Lady of the Skies

The Lady of the Skies is one of the Avvar's three main deities. She is the goddess of all above Korth the Mountain-Father's domain, including birds and even the wind itself, as well as the goddess of the dead. She was also a deity of the Alamarri and Ciriane tribes.She is mentioned in some versions of Ciriane tales such as the legend of Arrowwood, she was said to be one of the gods that Andraste prayed to before turning to the Maker, and the Alamarri and Ciriane tribes are both said to believe that the constellation Visus was the eye of the Lady of the Skies.
Rather than cremating their dead as Andrastians do, the Avvar dismember their dead and offer them to the Lady through her messengers, the birds, in what Ferelden scholars refer to as an "air burial" (also known as "sky burial"). For most, the body is laid out, usually at the top of a mountain, and prayers given. When the birds come, they carry the soul to the domain of the Lady of the Skies, where they will be reunited with their kin. However, blighted bodies are not retrieved by the Lady's messengers and can therefore find no peace in the afterlife.Codex entry: Journal of Gurd Harofsen Some souls are chosen to return–a blessing considered a rare honor. The augur reads the signs at birth to find such worthy individuals. In order to return, an offering provided by blood-kin and prepared by a huntsmaster is made to Korth; and buried beneath the body. A piece of the soul thus remains, allowing the rest to return to the world and be reborn.According to Gyda Myrdotten. These resurrected souls are not expected to remember their past lives, but are instead believed to be guided by their past experience through visions and portents.Codex entry: A Tradition of Rebirth
The ritual priests who worship the Lady are known as Sky Watchers. Their religious duties primarily consist of reading the portents of the Lady of the Skies and assisting in sky burials.According to Sky Watcher Amund. The Sky Watchers use ritual weapons to dismember the dead bodiesPer item description for Skywatcher's Cleaver. and break up the bones into fragments before presenting them as offerings to the Lady.Per item description for Ritual Breaker. In exchange for these sacrifices, the Lady sends prize game for the hunt and victory in war. The Avvar themselves are sometimes called the Sky Cult in reference to the Lady.Codex entry: Notes on the Avvar Sky Cult
The Avvar practice temporary marriages. When two Avvars are married, the bride will sing a hymn to the Lady of the Skies while the groom attempts to undo a series of knots she has tied in a long rope. The number of knots the groom undoes before the hymn ends determines the number of years that marriage will last. Both the bride and the groom may try to affect the result of the ritual, for example, the bride can tie the knots very tightly, while the groom can decide to only untie a certain number of the knots before the hymn ends. The ceremony can be repeated multiple times to extend the duration of the marriage.Codex entry: A Good MarriageCodex entry: The Lady of the Skies
== Legends ==
=== The Ptarmigan ===
Korth the Mountain-Father once took his heart out of his chest and hid it within the Frostback Mountains to avoid being weakened by love. When his lack of heart turned him bitter and cruel, the Lady of the Skies sent her children to retrieve it. After her swiftest and strongest fliers–raven and sparrow, vulture and eagle, swift and albatross–had spent a year and a day searching for the heart in vain, the ptarmigan volunteered for the search. The Lady refused to give the tiny bird her blessing, as she thought the mountains too fierce, but the ptarmigan succeeded where every other bird had failed. She found and freed the heart, allowing it to jump back into Korth's chest, where Hakkon Wintersbreath bound it once again. For her great deed, the ptarmigan was honored by all the gods over even the loftiest eagle.Codex entry: The Frostback Mountains
=== Belenas ===
Korth the Mountain-Father kept his throne on the peak of Belenas, the mountain at the center of the world. When he grew tired of heroes barging into his hall to claim the honors they thought they were due for climbing the mountain of the gods, the Lady of the Skies lifted Belenas out of Korth's domain and into her own so that it would be forever out of reach of even the most intrepid climber.Codex entry: Constellation: Belenas When Belenas was eventually destroyed during the battle between Korth and the serpent Nathramar, the Lady wept so much at the loss that her tears filled the crater that had been left behind and formed Lake Calenhad.Codex entry: Lake Calenhad
=== Tyrdda Bright-Axe ===
According to the Saga of Tyrdda Bright-Axe, the Lady of the Skies was instrumental in the creation of the Avvar. 
Around -1815 Ancient, Tyrdda Bright-Axe was a chieftain of the Alamarri whose tribe had settled in the area around Lake Calenhad. The Lady of the Skies had taken on mortal form,According to Thane Svarah Sun-Hair. seemingly as an elf,The saga repeatedly describes her as "leaf-eared." and become Tyrdda's lover. She'd also given her a powerful staff. When Thelm Gold-Handed, a fellow chieftain of the Alamarri, tried to convince Tyrdda to marry him and cross the Waking Sea to plunder the "golden city" he'd dreamed about, she heeded her lover's counsel not to trust the words of the Fade and refused to follow him. Thelm took her rejection poorly and was killed in the ensuing duel with Tyrdda.
After the battle with Thelm, Tyrdda took her tribe from the plains to the Frostback Mountains. When they took shelter in a cave, they found that it was already home to a dragon. As Tyrdda's warriors could not defeat it alone, she turned to the Lady of the Skies once more, reminding her that she'd chosen her above a crown. The Lady sent lightning to bring the dragon low.
