Realta

Realta

Lo! in the paintedoriel of the West,
Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines,
Like a fair lady at her casement, shines
The evening star, the star of love and rest!
And then anon she doth herself divest
Of all her radiant garments, and reclines
Behind the sombre screen of yonder pines,
With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed.

O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus!
My morning and my evening star of love!
My best and gentlest lady! even thus,
As that fair planet in the sky above,
Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night,
And from thy darkened window fades the light.

--The Evening Star, Henry Wadsforth Longfellow
Defiant daughter of Vindur and Li-Ban, Realta is the Mother of Stars, the Brave Shining One, the First Lightbearer and the Sky Breaker.
To save the Four Kingdoms from the depredations of the Hungry Dark, Realta defied the Sovereigns and created the Prophecy of the New Day, a ritual that allows mortals to ascend to the stars. With the ranks of the Celestials renewed, the world can rest, for a thousand thousand blazing guardians stand watch against the night.

Divine Domains

Moon Guide Realta

• Prophecy
• Moon
• Twilight

Star Kindler Realta

• Prophecy
• Light
• Twilight

Artifacts

• Starmantle
• Starglass Harp

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Moon Guide Realta

• A pearl against a black background
• Two opalescent hands cupped together
• A silver circle against a black background

Starkindler Realta

• A candlelighter
• Two nightblack hands cupped together, filled with stars
• A four-pointed star against a night sky

Tenets of Faith

• Comfort the weary
• Confront cruelty
• Kindness is not cruelty

Holidays

Realta's holy day is celebrated in the middle of the twelfth month, Pearlrise, the 345th day of the year.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

• Protect Anacra from threats in the Hungry Dark 
• Rescue those stranded in the Hungry Dark 
• Thwart the agents and designs of The One Flesh 
• Thwart the agents and designs of the Infernals
• Spread compassion and justice

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The Four Kingdoms

~5000
When Luminias fell and the gates of The Silent City opened, the Elemental Sovereigns realized their neglect destroyed the Dawn.
As the Infernals fled the power of the Dragons of the World Before, the Sovereigns gathered to unravel and remake the world. It would be governed by rules and laws,protected by boundaries and restrictions, and shaped by the Sovereigns and their offspring.
So did the Sovereigns beget the Elemental Titans, their firstborn and their foremost, each tasked with maintaining and regulating one critical aspect of the new natural world. To bathe the Mortal World with light and warmth, Sin brought forth the Sun, but to travel across the Sky Kingdom it required a guide and protector. So Sin and Vindur brought forth Zeilar, the Phoenix, the Sun Rider.
But on its journey each day the sun would be born in the east, rise high over the skies, die in the west, and travel to the Elemental Wellsprings to be renewed. Li-Ban wished there to be light and guidance at night as well, not only for the people of the world, but for Li-Ban's own mercurial power, a soothing balm to steady the tumultuous seas. So Li-Ban brought forth The Pearl Moon, and to be its guide and protector, Li-Ban and Vindur brought forth Realta, the moon-guide.
Each night as Zeilar laid the dying sun to its rest within the earth, Realta raised The Pearl from the seas, polished it with her opalescent hands, infused it with her light, and leapt into the Sky Kingdom, bearing her precious burden across the vault of the heaven. It radiated down upon the land and sea, giving light in the darkness, guiding sailors and travelers, and reflecting the beauty of all the lives beneath its gaze. For hundreds of years, Realta dove down into the depths of the Wellspring only to burst anew into the sky, watching the world of Mortals from on high, waving at her half-sibling Zeilar from across the horizon. She watched countless lives, loves and losses far below, and in witnessing mortals she came to love and care for them. As evening fell she leapt joyously from the water, eager to see how the people of the worlds had fared in another day, following their stories, celebrating their victories, and weeping for their sorrows.
Then came a night when a sweet, silver song rose up from the mortal world. It was only a faint echo of a distant voice and the silver strings of an unseen harp. At first, Realta thought the Mortal World itself had found its voice, music for its struggles and wonders. But months later, she heard the music again, a voice and a song that harmonized with the turning of the kingdoms on themselves, a primal music. It sang in words she could feel, could understand without language. The pearl in her hands rang with its resonance. Intrigued and enchanted, Realta first hummed, than sang with it, harmonizing with the song of the world she loved from afar. So the Music of the Moon chimed faintly in the night. Joy, and love, grew within her heart, though she knew not the voice or the singer.

