Shiallia

Shiallia is a minor Astoran deity of fertility and woodlands. The Dancer in the Glades is the patron goddess of the korreds and a caretaker of pregnant forest creatures, a planter of trees and a nurturer of seedlings.

Description

Shialla appeared as a beautiful, voluptuous female korred somewhere between 5​ to ​7 feet (1.5​ to ​2.1 meters) tall depending on her whims. She had long, blond hair, (although without the beard most female korreds possessed) riddled with garlands of oak leaves and golden acorns. She wore a short, gauzy, flowing tunic that hung from one shoulder secured around her waist with a belt. She had a low, throaty voice, yet her divine beauty was such that all sentient mortals, male or female, were left stunned upon first laying eyes on her.

Shiallia's guise of "Lady of the Woods" was known to appear as a misty apparition of a beautiful woman in a green, flowing gown. Manifestations

Shiallia took on many animal forms recognizable as her by the fact that each was a paragon of their species. One of her favorite forms was that of a large but graceful doe, often surrounded by several bucks who neither made direct advances nor fought for her affection, acting entirely in accordance to her will.

Shialla also took more abstract forms, sometimes manifesting as whirling, dancing light motes shining with green faerie fire. The warm, relaxing radiance acted as a heal spell while also eliminating any pregnancy related pains or complications. She was also known to manifest as a shower of 2-20 acorns in the middle of a korred dancing circle in the High Forest, with a consumed nut tripling the chances the consumer would conceive (if under the appropriate conditions to do so) if it was eaten within 24 hours, though they remained perfectly edible indefinitely.

Personality

Shiallia is a charming, carefree, and giddy goddess who delights in dancing and frolicking amidst the trees, playing with the creatures of the woods when not seeing to their needs. Contrastingly, she is also remarkably unabashed, at times behaving like the satyrs her patron people resemble; for example, while she enjoys making clever retorts when in conversation, such rejoinders are often crudely suggestive. At the same time, she has a more mysterious aspect to her, possessing hidden depths of characters incomprehensible to creatures as forthright as satyrs. Often these unexpressed qualities are related to the protection of children.

Shiallia not only rejoices in life, but also protects against death, remaining fiercely protective of those under her care. However, she is also a fairly passive goddess, staying out of matters that don't directly concern her, such as those outside her sphere of influence, unless ordered otherwise by Mielikki or Silvanus. Though neutral good in alignment, she is known (at least under her Lady of the Woods alias) to allow the occasional wicked being to wander into her woods. She is also known to allow periodic visits, but any permanent occupation by creatures good or evil, especially intelligent ones, is not allowed. She prefers mortals deal with each other, and would rather use environmental conditions, summoned creatures or earthly agents than directly confront offenders.

Divine Realm

Shialla's divine realm is called the High Glade and is located on Krigala, the first layer of the Beastlands, in the Great Wheel cosmology, and in the House of Nature in the World Tree cosmology. It lies next to Mielikki's Grove of the Unicorns. She is also believed to dwell in Bytopia at times.

Activities

Aside from her revels with and duties to the living beings of the forest, Shialia interferes with the results of spells unique to her. If the casting of a fertility spell does not work (due to age or magical impediment for example) she knows if the blessing shouldn't be performed and secretly tells the cleric as such, having them cast a similar, non-magical blessing to spare the couple embarrassment if it is going to be public. Her will also prevents the use of inflict labor (the reversed form of her ease labor spell) to be used on pregnant creatures. The more powerful the caster of her endless dance spell, the more likely her avatar appears and aids the caster as needed.

By the late 15th century, Shiallia is known to manifest floating, spectral, glowing, golden acorns to provide guidance to those she seeks to help, including those she seeks as recruits and present members of her clergy.

Worshippers

Shiallia's had worshipers of all alignments outside of evil ones. The korreds in the glades south of the Lost Peaks honored and worshiped her alongside Tappan, and she was further venerated by many beings of the forest. Despite this, her actual clergy was rather small, the ranks of which were occupied by humans, elves, half-elves, halflings, and korreds. Clergy had to be either good-aligned or true neutral, and specialty priests had to possess a certain degree of wisdom and charisma.

Dogma

As a whole, Shiallia's clergy were similar to druids, but with a greater emphasis on fertility. According to her teachings, all life, particularly new life, was to be encouraged and nurtured whenever and wherever possible, and since nature, for better or worse, determined the course of the world, continued survival was the only concern of the creatures that lived in it. The true goal of all life forms was to give birth to new life, but death was not to be feared, for it too was part of the cycle. Though their focus was on forest creatures, their philosophy extended beyond them and included non-evil humans and demihumans.

