The Catha were an ancient order of priests who served the cult of worship of an unknown deity in the Old Religion.[1]
The Catha developed a unique language.[2]
History[]
In the days before the Great Purge, boys were chosen for the priesthood at birth and were taken away from their families to be raised as initiates in the Old Religion for the rest of their childhood. It was also possible that there was a rite of passage or initiation of some sort for the fledgling Priests that officially ordained them into the Catha.
For hundreds of years, the Catha guarded an ancient prophecy foretelling the Battle of Camlann.[2]
The Great Purge[]
Alator, the last known Catha
It was unknown how many Catha priests were left after the Great Purge and if all of them opposed Camelot since then. Alator declared that he had been hunted for many years by Uther's men, but he chose to help Merlin in his struggle to bring about Albion's time.
Eventually, he and his guard found their way to a city of Helva in Odin’s kingdom, where he was later found by Morgana. In exchange for her Healing Bracelet, Morgana asked him to kidnap and torture Gaius into revealing Emrys's identity, but though he was successful, Alator betrayed her and protected Emrys instead.[1]
As the Battle of Camlann approached over three years later, Alator ordered his bendrui servant Finna to deliver the prophecy to Merlin, along with a personal message for the warlock advising him not to trust Mordred. After being captured and tortured by Morgana into revealing Emrys's identity, Alator was killed by the last Priestess when he defied her for the last time. His sacrifice and Finna's death finally drew Morgana to declare war on the whole Camelot.[2]
Magical abilities[]
- “... He has some sacred abilities known only to the initiates...”
- — Morgana Pendragon about the High Priests[src]
The High Priests were chosen for their exceptional magical power.
As chief servants of the Old Religion, High Priests were among the most powerful creatures of magic in existence. They possessed exceptional magical powers and the extensive arcane knowledge of the Old Religion's laws, customs, and most sacred mysteries.[1]
High Priests were particularly adept in the practice of dark magic and necromancy. Many of their most sacred rituals involved these types of magic, including the power over life and death[3], the mental torture,[1] etc. They were also highly skilled in the use of elemental magic, animal control spells, and various other enchantments.[1]
The Nine were also extremely resilient and could only be killed via the use of powerful supernatural forces and magical spells. Alator, despite receiving a number of should-be-fatal wounds from his torture, only died after his neck was telekinetically snapped. In addition to it, they were trained at birth to resist all forms of physical pain, and were acclaimed to even be able to seperate their mind from their body.[2] However, even a Catha's extreme resilience had its limits, and if weakened enough prior to enduring their physical trauma, such as through the curse of a poppet and powerful magic, it was still possible to kill him if he did not recover at the time from his mortal wounds.
Mythology[]
Catha, or Cautha, is an Etruscan Goddess of the Sun who is sometimes shown as male. As a male Solar Deity, Catha is equated with the Greek Sun-God Helios. Other sources, however, name Usil as the Etruscan Sun-God, though on one mirror Usil is shown as a goddess as well. Catha is from the Etruscan root cath-, meaning "the sun", and was also in use as a family name among the Etruscans. Both Usil and Catha are sometimes described as rising from the Sea at dawn, though how the Sun manages to rise from the ocean off the coast of Etruria, which is located on the western side of the Apennines, is anyone's guess, unless that particular iconography originally comes from another culture. That said, Usil is depicted on a mirror-back with Nethuns (Neptune, the Sea-God) and Thesan (the Goddess of the Dawn).
Catha is sometimes called the daughter of Usil, and associated with daybreak or sunrise; as such She may be equivalent or a sister-Goddess to Thesan. On the Liber Linteus, a fragmentary book of Etruscan ritual, which was only preserved because the linen it was written on was torn into strips and used to wrap a mummy, Catha is called Ati Catha, "Mother Catha". Ati is a title used of a few other Etruscan Goddesses such as Cels, the Earth Goddess, and Turan, the Goddess of Love. It may show especial honor or indicate that she was held in high regard among the other Goddesses.
Catha is associated in cult with Fufluns, the Etruscan Dionysos, and they may have been worshiped together, perhaps in a manner similar to Dionysos and Ariadne (whose legend was brought to Etruria, and where She was renamed Areatha), who does have attributes of a Light-Goddess, albeit starlight rather than sunlight. That Catha received organized worship is evidenced by the Etruscan phrase maru Cathsc, or "priest of Catha", and Her importance in the Etruscan Pantheon is demonstrated in Her inclusion on the Piacenza liver, a bronze representation of a liver used as a teaching tool in the art of haruspixy, or divination using animal entrails (of which the Etruscans were the acknowledged masters). She is in charge of several houses on the liver, representing different aspects of the universe; and in Etruscan sky-divination, which divides the sky in a similar manner, She occupies one of the most auspicious regions among the earth and nature Deities, that of the south-south-east (appropriate to a Sun-Goddess), right next to Fufluns.
Alternate spellings: Cautha, Cath, Ati Catha
Trivia[]
- It was unknown if the priests of Catha served as the male counterpart to the High Priestesses of the Triple Goddess.
- Alator was the only mentioned Catha in the series, and presumably the last remaining during King Arthur's reign.