Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

==What's Isha like?==
Alien motives, incomprehensible intelligence, enormous power, and the feeling of being perceived as less than an insect. The typical report of being in a god's presence. 

Not so with Isha. She is the most accessible of gods, as accessible as any power labeled a 'god' can be, often deigning to go among the common folk of Terra, or traveling the Webway when her homesick feelings grow too great. Most reports of meeting her are glowing. Rarely is there any impression given beyond awe struck benevolence. 

However, another common thread is the brevity of these meetings. Beyond just feeling brief, they actually are. The great black templar hero Tankred earned the honor of one such meeting, but it was timed at approximately 41 seconds. Tankred would later write he did not feel spurned but he felt she was " needed elsewhere." 

Isha has not been front and center in politics. But behind the scenes, she is very busy indeed. Her personal ranger cadre venture the whole of the imperium, found wherever disease and illness reign to return with samples to Isha's sanctum so the goddess might concoct cures. She does not limit herself to ailments of the body either- on occasion, chosen servants of the imperium afflicted by chaos or shattered in mind report feeling the goddess in their thoughts or hearing her words in their dreams. Those she meets in person invariably report a feeling of elation and wholeness afterwards, and typically go on to do good. Not typically becoming extraordinary galactic heroes, but local pillars of the community.

Despite being the galaxy's most overworked and patient social worker, she is still a goddess. Easily forgotten with all of her charity, but brought to a stark reminder when an assassin that was waiting to meet her in a crowd suddenly burst with roots and thorns under her gaze. Described traumatically by all who witnessed it, the screaming elder begged forgiveness even as he was dragged through what was once marble floor as Isha strode by, not sparing a second glance. Her visage then was not the gentle, wise mother's then, but the uncaring gaze of nature, red in tooth and claw.

Isha is also influenced by Macha, once a farseer of Biel- Tan. How much is Macha, and how much is Isha is a mystery for theologians to grapple with. Rumor has her as a daughter of Eldrad (though to be honest cousin is more likely), but then again in Imperial culture, most anything to do with the eldar has conspiracy theorists trying to trace whatever happened back to Eldrad.

Isha sees herself and Oscar as the new Lileath and Asuryan after the Fall. She sees the Imperium itself as her new extended family following the Fall of the Eldar, composed of both her trueborn and adopted (humanity and the rest) children alike and is determined to not let the same mistakes that led to the Fall of the Eldar happen ever again. Asuryan is kind of a broken pedestal for Isha. Asuryan used to make the rules. Those rules prevented the Eldar gods from stepping in and stopping their children from descending into hedonism and debauchery, and directly led to most of the gods getting killed. Particularly her daughter, Lileath, who Asuryan married. Lileath was the first victim of Slaanesh, who subsequently used Lileath's face as a disguise to get the drop on Asuryan and the other Eldar gods by calling a godsmoot. Asuryan isn't around anymore. She won't make the same mistakes he did.

For the exact details of Isha worship among mortals, see [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notes#Eldar_Polytheism|Eldar Polytheism]].

===Macha before Isha===

In the years before the Raid on Nurgle's Mansion, Macha had been depressed. Like really, really depressed. She had once been her aggressive self that people know from vanilla, but that had been gradually overlain by despair as years passed since the Fall and it was clear the Eldar Empire was never coming back. She tried filling the void with Isha worship, Isha being the goddess of healing and theoretically one of the only Eldar gods that could still hear prayers, but it didn't work.

Macha went on the Raid with no expectations. She fully didn't care if she lived or died, she may have even expected to and merely wanted to die in a way in which her death would actually mean something. But then the Raid actually managed to free Isha and bring her back into realspace, and when they made it out of the Webway gate Macha fell to her knees and felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. Hope.

When Isha was brought through the Webway she stood in her full glory for a brief moment before letting out a peal of pure innocent laughter at finally being freed from that fat bastard before vanishing in a flash of light. But then she appeared before Macha. Isha needed a host (she couldn't go back to the Immaterium), and Macha was the best person there in terms of her mindset and openness to the possibility of Isha returning (and being an Isha worshipper, that was also a factor). Macha agreed, and the two basically did a Phoenix Warrior-style fusion dance into the current Isha. This agreement being conducted purely by thought, it took place in the instant between the immaterial Isha vanishing and the new All-Mother arising.

The priesthood of Isha might tell the story of Macha as a morality tale of the importance of keeping faith and hope even in the darkest of hours. Macha's distinctive face tattoos are said to be a symbol of Isha and her priesthood in the modern Imperium.

===Isha's Garden===

Isha keeps a garden (that is, a literal, physical garden, not the metaphorical one that is sometimes mentioned) of plantlife from across the galaxy, either in the Imperial Palace back on Old Earth or aboard the ''Bucephalus''. All of the plants are native species from the homeworlds of the various member states. There are elelasse vines from Shaa-Dome growing around oak trees, flowers descended from the river lotus Por'O M'arc brought as a diplomatic gift from T'au, plants from the homeworld of the Kinebrach, Tarellians, and even a dull grey plant rumored to be a gift from the Watchers of Caliban. She cares for the plants like she would her children. The Shaa-Domean plants are her favorite, but she would be the first to admit that is due to her familiarity and fond memories of them than anything else. Her taste is a little strange sometimes (Cacti? Seriously?), but she manages to make the garden look beautiful, if eerie and alien due to the mix of a hundred biospheres. She mostly tends the garden by hand like a zen exercise. She sows, nurtures, and sometimes, dispassionately, she has to weed.

The comparisons between her garden and the rest of the Imperium are not lost on some. Nor is the fact that with the nature of Isha that garden is the most lethal place for any would-be assassin in the Imperium.