The Death of Erecura

~6412
Night after night Realta bore witness to the beauties and sorrows of the Mortal World. During the day, she was free to do as she pleased, and she took to wandering among the mortals beneath Zeilar's light. She dallied with Sirocco, danced and loved across seas and sands, exchanged wisdom with The Sage, and took lovers from across all Four Kingdoms.
Songs of old tell of Realta's passion for Ulchabhán, Prince of Owls, a fey lord who soared up to meet her during her transit across the stars and whose bower she shared to rest during the day. She nestled among his feathers and he bathed in her light. When they awoke, they each parted, he to his parliaments and she to carry the Pearl across the sky, but at the height of her transit they reunited.
But when Uzhul drove the Black Iron Blade through Erecura's heart, the Infernals returned, greedy for every shred of light and hateful of all the sovereigns' works. Tillibec's unclean spirit flowed forth and seized upon the bats and the birds of the night, corrupting and infecting Ulchabhán's owls. A war in the sky raged as swarming clouds of hatred tore each other apart, spiraling ever upwards to seize the Pearl from Realta's hands and devour its beauty.
In this war, the lovers became allies. Realta with her pearlescent bow rained down bolts of Celestial Light while Ulchabhán led the owls and their kin in war. The nights once full of joy were now grim marches of horror, and in the day they could only hide from Tillibec's swarms and hordes, seeking comfort in each other.
Though she heard the cries of suffering across all of Anacra, Realta's heart went unhardened, and she felt the pain of every conquered culture, every imprisoned people, and every spilled drop of blood, fueling her own fury and burning all the brighter in defiance. But a night came when the blood frenzied swarms of Tillibec bit Ulchabhán's wing, and it festered. Though he rested with Realta during the day, the wound did not heal, and though she pled with him to leave that night, the Owl Prince returned to the skies of battle. When last the Brave Shining One saw the Owl Prince, it was as he reached towards her with his talons from beneath an innumerable swarm of flesh-eating bats, vanishing into the darkness forever.

Song of Dirtirith

(6475)
Realta wept bitter tears, and set those tears as arrows in her bow, and every night as she crossed the Firmament she let loose her tears in wrath against those who took so much from so many. By her light the seas, already warded against the Infernals by Realta's forbear Li-Ban, swarmed against the shores in mighty waves to lay waste to the works of the Imperiums.
But through her mourning wrath, the song of the world below her continued, now intertwined with the music of souls saved from suffering, of children spirited away from disaster, of lives preserved by quiet cunning from the Infernals' greed. That song remained her comfort, and though her harmony with it became a lament, still she joined with the music at night, punctuated by bolts of her celestial bow, shooting down the swarms that rose up to assail her.
It was under these sorrowful circumstances that Realta at last met the singer below, Dirtirith Halril. By secret paths between the Kingdoms they came at last to the Pearl, just as both singers reached a crescendo. Though for centuries she'd known them only by their voice and they by her moonlight, they recognized each other immediately. As Realta brought the Pearl down into the depths of the Underworld for safety, there she saw a silver figure ushering mortals to safety. Without speaking, the Titan offered her burden to the Alfar, if only for the day, and without questioning they accepted the pearl into their silver hands. That day, their songs fell silent at last as they took comfort in each other and spoke in words what had only been shared in song for so long.
From that day on, Dirtirith Halril was a spring of solace to Realta. She guided them in their search for mortals in danger, and they comforted her by day, sharing their strength that they could return restored the next night. News of places hidden from the light of the Pearl and stories of Luminias, a place that predated even the Titans themselves, and in exchange reports of all that fell under the Pearl's soft light and the sheer burning light of Realta's spirit. As one of her lovers, Dirtirith changed Realta's life, an old companion turned consort. Together they saved countless lives, some of which would go on to change Anacra's fate forever.

