I mentioned I didn’t get enough time to really flesh out the original post about Misa, so here’s what she looks like when I’ve had the chance to flesh out the post.
None of the in-universe information is different, but I did have time to explain more of my creative thought process here.
Misa,
Woman of Many Sorrows
Goddess of mercy, compassion, mourning, and forgiveness, patron of funerals and mourners
The daughter of Treza, sister of Cora, stepdaughter of Akmon, half-sister of Azidos, and wife of Sephas, Misa first enters the mythological accounts accompanying her mother and sister to the Terrace from a place of unknown origin.
While Treza and Cora were eager to go to war to the gods of Ennead for control of Terrace, Misa, valuing mercy and forbearance and grieving over conflict, spoke against this and came in peace before the gods of the Ennead to reconcile the two groups of gods. With the aid of her eventual husband Sephas, Misa was able to arrange a truce between the two groups and secure peace via the marriage of Treza to Akmon, Cora to Valhas, and herself to Sephas.
Misa is best known for her role as the goddess of mercy and compassion. In most images, she is depicted as sullen or sorrowful, though symbolic images of a jubilant Misa have been used in allegorical images to commemorate notable historical peace treaties or particularly notable acts of charity.
Although Misa is very rarely, if ever, depicted as taking an active role in punishing mortals, she is often depicted as urging the other gods to intervene on behalf of innocent victims. There are, however, a few stories about Misa sending forth three spirits to teach evildoers the true meaning of Wintermorn.
Similarly to the ancient Elven Empire’s practice of opening the doors of the temple of Valhas during times of war, the priests of Misa would turn the sacred image of the goddess to face the inner wall of the temple to signify her mourning over the sorrows of war.
Additionally, a banner of Misa would be flown by Imperial armies as a sign of willingness to offer quarter to the enemy. When the banner was furled, the offer was rescinded and no quarter would be shown from that point. Notably, the great Elven hero Quintus Marcellinus Styracosaurus is said never to have furled the banner of Misa during his campaigns, reflecting his clemency and magnanimity in victory.
Among the other gods, Misa is most closely associated with her sister Cora and husband Sephas. However, she is also associated with Iona for her role as a peacemaker and an elder mentor to the younger goddess Pherais, who are both venerated as teachers of endurance in hardship and sorrow.
While her sister is generally seen as the goddess of love, primarily in the romantic sense, Misa is generally seen as the goddess of familial love and intense, intimate friendship. Similarly, because she is most commonly depicted as weeping, she is viewed as the goddess of mourning and often invoked at funerals.
Misa is also a common figure in ancient Elven drama. As per the ancient theatrical tradition of the deus ex machina, the plots of many ancient plays are brought to a resolution by the timely intervention of a divine figure. In many plays revolving around factional of interpersonal conflict, it will often be Misa who descends from the heavens to demand the mortal characters end their feuds and reconcile.
Again, Misa is a real Japanese name, and, incidentally, a river in Italy though I was going for something derived from the Latin miser, basically meaning “sad.” That her sister is “Cora” is meant to invoke misericors/misericordia, mostly commonly translated as “mercy” but also having a potential broader nuance of “compassion” or “empathy”. Basically, as the two goddesses of different kinds of love, they represent positive emotion towards other people.
My primary inspiration here is Tolkien’s Nienna, the Vala (basically a god; Tolkien’s theology is weird) of mercy — and mentor of the Maia (basically an angel; see above) who would be known in Middle-earth as Gandalf. Nienna is my favourite of the Valar and sort of like with what I talked about about the gates of Janus when writng about Valhas, this is not my first fictional pantheon where I went out of my way to include a mercy goddess.
One of the most powerful aspects of Nienna’s character is that she’s basically eternally sorrowful over all the suffering in the world. I think there’s something appealing about the deity of a deity who’s so utterly benevolent that she’s constantly miserable watching people not be benevolent, but that’s also pretty depressing, so I added the “she’s happy about people being nice” angle to give her a break…
Misa being married to Sephas is probably one of my few unsubtle moralistic statements. Mercy being married to Wisdom is 12000% deliberate and 12000% symbolic. In brief, my thesis here is that wise people know to be merciful and merciful people are inevitably wise — not in the sense of, like, “We should sentence Dr. Doom to community service” so much as being merciful to people who deserve mercy is an act of wisdom.
Incidentally, much as the doors of Valhas are inspired by the real-life Roman ritual, that bit about “the banner of Misa means we’ll accept your surrender” is inspired by something I read about the Knights Templar. The Templar banner was half black and half white. On the first day of the battle, they’d fly the white half, indicating that they would accept the enemy’s surrender. On the second day, they’d fly the black half to indicate they would no longer offer quarter.
Admittedly, I don’t actually know if that’s true, but it sounds cool.
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