The Birth of Maeve
As told by Asmodius the Scholar
A long time ago- before the great cataclysm, there
was a mortal woman named Itae, who was a priestess of Maia in the town Hayleth,
which is in Rodigar. She was a dutiful, reverent woman who followed the law,
gave to the poor, and loved children, though she had none of her own.
One day, rival priests
from the temple of Lekta confronted her out of nowhere when she left Maia’s
temple for the night. They said that they were sent to bring her to trial for
her ‘wrong-doings’, though of what wrong they spoke of, Itae had no idea. They
dragged her to the town’s jail and threw her in a cell. The priests of Lekta
could not leave well enough alone though; before they locked the door, they
beat her senseless out of pure cruelty, hatred, and jealousy.
The next morning, with
the sun glaring into Itae’s black and blue face, she was dragged to the town
judge, Mortimer. Her trial, if it could be called that, was short, for
Mortimer’s heart had been hardened and mind clouded by Lekta’s evil scheme.
After only a few minutes, Itae was condemned to death by whichever method of
the priest’s choosing.
They immediately took
her out to the town square in Hayleth where a ten-foot wooden crucifix already
stood in the center for all to see. The priests put Itae’s crushed body on the
crucifix and drove metal stakes into her limbs so she could not move. Her
screams brought the whole town’s attention to the town square, if they were not
already there. The head priestess of Lekta then addressed the crowd, spewing
filthy untruths about Itae, trying in vain to persuade the townspeople and
justify their actions. Strangely enough, none of the other priests and
priestesses of Maia were around to defend Itae.
Not being content to
just let her hang there and die, the evil priests poured oil all over her body
and burned her alive. It is said that even Maia herself heard that poor woman’s
cries that day.
Coincidentally, Maia’s
feast day was a couple of days after that. One of the traditions was to have a
priest put Maia’s symbol on your forehead in ashes. In Hayleth, to remember the
tragedy of Itae’s murder, the priests of Maia added a crucifix to the center of
Maia’s sun symbol. The whole town participated in the act- all but the priests
of the temple of Lekta.
Again they showed their
treachery on this sacred day. Somehow, they had poisoned the ashes to make the
people deathly ill. They also switched the oil that was used to mix with the
ashes with one that burned the skin, would not rub or wash off, and when came
in contact with sunlight caught on fire. Many people died that day.
This enraged Maia to the
point of action. Though she could not physically intervene herself, she sent a
messenger dove to the nearest outpost of the Paladins of Maia to Hayleth. They
immediately set out, with a group of Clerics, to Hayleth to enact Maia’s
vengeance.
The paladins raided the
temple of Lekta and killed everyone inside. After burning the building to
cinders, they then searched the rest of Hayleth for any more followers of Lekta
that may have been hiding. Once the dirty deed had been accomplished, the
paladins and clerics went throughout the small town healing and helping anyone
they could.
To commemorate these
events, one of the town’s masons sculpted a beautiful statue of Itae out of
stone, and placed it in the center of the town square where she was murdered.
To show her approval, Maia miraculously turned the statue into pure diamond.
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