The Daughters of Ethura are a semi-cloistered spiritual and logistical order within the Tethuric Church dedicated to the feminine aspect of the Trine: Ethura, the life-giver. While not militant like the Hand of the Gale, they serve a vital role in sustaining the health, continuity, and internal balance of the Church and its communities.
They are caretakers, healers, record-keepers, and ritual guides—often placed wherever compassion must be tempered by order, and grace must be preserved in the shadow of power.
Core Roles and Responsibilities
- Healers and Medica: Many Daughters are trained in herbalism, anatomy, and post-ritual care. They tend to the wounded, the sick, and those returning from the battlefield—including members of the Hand of the Gale.
- Custodians of Birth and Death: The Daughters preside over births, miscarriages, and deaths not involving execution (which are the domain of the Hand). They perform ritual cleanings, death rites, and fertility blessings in both public and private settings.
- Archivists and Whisperers: Though technically not scholars, Daughters often serve as oral historians and keepers of names—maintaining lineages, secret sin ledgers, or pre-cleansing confessions. Some are sent to noble houses as spiritual advisors, midwives, or confessors.
- Pilgrimage Guides and Way-Speakers: Because of their non-combative nature, Daughters are often assigned to guide religious pilgrimages, accompanying the faithful to remote holy sites and providing spiritual insight along the way.
- Tenders of Hidden Places: In less visible roles, some Daughters are tasked with maintaining ritual wells, dreaming shrines, and flowered crypts—sites considered sacred to Ethura’s nature of mystery, warmth, and rebirth.
Doctrine and Belief
The Daughters believe that suffering must be softened, not erased. They do not oppose the Church’s harsher aspects, but serve as a balancing force. While the Hand of the Gale delivers Teu’s judgment, the Daughters offer mercy without defiance. They are trained from youth to recognize unraveled spirits and those who carry secret burdens—many of them have undergone loss or hardship as part of their path.
Unlike the militant or theological arms of the Church, the Daughters view service, presence, and endurance as holy acts.
Structure and Status
Not all women in the Church are Daughters, and not all Daughters are equal. The most experienced Daughters are given the title of "Ethrines", and may advise bishops directly.
Daughters do not take permanent vows of silence or celibacy, but many choose abstinence and detachment from family to remain spiritually “empty and present.”
Some consider them lesser clergy. Others view them as the spiritual spine of the Church.
Public Perception
To most people in the world, the Daughters are the soft voice of the Church—comforting, cryptic, or quietly unsettling, depending on the situation. They are welcomed in times of loss, rarely feared, and often underestimated.
Yet their access to suffering, secrets, and memory makes them powerful in subtle ways. Those who underestimate a Daughter forget that life-givers are also witnesses—and survivors.