Asase Ya (3.5e Deity)

Summary::Asase Ya the Bountiful is the loving goddess of life, generosity, plenty, and love. Born of love, she opposes Qandisa the Resplendent.  Her scion is Protogonos, the Bed of Life which all things sprang forth.

Origin
As Hiranyagarbha, father of the gods, returned to the world he found it dominated by the beings known as dragons. They were cruel and merciless beings who had no compassion for the lesser creatures of the world. To oppose them he created Asase Ya, she of the kindly love, and Qandisa the Resplendent, he of passion and desire. These two creatures born of love, they would coax the young mortal races out of cowering and into the protection of the gods. The mortal beings were stunned by their beauty and they flocked to them, bringing them to the side of the divines.

Another version of the story would describe how Hiranyagarbha searched for something he cherished, and discovered one of his favorite creations, the peach, growing from a tree. It's color, its scent, its size and weight and shape... they were all pleasing to him. From the love of the peach sprung Asase Ya like an egg. As such she is sometimes known as the peach goddess.

Regardless of the method of creation, she would later lose her allies to the darkness. Though she opposes them, she is one of the most compassionate and desires the reunification of the gods. Their obstinate behavior causes her grief, for she loves all beings and cannot bear to see them so fallen.

Description
Asese Ya's true form is obscured, but through visions she has always appeared to be a gigantic and beautiful member of the person's race, with long wavy hair and silken gown. Her form is ever slightly obscured by the radiant glow from behind her, and she is often portrayed as reclining. An air of comforting love and compassion surrounds her. No matter what, one feels safe in her presence.

She is sometime displayed holding one of her favorite peaches, or accompanied with a peach tree.

Asase Ya is typically associated with her favored creature, the dove. It is common imagery to see a peach tree covered in doves, appearing as the white-leaved trees of her celestial realm.

Dogma
Asese Ya teaches to love one fellow no matter how poor or distraught. Kindness and altruism are their own reward and in your giving the entire world becomes richer. Likewise she is a goddess of plenty and grants fortunes upon those so they may share them with the world. The greatest crime is to receive a bounty by fate, and not use it to help one's fellow man. Greed is her greatest foe, but one cannot use force to right the wrongs. For the followers of Asase Ya, they must serve as good examples unto the world and grant to those who need it most.

Her scion is Protogenos, the bed of life. Unlike most, she does not use Protogenos as an avatar, but rather keeps it safe away. For protogenos is apparently the first of the living, from which all others sprung forth. If the world should ever falter and die, she is to release protogenos to repopulate the barren world and restore it. Thus, she instead uses the holy daoloths to communicate her divine will to the faithful.

Clergy and Temples
Asase Ya's temples are pure white marble buildings in a style which is certainly Greek or Roman. The white is often tinted peach red, yellow, and orange by curtains, and actual peaches, or gardens of peaches, are a common sight. This is in duplication to her divine realm, a supposed beautiful garden of white leafed trees and ripest and brightest peaches upon them, her glorious temple atop a hill in the center of these eternal fields.

Her clergy wear lose robes and togas of white, yellow, orange, or red. Her clerics are rarely armed and prefer nonviolence, so for the few times it is needed she prefers the unarmed strike for it is always available and often non-lethal.

Pantheon
Asese Ya is a goddess of the Logos Benius pantheon, on planet Maya.