Board Thread:Fan-made Monsters/@comment-30400574-20170325022539

Family: Divine/Beastman

Habitat: Borea, the Frozen Realm

Disposition: Motherly, Affectionate

Diet: Food of the Gods

In the cold north where snow constantly covers the ground and the high peaks are more ice than rock, Ithaqua is worshipped by the Wendigos and is often paid homage to by the Yeti although it is the Wendigos who worship her as their main deity. Ithaqua was believed to have been created and left alone in her snowy domain, leaving her terribly lonely until The Creator visited her, allowing her to give birth to her warm and caring children, the Wendigo. Some believe Yeti are also her daughters, but the theological debate is ongoing.

It is next to impossible to find an official place of worship to Iquatha. This is not due to any secretive, dark, or even unfriendly nature of the religion. It is merely because all such places are naturally in Wendigo villages and finding such places has only been done by men who fall in love with a Wendigo and marry her there, deciding never to return to human civilization. So any information about the religious practises is skimmed from Yeti and second-hand from their Wendigo friends.

Ithaqua is often depicted in ice or stone statues as a tall woman, easily seven feet tall, possibly larger if she wishes it. Her body is curved to sexual perfection with a flat and smooth abdomen and large breast formed perfectly to attract men and feed her offspring. Her shoulders and collar are covered in white fur down to her forearms, as is her back. Her front is exposed, her skin being pure black and her body is exposed down between her legs, but being a god the cold does not bother her. Her hips and legs are likewise covered in white fur, stopping at her feet. Her face is just as dark as her skin, like she was carved from obsidian with warm red eyes who welcome any and all seeking warmth into her embrace. Her hair is white, most of it being naturally windswept like a Yeti’s with a braid hanging down her back.

Ithaqua is generally attributed as being a god of ice and snow, but inversely also attributed as being the god of hearth and home. At first these seem to be contrasting domains for a god of any kind, but upon closer inspection, both domains are in fact different sides of the same coin to an extent.

Writings of the Ithaqua Faith explain that ice and snow is necessary for the continued health of the land. As people, mamono, and animals must sleep and rest, so must the land we all live off of. With the ice and cold surrounding them, her followers thus learn the importance of love and warmth, and thus her domain of the home, which mamono always fill with love.

A large festival is always held when the ‘true winter’ season begins. The Wendigo and some Yeti communities, give thanks to Ithaqua for a gentle previous winter and for guiding the men who became their husbands to them. Many rituals are held asking for another gentle winter and for Ithaqua to guide men into their arms so that their homes can be filled with warmth and love. Often these rituals involve writing a wish or praise onto a slip of paper and let them be carried off by the arctic winds or flow down an ice-cold river. These festivals are generally held on the first night a borealis appears in the sky.

Ithaqua is depicted often as a caretaker and one who holds life as precious. Blizzards are considered her hand of guiding souls to loving Wendigo and Yeti homes. Disasters such as avalanches or warm winters are considered punishment from Ithaqua for letting someone lost and cold in the snow be left to their fates without a Wendigo or Yeti to give them warmth and love.

In everyday life, priestesses of Ithaqua are generally asked to bless new homes being built or are asked to use their magic to cleanse homes of bad luck or ill fortune. They also offer their blessings to homes which gain a new member, be it a husband or a child. These blessings are believed to protect the home, allowing the ones living there to always have a home to return to no matter where they go. If bad storms rise up, they make divinations to see if any travellers are in need of their help, often letting unmarried Wendigo go out to find them.

For many years, The Order proclaimed that the Ithaqua Faith was one of human sacrifice to a flesh-eating beast, prompting many communities to cast out their condemned and unwanted into the frozen wastes in hopes it would keep the attention of the ‘beast’ away from them. Many of these villages were later hit with blizzards than nearly buried them.

Recently, a single man was found wandering in a daze. He was later confirmed to be a member of an exploration group who were attempting to map out the frozen mountainous areas as well as possibly identify any mamono villages that would be around.

He and his group passed through a deep valley between mountains which was an unwise move as a blizzard moved in on them. When they emerged from it, they discovered themselves in a land of crystal blue ice and soft white snow and a sky which was always at night, but bright with dancing colors of an eternal borealis.

They wandered, growing desperate as they had no way back and no signs of anything around. As they began growing weak from hunger, they were met by a beautiful woman covered in white fur with black skin who was followed by a small group of men and women wearing white coats made of the same fur. The obviously inhuman woman came to the group and took the one female of their party, who was suffering from illness, and fed her milk from her breasts. She gently undressed the female party member, leaving the storyteller entrances as his companion's body grew white fur and her head sprouted horns, transforming her into a Wendigo.

The other men of the group were tended to by other Wendigo, assumedly Ithaqua’s daughters, who disrobed them and began making love to them inside their large white coats neithe rparticipant bothered by the cold. The storyteller, despite his arousal, grew afraid and ran, losing himself in another blizzard despite cries to wait from the beauty and her extended family. He emerged near where he began before collapsing from his hunger and fright. Later, the man expressed regret at having left since the Wendigo that attempted to tend to him easily stole his heart with her tender care and whispers of affection.

That night, a large blizzard hit the village and some people said a woman covered in white fur with black skin walked into the village with the howling winds before walking right back out with the depressed man. His room and the path through the house to it was covered in melting snow the next morning and he was gone.

Ithaqua Faith experts believe that this frozen realm was Borea, the realm where Ithaqua reigns over her domain with her daughters, their husbands, as well as her own lovers. Many stories corroborate this tale, showing that multiple valleys and mountainous paths have been said to lead to Ithaqua’s realm during a blizzard and when the winds are howling. This has given Ithaqua the nickname of ‘Wind-Walker’.  </ac_metadata>