Why?
The other domains I can see a logic behind but not water. The write up in Trial of the Beast doesn't give me any clues which I could see other than the midwifery side of the religion and the breaking of waters during birth...which I am going with unless anyone can come up with anything different.
Maybe it's supposed to imply a connection with winter's cold, darkness, and (sometimes) death as compared to the "life" of spring and summer? I seem to recall that some real-life death godesses had connections to water or ice (like Proto-Indo-European Kolvo).
Mostly, though, I remember death deities being connected with earth.
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In my head, it has to do with the river that separates the land of the living from the land of the dead, whether it be called Styx or Lethe or Duat or whatever. I prefer Duat, 'cause of the Egyptian connection, but that's just me.
The flooding of the river Nile was seen as the annual event that brought life and rebirth to the 'dead' dry land of Egypt, allowing it to thrive, and yet the river itself was full of deadly things (like crocodiles), creating a lasting connection between the water and both life and death. (Something fishermen of all cultures have also embraced, seeing the sea as the bountiful source of life and sustenance, and the treacherous force that almost inevitably will drag them to their death, eventually.)
Charon, the Boatman, also is a diety (daemon horseman, anyway) of both death and the waters, and in the River Kingdoms, Hanspur, the River Rat, is yet another diety associated both with death and water, so it's a common theme in Golarion, this association between the physical journey represented by a river, and the spiritual journy of a soul.
Set's pretty much got it covered - water, birth, and life are tied together symbolically.
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Not that this is much use but in the very beginning of the Pathfinder Tales novel, Prince of Wolves,
It was a well written vignette.
Creative Director
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Set's pretty much got it covered - water, birth, and life are tied together symbolically.
Yup! Spot on! And beyond the fact that water is associated with birth, in Golarion it's also associated with death in that once someone dies, they drop into a magical, partially metaphorical river that delivers the soul through the Astral plane to the Boneyard.
Thanks to everyone who explained the reasoning behind the "Water + Death Goddess".
Not that this is much use but in the very beginning of the Pathfinder Tales novel, Prince of Wolves,
** spoiler omitted **It was a well written vignette.
Yes, I thought that was an exceptionally well-written bit too.