Desna

Desna
Alignment	Chaotic Good
Divine Rank	God
Pantheon	Golarion
Portfolio	Dreams, Luck, Stars, Travelers
Domains	Chaos, Good, Liberation, Luck, Travel
Home Plane	Cynosure
Worshippers	Travelers, Astronomers, Gamblers, Musicians, Varisians
Servitors	The Night Monarch, Thyrliens
Favoured Weapon	Starknife

Desna is the goddess of freedom, luck, dreams, and stars from Pathfinder. According to one of the creation myths (which may or may not be true), she is one of the first deities, and when her fellow gods set out to go and do the hard work to bring order to Golarion, she toddled off like a child and made her own special place. This is how the Heavens came into being. And that state-of-being is still largely how Desna has remained through the eons, like an energetic kid full of wanderlust, opposing things like rules about bedtime.

The nomadic Varisian people, who probably account for most of her worshipers, say that she appears as a dark-haired and silver-eyed elf with butterfly wings patterned with the beauty of the night sky. The sea-faring Bonuwat tribe of the Mwangi Expanse also worship Desna... in their own way, lumping her into a two-faced amalgam with the goddess Gozreh who they refer to as Shimye-Magalla... which gets even weirder when you consider that Gozreh is already two gods in one! She is also famous for not following the rules of things like 'cosmic order' or even 'common sense,' being very reckless and surprisingly powerful for a Sailor Moon-looking pixie goddess. She has two goddess girlfriends (Shelyn the love goddess and Sarenrae the sun goddess) and is friends-with-benefits with the drunken hero-god Cayden Cailean.

Desna as potrayed by people from the Mwangi Expanse and Garund.

Desna herself doesn't seem to care much about most other gods, too aloof and flippant to be bogged down in the typical adult bickering over who is nosing too far into whose portfolio. Part of this is probably due to past trauma, as she did used to have a daddy role-model in the form of an elderly god named Curchanus -who was apparently even firster than she- and the two would enjoy many long walks together where he taught her about the world. But then one day Curchanus was set upon and killed by Lamashtu, who stole from him domain over Beasts, but before he died he passed on to Desna domain over Travel. The theft of the Beast domain is said to be the reason that humans and animals came to mistrust one another, and because of this Lamashtu is the only god that Desna actually actively hates and works to undermine wherever she finds her corrupting influence, looking to reclaim Curchanus's domain over Beasts from her evil clutches. Desna is also mildly annoyed by Rovagug and Zon-Kuthon at their misuses of darkness, as she sees nighttime as a time for wonder and dreaming which people should not fear. In an unusual event of taking responsibility, she also seeks the defeat of the demi-god Ghlaunder whom she accidentally released with her childish bumbling.

More than She Seems?

Desna is a bizarre case among the Pathfinder deities for multiple reasons.

• She travels Dark Space between the stars without fear of the Dark Tapestry, which typically leads to horrific insanity-filled consequences.
• She battles Dark Tapestry threats without losing her sanity at all, and is one of the only deities that explicitly hunts down Aberrations and other spawn of the Outer Gods.
• While Desna has a home in Elysium, she does not live in the Great Beyond with the other gods, she lives on Golarion's version of the North Star. Not orbiting the star, on the star.
• She is described as one of the oldest and most powerful deities around, throwing her strength around with an impunity that even other chaotic deities couldn't get away with.
• Older lore describes that her original form was that of a giant alien being of eldritch starlight resembling a moth.
• A fragment of her tore itself off and became a sentient demigoddess called the Black Butterfly, which became the Ephemeral Lord of quiet introspection, long journeys, and killing aberrations.

With these things in mind, a popular fan theory is that Desna is connected to- or perhaps even IS, an Outer God. Naturally, an Outer God that learned compassion and love is considered EXTRA HERESY among others. Game Designer James Jacobs is on record saying that he does not like this theory, but that fans are free to use the gods in whatever way they wish at their individual tables.

Gallery

• 
  Magic particle effects provide convenient censorship when she wants to be naked
• 
  Desna battling Ghlaunder
• 
  A worshipper of Desna
• 
  A shrine to Desna