The Coven of Gaea

The Coven of Gaea is a coven operating out of the New Hampshire area dating back it's founding in 1896 by then supreme Jacques Devereaux. This coven heavily worships gods from the Greek pantheon and they choose to appeal to the natural side of things, with Gaea as its main Goddess to worship. It chooses to take care of and give back to the land through sacrifices and rituals in exchange for its growth in power. 
This coven is accepting of new members that suit the correct qualifications, proving themselves through a set of trails as of 1967, though there are extensive background checks on participants before any of that due to previous attacks against the coven. 
==History==
===Founding===
Founded in 1896 by Jacques Devereaux in Rochester, New Hampshire. The Coven of Gaea was originally named the Devereaux Coven, as It was only comprised of 7 Devereaux family members. The original purpose of this coven was banding together the strongest family witches to perform rituals in worship of their godhead of the time Demeter, the Goddess of Agriculture to maximize crop harvest for the upcoming summers. 
===Early History===
While during it's founding years, the Coven (whom were just family members at this time.) focused on exploiting crop turnout to ultimately monopolize the local agriculture industry, this didn't stay this way forever.
In 1952 Maurice Devereaux, the Coven's third supreme was appointed and quickly ushered in a new age of the coven, what he called 'Power farming'. This radical shift in ideas confused many of it's members, but they went along with it nonetheless. The idea was that by marrying in stronger witches to 'expand harvest reach' they could ultimately strengthen their bloodline for generations onward, though not all witches from this time married in, some assumed positions as Priests/Priestesses. Maurice is responsible for opening the doors of the coven to non-blood related members, but all of which were put through power gauntlets to decide who was most deserving of a spot in the coven. This outlined the ideals of the coven for the rest of the Supremes that came after him.
Over time in the early history of the coven the main Goddess of worship changed from Demeter to Gaea, as well as the adoption of 7 more Gods/Goddesses to which they worship. The Coven was renamed to 'The Coven of Gaea' by former Supreme Marie Devereaux in 1985, due to it not being strictly Devereaux family members within it. 
===The Devereaux Acres Fire===
The Devereaux Acres Fire is more commonly referred to as 'The Exiles Attack' by members of the coven, was an organized attack on the Coven of Gaea in 2009. The attack started on June 8th, a Monday morning and ended the following Thursday afternoon.
Monday morning, June 8th. 5 hooded witches entered the coven's compound after getting special access from a witch on the inside, whom turned out to be the Supreme of the time's right hand woman. After entry the 5 witches assumed various positions around the grounds and began to set fire to the precious native wildlife of the coven's land. While causalities did occur, it did not compare to the sheer devastation and aftermath of the fire. Though the most notable casualty of the event was on Wednesday morning, former Supreme Lance Mayweather was cornered by two of the exiled and subsequently killed by their hands. 
After the flames were snuffed out it became clear how extensive the damage was, roughly 50-100 acres of land had been burned down. Roughly 9 members of the coven were reported dead and or missing. Former Supreme Marley Reynor took it upon herself to create a pact with a neighboring coven to rectify the land to it's condition before the tragedy, much to the dismay of many coven members. 
The whereabouts of the 5 witches along with Reynor's right hand woman are unknown, but many members theorize that former Supreme Marie Devereaux sentenced them all to death by her own two hands, but she claims to have no involvement in it. 
===Recent History===
After supreme Reynor relieved her position, the coven has been in a seemingly never-ending state of repairs as many of the members are paranoid something like the attack in 2009 will happen again. Since the attack two more Supremes have been appointed, Bethany Mayweather took lead as a way to honour her late father, and began more efforts to replenish what they had once lost. Bethany stepped down April of 2020, for the newest and youngest Supreme yet, Sebastian Devereaux. 
Sebastian Devereaux already claims that he will fix the image of the coven and ultimately send the coven into even higher graces than ever before. He will begin by hopefully recruiting new members.
=== Supremes Throughout History ===
Name 	Reign 	Description
Jacques Devereaux 	1896 - 1930 	Founder of the coven, First Surpeme. He his most commonly remembering for banding together the 7 family members. Began the coven as a way to maximize crop harvest.
Aldrich Jean Devereaux	1930 - 1952 	Took up while Jacques cared for his son, Aldrich organized the branches of the coven as the family grew and began expressing the coven's need to accumulate power
Maurice Devereaux 	1952 - 1977 	Remembered as the 'black sheep' of the family, he continued where Aldrich left off, established power gauntlets and opened the coven up to the access of other strong witches in the area. Maurice was assassinated in 1985.
Lance Mayweather 	1977 - 1985 	He was the first Supreme not of Devereaux blood. He expanded the array of Gods they worshiped, generally remembered as one of the kinder Supremes. He was killed during the 2009 attack.
Marie Devereaux 	1985 - 2003 	Appointed in honour of her father, some believed she had an involvement in it. She changed the coven's name to what it is today, as well as being responsible for the strong uprising of women in the higher ranks of the coven.
Marley Reynor 	2003 - 2014 	Once right hand of Marie, she was believed to be a promising Supreme. She was strict in her beliefs and many look back on her rule fondly, though she was exiled after the attacks in 2009 after making a pact with an 'unclean' coven.
Bethany Mayweather 	2014 - 2020 	Though originally thought of as just a temporary Supreme, Bethany actually stepped up a lot of the replenishing efforts that the coven needed, She added the Horae to the roster of Gods they worshiped. Well liked like her father.
Sebastian Devereaux 	2020 - Current	Appointed on his birthday, he claims to want to restore the coven to how it operated before Supreme Reynor's rule. Not much else is known of his plans.
==Coven Structure==
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==Coven Members==
*Sebastian Devereaux (Supreme)
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==Creed==
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==Traditions==
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==Power Gauntlets==
In 1959 then supreme Maurice Devereaux established what are now known as 'Power Gauntlets', cutthroat trials held multiple times a year to decide who is the most worthy to either join the coven or gain a higher position within it. These trials are set out over a couple of weeks but only take a few hours each day to complete, majority of the time spent in these weeks are on rituals to set up the 'arenas' to offer each competitor a fair chance. Each trial will always begin with a ritual performed by the supreme and their associates and will always have to end with a sacrifice back to the earth as a thank you. 
Types of trials are usually determined based on circumstance: 
If a trial is being held in which it's competitors are going for a chance at a higher position within the coven, i.e. onto the higher council or onto the primary protectors council of the natural environment. The trials will reflect the responsibilities of each, they will be tested in more fields on combat and defense as well as in higher capacity rituals that must be fulfilled by only the most worthy. Those who win these trials are very obviously looked up to with admiration compared to those who don't, but the hope is that those who do not win will not be looked down upon and use it as an opportunity to improve.
If the trial is being held in which it's competitors are trying to join the coven, the trials will mainly hone in on their abilities with nature and how powerful they can be and or how much they can offer the coven. These ones tend to go on longer as the requirements to join tend to sway based on the ones judging the trials. Those who win these trials are obviously allowed access into the coven, and those who don't are cast away to improve until the next time they want to participate, if they so desire.
==Trivia==
* Many witches that grow up within the covens land often times have familiars personalized to the native wildlife they witness growing up, things like bobcats, snakes, racoons, coyotes, hares, chipmunks and various birds have been recorded through the years.
==Gallery==
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Category:Witch
Category:Groups
Category:Covens
Category:Paganism