Lliira
Cleric Alignments: CG, CN, NG
Symbol: A triangle of three six-pointed starts (orange, yellow, red)
Home Plane: Brightwater
Alignment: Chaotic good
Portfolio: Joy, happiness, dance, festivals, freedom, liberty
Worshipers: Bards, dancers, entertainers, poets, revelers, singers
Cleric Alignments: CG, CN, NG
Domains: Chaos, Charm, Family, Good, Travel, Lust
Favored Weapon: "Sparkle" (shuriken)
liira (leer-ah) is the perpetually moving maiden of countless
ballads, the archetypal dancing ingénue that has inspired poets,
songwriters, and any who revel in the experience and wonderment of a
life lived gaily and free. Somewhat detached from the everyday events of
the mundane world, Lliira speaks to her most devoted adherents in
dreams, showing by example that most slights are not worth worrying
about, and that few troubles are important enough to draw one away from
the Elysian Rigadoon, a philosophy that places joyful movement above all
other concerns.
Lliira's clerics (known as joybringers) range from inattentive flirts
to deviant hedonists. All are good-hearted, and value revelry above all
else. Theirs is an aerobic devotion, and Lliirans are appreciated
throughout Faerun as some of the most physically toned individuals
around. Their temples raise monies by hosting grand galas and then spend
these monies in seemingly chaotic fashion, perhaps to beautify this or
that public place, or to throw a surprise party for a dour lord. Among
the easy going of civilized lands, joybringers of Lliira find patronage
and encouragement, and are among the most popular clerics in Faerun. In
darker lands, or in harsh, uncivilized regions in which frivolity can
lead to death from the elements or government, their religion is
zealously suppressed. Curious to a fault, this only encourages the
Lliirans to seek out such locales, hoping to provide happiness and joy
with the step of a jolly jig or the lilting trill of a beautiful song.
Joybringers rejoice at the coming of dawn (among just about
everything else) and pray to the Mistress of the Revels upon the birth
of each morning. Nearly every single holiday not tied to the worship of
some malign being with Swords Cast Down, a ritual in which two or more
weapons are cast to the ground and buried under a mound of fresh
flowers. Lliirans frequently multiclass as bards.
HISTORY/RELATIONSHIPS: Lliira's greatest friend in the Faerunian
pantheon is the bard deity Milil, who shares her flare for performance.
Once a great friend of the commerce goddess Waukeen, Lliira even went as
far as to absorb many of the disaffected clerics of the Merchants'
Friend when that goddess vanished during the Time of Troubles. Upon her
return, however, Waukeen jealously coveted those clerics who had
converted to Lliiranism, and the resulting ill will has formed a slight
rift between the former companions. The murder of Selgaunt's High
Revelmistress Chlanna Asjros (whom Lliira had taken as a lover while in
mortal form during the Time of Troubles) by forces of a local cult of
Loviatar has deeply affected the Joybringer. A militant order known as
the scarlet mummers now tours Faerun with her support, dispatching
agents of the Maiden of Pain by means of an elaborate and deadly dance
utilizing the mummers' blade boots.
DOGMA: Each day is another movement in the Elysian Rigadoon, the
joyful dance of a life lived in rapture and without care or frustration.
Seek joy always by working to bestow it upon others. Festivals are for
all—gather into celebrations the lost, the lonely, the exiled and
outlaw, the shunned, and even your foes. Let folk follow their own
desires, and never fail to follow your own. |
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