Anassa,
Little Empress
Goddess of luck, mischief, and cheese, patron of children
Daughter of Aivas and Erha and sister of the hero-goddess Pherais, Anassa is generally viewed as the youngest of the gods of the Ennead and is therefore universally depicted as an eternal youth, or even as a little girl.
Anassa and her sister are often venerated as a pair to account for any of life’s eventualities. Whereas Anassa is associated with good luck, Pherais is often seen as the patron of endurance in the face of ongoing bad luck.
Shared association with luck notwithstanding, Anassa and Pherais as a pair are also venerated as patron deities of the sibling bond, particularly that between sisters.
Invariably depicted in the myths as immature, unpredictable, and easily-bored, Anassa often functions as a trickster god and prankster figure, finding amusement in making herself a nuisance (albeit a largely harmless one) to the elder gods — particularly her sister Pherais.
While Anassa is often depicted as outwitting the wicked, this usually occurs unwittingly, with the young goddess’ interlocutors unable to follow the twists and turns of her childlike logic.
The most common epithet of Anassa is “Little Empress” — that is, of the world — a reference to the whole cosmos being subject to twists and turns of luck and chance.
Although capricious and inconstant, Anassa is rarely viewed as actively malevolent, reflecting the common depiction of the goddess as an adolescent or child. Dramatic reversals of fortune are understood to reflect the ever-changing mind and opinions of a youthful and immature goddess, rather than an actively cruel deity toying with mortals.
In this, the Realmgardian conception of a goddess of fortune is novel, decidedly more sympathetic and benevolent. In most other cultures, such deities are almost universally understood to be much more hostile to mortals.
Anassa is one of the Realmgardian gods most closely-associated with children, hardly surprising given the common image of the goddess herself as a child. There are many prayers for newborns directed at Anassa, meant to bring lifelong good luck to the child.
A longstanding, though poorly-understood ritual custom dating to the earliest periods of established worship of the gods of the Ennead holds that Anassa is to be placated with libations of cheese. Attempts to explain this by tying it into the customs and culture of the early Elven Empire have thus far been unsatisfactory and it is generally accepted that the simplest answer is the best: Anassa’s favourite food is cheese.
Thus, the wheel associated with Anassa to represent the random turns and ever-shifting nature of luck is often drawn as a wheel of cheese.
During the Imperial era, cheesemakers were held in perhaps disproportionately-high esteem due to Anassa’s fondness for their craft and many cheesemakers competed in — perhaps surprisingly cutthroat — rivalries for the honour of making an offering of their product to Anassa
Incidentally, some of these cheesemaking dynasties have continued through the centuries to the present day. Although less common than during the height of the Eleven Empire, offering libations of cheese is still viewed as the most surefire way to gain the favour of the Little Empress.
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