Sehanine Moonbow
Sehanine Moonbow | ||
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Full moon topped by a crescent-shaped haze, or the crescent moon |
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Aliases | Daughter of the Night Skies, Goddess of Moonlight, Lady of Dreams, the Luminous Cloud, the Lunar Lady, Moonlit Mystery, the Moon Mystic | |
Alignment | Chaotic Good | |
Divine Rank | Intermediate Goddess | |
Pantheon | Dawn war, Seldarine | |
Portfolio | Death, Dreams, Journeys, the Heavens, the Moon, Moon Elves, Mysticism | |
Domains | 3E: Chaos, Elf, Good, Illusion, Knowledge, Moon, Travel 5E: Grave, Knowledge, Light |
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Home Plane | Arvandor (Arborea) | |
Worshippers | Diviners, Illusionists, Moon Elves, Half Elves | |
Favoured Weapon | Moonshaft (Quarterstaff) |
In Dungeons & Dragons, Sehanine Moonbow (often referred to as "Sehanine" or "the Moonbow") is the goddess of Autumn, Twilight, Dreams, Illusions and the Moon.
She is a member of the Seldarine and is regarded as the mother of the Elven races. Depending on the religion, she is often considered to be either the wife or the daughter of Corellon Larethian, possibly meaning that the Elves could be a product of incest.
History[edit]
When the Gods first came into existence, they set about crafting the universe. Sehanine put her lot in with the other deities that would be later considered "Elven" and began calling themselves the Seldarine.
She loved their leader: Corellon Larethian, but unfortunately for her, he was already enamoured by Araushnee.
Later, she uncovered the fact that Araushnee was secretly with Fenmarel Mestarine behind Corellon's back. Araushnee found out that Sehanine knew and had either Vhaeraun or Malar drug her and keep her imprisoned temporarily in the Abyss. However, Seldarine said nothing about it as Araushnee let herself be "captured" by the orc god: Gruumsh, in order to persuade him to go to war against Corellon.
Corellon fought to free Araushnee back, not realising that she was secretly trying to have him killed so she could claim ruler-ship of Arvandor and the Seldarine. When Grumush attacked, Corellon was not capable of defeating Gruumsh alone, as Araushnee had poisoned Gruumsh's weapon in order to kill him.
Sehanine managed to escape from the the Abyss, and returned to Arvandor to find it in the middle of a war, and seeing Corellon wounded, she cried tears of sorrow that were enough to rejuvenate the broken Corellon into one last burst of effort. Where in a single stroke, he managed to wound Gruumsh, causing the Orc Deity to lose his eye.
Now Gruumsh bears a grudge for the wound, while Araushnee was expelled from the Seldarine after her plans were exposed by Sehanine, thereafter changing her name to Lolth.
Aspects of Aspects[edit]
Some Elves in Forgotten Realms also revere Angharradh "The Triune Goddess" — Which is Sehanine temporarily merging with the other feminine Elven Goddesses: Hanali Celanil (Goddess of Love) and Aerdrie Faenya (Goddess of Air). This merging actually happened when they banished Araushnee.
In the 4e version of Forgotten Realms setting came along they reduced the number of gods so that an average Hasbro manager could count them on his fingers "discovered" most gods to be aspects of a handful, Sehanine became an aspect of Selûne, who is the Goddess of the Moon in general, and represents something a little more primordial. Sehanine is apart from Selûne. Since in 4e Hanali Celanil and Aerdrie Faenya themselves are considered to be aspects of the more general Goddesses Sune and Akadi respectively, all 3 aspects of Angharradh are also aspects of other deities. Note that this doesn't make sense within the context of the history of those deities in the Realms: all the elven gods are interloper deities and exist outside of the Realms as well, making it impossible for them to be aspects of purely Torillian deities like Sune or Akadi. In 5e, this retcon was, in turn, retconned, and all the elven deities (alongside other merged deities) have reacquired their own individuality.
Realm[edit]
As an aspect of other powers, but as well as being a power in her own right, the Moonbow shares a few divine realms.
- Planescape: She shares Arvandor with most of the pantheon.
- 4e: As the spouse of Corellon, she shares the Elven court with him and stays in Arvandor, in both her Moonbow and her Triune Goddess forms.
- As Selune, the Moonbow has her very own pocket of Ysgard called the Gates of the Moon which a realm of floating rock and ocean under a perpetual night sky, which is bound by its own unique set of rules:
- Werecreatures have full control over their abilities while in the divine realm.