Conquest of the Sky Kingdom

6539~
Even as her eyes turned to the plight of mortals below, so too did her light shine upon the clouds and mists of the Overworld. Her father Vindur, distraught and afraid at the death of his sibling, withdrew to his gardens and palaces of might Terranimbus. Long after banishing the Fire Giants from the sky for their part in Erecura's discorporation, the thunder forges and war storms of Terranimbus echoed and roared. When at last the dark clouds parted, his luxurious home had become a mighty instrument of war, a floating mountain covered with battlements and weaponry. From this terrible beachhead did Vindur make war upon all the clouds of the sky, subjugating them to his harsh will and forbidding them any dissidence. When he was done, there would be no place that Infernals could hide or raise weapons against him from above, and he would have strategic dominion over all that lay below.
In this time of tyranny Realta beseeched her father. She saw the suffering of the Aurai and the Aarakocra, the slow death of their cultures and practices, the way Vindur's knights ruined lives on the Mortal World to bring new recruits to their cause. In opposing the Infernals, she pleaded, Vindur had become an instrument of the same suffering they sought to spread.
Her words fell on closed ears. Vindur would not be stopped. In his own mind, whatever he did was justified--by very definition he belonged in this world, unlike the Infernals. He was the air and the wind itself, a fundamental part of Anacra, and therefore no act of resistance against the Infernals or the minions of the Hungry Dark was too much. He reprimanded Realta for questioning him and demanded her assistance, insisting that she turn her light from the Mortal World to the Sky Kingdom. Realta did no such thing, and thunder echoed across the clouds each time the Pearl rose into the sky and fell back beneath the earth, as father and daughter stared at each other across the very vaults of heaven.
There were too many to aid at once. Realta did what she could, but night after night she grew weary, lending aid to the World Below when the skies were clear, helping the people of the Sky Kingdom avoid detection when the clouds grew thick and the Pearl could not be seen from below. It was Dirtirith's music and their indomitable, gentle joy that bolstered Realta's reserves and helped her to carry on. In this time, she came to the aid of wounded Titans and Mortals alike, tending to their wounds and arming them with the celestial light of her bow.
Vindur grew jealous of the light she granted, and demanded that she leave it within his domain. Some nights the moon grew dim as the Sovereign of the Skies deliberately swept the Celestial Lights away from the Pearl's passage, denying what he saw as his to his daughter. On others, the Pearl echoed the countless colors of the skies, bringing might and magic back down to the mortals waiting below.

Night of a Thousand Eyes

(6863)
In a year of tumult and disorder at the legendary Ioth Academy, Athalor An'Andarud accidentally called upon the mental power of The One Flesh to protect himself and his friends from Gelgeiss, the First Sage. A terrible, alien presence invaded the sleeping minds of the Academy's students, who united with the Sage and Ioth himself to force it back. In the wake of this attack, Ioth vanished, and the Sage realized this new threat needed more than mortal defenses.
She traveled in secret to the airy light of the Pearl itself, and there took counsel with Realta. What words they shared that night remain secret, but The Sage certainly described the aberrant vision and the ravenous mind of the One Flesh, and delivered the grim news of its trajectory. Drawn by Erecura's blood, this horror would descend upon the world in less than two centuries.
It is said in whispers among the wise that this meeting, and a warning of what was to come, hardened Realta's will, and pushed her to make the terrible choices that lay ahead in her future.

