Miamey, the Woodland Lady was a mythical hero of the wood elves.

Significance

In popular elven mythology, Miamey was one of the mythical first elven leaders who founded the Elvish Empire. She was often represented as a demigod and a patron saint of the wood elven people; wood elven values such as territorial integrity and a violent approach to problem-solving were derived from her cult. Whereas Illrune Illifane was the god of the wilderness, many wood elven hunters and warriors preferred to draw inspiration from the more relatable Miamey. Miamey also stood for rigid order and social organization, because she had created wood elven social structure.

In war, Miamey had wielded a radiant blade, sometimes had borne wings of gold, and worn armor of red and gold. Accordingly, red was strongly associated with violence in wood elven culture; warriors applied red body paint before going to fight, and important officers wore red instead of green cloth while at war.

Symbolism

Though Miamey was sometimes depicted as a warrior wood elf in paintings, by far the most common way to depict her was using symbolism; either by drawing a humanoid in the shape of Miamey's sigil, or explicitly drawing Miamey's sigil. The sigil represented Miamey's physical form: the dot and middle bar were her head and body, while the two bars on either side represented Miamey's golden wings.

The sigil used straight lines and corners rather than the curves of traditional elven sigils in part because wood elven sigils in general were more square than usual, and because Miamey stood for order both in society and in the military; there was no room for artistry or smooth interpretation.

History

Miamey was a military commander during the elvish wars against the Dady Empire; she probably commanded the wood elven Woodlands Legion. When the armies became founding houses and the Elvish Empire was born, Miamey apparently dissolved her army and allowed her soldiers to form whichever houses they pleased, as long as they remained sworn to her Vow. Thus, the first wood elven houses, and the major houses that derived from them, were historically bound to the Woodland Lady's legacy and to her Vow.