Auril
Cleric Alignments: CN, LN, NE

AURIL: Frostmaiden, Icedawn, the Cold Goddess (Lesser Faerunian Deity)

Symbol: A white snowflake on a gray diamond (a heraldic lozenge) with a white border
Home Plane: Fury's Heart Alignment: Neutral Evil
Portfolio: Cold, winter
Worshipers: Druids, elemental archons (air or water), frost giants, inhabitants of cold climates, rangers
Cleric Alignments: LE, NE, CE
Domains: Air, Evil, Storm, Water

Favored Weapon: "Icemaiden's Caress" [ice axe] (battleaxe)

uril (aw-rill) is a fickle, vain, evil deity with a heart of ice who is venerated primarily out of fear. She remains untouched by any hint of true love, noble feeling, or honor. She enjoys toying with those who offend her, trapping them in snow storms, and then driving them insane with tantalizing visions of warmth and the comforts of home before freezing them to death. Her beauty is cold and deadly, the flower of womanhood preserved forever in a slab of arctic ice-- with sensibilities to match the ice.

The church of Auril is very loosely and informally organized, and clergy members wander and are largely independent. They seek to make all folk fear their deity and her clergy (to cut down on the attacks they face) through the fury of the winter weather. They also generate personal wealth and influence by carrying out tasks that others cannot in the worst winter weather and by magically protecting those who pay or obey from the worst winter conditions.

Clergy members make offerings to the deity of some of the wealth they amass by scattering it in falling snow during a storm or throwing it through cracks in river ice or glacial crevasses during the winter. In the cold months, Auril expects each of her clerics to force or persuade someone to pray to her in the approved manner by beseeching Auril for mercy and praising her for the "cold cleansing" she brings. This prayer must last for the length of time it takes a piece of ice larger than the "supplicant's" hand to melt against his or her bared flesh. It must be done out of doors and preferably at night. During the winter, Aurilian clergy are also expected to slay at least one creature with cold. This is often done so as to provide worshipers or potential worshipers of the deity with food or to slay a personal foe of the cleric or clergy.

Clerics and druids of Auril pray for their spells at midnight or whenever the temperature drops to its lowest point during the day, lying out in the snow or the coldest stream available all night if possible. Midwinter Night is the most holy time of the year to clergy of Auril. It is a nightlong festival of ice-dancing that is intended for both enjoyment and recruitment. The Coming and the Last Storm are two enthusiastically celebrated rituals, howling ice storms called up by clergy working as a group to mark the onset or last gasp of winter. Joining the clergy requires undergoing a ritual known as the Embracing, during which one runs through a blizzard all night long dressed only in boots, a thin shift, and body paint depicting the symbols of Auril, without the protective mantle of any magic. Auril accepts those who do not freeze to death. Many clerics and druids multiclass as divine disciples, elemental archons or rangers.

HISTORY/RELATIONSHIPS: Auril is one of the Deities of Fury, along with Malar, Umberlee, and her superior, Talos. Lately, Talos eroded much of her power; in response, she makes winter an increasingly fierce season in the North. She can call on Umberlee with some degree of confidence. Malar and Auril despise each other. She has begun to siphon power from the slumbering Ulutiu slowly enough to keep him from waking and in a few years when she has killed him she plans to continue granting spells in his name.

DOGMA: Cover all the lands with ice. Quench fire whenever it is found. Let in the winds and the cold; cut down windbreaks and chop holes in walls and roofs that my breath may come in. Work darkness to hide the cursed sun so that the chill that Auril brings may slay. Take the life of an arctic creature only in great need, but slay all others at will. Make all Faerun fear the Frostmaiden. Revere the Cold Goddess and sing her praises into any chill breeze or winter wind. Do not raise your hand against any other cleric of Auril.