Diana

Diana was a Roman goddess of the hunt, wild animals, the moon, chastity, and childbirth. She was the patron of slaves, who could always find sanctuary in her temples, and also of women seeking to conceive healthy children. Much of her history has been erroneously conflated with the Greek goddess Artemis, and thus little is known. Even her Roman myth is likely a reinterpretation of an earlier Sabine goddess.

She is a twin, though the identity of this counterpart fluxes. Occasionally she is associated with Janus.

In Roman art Diana usually appears as a huntress with bow and quiver, accompanied by a hound or deer. She often has a small crescent moon woven into her hair. The Roman poet Nemesianus describes her as follows: “She carried a bow and a quiver full of golden arrows, wore a golden cloak, purple half-boots, and a belt with a jeweled buckle to hold her tunic together, and wore her hair gathered in a ribbon.”

•6TH•AGE•LIFE•

•DAIANYA•

Daianya was born to a people originally displaced from their homeland by the uprising and eventual defeat of Ahriman in the 5th Age. As a result of the devastation, they turned their back on the gods, rejected channelers within their own midst, and survived over the centuries by keeping to themselves and moving constantly across the continents. Many years in the future, they would be among the components that would enable the Atharim uprisings which eventually overthrew the gods for good.

She grew up amid the savage civil wars erupting globally by the turning of the Age, which only served to ensure her people became all the more insular. Her tribe was nomadic, shunned society, and lived off the land. Though their lives did not remain untouched, despite their best efforts to set themselves apart. By the time the Titanomachy was in the full heat of desperation, both sides grasped for every advantage, including the first roll out of mass testing to discover those who could be taught to channel and might be conscripted into the warring. It was a practise that remained once the Olympians gained power over their predecessors.

The simplicity of Daiyana’s life ended when her tribe was caught during one such campaign of forced testing, and she was revealed to have the capacity to channel if she was taught.

•THE CULT OF ARTEMIS•

Daiyana was devastated by the revelation she had the blood of the gods she had always been taught to fear. To begin with she quietly refused to believe it, intending to escape when the opportunity presented itself, but the first time she felt the small pulse of light inside she knew it to be true. Knew, too, that it meant she had no home to return to. Now, she grew to fear what she might become. Her captors spoke of honour and service, but she had been raised to see only tyrants. For months she barely spoke, became a shell of herself, and only survived.

She’d never set foot in a city before, and at the end of their long journey she was at first relieved when she was ushered into the sacred hush of a temple. Confirmed as a virgin, she was soon thereafter funnelled into the cult of Artemis. Her old life made her well equipped for the rural preferences of the priestesses. She trained hard, determined to be in control of her own power. Daiyana already knew how to hunt, and found solace in nature and solitude. She excelled with the bow, and for a time began to feel as though she could accept this new life. But her prowess and natural demurity brought her to Artemis’s own attention, and from the personal retinue of the goddess, she soon began to struggle with the abuses of power.

Even amongst the gods, hierarchy served a division. As a taught channeler, Daiyana was second tier, and beholden to those above her. She served Artemis and the Olympians for many years, quiet and diligent in her service, for she never contemplated that her life might belong to herself. During that time she witnessed many atrocities, betrayals, and cruelties. For her own part, she refrained from joining in, and often interceded behind the scenes, calling upon the mercy of greater gods to save those she could. Eventually it led to her falling from favour, though her pure and chaste nature meant she avoided the cruellest of punishments from her goddess. Instead, Artemis only turned her back in unofficial banishment.

By now Daiyana was greatly disillusioned with channeler rule. It is unclear what finally pushed her to consider escape, but she did not enact it alone. Her flight was facilitated by an alliance with Janus, god of gateways and new beginnings.

•DIANA•NEMORENSIS•

^{“Diana of the Woods”}

Daiyana escaped to what would one day become modern Italy, where she established a sanctuary at Nemi, a basin lake surrounded by sacred groves at Aricia. Here, she became known as Diana. She spent much of the rest of her life here, for she much preferred this isolation to the vigour of the surrounding cities. Her lands came to be well known for offering refuge to slaves and fugitives seeking escape, particularly women. Nemi also welcomed expectant mothers and children, and even took care of pups and pregnant dogs. Not only was Aricia a haven for animals, but it also served as a refuge for pilgrims in need of healing. No one who came in honest need was turned away.

Diana was a quiet woman, and gentle of spirit. She was also fond of animals. Nemi was a place of peace, and resisted the politics of men and gods beyond its borders.

Diana worked hard to protect her lands and the people who fled to seek asylum within Nemi’s temple walls. Ill rumours circulated of barbarity, likely because of who Nemi welcomed so readily. The legend holds that a new priest could replace his predecessor by slaying him, and that men battled to the death for this honour. But no evidence exists to substantiate that such violence ever happened.

The lake was also known as “Diana’s Mirror” for it reflected the moon so clearly.

•COMPANIONS•

Though Diana was free with her time for those that needed it, she valued solitude, and was selective of those she was closest to. However she lived with two permanent companions:

• Egeria, a water nymph who assisted with midwifery and had political ties as counsellor and consort to Numa, a king of Rome.
• Virbius, a king and hero of Rome, given sanctuary from persecution, and thought to be Diana’s head priest and once a slave himself. There is some conjecture he is in fact the Greek hero Hippolytus, who upon his unjust murder by Theseus was saved by Asclepius. Once revived he refused to forgive Theseus and went to Italy and became the king of the Aricians. He ruled as “Virbius” from inside the shrine of Diana.

•PREVIOUS•LIVES•