Artemis

Artemis, Goddess of the Cataclysm
Realm	Cataclysm
Symbols	A yew tree, split by a bolt of lightning
Relatives	None
Allies	None
Enemies	None
Order Name	The Tribe Anachaine
Temples	Dun Valley

On the morning of the 6th of Chronos, 437 AF, the people of Shallam awoke to tremors within the earth of increasing frequency and intensity. Soon after, a shimmering glow above the estate of the Crystalline Circle appeared. Rumours ran rife of elementals departing their watch over a flawed Master Crystal in Shallam. Blizzards howled, steaming fissures gaped open like wounds in the earth, lava flowed, and sandstorms swept across the Mhojave desert, carrying off hapless travellers in their paths.

In the midst of these alarming events, Titania, the Queen of the Dryads, was plagued by painful visions of trees aflame, trees dying in droughts, and trees shattering beneath the weight of ice. Meanwhile in the Darkenwood, a fissure had broken the ground.

Attention was soon drawn to the nine sacred elder trees within which the forest spirits, save for Urania and exiled Propasia in the Darkenwood, had retreated during the years of the Eternal Night. Though the eclipse had come to an end long before, the spirits remained yet sequestered within the elder trees.

Adventurers soon discovered that chanting the strange words that Propasia had murmured - Tionolaim sibh, anachaine! - would summon a sudden and violent cataclysm that destroyed each tree in turn. As Titania had foreseen, the elder trees were indeed destroyed by fire and wind, by water and quake, through their chanting. However, the result was not utter disaster as feared, but the release of the forest spirits. The first to be freed in such a manner was the spirit Clio of the Western Ithmia.

As each of the forest spirits were freed, each silently made her way to the temple of Gaia until all were assembled there, including Urania and Propasia. The old dryad teacher Caladriendra was found crouching upon the ground there, crooning to the earth and speaking of a seed that she could feel growing beneath her feet. Those gathered slowly realised that the seed of which Caladriendra spoke was a yew-tree seed gifted there by the former Goddess of Destruction, Makali. As the Great Oak landmark had been annihilated at the birth of that Goddess, She had seen fit to gift the seed to the forestal community as a symbol of rebirth. The seed had been planted there and remained dormant all these years, forgotten, until the energies of the recent natural cataclysmic events had nourished and awakened it.

The forest spirits quickly encircled the earth above where the seed was buried, and the adventurers in attendance joined them. Propasia led them in incanting the same chant as had freed her sister spirits: "Tionolaim sibh, anachaine!" As they did so, a small sapling pushed itself rapidly upwards from the earth. Before the astonished eyes of all, the sapling grew into a flourishing young yew tree, then a mature tree in the space of a breath. As the chanting eased, Propasia approached the tree and lay her hands upon it. As a deep green radiance spread over the temple grounds, the Exiled One melded with the tree as her sisters had previously done with the sacred elder trees of their forests.

As her form became one with the tree, a deafening peal of thunder sounded as a bolt of lightning from out of nowhere struck the yew, splitting it in twain. Standing between the smouldering halves was a woman, not Propasia, clad only in vines. Ignoring those gathered there, the woman murmured to the earth, which had been shaking violently the entire time. The earth calmed, and the woman took to the skies in a whirlwind of movement.

The forces of the cataclysmic occurrences currently raging through the realm focused upon Her as if summoned to Her, and Her body was wracked and ravaged as ice pierced Her flesh and fire consumed Her. As the Goddess slowly drifted down to the ground, the whirlwinds and fires and quakes abated and controlled, cries of joy and welcome rose up. Through this violent upheaval, Artemis, Goddess of the Cataclysm, was able to awaken.