Oyá is a fierce and powerful female warrior orisha in Santeria. She is the owner of the marketplace, and keeps the gates of the cemetery. She is the force of change in nature and in life. She wields lightning and rides the winds into battle, often fighting with her machetes sidebyside with her favorite lover, Changó. Oyá raises the armies of the dead as her soldiers and is said to use the tornado as her weapon. Oyá’s aché is fierce, tumultuous, changing and protective.