Auril

Auril, called Saukuruk by some of her followers, is the neutral evil goddess of winter and cold in the Astoran pantheon. The embodiment of winter's cruelty and all its deadliest aspects, Lady Frostkiss has a heart of ice to match her lethally cold beauty, eternally preserved beneath a sheet of rime.

Description

Auril was known to take several distinct forms. The first was a furious figure of action known as The Frostmaiden, the most frequently seen avatar in all but south and east Faerun. The Frostmaiden appeared as a lithe, attractive human woman with blue skin and a body made from ice and snow, her free-flowing hair long and white. She wore a fine, thickly furred gown and frost swirled around her.

Auril's other form was the Icedawn, an impassive apparition of icy hauteur that silently glided through the air. The Icedawn wore an ornate crown and hooked, spurred armor of opaque and light blue ice.

In the late 15th century, Auril had another three new avatars; the Cold Crone appeared as a 7 feet (2.1 meters) tall, hunched bipedal creature with a snowy owl's head topped by a pair of curled ram's horns. She had cloven hooves, arms ending in sharp, black talons, and grayish-white wolf fur covering her from the neck down.

Auril's second form was the Brittle Maiden or Lady Icekiss, a 10 feet (3 meters) tall figure of fearsome feminine aspect with a thin cloak of mist surrounding her and eyes that burned with a cold, blue light. Made entirely of ice and frost, her body crackled while she moved, with icy blades growing from her form at odd angles and breaking off after growing too long.

Auril's third form was called Winter's Womb (or the Queen of Frozen Tears by her most devoted). It was a 3 feet (0.91 meters) in diameter diamond of ice with facets and a sharp point at the bottom. Hovering in the air, the diamond contained her divine spark and radiated intense cold in every direction, her voice seeming to emanate from its heart.

Personality

Arrogant and vain, Auril is incapable of true feelings of love, honor, or other noble emotions, yet adores her ice and all forms of beauty. From natural wonders, to art objects, to the artists themselves, the Frostmaiden freezes them all in magical ice, preserving them from the ravages of time and hoarding them away for her viewing pleasure alone. Her ultimate goal is to cover the Realms and all other lands beneath her ice and snow.

Despite being capricious, fickle and unpredictable, Auril is also supremely cold, unfeeling and apathetic. She is incapable of mercy or compassion, a sadist that takes great pleasure in torturing her enemies and harassing her foes. She traps offenders in blizzards and drives them insane with visions of warmth and the comforts of home, ultimately seeking to kill them with the sheer, bitter cold.

Divine Realm

Auril has a divine realm called Winter's Hall in Pandesmos, the topmost layer of Pandemonium in the Great Wheel cosmology. Norse god Loki also makes Winter's Hall his abode, a place to hide away whenever he falls out of grace with the other Aesir.

During the Spellplague, Auril's realm is located within the Astral Dominion of the Deep Wilds and is known as the Land Under Eternal Ice.

Worshippers

Sacrifices and veneration were primarily performed for the Frostmaiden out of fear.

In the North, Auril was a commonly worshiped, and feared, goddess and an integral part of northern cultures. Worship of the Frostmaiden was common in lands such as the Great Glacier, the Icerim Mountains, Sossal and Vaasa.

Northlanders considered Auril one of their primary deities and was a key part of their culture. She was feared and seen as the harbinger of winter upon the whole world. In the late autumn and over the winter, regular sacrifices were made to her. Sacrifices of food were placed upon rafts which were then set adrift in the ocean. Human sacrifices, usually prisoners of war or slaves, were placed on these rafts. Human sacrifice was a rare occurrence and was only seen during dire times.

In the Moonsea region, followers of the Frostmaiden were shunned by society and were most commonly encountered in Mulmaster and Zhentil Keep. During the winter in Zhentil Keep, followers of Auril openly recruited from the destitute, homeless and refugees. They were offered salvation, instead of the risk of freezing to death in an alley, if they joined the faith.

Worship and sacrifices to Auril were sparse in the Sea of Fallen Stars region, isolated to the northern shores. Illuskan invaders brought the worship of Auril to Tethyr.

Auril was a key part of the religion of taers and most taer clerics venerated the Frostmaiden.

Auril was one of the deities worshiped by air and water genasi, especially those who lived in cold regions. Air genasi tended to be zealous in their worship, with a fanatical devotion to Auril. They enjoyed inflicting pain on other creatures using cold air.

Auril was one of the deities worshiped by members of the Arcane Brotherhood.

Auril used frost giants and winter wolves to deliver commands to her cults, while frostwind viragos and winter hags were the handmaidens of the Frostmaiden.

Druids considered her to be among the First Circle of nature deities, and saw her as deserving of veneration in spite of her more violent tendencies relative to some other members of the Circle.

Clergy

Clerics of Auril were mostly women and were known as chillbringers. Most clerics of Auril were independent and wandered the colder parts of Toril. They wore ice white robes with blue trim, and a wide silver colored belt. Their ceremonial axe hung from this belt. They also wore a circlet of silver around their head. Specialty priests of Auril were called icepriestesses.

Wizards who were loyal or worshiped the Frostmaiden were called Cold Cloaks. They served Auril by providing magical assistance to the clergy.

Clerics of Auril worked to establish themselves as a powerful figure within a tribe. They used this power to form a cult and channel a tribe's worship away from their traditional deities towards Auril. The tribe was taught to channel their fury towards those not of the tribe, as a way to be spared the harshness of winter. This led the subverted tribe into a life of pillaging and raiding.