In the mountains, Tyrdda's tribe also made contact with the dwarves. Heeding her lover's counsel once more, Tyrdda established trade with them rather than engage in battle. The Lady left her soon after, but told her through dreams that her tribe would die unless she had a child that could keep her line strong and that one of her descendants, Morrighan'nan, would one day need to shine in strength. Tyrdda turned to the dwarf-prince Hendir to sire a child.
After many years, once her tribe had grown prosperous through dwarven trade, Tyrdda chose her child as her successor and made one last trek skyward to be reunited with her lover, the Lady of the Skies. 
=== Sundering ===
Legend says that the battle mace Sundering was not crafted but hatched from an egg high in the mountains, then delivered by birds to Luthias Dwarfson as a wedding gift from the Lady of the Skies. After Luthias was killed during his war with the Avvar chieftain Morrighan'nan, the dwarves who came to claim his body could not find the mace, which they'd intended to bury alongside him. It is said that birds reclaimed the mace until it could be given to another worthy hero.Codex entry: Sundering The weapon reappeared in the Dragon Age, in the Nexus Golem's Wares, where it can be purchased by Hawke.
=== Virmik and Seddra ===
=== The Cult of the Sky ===
Legend says that the thane of Wyvern Hold once had a vision of his clan transforming into serpents after a feast. In his dream, the only ones who had escaped this fate had been those who had been snatched up and carried away by eagles. He interpreted the vision as a sign of great calamity to come, one that only the Lady of the Skies could save them from, and decided to dedicate his clan to the exclusive worship of the Lady. Other clans attacked them for fear that their disrespect of the other gods would bring them misfortune, but the clan refused to change their ways. When the Tevinter Imperium eventually came to conquer their lands, many Avvar clans were wiped out, enslaved, or forced to flee south, across the Waking Sea. However, Clan Wyvern was not among them. They simply disappeared. Some say that the last anyone ever saw of the clan was when a great flight of eagles descended on their hold.Codex entry: The Cult of the Sky
=== Arrowwood ===
A Ciriane legend speaks of an archer named Arrowwood who wished to become the greatest archer in the world. To achieve this goal, he offered his heart to the spirit of an oak grove. With his newfound abilities, Arrowwood conquered many settlements. It's said that he was able to slay the wind itself and that his arrows, once loosed, couldn't be stopped. Arrowwood grew so powerful and bold that he eventually shot down the sun, turning day to night. In response, a gothi (Ciriane tribal leader) sent a messenger to seek out the Witch of the Arbor Wilds. In one version of the story, the messenger never found the witch and instead made a bargain with the Lady of the Skies. In all retellings, including this one, the messenger received a coil of fine silk that they brought to Arrowwood's keep and used to secretly replace the archer's bowstring. When Arrowwod next tried to draw the bow, his heart shattered, and he crumbled into dust. The gothi bound his bow in an iron case and buried it in the Nahashin Marshes so that no one could ever use it again.Per item description for Arrowwood.
== Symbols and shrines ==
Ancient human tribes believed that the constellation Visus was the eye of the Lady of the Skies, which she had opened so that the light of her gaze could lead her people safely through the Frostback Mountains.Codex entry: Constellation: Visus
Birds are considered the children and messengers of the Lady of the Skies.According to dialogue with Runa Lyrsdotten during the quest Up and Away. Some species of birds are said to be especially favoured by the Lady, such as ptarmigans, bluebirds, and budgerigars.According to dialogue with Sky Watcher Amund in the Dragon Age: Inquisition multiplayer. The Lady herself has also been said to appear in dreams. Like all Avvar gods, the Lady can also take on mortal form as a spirit, though this does not happen often.
The test of the Lady of the Skies, used to settle disputes, is a climbing contest.As seen when the Inquisitor first arrives in Stone-Bear Hold. It's employed in situations where the law isn't clear on whose claim should prevail. However, if the thane thinks that someone's claim is foolish, they may add hindrances, like having stones strapped to the contestant's back. The act of climbing may also be seen as a way to honour the gods; a path leading to an offering site includes climbing walls of increasing height.As seen in the quest Up an Away, there are three climbing walls leading up to the offering site, each adorned with a symbol of a bird.
Avvar holy sites have altars to the gods with well-hidden compartments containing sacred relics and aligned with the rising sun on the Winter Solstice. Tales from the Divine Age are filled with warnings about mistreating or disrespecting the altars of the Lady of the Skies. Examples of disrespectful behavior includes speaking, coughing, holding objects in your right, and possessing anything with feathers. Hawke can interact with such a shrine in the Vimmark Mountains. Taking the relics from the shrine results in an attack by a Sky horror, a variety of Arcane horror. The island known as Lady's Rest in the Frostback Basin is also said to belong to the Lady of the Skies, who uses is as a place of solitude. It is considered bad luck to venture there.According to Arvid Rolfsen.
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== Notes ==
* It's unclear whether "Aval'var," mentioned in the Saga of Tyrdda Bright-Axe, is the name of the Lady of the Skies, Tyrdda's child with Hendir, or something else.Codex entry: Saga of Tyrdda Bright-Axe, Avvar-Mother 7:5 Aval'var, so named the lover, called "our journey, yours and mine," can be interpreted in multiple ways.
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== References ==
Category:Religion
Category:Avvar lore