created the sheep, but it was a stupid animal and the birds of Quelaton loved to pluck them from the earth! On a second try she created the intelligent and observant pigs but greedy Amnara watched them with hunger and stole them whenever they passed by the water or squelched the mud enough for her creations to slide up the banks to grab them. So then Stavaque created the deer, beautiful and graceful with speed to help them keep from danger, but they were not as fast or as beautiful as the equines of Cassilado and the wolves of Coreladid hounded the deer for prey!

So then Stavaque decided to give the animals more protection, she gave antlers, tusks and horns to the males and encouraged them all to live together and protect one another. It eased the killing and amongst the deer Stavaque created a majestic animal that she chose to be her companion in the spring time – simply titled the Stag his antlers were as large and the points as tangled as tree roots. To him Stavaque gave a greater gift to keep the wolves from finding him, she let him step inside her trees and created tree guardians to keep the demons of Elctirnaba from burning her forests. But still there was no beast that Stavaque looked upon as truly special or truly strong against the great dragons that hunted.

She developed goats, gazelle, ox and bison, but they were so easy to pounce upon and much more blind to their attackers. She created elephants, rhinos, camels and hippos to try and match the dragons but none seemed so close. Eventually though she took one more chance and created a series of different coloured animals she called cattle. Both genders were horned but unlike their ox and buffalo companions, they were neater in build with larger but more accurate horns. Their patch work of colours made the dragons fearful, were they poisonous? Stavaque had found a favoured beast and when white calves were born, fearing their fate, she collected them up and kept them on her private farmland on her island continent, Stavakida. The animals were protected by her and none could touch them, even to milk them, without answering a deadly riddle.

Witnessing her diligence to protect her animals, Kotani, Coreladid and Folab approached her. Folab showed her the humans, young and nervous creatures that could barely feed themselves and informed Stavaque that humans would protect and grow her livestock and tend her lands. Coreladid produced dogs, small wolf-like animals that would protect the animals if they could feed on the dead and Stavaque was honoured by both her brothers. But Kotani had not created something to protect her flocks and herds, instead he had created a creature alike to her… several odd looking mix and match beings that he presented to her as mountain guardians – beasts like sphinx, chimera, manticore and minotaur. He seemed to want to impress his sister and he had, Stavaque now had the protection her beasts needed and in time they developed and changed, but always her white animals, especially her white bulls with dark ears, were sacred and untouchable.

Time passed and Stavaque found herself in wanting for a mate but Astrano and Quelaton were not the kind she wished for. Instead Stavaque sought out a handsome young male evergreen dragon and had intended to take him on completely, though she never revealed who she was. But at that same time Elctirnaba was angry with Stavaque and with her distracted, he sent a demon of gluttony to enter her paddocks and devour as many of her sacred cattle as possible. When Stavaque realised this and went to protect her animals, mad that she had rejected their advances, Astrano and Quelaton found her dragon and killed him. They were punished by Alumina but Stavaque was left with two eggs to guard and anger festering in her heart.

When after a century, the largest egg hatched, a burning red ram emerged and he was War. Named Kyros for the anger he showed and his need to compete and be greater then all others, the other gods urged him to be the god of such a horrible thing as war and Stavaque reluctantly accepted. But the other egg did not hatch for a very long time but when it startled to tremble, Kyros had joined Discord and together they were trying to overthrow the older gods. Kyros went in search of his un-hatched sibling for a future ally but Stavaque abandoned the egg on Dragondera and joined her fellows in defeating the upstarts.

When it was all over she sought out the egg, but by that time it had hatched and was in the loving arms of Daystar and Storm Front….

 

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*You may go yuck but the origin of this ideas comes from the cow Auðumbla who licked the pure clean ice and milk poured from her udders to feed the giant Ymir, but was she licked she uncovered the form of the firs God – Buri… that’s from Norse Mythology. In this case Ymir is the basic form of Yedidya and Buri are flowers.

 

Here is Stavaque, the goddess of the earth and a fantastically unusual creature. She’s a wonderful goddess and carer for nature and the wild but at the same time she’s not forgiving to those that harm her beasts and she certainly has a bad temper and a stubborn streak.

I like her quite a lot though! I got some inspiration from her from the Firebird piece from Fantasia 2000

Original image here

 

© :iconechosdusk:

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Comments5
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MaeraFey's avatar
I have a question. Does male sphinxes  have wings too?