Apotheosis of Ramius

(6900)
A scant four decades later, the age of Infernals came to a catastrophic end. Realta's distant cousin Ramius, who'd forsaken his mantle and the burdens of Erecura's Heir, revealed the secrets of his sojourn. Upon the very Emerald Tablets themselves he inscribed his name and in doing so changed the laws of reality that govern all Anacra. Screaming in terror and agony, the Fiends clawed at the earth which devoured them, dragging them into the Underworld. From on high, Realta rejoiced, and her tears of joy fell upon the earth and created blessed glades and holy places. Now the Demonic Imperiums collapsed under their own weight, tearing themselves apart in frantic desperation. Though Realta turned immediately to preserving what could be preserved and redeeming what could be redeemed in this time of chaos, her mind lingered elsewhere, on the choices of Ramius, on his rejection of his own duties, of the sacrifices he made and actions he took not to replace his mother, but to amend the evils wrought by her death.
Yet the moon-bright sky daughter could not bring herself to follow her cousin's example. The Kingdom of Shadows Ramius carved for himself was a joyless place, a mausoleum fortress, devoid of laughter or sorrow, purged of all the bitter truths and sweet delights that make Mortals special. In becoming the jailor of the damned, Ramius damned himself and all those who served in his armies.
She could not make that same choice. Yet she had not forgotten the One Flesh hunting the blood of Ramius' mother through the hungry dark. None knew the day or hour when it would strike. Resolved and inspired, Realta began hoarding and stealing the Celestial Light from her father, spiriting it away and hiding it from his sight. Night by night the skies grew darker and the moon grew brighter. Thunderstorms echoed around the pearl moon, hiding the Mortal World from Realta's gaze, angrily demanding obedience and penitence from his child, but the theft of light continued.

Descent of the One Flesh

(6991)
When at last the first viscous proboscis of the abomination found its way through a crack in the firmament against the day bright sky, it was like a dark hand grasping sightlessly through a window. All Anacra gazed on in horror as the heavens themselves split, bit by bit, and all could hear the nauseating squelching and crunching of the enormous horror forcing its bulk into this ripe world.
The Sovereigns, however, were not unwarned. Li-Ban, mighty Sovereign of the Seas, tore the lands of Debruk from the Northern Kingdoms and hurled it like a sling stone while the One Flesh was still stuck in the sky. Mighty Zeilar cast his spears of light, searing the thing from beyond, and a foul smelling smoke rose from the wounds. Realta still lay beneath the earth, recovering from a night of opposing her father, but roused from her slumber she raced to the Mortal World only to witness what she'd feared for so long coming to pass.
Her pearly eyes first beheld the land of Debruk flying into the Firmament and she heard the terror of countless lives in peril. With a cry to her sibling Leveran, Realta leapt into the sky to wrap Debruk in her light. It struck the One Flesh with a thundering crack and bits of both pieces fell to the world below. Hastily the Titan caught the falling land in the palms of her hands, and wild Leveran drew a cushion of rain clouds to gently ease it down on its inevitable trajectory. Before they could rest, Li-Ban strode across the world like the ocean itself upon legs and reached two titanic waves into the earth, cracking and ripping a colossal land mass to wield as a weapon. Realta and Leveran scrambled to shield the people of this place from death, for it was by no fault of their own the Sovereigns drew them from the armory of the earth. When at last the One Flesh wrenched itself free of the firmament and plummeted towards Londokkar, a thousand eyeless mouths gasping thirstily for the sweet blood of Erecura, Li-Ban swung with all their might and crushed the horror beneath the lands of Tamreon. Only by the grace of the Titans did any of Tamreon's people survive.
As Realta watched the Titans of the Earth frantically take the bones of the fallen fiends and bind Erecura's blood within it, casting it into the sky to keep it away from the One Flesh and its countless parasites, her resolve roared to its height. This was the final transgression.