- Any arcane spell cast needs a particular school trigger, which you need to learn from the locals, who happen to be angelic beings like Planetars, Lillends and Celestial Werewolves, so you can't come here to cause mayhem.
- Divine spellcasters lose their abilities dependent on the relative distance between their own deity and Ysgard.
- Any summoning spell always summons Einheriar.
Servants and Exarchs[edit]
Naralis Analor[edit]
Naralis Analor | ||
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2E: A White Dove on a Shield 5E: A white dove |
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Aliases | The Healer, the Watcher of Souls | |
Alignment | Neutral Good | |
Divine Rank | Lesser God | |
Pantheon | Seldarine | |
Portfolio | Death, Healing, Suffering | |
Domains | 2E: Death, Healing 5E: Grave, Life |
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Home Plane | Arvandor (Arborea) / The Healing Glade (Elysium) | |
Worshippers | The sick and dying, reckless adventurers | |
Favoured Weapon | Longsword |
Detailed only in Dragon Magazine and largely forgotten after 2E; Naralis Analor (alternatively named Naris Analor) is the elven god of dying and the servant of Sehanine Moonbow. He is strictly not the god of "death" but rather the moment after death. As Sehanine leads mortal elves to their inevitable ends, all elves who die will pass into the care of Naralis where it is his duty to guide them to their respective place in the afterlife. He also has close relations to Labelas Enoreth, as their influence over fate brings them into alignment with each other.
Elves most often pray to Naralis to take care of the recently departed, but is also invoked by elven adventurers who wish to elude death. Occasionally Naralis will answer such prayers and give the elf an extension of life; but only ever once in their lifetime and it always comes with a geas appropriate to their ability.
Naralis' church is primarily a mortuary cult, who deal with elven funerals. It is believed that his clergy started the practice of planting trees over elven graves, although the practice has grown beyond his church to the other elven deities who perform funerals, most likely Corellon or Sehanine herself. When not performing funerals, his Clerics tend to the sick and the dying.
Mythrien Sarath[edit]
Mythrien Sarath | ||
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2E: Three rings; one blue, two gold 5E: A row of three intertwined rings |
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Aliases | The Protector, Watcher over Mythals | |
Alignment | Chaotic Good | |
Divine Rank | Demigod | |
Pantheon | Seldarine | |
Portfolio | Mythals, Abjuration | |
Domains | 2E: Astral, Charm, Creation, Guardian, Protection, Time, Wards 5E: Arcana, Forge, Knowledge |
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Home Plane | Mythralan (Arvandor) | |
Worshippers | Abjurers |
Mythrien Sarath is the Archfey of protection magic, who's power is in danger of fading into irrelevance.
Mythrien's portfolio was delegated by Corellon to be the Archfey of protective magics and was sent to serve Sehanine rather than remain with Corellon directly.
Later he constructed the elven Mythals, an epic task that required a large investment of power. Each Mythals that Mythrien had a hand in creating drained him of some power.
His attempts to correct this mistake ended in his largest yet. In an attempt to stabilise his power, he bound his divinity into a magical ring. Unfortunately for him the ring was stolen by Malar, Mask, and Talos who trapped Mythrien's avatar in a dungeon in the material plane, unable to return to Arborea.
Without the ability to create any more Mythals, or send any other avatars to the material plane his worshippers have dwindled to levels which leave him in danger of fading out of memory and existence, thanks to Ao's proclamation about tying divinity to the number of followers you have.
The Deities of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition | |||
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Lawful | Neutral | Chaotic | |
Good | Bahamut • Haramathur • Moradin | Amoth • Lakal • Nusemnee • Pelor | Avandra • Corellon • Sehanine |
Neutral | Erathis • Raven Queen • Sagawehn | Aurom • Io • Ioun • Melora | Gorellik • Kord • Laeris |
Evil | Asmodeus • Bane • Tiamat | Nerull • Torog • Vecna | Gruumsh • Khala • Lolth • Tharizdun • Zehir |
The Deities of Exandria | |||
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Lawful | Neutral | Chaotic | |
Good | Bahamut • Moradin • Xalicas | Naviask • Pelor • Raei | Avandra • Corellon • Sehanine |
Neutral | Erathis • Raven Queen | Ioun • The Luxon • Melora | Ceratos • Kord • Quajath • The Traveler |
Evil | Asmodeus • Bane • Desirat • Tiamat | Arms of the Betrayers • The Hag Mother • Torog • Uk'otoa • Vecna • Vesh | Gruumsh • Lolth • Tharizdun • Zehir |