Elidinis

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Elidinis
Gender		Female
Alignment		Fertility and Growth
Animal Aspect		Hippopotamus
Colours		Turquoise and yellow
Adjective		Unknown (edit)
Symbol

A core with an illustration of a hippopotamus engraved on it, representing Elidinis.

Elidinis (Jagex pronunciation: eh-LID-in-iss), is the Menaphite Goddess of fertility and growth, she is also heavily associated with the River Elid. The River Elid is named in her honour, for it brings life to the whole region. There are some who believe the river to be Elidinis herself, according to the Sphinx in Sophanem. The three Spirits of the River Elid explain that "Elidinis is the goddess of the river" and that they were "bound to her river" when Elidinis came to the desert. This contradicts the belief that the river is Elidinis herself, however it does not exclude the possibility that the river is part of Elidinis. Which is underlined by the Spirits of the River when they describe that they "have become one with the river and have become full of power of Elidinis that was in her river."

She is also the wife of Tumeken, with whom she created Icthlarin and Amascut from their divine essence, and one of the four major gods of the Menaphite Pantheon. Elidinis is mainly worshipped by the peoples of the desert. The centre of her worship is the town of Nardah, although there are priestesses of hers in Menaphos as well. In Nardah, there is a shrine to Elidinis (the Elidinis Statuette), provided by the goddess herself to Nardarine, a refugee of the God Wars, who went on to found and lead Nardah.

History

Despite being a founder of Kharidian society and the only member of the desert pantheon that was not created directly or indirectly by her husband, very little is known about Elidinis. The accomplishments of her husband have seemed to have overshadowed her own, even though evidence has suggested that she was a widely worshipped and respected goddess by the Menaphites.

Second Age

Elidinis, like many other gods at the time, arrived on Gielinor before the God Wars. She was one of the two gods known to arrive in the area of Kharidian, the other being Tumeken. The gods were wed and created two beings from their divine essence. These were the demigods Icthlarin and Amascut. The family would found an empire in the area of Kharidian, becoming the four major desert gods. Tumeken would create the four minor gods of the pantheon, Het, Crondis, Apmeken, and Scabaras, in his dream, according to the Book of Light and Day.

Elidinis and Tumeken preferred not to rule, but to guide their people spiritually, so they appointed a human as pharaoh to lead their followers. At some point the lands' peace was broken, when the Kharidian lands were invaded by the Zarosian Empire. The war ended with Tumeken sacrificing himself to stop the Zarosian invaders. Following the war, Elidinis appeared before the current pharaoh Osmumten and gave him Tumeken's shadow and Elidinis' ward, before she retired to mourn her losses.

Third Age

During the God Wars the desert held out relatively unaffected for three millennia compared to the rest of the Gielinor. This may have been due to an alliance between Elidinis and Saradomin. However during the last millennium of the wars Zamorak launched a massive invasion that would lead to the destruction of first Uzer and then Ullek.

Shortly after the destruction of Uzer by the elder demon Thammaron, a refugee named Nardarine tried fleeing the fighting of the forces between Saradomin and Zamorak by venturing into the harsh desert, eventually running out of supplies. Nardarine cried out to Saradomin for help, but he did not answer her, instead it was Elidinis who responded to her prayers. She gave Nardarine some water and asked the woman a question: would she worship Elidinis if the goddess helped her?

Nardarine accepted and took an oath to Elidinis who then created a statuette for her to worship. Nardarine drank from the water of the Elid and Elidinis gave her food. To thank Elidinis for her generosity, Nardarine built a town where they met, which she named Nardah after herself, and anyone who sought to live there needed to take the oath of loyalty to Elidinis.

At the end of the God Wars, Elidinis, like most other gods of noteworthy power, was banished by Guthix when he made the Edicts of Guthix.

Later Ages

At some point, the Sect of Scabaras, great subterranean architects, are said to have sought to construct a passage under the Elid. Affronted, Elidinis supposedly smote them and they were not seen again until the year 169 of the Fifth Age, when they broke into the Temple of the Lesser Gods in Sophanem from below.

That same year, Nardah discovered it could no longer draw water from the river Elid without it evaporating. They were forced to buy water from Ali the Carter from Pollnivneach, costing the town great sums of money. Thankfully, an adventurer found the cause of the calamity was a curse placed on the town by the Spirits of the Elid after a Saradominist priest desecrated the Elidinis statuette. The statuette was found and returned to the shrine and the curse over the town was lifted. Shiratti, the custodian of the statuette, is still awaiting a proper priestess of Elidinis to be sent over from Menaphos, but this is unlikely to happen given the capital's state.

Followers

• Shiratti the Custodian
• Tirrie, Nirrie, and Hallak (the Spirits of the Elid)
• Inhabitants of Nardah

Affiliated items

• Robes of Elidinis
• Elidinis' ward ^{(fortified) (ornate)}
• Statuette
• Thread of Elidinis
• Divine rune pouch

Trivia

• Elidinis' symbol is very similar to the Zodiac symbol of Aquarius.
• Elidinis may be based on Hathor, as they share areas of worship (fertility and growth), and both were married to gods associated with the sun (Tumeken and Ra respectively).