Sacrifices to the Frostmaiden were common, especially in the North, as people hoped to appease her and thus avoid cripplingly cold winters. Travelers forced to travel in the winter tossed coins, usually gold or silver coins, into a cold stream or the snow before embarking into cold. At the first sign of winter, it was common for farmers to throw some of their harvest into the north wind.

Fanatical members of her cult engaged in human sacrifice. Humans sacrificed to the Frostmaiden are often left tied up to perish from exposure to the cold, or drowned in ice-cold ponds.

Auril used frost giants and winter wolves to deliver commands to her cults, while frostwind viragos and winter hags were the handmaidens of the Frostmaiden

Temples

Shrines dedicated to Auril could be found in Bezantur, Calaunt, Iriaebor, Nashkel, Phlan, Tasseldale, and Zhentil Keep

Notable temples to Auril were:

The House of Auril's Breath in Glister Icedawn's House, south of Nashkel The Towers of Fury in Calimport The Winter Palace in Luskan Ice Temple, located between Andora and the Wandering Village in Icewind Dale

Rituals

Clerics and other worshipers of the Frostmaiden made their prayers during the coldest part of the day, or at midnight. Prayers were made while kneeling in deep snow or in a cold stream, for as long as possible, sometimes even an entire evening.

During the winter months, individuals who approached clerics for a blessing, or mercy, from Auril were expected to first undergo a a lengthy prayer called a cold cleansing. This prayer involved the individual to hold a large piece of ice in their hand, praying until it melted. The prayer had to be done outside in the cold and ideally in the evening.

Midwinter (Night), Hammer 30 to Alturiak 1. This was the most holy night of the year for the clergy, a festival of ice-dancing that lasted all night. Druids were also known to pay respect to the Frostmaiden on this date. The Coming Storm and the Last Storm, informal but enthusiastically celebrated rituals where the priests gathered and called howling ice storms down on a region to mark the onset and end of winter. Auril's Blesstide, or Auril's Day, was a holiday (of sorts) held annually in the city of Waterdeep on the first day of new frost in the year. It was not so much a holiday as a way to seek to appease the Frostmaiden in hopes of a mild winter. When an individual wished to become part of the clergy, they had to undergo a ritual called the Embracing. This ritual required the applicant, in only boots and a thin robe, to spend the evening exposed to a raging blizzard. Holy symbols of Auril were painted all over the applicant's body. The applicant was forbidden to use any sort of magic to protect themselves from the cold. Those who survived until morning were deemed worthy by Auril and accepted into her Church.

Relationships

In earlier centuries, Auril was a member of the Deities of Fury, along with Malar, Umberlee, and Talos, and used their combined destructive powers to inspired much reverent fear and tribute. Her relationship with Talos was said to be close and cordial, but this was no obstacle from his attempt to usurp her following and she preferred not to rely on him due to his habit of responding but then directing all glory to himself. Meanwhile she and Malar mutually hated each other. Umberlee was the only one she cooperated with to some degree of confidence, but eventually the wrathful sea goddess came to despise her enduring cold and the motionless sheets of ice her roiling seas were turned into, forming an alliance with the other Gods of Fury against the Frostmaiden.

Following the Spellplague, Auril gained significant power by siphoning the faiths of Ulutiu, Aerdrie Faenya, and Gruumsh/Talos into her own. In addition to her classic portfolio of cold and winter, the Frostmaiden claimed dominion over wind and storms, bringing her into direct conflict with the ancient primordial power Akadi.

Auril and Chauntea were mortal enemies, constantly battling each other. Sune opposed Auril, as she blamed her for the destruction of much that was beautiful. Uthgar despised Auril because the Elk tribe abandoned him for her faith. Rellavar Danuvien, a minor elven god of cold, sought to interfere in the plans of Auril whenever he could.

At one stage, Auril was in a relationship with Thrym, god of the frost giants. During that time she became the mother to the empyrean daughter Nalkara.

History

In the Year of Holy Thunder, 1450 DR, Auril intervened in Calimshan's Second Era of Skyfire, freezing over the Skyfire Wastes and sending her followers to battle both Calim's genies and Memnon's efreeti.

In the Year of the Iron Dwarf's Vengeance, 1485 DR, Chosen of Auril, Hedrun Arnsfirth, began her war in Icewind Dale.

In the late 15th century DR, Auril encroached onto Umberlee's domain by freezing her chaotic tides. Ending their alliance, Umberlee turned to the other Gods of Fury, Talos and Malar, and with their help forced Auril to retreat to the most frigid region of Toril: the Sea of Moving Ice. From an island known as Solstice, the Goddess of Winter caused the Everlasting Rime beginning in the Year of the Rune Lords Triumphant, 1487 DR. This seemingly eternal winter covered the area and extended over Icewind Dale for two years. This taxed the goddess, and as such, Auril became very weak, vulnerable, and self-isolated. In fact, she became so powerless that she could be slain by mortal creatures, which could force her to be banished until the next winter solstice.

Auril

Lesser deity

Basic Information

Pantheons

Astoran
Gods of Fury
First Circle

Serves

Talos

Attributes

Alignment

Neutral Evil

Realm

Windswept Depths of Pandemonium/Pandesmos/Winter's Hall

Portfolio

Cold, Winter

Following

Worshippers

Domains

Air (Cloud, Lightning)
Water (Ice)
Weather (Storms)