The Amesha Spentas — the Bounteous Immortals — are six emanations of Ahura Mazda, each an abstract quality (Good Purpose, Best Truth, Desirable Dominion, Holy Devotion, Wholeness, Immortality) and each the guardian of a physical element: cattle, fire, metal, earth, water, plants. That double nature is elegant and consequential — caring for water or livestock is a religious act because the quality and the substance are the same guardianship, and it gives Zoroastrianism one of the oldest environmental ethics on record.