Rhea was a greater power of fertility and life, one of the Greater Titans, and mother of the first Olympians.[1] There was no evidence of direct worship for her on Toril.[3][note 1]
Description[]
The avatars of Rhea typically took the form of young, incredibly beautiful women with voluptuous figures that were immodestly dressed.[2]
Powers[]
Avatars of Rhea were unable to be harmed by weapons made of unforged natural materials, such as stone or wood, and animals were unwilling to bring harm to them.[2]
Activities[]
Rhea ocassionally answered mortal appeals concerning fertility or motherhood, but generally did not interfer as she had given her responibilities over to the other Olympians.[2] She acted as a great advisor to the pantheon, for whom members sought out whenever they couldn't turn to each other for advice.[1]
Realm[]
Rhea lacked a divine realm of her own, but lived with the Olympians in the shared divine realm of Olympus and resided in her own grand palace.[1]
History[]
Rhea was born as one of the many Greater Titans of the primeval deities Gaea and Uranus.[4] Not long after her sibling Cronus overthrew their father, the two married.[3][5] However, Cronus had went back on a promise he had made to their mother Gaea to free their monstrous siblings, the hecatoncheires, from their imprisonment by Uranus.[3][5][6] Furious, Gaea laid a curse upon Cronus, proclaiming that one day his own children would usurp him,[5] just as he had his usurped his cruel father.[3][6] Fearful of this curse, devoured each of Rhea's first five children[3][5][4] as they were born.[3][4] These first five children were Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon.[5] With each child sacrificed Rhea grew more and more anguished.[2]
By their sixth child, one who would later be known as Zeus, Rhea had grown furious and would not allow Cronus to takeaway another of her children. She tricked Cronus into instead swallowing a stone[4][2] in swaddling clothes.[2] This gave their mother Gaea the chance to smuggle the child away and leave him in the care of nymphs[5] on a remote island.[3] When he reached adulthood, Zeus returned disguised as one of Cronus's cupbearers and gave him a potion that induced him into vomiting up his five other children.[5][3]
Zeus and his siblings, the newly formed Olympian pantheon, then usurped Cronus.[5] Their first act following this was the casting out of the majority of the Greater Titans into the plane of Carceri.[3][5][4] For her part in their ascension, Rhea was purposely spared the fate of banishment.[4][1] She yielded much of her power and responsibilities to her children,[2] who in turn gifted her a palace in Olympus that far exceeded the one she once shared with Cronus.[1]
Worshipers[]
She had no religion of her own, nor proxies, though Rhea drew veneration from the entirety of the Olympian pantheon and thus inadvertently received veneration from mortals all across the Prime Material.[1] Whenever Rhea was directly venerated by mortals, it was for her role as the Olympian pantheon's mother[2] and for her role in liberating the Olympians from Cronus.[7]
Appendix[]
Notes[]
- ↑ There were no known worshipers of Rhea in the Realms. However, Rhea is mentioned in the opening pages of the Living City module No Time to Lose. For this reason, Rhea is documented in this article.
Appearances[]
Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
No Time to Lose
External Links[]
Rhea (mythology) article at Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 129. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 James M. Ward and Troy Denning (August 1990). Legends & Lore (2nd edition). (TSR, Inc), p. 109. ISBN 978-0880388443.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Paul Pederson (January 2000). No Time to Lose. Living City (RPGA), p. 2.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 James M. Ward and Troy Denning (August 1990). Legends & Lore (2nd edition). (TSR, Inc), p. 118. ISBN 978-0880388443.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 116. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 James M. Ward and Troy Denning (August 1990). Legends & Lore (2nd edition). (TSR, Inc), p. 105. ISBN 978-0880388443.
- ↑ Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 128. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.