Positive • Delicate • Altruistic

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History

Iodora was a princess and supplicant of the Goddess Hyphera, who spent her time not in parlors or throne rooms, but in the kitchen with the servants. Every morning she woke up early to make dough, then baked bread and pastries to fill a basket and deliver to the houses of those who needed them. The white heifer was adored by all the townsfolk, from the children who coveted her sweets to the elderly who appreciated her patience and generosity. One day, in grassy plains outside the palace walls, she happened upon a large white bull. He was handsome and kind, he asked her name and complimented her eyes. But Iodora was a simple maiden and overlooked his amorous advances. Three times she rejected his request for her hoof, until finally in a fit of anger he revealed himself as he truly was, his simple attire fading away into the vestments of the ruler of the gods, his crown inside his horns. He was Altadeus, lord of thunder and lightning, he who sat upon the throne of the Valley of Clouds in Elysium. With his power he took Iodora away to Elysium to make her his wife.

When she declined, he cursed her, that she should ignore the lord of the gods, sentencing her to die by the next sunrise.

But Altadeus had a wife, and she was none too pleased with her husband's behavior. Hyphera's marriage to Altadeus was one of necessity. The gods needed rulers and the spiritual forces governing the world needed guidance, and so the marriage's vows were often broken. Hyphera took pity upon the princess, who served her in word and deed all her life. After excoriating her womanizing husband, she lessened the curse he had thrown on the heifer maiden. Instead of death, she turned it into a deep sleep of one hundred years. When Iodora awoke from the lives she lived in her dream she was on a gilded dais on starspun silks; she was in Elysium under the protection of Hyphera. The two soon fell deeply in love, and the mortal Iodora became Hyphera's royal consort, much to the chagrin of Altadeus.

Though Iodora's kingdom on earth had continued on without her, and she did miss it, it was the adjustment to life in the realm of Elysium that would truly prove a challenge.