Art by https://www.novaecomic.com/, whose middle grade graphic novel, Haven, is out soon: https://amzn.to/4u9d488.
The Silent Paths of Night, book two in the Gods of Night and Day series, is available June 9th, however you read, from Blackstone Publishing.
Rhea, or Re, depending on where you speak her name, is the Harvest Mother, the earth in which we lay, as the prayer for the dead says.
In many ways she is the most direct of the gods, the one most involved with mortals. How can she not be? Without her there are no bees, no pollen, and nothing to sustain life. In spring she brings the green shoots. In autumn she brings the harvest. In winter she weaves the shroud of the grave.
Most of her statues are carved from wood, temporary effigies, which cannot stand the test of time. Perhaps something is meant by that, as her consort, Kronus, was lost long before the gods came to Aegea. Rather than temples, she is venerated in groves and caves, anywhere wild or green.
Her greatest shrines are trees, titans of their species, where her priests build their homes among the boughs. One of these once stood on Thiva, now forgotten by her, as its people broke their vows to her and forsook her to follow a demoness. The best known is in Dodoni, where it stands taller than any other temple, even the tower of Phoebe, her sister, before the towers were razed by the Knights of Hyperion.
A Rheaite’s tenets are simple: to live within the mother’s cycle of the green and to take only what is needed from the world. This commitment to a life of balance, ones needs against the needs of the world, means that her worshippers often live on the edge of civilization, rarely engaging directly in Aegean politics.
Her faithful are known for taking in penitents, those striving to make amends for wrongs they’ve done. Their penance is performed in the harshest places, those damaged by war or exploitation of the earth where they attempt to restore the land.
Her priesthood is the least hierarchal of Aegea’s faiths, though it is led by the Crone, an elderly priestess who has moved through the cycles of life and is soon to return to the goddess’s arms.
There is currently a preorder campaign from Books Are Awesome. Orders through the store will be personalized and include character art cards as well as a canvas map scroll. These rewards apply to either the hardcover or paperback, both of which will be available at release.