Aivas,
Lord of Ocean
God of the sea, wind, and storms, patron of sailors and fishermen
Husband of Erha and one of the first-generation gods of the Ennead, Aivas is notably one of the few gods of the Ennead to preside over a natural domain, rather than a societal one. Aivas is said to have participated in the shaping of Terrace by drawing back the waters, causing dry land to emerge, thereby allowing the other gods to begin shaping the land, and then devoted himself to the oceans, setting the course of the prevailing winds and ocean currents, as well as creating marine life.
Although Aivas was given due deference as a god of the Ennead by the Elven Empire, his cult was not particularly widespread or powerful in the Imperial heartland of Natalis due to its distance from the sea. However, popular veneration of Aivas was common in coastal regions, and, like his wife, remains much-loved on the Sea’s Edge Peninsula and the in the Free Cities, where the sea and maritime trade are the lifeblood of the economy and culture.
Though often venerated as a husband-and-wife pair of Erha, the myths tell that Aivas only married Erha after the creation of Terrace was well underway. Aivas is said to have been a prolific ladies’ man in the early days of the gods’ arrival to Terrace, having numerous love affairs with countless minor goddesses. The local deities of the lakes and rivers of Realmgard are said to Aivas’ many children. The marriage of Aivas and Erha was arranged by the other gods of the Ennead to put an end to Aivas’ womanising ways and end the frequent disputes that arose between the mothers of his numerous children.
Jovial and boisterous, yet temperamental and quick to anger, Aivas is known for his frequent (albeit usually fairly minor) quarrels with the other gods and grudges against mortals. Similarly, Aivas is known to stir up powerful storms out of sheer boredom.
Erha is well-known as a calming influence on her husband, and without exception, the myths depict Aivas as always relenting in the face of his wife’s appeals. Despite his temper and quarrelsome reputation, Aivas is known to dote on his wife, perhaps as a means to assure her of his ongoing faithfulness.
A positive aspect of Aivas’ truculent reputation is that he often features in the myths as a dauntless hunter of monsters. He is depicted wearing a necklace made of shark’s teeth and wielding a spear crafted from the tooth of a monstrous Orc. Similarly, despite his frequent capriciousness and conjuring of storms, Aivas is also known for deeds of unparalleled largesse on a whim, for example, driving huge schools of fish towards fishermen’s boats to allow them to come away with huge catches that leave their nets overflowing.
Similarly, Aivas is known to have a soft spot for the downtrodden and unlucky — he is, incidentally, the father of Anassa the goddess of luck. There are many tales of great riches washing ashore to be found by poor widows and orphans.
Although sharks are not generally considered benevolent, Aivas is frequent associated with them as symbols of his power and ferocity. Aivas is often depicted travelling in a clamshell chariot borne by Turbosharks.
Discover the rest of the Encyclopedia Realmgardica here:
And follow along via social media or my email list:
Sign up for my email list here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author prohibits the use of content published on this website for the purposes of training Artificial Intelligence technologies, including but not limited to Large Language Models, without express written permission.
All stories published on this website are works of fiction. Characters are products of the author’s imagination and do not represent any individual, living or dead.
The realmgard.com Privacy Policy can be viewed here.
Realmgard is published by Emona Literary ServicesTM
