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Girl Genius

Ashtara is the goddess of love and fertility of the people of Skifander, and their primary deity. Appropriately, her holy days are celebrated in a way that makes Skifandrans cha-cha at the thought of the festivities, even on damaged ankles in the middle of towns who do not honor her.

She also is noted for her holy daggers .

The goddess's name is reminiscent of goddesses worshipped by ancient civilizations of our timeline. wikipedia:Ishtar provides:

Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. Anunit, Atarsamain and Esther are alternative names for Ishtar.

This might provide some small suggestion of where Skifander is located, as the name variations are all limited to the areas to the southeast of the Mediterranean. Then again, perhaps it just sounded good to the ancient Skifandrians. Considering this, it is also worth noting that the name Gilgamesh, in our world, is also Mesopotamian in origin (wikipedia:Gilgamesh).

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