Defiant Daughter

(7,000)
Realta rose in wrath, wrapped in the burning light she'd stolen from heaven, and descended down from the Pearl to Terranimbus, leaving her sibling Drych-La to catch it. In the very Garden of the Gods she confronted her father. She'd tried to warn him about the imminent evil, but so obsessed was he with forcing the Sky Kingdom to obey him, none of his preparations were made in time. It was her last ultimatum--end his violent crusade and join her to defend Anacra, or she would take what she needed to do so without him.
Vindur's wrath echoed across the four kingdoms. His voice was as thunder., drawing from the Wellsprings The pounding of his fists shook the very stones of the earth below. His words of rage interrupted the fairy trysts of the Archfey of the Otherworld. Furious, and fearful, of this betrayal, he seized a mighty Bolt of Lightning from his forge and hurled it at Realta.
The enormous marble slabs of Terranimbus cracked and crumbled away. Vindur's bolt tore the leaves from branches and roots from the earth, casting his own garden into ruin. Only the Golden Bough at its heart remained unharmed--the Golden Bough, and Vindur's daughter, radiant with the light of heaven, light Vindur no longer deserved. In that moment of bravery the preparations of the Pearl Guide bore fruit, and she stood unscathed before the Sovereign of the Skies, even as his blow destroyed his home around him.
Legends say that Vindur still bears the wounds of his own anger reflected back upon him, and when Realta departed Terranimbus of her own will she cast a net of her own hair across the sky and swept up the last of the celestial lights. For one lonely night, the Pearl did not rise, the skies did not glow, and the Bone Moon hung dark and unilluminated in the vault of the heavens.

The Kindling

(7,000)
Realta wasted no time. She'd spoken of her plans for centuries, with The Sage, with Dirtirith Halril, with her closest lovers and confidants. Ramius made himself a Kingdom of Shadows, but Realta would raise an army of twilight. Taking the net of her own hair, she wove the Light she'd taken from her father, and one by one invoked the memories of the bravest, most compassionate guardians and protectors she'd watched in her time upon Anacra. Into their memories she poured the light of heaven, the love of her heart, and the song of her resolve.
One by one the fallen ignited in the night sky. Bitter and wounded, Vindur drew forth clouds across all the Mortal World to conceal the birth of the Celestials from sight, but the people of the Sky Kingdom looked up into the now empty skies and saw them sparking into life, star by star, burning sentinels against the Hungry Dark.
From the depths of the Underworld and the unflinching armies of the dead, to the wild spirits of the Otherworld, to old memories echoing within the Wellsprings, Realta called forth the best of those who'd fought and sacrificed for others and emblazoned them in glory and light across the Firmament, above the moons, above the sun, above the towers and temples of her petty father.
So came to be the Celestials, the watchers on the walls, who gaze ever out into the darkness, to fend off the cruel and give succor to the suffering and stranded.

The Court of Stars

Weary beyond measure from her efforts, Realta sought peace. Drych-La took dominion of the Pearl, leaving Realta no duties in the reckoning of the Emerald Tablets. For a time she wandered, burdened by the hateful acts of her selfish father, exhausted by the act of creation, fearful and uncertain of her own place in creation.
In her absence, the young Celestials formed warbands of their own to patrol the skies and dark places of the world. A great champion of the stars, long since dead in the War of the Sun, sought her out, restless to know his own new place in the world and curious about his creator. Infused with the experience of a life well lived yet overflowing with the glory of a fresh existence, Realta found comfort with him for a time.
But along the firmament rang a horn that called the stars to battle. Fiends following in the One Flesh's path, eager to pry open the firmament and claim whatever light lay within, assailed Anacra. It was the first great battle of the Untold Wars, and in it, Realta's new lover fell.
A new grief made its home in Realta's heart. The very works of her passion, the ones she'd anointed to bear a terrible burden, would forever die in the darkness. In a thousand battles against horrors unknown by Anacra they would suffer and fall, and few below would ever know their tale. It was a new sorrow for which she had no name or balm, the lamentations of a queen for her own people, and again Realta wept.
Then Dirtirith Halril saw her tears falling from on high and walked by secret paths in search of a gift in which she could treasure the memory of the lost. They stumbled upon the Gossamer Daughters, the spider fey of Glassweb Grotto, who spun a web of gossamer around them and hungered for the sweet music of their blood. They let them have but a single taste, and when they greedily let a few drops fall to the fairy ground below, the roots of a glass tree drank them and blossomed into a living harp. A wounded Dirtirith set their fingers upon the harp and sang a mourning song for the fallen stars that shattered the Gossamer Daughters' harps. Now more than blood the daughters craved music, and they gave Dirtirith a gift of their gossamer silk. Dirtirith wove it into a gown that glowed with the light and echoes of every fallen star, that they may never be forgotten, and this gown was their gift to Realta.
The sorrow of Realta turned to joy, and adorned in this gown she rose to take her place as the Queen of Stars. She anointed Dirtirith as her troubadour, to bear her messages across the Four Kingdoms, and summoned all Celestials to her new Court of Stars. On that holy night she spoke of the duty she bore to her people, and the grave task at hand for them. She gave them an eternal promise of their freedom--unlike Ramius, she would compel no one to defend Anacra against their will. And as a final act of defiance against her father, burning with the fires of prophecy, she wove a ritual, a prophecy into the world, one that would raise the greatest champions to the highest office, imbuing them with the power of the Celestial Light and anointing them as new-born Star Gods.

