Aequitas is the daughter of the prince and the stolen bride responsible for the War of the Golden Apple. The apple that Erys had created was imbued with divine powers that could tempt jealous gods to compete for the attention of a mere mortal and so, when consumed by the pregnant bride, she gave birth to a girl who was as radiant as gold. Her beauty rivaled that of any god or goddess and so it was that the gods take turns wooing the unimpressed goddess, Aequitas.
The result of a war that devastated the mortal realm, as the gods wooed Aequitas they gave her so many treasures that she became the very goddess of wealth itself, and her personal collection is a testament to her wealth. It is said that she lived in a heavenly realm with seas of gold. Despite the strife that greed causes, Aequitas is a goddess that promotes peace. While merchants compete with each other, those who pray to Aequitas believe the market is best when merchants follow rules of conduct and ethics, when contracts are upheld, and when the trade is fair.
So valued is the goddess's peaceful presence that many banks have statues in her honor, often depicted holding a balanced scale with coins on one side and a heart on the other, and they also print currency with her visage.
There is also a famous story in which Aequitas taught a wealthy king a very important lesson about greed and priorities.
King Midas of Izbarda was the wealthiest king in all of the mythical sea of Geleda. And yet, no amount of wealth seemed enough for the god and his greed pushed him to overtax the people, force his armies to fight profitable wars, and to turn the markets in the favor of the crown. Greed had turned the kind-heart of a king into that of a tyrant.
One day, a satyr with golden horns, hooves and fleece was found in the garden of Midas. The satyr had become drunk and passed out from his festivities. The guards of the king went deal with the intruder but, upon recognizing the satyr as a servant of the trade goddess, the king commanded them to take care of the satyr. The satyr was given a place to sleep and given good food & drink upon waking the following morning. Aequitas came to collect her companion and, when she did, she asked Midas to name his reward.
Midas had seen the satyr turn the roses he had slept upon into gold and asked for that power. Aequitas warned him that the power should only be used lightly before giving him the golden touch.
The king ignored her warning.
King Midas turned his entire palace estate to gold: every brick and tile, every door and mirror, every piece of furniture and decor, every tree and bush, every bit of every into glorious and vibrant gold, all the while he grinned like a maniac with insatiable avarice in his heart. It seemed his greed was boundless as he turned everything to gold. He forgot and ignored the goddess's warning.
As the king sat before his dinner feast, all carried out golden dishes and accompanied by golden goblets and pitches of wine on a golden table cloth covering a table of gold, he rested and basked in the radiance of his work. His daughter, upset that her roses had lost their scent and became hard to the touch, came to he father to plead with him to obey the goddess's warning and use his gift more carefully. As he reached out to comfort her, he accidentally embraced her with the golden touch and, to his horror, she turned to gold.
He cursed the gods and begged for help from his servants. To his anguish, he no longer could control his golden touch. When the servants saw that their king had turned his own daughter into gold, they abandoned him. He was left in his palace, surrounded by his wealth, and soon he began to starve for, though the kitchens were plentifully stuffed, every piece of food he pressed to his lips became gold too. He had chose to disobey the goddess's warning.
And so the king would've died, wasting away in a tomb of gold surrounded by useless trinkets and treasures, and haunted by the visage of his own daughter. His heart was heavy and he wished to take his own life. And, as he suffered for his greed, he may have gone mad with anguish but his wails and curses and begging rants aimed at Aequitas were answered.
The goddess returned and asked the king what he wanted now. The king begged to have the goddess's gift taken back. She explained that taking away the golden touch was easy enough but it would not undo his handiwork. He begged that he would trade away his riches, his crown and even his life to just see his daughter returned to her living form. This seemed to please Aequitas.
She told the king to take everything from the palace, every piece of gold, every golden statue, every golden bench and brazier, and every golden brick and tile, down to the sea and toss them into it at once. The king obeyed. Midas threw all of his riches into the sea, every coin and every treasure, until the place his palace had stood was but dirt and rock. Lastly, he was told to take his daughter to the sea and to set her in the shallows. The king had grown weary but he dragged his daughter's golden form to the sea and collapsed just short of the tide. He feared he had not been strong enough, that his greed had done him in, and that he would die having failed his daughter. But the gods took pity upon him and fair Delphina washed a wave over him and his golden daughter.
His daughter pulled her father's head up into her bosom, crying and laughing, and the king realized that no treasure in the world was worth the simple pleasures of life.
AEQUITAS THE INVISIBLE HAND
Title(s)
The Golden Queen, the Free & the Fair, the Queen of Commerce, the Merchantess, the Tranquil
Pantheon(s)
Naryan
Power Level
Lesser Deity
Alignment
Lawful Neutral
Symbol
A scale balancing a heart and coins; a red lotus and golden coins
Portfolio
Commerce, peace, merchants, wealth, goods
Domains
Knowledge,
Worshipers
Merchants, bankers, business owners, investors, diplomats
Favored Weapon
Shields
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