Flidais Foltchain

Question: Who is Flidais of the Golden Hair?

Flidais is a character from Irish mythology most famous as the patron of animals and hunting - both protecting animals from hunters and apportioning them out to humanity to be domesticated or consumed as necessary. She's Manannan mac Lir's mother-in-law through her daughter Fand, and is also rather widely famous as a figure associated with sexuality, most prominently in the Tain bo Flidais when she marries the hero Fergus (a grandson of Aengus and probably a Scion), who claims that if he didn't have her it would take seven other women to satisfy him. She also owns one of the famous magical cattle that so much of Irish mythology revolves around, and is obliquely to blame for a lot of the shenanigans in the Tain bo Cuailnge thanks to her aiding Fergus in his on-again off-again feud with Medb and company.

Like many of the women of Irish mythology, Flidais was almost certainly a goddess who was later euhemerized into a semi-historical mortal figure (like all of the Tuatha, really). Her ownership of the cow that could feed three hundred on its milk, her strong ties to sexuality and her connections to animals and the woodlands in which they live make it pretty likely that she was a sort of wilderness or fertility goddess, concerned with both the bounty of the land and the creatures that lived on it. There are no real myths of her left outside the cattle raids, but she was certainly a fairly prominent figure in ancient Ireland, especially around Ulster and Mayo, and most likely one of the goddesses of the Tuatha. Certainly she's old enough that two of her daughters aid the Tuatha in the battle against the Fomorians.

You'll find a writeup for Flidais as an Avatar of Emamu in the Anunna supplement on our Downloads page; as a mistress of beasts and a figure of feared feminine sexuality, she seemed like a good opportunity for a rare non-Fomorian Irish Titan, and too interesting a figure to ignore. However, you could also play her as a minor goddess or even a Scion from the era of the heroic deeds of Ireland. Whatever you choose, she's definitely an interesting addition to the many possibilities for Irish misbehavior.