Way of the Warrior Saints/Saint Cissa

Saint Cissa (Sih-suh) is the patron of nature, the forest, woodsfolk, and all of the Father's nearest creations, such as water, rocks, the earth, and trees.

He is also sometimes seen as the patron saint of hermits and solitude. Sometimes he is also viewed as the patron saint of goats and RedSpan.

Often depicted as a vibrant young man, with a satchel slung over one shoulder, and a staff in the other, he has a naturally complected face, one easy to forget. At his side is a beautiful, though plain, woman, who is his wife.

History

Saint Cissa's father and mother were greedy innkeepers in the Central Mountains of Atamara, always seeking to cheat travellers. Eventually, a powerful warlord passed through, and they sought to make him pay more than the lodging for the night was worth. The warlord slew the man and woman, for they had tried to cheat him, but their child, Cissa, escaped, not being seen by the warlord and his men.

He was raised by goats in the Central Mountains of Atamara, and was a feral child. Untouched by human life, he was left to his own means as he grew older, and eventually separated from his pack. He became filthy and dirty, and spoke no words.

But one day, Cissa saw a woman walking in the forests, and fell in love. He knew that he was naked, and was ashamed. As such, he went and made clothing from the carcass of a goat which he found dead, and he entered a village, trading berries and herbs for a shave and bath. He began to visit the village often, and learned to speak.

Eventually, Cissa became learned and cultured enough to approach the woman, whom he had seen many times in the village. But when he went to call on her at her home, he was told she was ill. Distraught, he went to a local apothecary to seek a cure. He was told that there was an elixir which could be made, of 99 types of berries, of which there was only one berry of each kind in all of Atamara, which could cure the lady of her sickness. After the berries were collected, they must be crushed, and the pulp collected in an unhewn cup or basin of rock, one berry each day. For the whole 99 days, nothing may be eaten other than grass and bark, and nothing may be drunk other than water.

Cissa did this, and was on his final berry, when his hand slipped, and the berry crushed against the smooth rock. Cissa wept, and his tears fell on the crushed berry. The pulp was washed into the other berries, and the cure was made. Cissa took it to his lady love, and she drank it, and being cured, fell in love with Cissa. They were wed, and Cissa and his love went into the forest, and were only seen again for sure one time, when several knights saw Cissa speak to a tree, and it responded, as Cissa glowed with a bright light.

Notable Scriptures

"Of the temples, let me now speak. I see buildings, and people in them. But I think the people are empty, for it is man-animals that go in, and man-animals that go out, when it ought be saints. So surely, the saints in these great buildings are forgotten: only we of wood and wandering way remember the words of the Saints, the midnight turnings of the Father." (Whispers in the Forest, Chapter 5, verse xxi-xxii