Selune
Selune is the goddess of change. She is depicted always as a pale woman with a porcelain face. The details of her body change from artist to artist-- sometimes she is a human, sometimes an elf, sometimes an otherworldly being of unrecognizably lengthy proportions. Always she is delicate, and always dressed in white. Even in depictions of her more evil nature, she is poised and terrifyingly calm.
Lore
Selune is known to have been created by Musubi at the beginning of the universe, along with her sister Shar and brother Shaeth. These three gods, representing change, darkness, and destruction, respectively, reign over the agents needed to birth a universe, and are thought to have been tools for use in Musubi's creation of Aethon Sol, The Prime Phoenix. According to her devout followers, Selune has apparently had a tumultuous experience in her interactions with other gods. She is seen as very powerful and is credited with creating sentient life on Fearun by infusing souls into dragons millions of years ago. However, according to writings by an ancient chemist named Robert Lopez, Shaeth correctly accused her of creating this life by unethical means. Namely, Shaeth accused Selune of stealing fragments of Aethon's soul from Palana, the Goddess of Death and using them to infuse sentience into mortals. Up until then, sentience was reserved only for the gods. Angry, Shaeth attempted to destroy the new sentient forms on Faerun. However, Selune pleaded with the Council of Gods to save a remnant of the dragon's population-- after all, having soul, the dragons were now linking to the gods by default. Selune's compassionate plea convinced the council to ascend both Bahamut and Tiamat from the dragon population. When intelligent life formed once more, Selune once more began regularly visiting Faerun and occasionally collected living specimens for return to something she called The Ark, a location on a plane called Feyshadow, protected by her magic. She apparently did this in hopes of saving her progress in life-form development from another attack from Shaeth. Over millions of years, Selune's own soul leaked into both Selunia and Faerun, creating sentient life forms first on her own plane and second across Faerun, originally in the form of humans. According to Lopez, Shaeth found out about The Ark and was able to convince Palana to initiate Randor Sol's death in an attempt to destroy orbiting Selunia in the process. Selune used a significant amount of her power to shield The Ark from the initial radiation, managing only to save two native citizens of the plane: Oghma and Mask, which were later ascended into The Astral Plane. The explosion caused by Randor's death initiation severed Feyshadow in two, creating two new planes. One consists of Selune's Ark, now called Selunia, and the other comprising the plane now known as Shadowfell. After Shaeth raped the goddess Paitch, Selune was drug into a political war in the Council of the Gods now referred to as The War of the Gods. After binding Shaeth for his actions, the council turned on Selune and bound her to The Ark in Selunia in hopes of restraining her from spreading sentience further.Teachings
Selune encourages change in all its forms. This includes large-scale adaptation and evolution as well as small-scale change at the resolution one one's personal life. To her, change is not to be feared but to be accepted and nurtured in all aspects of life. Among her followers, Selune's personality quite fittingly changes over time. Coincidentally, personality changes appear to cycle on a monthly basis, fluctuating between a nurturing, loving demeanor and calm savagery. According to the changelings of the Silver Sickle, Selune appreciates change leading to happiness and self-fulfillment near to the full moon but may request morally grey, or even blatantly evil, actions in the name of change during the new moon.Influence
Faerun
Selune is rarely revered around Faerun and is a goddess usually reserved for what Selune considers her 'children'-- changelings, vampires, and werewolves. Selune claims to be directly responsible for the development of these races on Faerun and as such connects to them most easily. Outside of these groups, Selune is often feared for her unpredictable personality and savage defense for her followers. Social critics seem to think that Selune is objectively less threatening than any other exiled god due to her protective nature, but is only hated due to association with the thing men fear most-- change. Enraged responses include the point that the intensity of Selune's protection of her followers has led to mass death before, and that alone is enough to fear her.Selunia
Selune has kept the reason for the destruction of Feyshadow secret from those who reside on The Ark, and has not taught them of the gods beyond. As such, citizens of Selunia perceive Selune as their creator and protector, as they are entirely reliant on her for survival through Randor Sol's death. She walks among Selunians very frequently, and is generally seen as a matronly figure for all who live on the plane.
Alternative Names:
- Lady of Change
- Mother Moon (changeling)
- The Shifting Menace
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