The Herd Mother is the single most widely worshipped deity in Prax. In Sartar, she is worshiped as the Cattle Goddess, and her Praxian Herd Priestesses are known to have a special relationship with her. Throughout Prax, the Wastelands, Dragon Pass, and even Peloria and Pent, the Eiritha Hills are known to be the most sacred place of the Cattle Goddess.
Eiritha had many children – cows, bison, impala, high llamas, rhinos, sable antelope, and so on. I’ve even heard that Mother Morokanth was a daughter of Eiritha! She is not associated with sheep, deer, pigs, etc. so she is not the goddess of all ruminants. She is the mother of deer and elk through another husband.
In Prax, Eiritha is the Mother of Life. The earth in Prax is too poor and too hard for agriculture, outside of a few oases. And so life depends on the herds. Waha teaches us how to defend the herds, how to butcher and use what we need (and to waste nothing), and how to deal with spirits. And Storm Bull protects us against the Chaos which haunts the Wastelands. But Eiritha is the Good Goddess, our mother, and the mother of our herds.
Bison illustrations from the Colorado Plateau. Agenbroad and Hesse, 2004, p. 194
