Erha,
She with Arms Overflowing
Goddess of finance, merchants, trade, travel and charity
The sister of Iona and another of the first-generation gods of the Ennead, Erha has historically been one of the most popular deities venerated in Realmgard. Although Erha is viewed as less powerful than either Iona or Aeto, as the patron goddess of wealth and business, Erha presides over a sphere of life which many are familiar and many more are frequently anxious and is therefore the subject of many prayers at any given moment.
Regarded, like her sister, as fundamentally benevolent and compassionate to mortals, Erha is seen less as the patron of the acquisition of wealth and more as the sharing of wealth. She brings blessing to mortals with wealth and material success, Erha also demands liberality and generosity of mortals and it is an ancient axiom that the goddess despises no one more than a miser or a cheat, especially one whose conducts unfair business and hordes wealth in her name.
Paradoxically, Erha is also seen by some as a patron deity of thieves — especially those driven by desperate circumstance. For example, while it is said that Erha would bring retribution on a baker who refuses to sell bread at a fair price, she would look favourably on a man stealing a loaf of bread from him to feed his starving family.
Where Erha is concerned, the desperate and downtrodden deserve compassion and mercy, while the greedy and uncharitable deserve none. Ultimately, this view — though not common and often seen as a means for professional thieves to rationalise their life choices — arises from Erha’s status as a goddess of charity.
Indeed, Erha has been viewed as a goddess of charity from essentially the earliest days of her established cult after the arrival of the Elves in Realmgard. In the days of the Elven Empire, there were several orders of priests in service of Erha devoted to feeding and clothing the poor of the Empire’s major cities and even down to the present Erha is often invoked as the patron deity of charitable work.
Seen as one of the gods most active in human affairs, Erha features into numerous instructive fables in Realmgard’s history, often to deliver some message about generosity. As a consequence Erha and her sister Iona are often venerated together as patrons and diplomacy and are often invoked together to bring peace and concord during times of feud or warfare.
While not exactly worshipped as a sea deity, Erha has several titles and epithets which associate her with the sea in general and sailing specifically in role as the patron of traders and travellers. Thus, she is often also associated with dolphins, who are often reported as accompanying and assisting sailors. This is especially true in Pelayo and Torres, as well as the Free Cities in Northeast Realmgard, which are all historically dependent on maritime trade and home to large populations of sailors, explorers, and travelling merchants.
Unsurprisingly, Erha’s spouse is the sea god Aivas, who in turn is also venerated as a secondary patron of trade and commerce.
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