Shiallia's followers spent their days planting, nurturing, tending to the ill or injured, calling upon the weather, or otherwise taking care of the natural world. Her priests were vagrant, traveling for hundreds of miles wherever natural life was in need of aid before moving on once they did all that they could, almost always returning to check on the fruits of their labor and possibly further cultivate their work. Her clergy was said to watch over those who wandered into the High Forest unaware of its dangers, whether they be lost children or simply fools, thus earning them the occasional mantle of the Silent Helpers.

Clergy

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Church_of_Shiallia

Rituals

Clerics and druids of Shiallia prayed for their spells when the moon was at its highest since it governed the reproductive cycle. The holy days of her faithful were those that marked the passing of seasons, Greengrass and Highharvestide in particular celebrated as holidays of birth and fruition respectively. All holy days (including Midwinter, Midsummer, and the Feast of the Moon), saw the clergy invite all friendly creatures to a revelry of song, dance, and feasting, with weddings being welcome and even solicited on such days. Her followers mustered as much faerie charm magic and romance to such occasions as possible to create a fantasy atmosphere beneath a starry sky, to the point where many non-worshipers set their wedding dates to be on such days in the hopes of receiving Shiallia's blessings and hospitality.

Relationships

Shiallia was an ally and servant of Mielikki, and by extension, Silvanus. The relationship between them all, as well as Mielikki's two other servitor-deities, Gwaeron Windstrom and Lurue, was quite familial and supportive. She acted as Mielikki's midwife and local agent within her mortal domain and worked closely with Lurue. She was said to be the sister or daughter (she claimed the former) of the collective forest spirit of the High Forest known as the Tree Ghost and rumored to be the child of the korred god Tapann by way of a brief dalliance dwarven goddess of dance Sharindlar. She was allies with all her alleged relatives and was specifically known to have great kinship with Sharindlar. Her other allies included Chauntea, Eldath, Shaundakul, Nobanion, Corellon, Baervan Wildwanderer, Sheela Peryroyl and Yondalla.

Shaillia counted her enemies among those commonly despised by the gods of nature, the Gods of Fury (save for Umberlee) and Talona, all of whom sought to destroy what she protected. Of them, she had a particular dislike of the plague goddess Talona, who constantly worked to kill what she had struggled to bring to life, and murderous Malar, whom she regarded as insane and hopelessly divorced from The Balance as a result of his emphasis on a minor, aberrant part of the natural world.

Shiallia's herald was Ausuriel, the patron angel of lost children who took the form of a gnome-like woman with long hair and goat-like legs. She was known to serve Shiallia by nurturing and protecting said young ones.

History

In 1150 DR a plague struck Silverymoon and nearly halved the populace, which was soon followed by a resurgence of attendance at groves sacred to Shiallia (as well as Lurue, Mielikki and Silvanus), and then sparked the construction of many new temples.

Shiallia aided Gwaeron in his efforts against Malar during the Time of Troubles, spending much time repairing the damage caused by his rampages while the Master Tracker focused on pursuing the Beast Lord.

Shiallia was alive and well by the time of the Second Sundering, as evidenced by the High Forest's lush, vibrant health and extreme rate of regrowth. The forest was largely free of disease and other such blight, and woodcutters on its verges claimed trees replenished almost as fast as they were cut down, both of which were manifestations of her power. At this point she had ceased using normal appearance, instead only manifesting as a golden glow accompanying a voice in the trees or in dreams.

Shiallia

Demigod

Basic Information

Titles

Dancer in the Glades
Daughter of the High Forest
The Lady of the Woods
The Dancing Goddess
Sister Goddess

Adjectives

Shiallian

Pantheons

Astoran

Serves

Mielikki

Attributes

Alignment

Neutral Good

Symbol

Golden acorn

Realm

Wilderness of the Beastlands/Krigala/High Glade

Portfolio

Growth, Woodland Fertility, Woodland Glades, Woodlands

Favored Weapon

Forest's Friend (quarterstaff)

Following

Worshippers

Druids
Farmers
Foresters
Gardeners
Nuptial couples

Alignments

LG, NG, CG

Domains

Community (Family, Home)
Plant (Growth)

Favored Aspects

Animals/Plants

Deer

Acorns

Monsters

Korreds

Colors

Brown
Green
White

Manifest- ations

Motes of light surrounded by faerie fire