Please view full size for vivid details! As promised, here is another vision of Alora. Here you can read a bit more of her story to understand what this is all about. It is funny that I am not a big fan of tattoos and normally do not use them. And Alora does not come with body art. But here was a character that I felt was just screaming for tribal tattoos. So I gave her some. What do you think? I'm also thinking of putting one on her face. Thank you Val for giving me this gift of Alora. It has opened up a great opportunity to expand on the myth of Ishtar and the Search for Knowledge. It seems you made her for this role and it shows the magic of our friendship. You will be seeing more of her as the series continues. Alora's father, Tritus, was a once powerful warrior from the lands that would one day become Greece. Hence her green eyes and olive skin. As a grizzled old warrior he had come to Sumer on a mission and stayed on for the love of a Goddess. That Goddess was Ninmu, a daughter of Enki. She was a Goddess of marshes and wetlands. That position had been given to her by her mother Ninhursag, the original mother earth. Through a temple Enki had built for Ninmu she controlled the water cycle in this potentially parched land. Tritus had come to Ninmu hoping that her magic might extend to his homeland, for it was suffering a terrible drought. It had taken many months, indeed almost a year for Ninmu to build enough energy to cast a spell that distance and by the time it was done Tritus had grown to love the Goddess; he had decided not to return. Instead he chose to stay, become her guardian, a priest and eventually her lover. From this union the child Alora was born. Now, as you might imagine, Alora was a name given with purpose. Alora is a form of Laura which in itself is from the laurel plant, a small bushy tree in the Mediterranean region. When burned, laurel leaves enhance ones psychic powers and produce visions; as an amulet they protect against negativity. It is one of the resurrection plants; for thousands of years it was used in rebirth rituals. Thus Alora was born to be part of her mother's magic, for in Sumer the water cycle was the rebirth cycle. Alora symbolized rejuvenation. In his daughter the old Warrior found the ultimate answer he was seeking. He had come to Ninmu's temple hoping for rejuvenation. He found it in the love of the Goddess and in the birth of his only child, Alora. She was trained in the arts of magic by her mother. Not being a full Goddess her powers were limited but were still exceptional. She was destined to be a high priestess in her mother's temple. From Tritus she learned the rudiments of weaponry, particularly the bow, a favorite of her father's. He trained her to be strong and to not rely on magic alone to get her out of trouble. Unlike many unions of Gods and humans this one worked. All was well with this mixed race family of water loving demigods until the arrival of Sargon of the North. Like Tritus, Sargon needed water for his people. But unlike Tritus, a warrior who had come in peace and given much in return, Sargon had come with a horde and intended to take what he needed. The concept of asking was not known to him; Sargon simply took. Previous in Ishtar Series

"Alora - Ishtar 4"