LoZ: Ternary Ages △ Spirit Temple & Gerudo Spiritual Order
ৡ The Spirit Temple
The Gerudo Spirit Temple is located deep in the Gerudo Highlands, northwest of the Fortress, connected through stone promenades and steep steps. This path is lined with pillars, draped in tapestries and safflina blooms. Wind howls in the ascent, sandy wind buffeting the many statues of Gerudo heroines seen as protecting the maw of the Temple, barred shut with heavy, sandstone doors adorned with jewels, dyed stones, and the scars of sandstorms. It is a cold, cavernous space held up by columns and stone, ogee arcades. Mosaics, murals, and statues immortalize Gerudo history and spiritual practice; depictions of the Sand Goddess being the most common. Fire, candles, and lanterns made of Molduga tendons light the caverns. Irrigation lines funnel water through the cavern, freezing to the touch, filling the echoing caves with the trickle of water. At the back of the temple, looming through the gaps in columns and above a stone altar is the Spirit Colossus, one of the three colossal statues of the Sand Goddess in the Gerudo desert. Red-wax candles, fruits, safflina, and incense are offered at this holy place - physical pleas for safety from the desert's blistering heat and suffocating cold.
This altar at the foot of the colossus is a holy, sacred, and special place - reserved for the upper echelon of Gerudo save for holidays, coronations, or times of widespread anguish such famine or plague. More on coronations in this post. Chieftains/kings kneel at the altar in hopes of receiving guidance or visions from the Goddess, especially before battle or decision making. This hall, often called the Hall of the Sages, is where many spiritual rituals are held by the Va'Qai.
𓇗 Spiritual Gerudo | The Va'Qai & Priestesses
Doubling with reverence for the Sand Goddess, the Spirit Temple also is the domain of the Va'Qai and the order of priestesses ordained to , tend to the temple. These vai specialize in spiritual gifts and are tasked in protecting the Temple with their bodies, minds, time, and spirits. Formidable fighters, these vai should not be second-guessed due to their clerical calling.
The Va'Qai is the spiritual leader for the Gerudo people, being the second seat of power beneath the chieftain/king and the balancing seat with magic/elder withces. She serves as the left hand to the ruler, providing spiritual insight, guidance, and conducting spirit channeling, prophetic seances, and rituals on behalf of the ruler.
This role is often passed from mother to daughter and cannot be conventionally challenged. In the absence of a Va'Qai, the Spirit Temple should not be accessed.
To be the Va'Qai, the Gerudo herself must prove excellence in spiritual magics, specifically prophesying, astral magic, and spiritual channeling. She must be vetted by the previous Va'Qai and endure multiple tasks of worthiness. This system of spiritual refining is closely guarded and thus little is known to average Gerudo or outsider.
The Va'Qai is demarcated by her unique assemblage of jewelry, especially the purple/lavender/lilac gem in her headpiece and the sloping crown woven into her hair, its prongs echoing of Vah Naboris and Gerudo chieftains to come. Additionally, she wears embroidered cloths and unique drapery, marked with Gerudo iconography. Lastly, she has henna-like markings all over her hands, feet, calves, points of her ears, and in the inside of her orbital bone, sloping with the bridge of her nose.
Gerudo childrearing tradition has long been that young vai with an inclination for the divine or medicinal skills are to be tested by the reigning Va'Qai and clergy to see if she is worthy of entrance into the Temple. The role of priestess is highly elective and selective, curating a special guard. These vai respond directly to the Va'Qai and their lives are spent cleaning, guarding, and praying in the temple, with secondary tasks of tending to the ill, wounded, and immobile.
Priestesses can leave the order at any time and can have children during their tenures. They are encouraged to only lay with Sheikahs rather than Hylians though this is not mandatory or tracked.
The traditional weapon of a priestess is a spear, adorned with talismans of moonlight and hardened ash.
Other than special vigils or pilgrimages, priestesses live similarly to their sisters. They are permitted normal living adorned with jewels, color, and activities.
Priestesses, however, do have some differential markers. They are more likely to veil their hair and wear it contained in braids, veils, or woven updos. They wear heavy jewelry along their chests, centered around a purple/lavender/lilac gem. Lastly, they have ornate body paint similar to henna covering their hands, feet, and the tips of their ears.
☯︎ Va'Qai Riar'svah | Sage of Spirit
Riar'svah is the reigning Va'Qai in Ternary Ages and OC for the shameless ocxcanon nonsense in my head. She is the only child of the previous Va'Qai, Palu, and eventually becomes chieftain consort to the king. As the Sage and Va'Qai, she is adept in spiritual channeling, prophesy, and astral magics, wielding a large fauchard spear as a tangible weapon and as a conduit for her magic (think magic wand lol). While battle is not her strong suit, Riar'svah excels in diplomacy and manipulation. Staunch in her belief of Gerudo excellence, Riar'svah has little tolerance for Hyrule and her allies.
Riar'svah has been a long-standing ally and companion to Ganondorf. They are one another's closest confidants, bonding over their tumultuous early reigns being shadowed by the war started by their respective mothers. Their relationship develops over time, sitting upon parallel thrones, eyes fixed on Hyrule and her denizens.
Being in-tune with the divine, Riar'svah is deeply concerned about the primordial being of evil and chaos, Demise or Malice/Mal'hice. She turns her nose on the practice of worshiping the being and this brings her into much conflict with Kotake and Koume, devout acolytes of Malice. As Ganondorf's fits of rage, paranoia, and uncontrollable shifting into a beast increase, she becomes increasingly infuriated with the Elder Witches and more dedicated to getting the Triforce to cure him, taking Hyrule down with Demise.
Her isolation from the Gerudo fortress and warring decisions due to Rutimala's skepticism of her has made Riar'svah eager and strong-headed when dealing with Ganondorf and his council. She holds little mercy or regard for Hylians in most if not all of her decisions, priming her to be a great vessel of evil.
In Gerudo history, she is often called the Sage of Dread or the Spirit of the Stone. Oral tradition by the time of BOTW describes her as a powerful sorceress that created the plunging Gerudo canyon to keep Hyrule out of the desert. This feat of magical terraforming was said to have ripped her soul out, turning her to stone, molding her to the Gerudo Highlands somewhere around Mount Nabooru. Hylian myth says she prowls the Highalnds on a great beast, slaughtering unwelcome travelers.
I have more on her but we have to introduce the oc x canon one step at a time guys.
