Chapter 1: Walita -The God of Waters
Customs: Crossing a hand over your heart, up towards your head and spitting into the water. People do this to show their love for Walita and ask for his wisdom to guide them safely. They spit because it is believed that this is the best way to impart their feelings to Walita's waters directly -through the creation of their own.
Places of Worship: Predominantly through the eastern and western isles, also highly reverred in port cities and any kind of water bound vessels.
Notable Incidents of Wrath & Mercy: The cleansing of the easternmost tip of the eastern isles, the rescue of princess Lissia in the secret isle.
History:
The story of the first son
It is said that in a time long ago, before the continents shifted and when we were just one kingdom surrounded by water; there existed a man named Walita. A simple man who lived on the water, like his father before him and his father before him. Walita is said to have stepped onto Terra only once.
On the eve of his nineteenth summer, as was tradition, a man could select a bride and to do so the fisherfolk would travel inland. It was a widely celebrated time, anytime a fisherfolk set foot on their soil the maids of terra would gather a feast of berries. Walita's time however was special, he was a beautiful boy. So beautiful that the mother goddess, Ilia herself was in attendance, she held a great love for beauty and could never resist the pull.
Walita had never before encountered a woman, and never one so beautiful but as the mother was in attendance so was the father. The Father, Brabant was as sly as he was jealous and so he used his powers to watch the mother's every move as he sat in disguise among the men who lived above the water, the fisherfolk.
It was well into the evening before mother made her play, approaching Walita, she laid her hand upon his shoulder and whispered into his ear.
"Boy, meet me under the waterfall at midnight and I shall present you with a gift if you would be mine." Her voice whispered, softer than the breeze and full of promise. Walita had never been given such a choice before, the other girls were pretty but this woman was breathtaking and while the girls were vying for his attentions he found that after that his eyes would not leave hers.
"What is your name?" Walita whispered, brushing his fingers through her long blonde hair. Each touch made the Father angrier.
The mother smiled, her lips brushing against his ear as she leaned towards him.
"Walita, you must come to the waterfall tonight when the moon graces the sky and then you shall find out all you desire to know.. You'll find out more." She promised at a whisper, and then turned away to blend back into the crowd.
Walita searched among them, the faceless girls, but couldn't find the mystery woman and as the sun set he left camp with the hopes of their promised reunion. Walita however was not the only person who heard Ilia's promises, Brabant had also been listening. As Walita disappeared he made to follow, the underbrush was thick and humid.
The closer they got to the waterfall, the more a thrumming sound seemed to echo in the forest. A beating, rhythmic but chaotic, loud but soft, there and yet not there at all; it's power filling Walita's limbs.
The moonlight reflected in the ripples of the waterfall. That same moonlight reflected something else, the milky skin of Ilia bathing in the pool. Realizing exactly what kind of relation the mother had planned, Brabant flew into a fit of rage. Storm clouds gathered overhead obscuring the moonlight and droplets of rain quickly turned into hail. The earth itself seemed to shake with his fury, his fury which was directed at poor Walita. When the mother realized that the father had made himself known, she fled leaving Walita to his fate; an act Walita would not soon forget.
Walita's body became decimated by the elements thrown at him, and as he lay there dying he fell into the stream leaving the waterfall. What Brabant could have never predicted was that when he was unleashing his fury, he'd also imparted some of his gifts. Someone could not be so touched by a god without also absorbing something. From that day forward, since the water was the element he surrounded himself in when he passed; Walita held dominion over all waters and he was a god. Walita could control the sway of the tide, the formation of storms, but he would never walk again as a man and find a wife as he had set out to with his kin.
To this day, it is said that he has not forgiven the mother or the father and his is the story which began all other stories. His is the story of how the mother and father discovered how to create their children.
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