Armaiti

Among the many unique cultures across Grand Gaia are the Zartosht—a people who have survived the fall of their empires by returning to their nomadic roots. Traders and wanderers by nature, they are a hardy folk who keep to rolling plains and the desert oases of their former kingdoms. Like many others, the Zartosht venerate divines of their own: the yazatas are manifested aspects of their highest deity Ohrmazd, the Lord of Wisdom. Central to their worship was the Eternal Flame Atar, said to be Ohrmazd's living soul, and overseeing this sacred fire is the yazata of devotion, Armaiti. Symbolizing compassion, love, and devotion to hearth and home, Armaiti represents the ideal Zartosht woman. When a community chooses a hearthkeeper—a woman who watches over the central fire pit—Armaiti is said to bless, even manifest in, a candidate who exhibits values closest to the yazata herself. In Zartosht myths, the darkest and most dangerous night of the year, aptly named the Longest Night, is a time of community spirit and vigilance. On such a night, Atar blazes low in its altar, and divine barriers wane as the evil of Angra Mainyu—the Dark One—grows strong enough to threaten its light. Many are said to be led astray on this inauspicious night. There is only so much a hearthkeeper can do to protect her people, but when her charges are threatened, Armaiti's strength surges like the fire she keeps in her heart—the fierce, protective presence of a matron whose light banishes all darkness and evil. For Atar, in popular legend, had once been a yazata itself; indeed, faith and devotion are the emotions that allow such a flame to flourish in the face of adversity.