Wildmother (N)

**Melora, the Wildmother** is the goddess of wilderness and the sea. She watches over nature, good harvest, grants protection from washing away in storms, guides the passage of ships, and protects smaller folk.

## Commandments of the Wildmother

* Protect the untamed wildernesses of the realm from exploitation and destruction.
* Slay abominations and other dark mockeries of nature.
* Embrace and respect the savage nature of the world. Exist in harmony with it

## History

During the Calamity, Melora created the Spire of Conflux, one of the Vestiges of Divergence. Along with the rest of the Prime Dieties, the Wildmother left the Material Plane and sealed herself behind the Divine Gate during the Divergence.

Towards the end of the Calamity, the Wildmother planted a seed in the most desolate place in the world before withdrawing beyond the Divine Gate. That place is now the Barbed Fields of Xhorhas, where the huge tree stands alone in the middle of dangerous plains. Called the Arbor Exemplar, it is considered the sister of the tree in the The Abundant Terrace, the main temple of the Wildmother in Vasselheim.

## .Places of Worship & Holy Sites

### **Issylra**

The district of Vasselheim known as Abundant Terrace is dedicated to the Wildmother. The Abundant Terrace is where most of the food in Vasselheim is grown. In such a cold environment it is Melora's blessing that allows the land there to be fertile and grow crops from many different places. The temple in this district devoted to her worship is called the **the Birthheart**.

### **Wildemount**

Worship of the Wildmother is banned in the Dwendalian Empire.

Outside of the Empire, there are four notable holy sites or shrines dedicated to the Wildmother that are currently known:

* **The Blooming Grove**: Caduceus Clay and his family tended the graveyard in the Blooming Grove, which was a magically-warded sanctum that contained graves of people who had been touched by **The Wildmother** in the Savalirwood near Shadycreek Run,.[6]
* **The Mother's Lighthouse**: In Nicodranas, there is a lighthouse called the Mother's Lighthouse that is dedicated to the worship of the Wildmother.[7] It had been kept by Lightkeeper Gladys for her entire 86-year life.[7]
* **Cinderrest Sanctum**: (also known as "The Kiln" or "The Burning Lodge") Caduceus Clay's allies of the Dust Clan have their home in the Underforge of **The Wildmother**, a gift to The Allhammerlocated within Kravaraad. Kravaraad is a craggy black volcano with a lake at its base.
* **The Arbor Exemplar**: A lone, massive tree located in the Barbed Fields of Xhorhas. The Arbor Exemplar is surrounded by verdant grass which grows out a hundred feet or so during the night and then retracts during the day.[8] The Arbor Exemplar is the sister tree of the Birthheart in Vasselheim.[*citation needed*]

## Symbols

In addition to the staff-and-wreath, one of Melora's symbols is a swirl carved into stone, a slow cascading spiral with a wave crest at the center. (This should not be confused with the jagged spiral sometimes used by followers of The Chained Oblivion, which is sometimes called The Spiral of Decay.) In her role as a goddess of sea life, this symbol is also often painted onto a sea shell. [*citation needed*](See below right for an example made from a seashell.)