Naryne (nah-REEN)

Goddess of Nobility

Naryne is the goddess of nobility, royalty, kingdoms, leadership, rulership, kings, queens, and nobles. She is founder of orders of nobles among the mortal races, some of which endure to this day. She is also associated with the dead and the departed, as their queen. She is more interested in the orderliness and proper succession of noble lines, than in any one instance of good or evil.
Cultures associate the Dark Sister with beasts that represent nobility, such as the lion, but she is more often symbolized by the swan, which her own church uses, and considers the Queen of Beasts. Naryne is also associated with dragons, the greatest, oldest, and most powerful living creatures. Each culture prefers a particular color or breed of dragon.
Naryne is painted as a glorious queen, as tall as her husband, with dark hair and piercing eyes. She wears a crown and royal robes. In her hand, she holds a scepter, symbol of her authority in Heaven, Earth, and the lands of the dead. Her crown holds five shining stars, which she won from Urian during the Journey to the East. 
Naryne’s followers use her gold crown and its stars as their faith’s symbol. It marks her shrines and triad altars, and it serves as part of the heraldry for her most faithful worshipers. This is often simplified to just a golden crown, or a simple drawing of a crown with stars on it. Simple versions of the starry crown are used to decorate small things, or as improvised markings.
Naryne counts the nobility among her most ardent followers. They have the wealth to make her faith, and the triads where it resides, powerful and opulent. Many rich, important nobles have chapels dedicated to Naryne in their castles, palaces, and manses. Other lords and ladies support their local triads with generous donations. Outside of the nobility, people honoring the long dead appeal to the Dark Sister. For instance, if a peasant family believes one of its ancestors was admitted to the third hall of the land of the dead, they’d pray to Naryne in remembrance of her. Though Maal is King of the Dead and the Judge of Souls, Naryne rules over the afterlife itself, and all souls therein fall under her dominion.

Divine Domains

• Ambition
• Cities
• Confidence
• Duty
• Knowledge
• Soul
• Vigil
• Wealth
• Wyrmkin

Divine Goals & Aspirations

Rule the Lands of the Dead

Naryne sanctifies noble bloodlines and rules the land of the dead. The Compact prevents her from going to mortals uncloaked, and declaring new rulers when an old line dies out, so she finds modern nobles less moral, strong and clever than their ancient forebears. She sometimes travels in disguise to hint her preferences during succession crises in the old bloodlines, but the contenders know Naryne’s blessing strengthens their claims, and research stories of old visitations, so they often invent visions and omens that support them. By the terms of the Compact, she Queen of Queens cannot answer these lies directly, so from her point of view, the wrong candidate often wins the throne.
Naryne offers guidance to rulers who seek her out with prayers and virtuous works. She also encourages her followers to support the aristocracy. To the Dark Sister, rightful succession is always more important than the qualities of any individual ruler. The institution itself binds society together, and in the long run, true bloodlines mostly produce good lords—or at least, reliable ones. She encourages vassals to maintain their oaths, and for the well-born to respect the rules of precedence. Thus, a righteous noble who overthrows a tyrannical king wins no blessing from Naryne. The king was the rightful ruler. Toppling him injures the line of kings, which could have served the people for another thousand years.
But the land of the dead takes up most of her attention. She rules over the kingdom Maal built. Its attendants and celestials answer to her. Even the four wardens who serve Maal do so with her leave. Unlike the marriage of Zheenkeef and Tinel, where secrets abound, or Morwyn’s two marriages, in which the affections are often faint, Maal and Naryne share an unquestionable love. Their union is the strongest, and their loyalty to one another is unshakable.

Servants of Naryne

Naryne commands an ebony chariot drawn by twelve giant swans. The chariot bears her from the land of the dead to Heaven and sometimes even to the Material Plane, though she usually visits the mortal realm in disguise. The twelve swans all speak every mortal and immortal tongue that ever existed, for the spirits of the dead taught them. The swans are Inixos, Yaili, Marit, Oona, Pilai, Weili, Uxos, Darila, Marila, Tani, Sa’ool, and Jeini. Every one hundred years, each swan descends to the Material Plane in the form of a powerful, beautiful bard, and walks the world, unburdened by duty, for a year. They display deep wisdom, for they know nearly every tale of mortal history. Many swans, as mortals, marry and bear children, only to abandon their progeny when they return to the land of the dead. The separation never lasts long, for all mortals must come to Maal and Naryne’s kingdom.
Naryne’s other key companion is her seneschal Wahilla, who was the fairest and wisest of all the mortals the Sisters met on their eastward journey. Wahilla was a halfling maiden. People of all races came for miles around to sit with and take counsel from her. Legends claim she was the wisest mortal to ever live, for she saw as clearly as the gods themselves what courses lay before mortals, as well as their true desires and greatest fears. When Naryne returned to the mortal world after marrying Maal, Wahilla was old and childless. Naryne could not make her Queen of the World, for the halfling could not found the mightiest bloodline, to which all other kings and queens would do homage. Instead, she came to the old woman’s side and revealed her true form. Wahilla wept and said, “I knew when I first saw you, in those days of my youth so long ago, that you were not made of mortal stuff. You have been the star that guided my heart all these long years, and I have missed you.” The goddess and the old woman wept in one another’s arms, and from that moment, Naryne could not bear to be parted from her. So Wahilla never died, but rather was taken to Heaven bodily, where Morwyn, as a wedding gift to Naryne, healed the ancient halfling of age and affliction, though not barrenness. The two have never been separated since, and Wahilla’s counsel guides Naryne, as the counsel of all great seneschals guides their rulers. Thus, many seneschals make offerings to Wahilla as well as the Dark Sister, for they would learn the halfling’s great wisdom.

Divine Classification

God

Religions

• The Church of the Dark Sister
• The Three Sisters

Realm

Land of the Dead

Church/Cult

The Church of the Dark Sister

Honorary & Occupational Titles

High, Glorious, Lady of Ladies, Queen of Queens, the Breath, the Noble, Queen of Souls, the Dark Sister