Sehanine

Sehanine is a deity of the middle group (the enint) of the Uinheit pantheon, governing the domains of moons, planets, and trickery. She is one of the most actively venerated deities in Uinheit practice, both because of her celestial domain — the moons, whose movements determine the gaeadas of the Canaanese Calendar — and because of the resonance of her trickery domain with the uncertainties of fate, luck, and the play of circumstances that Uinheit worshippers in trading cities and harbour communities encounter constantly.

In the Canaanese Calendar, Sehanine's Driturn falls in the Waring (Frost Season), the coldest period of the year. The second driturn of Waring is named for her, making her one of two enint deities associated with the Frost Season (alongside Tealiad). Her domain over the moons gives her special significance in calendar reckoning: it is the retrograde of Gaia — the larger moon — that determines the timing of gaeadas, and Sehanine's patronage of the lunar domain is understood as connected to this calendrical function.

In Arakcadia, Sehanine is venerated at the Temple of the Circles in The Muses district, where she is part of a circle of deities venerated together alongside Athea and Isa.

Domains and significance

Moons and planets

Sehanine's primary domain is the moons and planets — the celestial bodies whose movements are tracked by Arakcadian astronomers at the Grand Conservatory and whose cycles determine the Canaanese Calendar. The retrograde of Gaia, in particular, is understood in Uinheit theology as occurring within Sehanine's domain: when Gaia is retrograde, the gaeada period begins, and the connection between this celestial event and Sehanine's oversight of the moons is ritually acknowledged in temple observances during retrograde periods.

Trickery

Sehanine's trickery domain places her among the more ambivalent enint deities in terms of public worship. Her trickery domain reflects her mythological character as a deity associated with deception, hidden movement, and the unexpected — qualities that the moon itself is understood to embody in its changing phases and occasional disappearance behind clouds.

In practice, worship of Sehanine in the trickery aspect is associated with rogues, travellers, those seeking to move unseen, and anyone who needs the protection of indirection. Arakcadian civic culture does not suppress Sehanine worship, though the trickery domain means that her shrines are more commonly visited in private than in public ceremony.

Sehanine's Driturn

The second driturn of Waring (Frost Season) is named Sehanine's Driturn. Waring is the coldest season of the Canaanese Calendar, with two driturns — one for Tealiad and one for Sehanine. The frost season correspondence with Sehanine is understood in Uinheit commentary as reflecting the quality of cold moonlight in winter and the way that the clearest skies for celestial observation occur in the cold season.

See also

• Uinheit
• Canaanese Calendar
• Temple of the Circles
• Gaia
• Athea
• Isa
• Tealiad