Accomplishments & Achievements

• Saved the people of Debruk from annihilation when Li-Ban hurled the land at The One Flesh 
• Wove the Celestial Lights into the Stars
• Founded the Court of Stars
• Created the Prophecy of the New Day

Failures & Embarrassments

• Failed to stop The One Flesh from entering Anacra

Mental Trauma

• Witnessed the death of Erecura
• Chased by fiends across the night sky for years
• Lost her lover, Ulchabhán, to a swarm of Tillibec's demons
• Afflicted by The One Flesh as it fell to Anacra
• Lost her parent Li-Ban to an eternal struggle against The One Flesh
• Disowned by her father Vindur for stealing the Celestial Lights

Intellectual Characteristics

Clear-minded, far-sighted, adept at focusing crystal-sharp on one specific idea or person, while simultaneously seeing the big picture.

Morality & Philosophy

Compassion is Realta's key virtue. Her children, the Celestials, do not always match her morality perfectly, but she tasked them with watching the skies and the Hungry Dark, not only to thwart those who would harm others, but to help those lost and in need of help.
Realta recognizes that every single mind deserves kindness, but that sacrifices must sometimes be made for the greater good. She never stops struggling to reconcile these two, even though she knows she never will.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Compassion. Realta has always loved the people of Anacra. She sees the conflicts they've inherited and the cruelties inflicted upon them, and wants every single mind in creation to have a happy life.

Social

Family Ties

Realta's creators are Vindur, with whom she's always had a shaky relationship, and Li-Ban, who cared for her in their own distant and mercurial way before leaving to do battle with The One Flesh.
After Realta stole the celestial lights, Vindur disowned her and the two are now enemies.
Realta's sister goddess is Leveran. These two have always shared a strange but close bond. Realta is far less tempestuous than Leveran, but loves them and understands them better perhaps than anyone except Li-Ban themself.
Her half-sibling Zeilar was both the opposite and the parallel to Realta as the Moon Guide, each of them navigating the sky and shining light down on the Four Kingdoms below. Both believe in compassion and Zeilar absolutely supported Realta's defiance of Vindur and creation of the Court of Stars. Realta is concerned that Zeilar's mortal followers sometimes burn with self-righteousness that leads to harm, but given that her own Celestials can do the same, she only cautions him when she sees things getting out of control.
Her other half-siblings, The Four Winds have always been extremely loyal to Vindur. They paid her little mind when she was the Moon Guide, and joined their father in his enmity towards her afterwards.
On the Water side of Realta's family tree, Drych-La was once tightly connected with Realta, for the moon governs the tides. When Realta broke from the divine order, she gave dominion of the Pearl Moon over to Drych-La, who gravely accepted this new burden.
Allikas has little to do with Realta but some mutual respect for their important and life-giving duties.

Divine Classification

Titan

Religions

• Court of Stars

Species

Elemental Titan

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Moon Guide, Opalescent
Defiant Daughter, Queen of Stars, Brave Shining One, First Lightbearer, Skybreaker

Year of Birth

5000 2344 Years old

Circumstances of Birth

Created by Li-Ban and Vindur

Pronouns

She/Her

Sex

None

Gender

Nonbinary

Presentation

Feminine

Eyes

Glowing pools of pearly light

Hair

Flowing, floating white / Sparkling with the colors of heaven

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Radiant and opalescent / Black as night

Ruled Locations

• The Pearl