Aerdrie Faenya (AIR-dree FAH-ane-yuh)

The Winged Mother, Lady of Air and Wind, Queen of the Avariel, She of the Azure Plumage, Bringer of Rain and Storms

Lesser Goddess of Arborea and Ysgard, Chaotic Good

Sphere of Influence: Air, weather, avians, rain, fertility, Avariel

Aliases: None

Domain Name: Olympus/Arvandor and Ysgard/Aliheim

Superior: Corellon Larethian

Allies: The Seldarine, Eilistraee, Sheela Peryroyl, various Animal Lords

Enemies: the drow pantheon (except Eilistraee)

Symbol: Cloud with a silhouette of a bird

Worshipper's Alignment: Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Neutral, Chaotic Neutral

Aerdrie Faenya is the elven goddess of the air, weather, and birds. As the bringer of rain, she is the closest the Fair Folk have to a fertility goddess. At one time, the Winged Mother's followers were composed largely of the Avariel, much like Deep Sashelas was and is worshiped primarily by elves. Today, gray, high, sylvan, and wild elves who desire certain weather conditions make the most frequent sacrifices to Aerdrie. Her small church is also popular with elves who possess flying mounts, such as asperii, dragons, giant eagles, griffons, hippogriffs, and pegasi. The Lady of Air and Wind is revered by all non-evil birds, particularly aarakocra and other sentient avians, but their numbers are small and declining as well. She is also called on by elves oppressed by overly lawful creatures.

Aerdrie is both an aspect of Angharradh and one of the three elven goddesses—the other two being Hanali Celanil and Sehanine collectively form the Triune Goddess. This duality tightly binds Aerdrie with the two other senior elven goddesses, and the three collectively serve alongside Corellon in leading the Seldarine. Aerdrie maintains close relations only with those powers of the air who share a love of birds and freedom as deeply held as the Lady of Air and Wind. Aerdrie is particularly close with Syranita, the gentle goddess of the aarakocra, and some theologians speculate the two may eventually merge if the bird-men continue their steady decline. Aerdrie is also close with the avian lords of the Beastlands, particularly the hawk lord.

Aerdrie is the elven expression of freedom and impulse, and she dislikes being tied down to any one place for too long. Her realm is so close to the philosophical border between Arborea and Ysgard that it moves back and forth, sometimes part of Arvandor and sometimes part of Altheim. Aerdrie delights in the sound of wind instruments and in creating unpredictable atmospheric conditions, including fairly severe or violent thunderstorms on occasion, but her primary joy is simply feeling the air rush past her with the ground far below. The Winged Mother is a somewhat distant goddess who rarely involves herself in elven culture, and she is far more chaotic than the rest Of the Seldarine. Of all the elven races, only Aerdrie takes a keen interest in the Avariel, and few of them remain.

Aerdrie's Avatar

Aerdrie appears as a tall, slim elflike female with sky-blue skin, feathered, flowing white hair and eyebrows, and large birdlike wings feathers seem constantly to change color—blue, green, yellow, and white. The lower half of her body from the hips down vanishes into swirling mist, so she seems never to touch the ground. She favors wizard and priest spells involving air, weather, flight, electricity, and gas, although she can cast from any sphere or school except elemental earth and fire.

The Winged Mother may cast call aerial beings (summoning quadruple the normal number of respondents, who always obey her call and are willing to serve her unto death), call lightning, control winds, control weather, flight of Remnis, or wind walk once per round at will. Once per round she can unleash twin lightning bolts or twin wind blasts, the latter inflicting twice the normal damage of the spell. At will, the Lady of Air and Wind can negate the power to fly or levitate of any creature within 120 feet of her. She can summon 2d6 16-HD or Id8 24-HD air elementals once per day.

Aerdrie is immune to missile fire, and no avians will attack her. She is also immune to all spells, effects, and abilities from the elemental air sphere or school that she does not wish to be affected by. She can be struck only by +2 or better magical weapons.

Other Manifestations

Aerdrie rarely manifests, except through natural processes such as strong winds, rain showers, and even powerful storms.

The Winged Mother watches over those Fair Folk who take flight into her domain, whether it be through magic or their own wings. If an elf or worshiper of any race somehow falls from a great height, whether it be off a cliff or out of the sky, the Winged Mother may manifest as a deep blue nimbus of flickering light that envelops the plummeting creature and enables him or her to slow his or her descent and make a gentle landing, similar to the effects of a Feather Fall spell. If a worshiper in flight is targeted by a land-bound archer, the enveloping nimbus of Aerdrie's manifestation confers a defensive shield equivalent to a Protection from Normal Missiles effect. While the Lady of Air and Wind rarely grants omens to her priests, when she does they manifest as Whispering Winds.

The Seldarine call on agathinon, asuras, and ancient treants as their preferred servants, but Aerdrie is also served by non-evil creatures. She demonstrates her favor through the discovery of feathers of any sort, hornbill ivory carved in the form of an avian species, psaedros, raindrops (a common name for cassiterite crystals), sapphires, turquoise, weirwood birdpipes, and wind instruments of any sort. The Winged Mother indicates her displeasure by suddenly transforming a gentle zephyr or little rain shower into a lashing storm, by causing flocks of birds to suddenly dissolve, each bird going its separate way, and by causing the offender's plumage—whether it be natural or a form of adornment—to suddenly molt.

Aerdrie Faenya is the only lesser deity with the ability to grant 7th level spells to her clergy, showing the special favor Corellon has granted her.

The Church

Clergy: Clerics, Mystics, Specialty Priests, air elementalists.

Clergy's Alignment: Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral

Turn Undead: Cleric: Yes; Mystic: No; Specialty Priest: No; Air Elementalist: No

Command Undead: Cleric: No; Mystic: No; Specialty Priest: No; Air Elementalist: No

All clerics (including multiclassed half-elven clerics), mystics, and specialty priests of Aerdrie receive Religion (elven) and Reading/Writing (Elven) as bonus nonweapon proficiencies. Most priests of Aerdrie have a strong fear of being confined or trapped bordering on claustrophobia. They suffer a -1 penalty on initiative, attack rolls, and saving throws under such conditions (this includes nearly all underground areas). Aerdrie's priests must sleep outdoors except during winter or times of bad weather.

Like all the Seldarine, Aerdrie is venerated by all elves save the drow. However, aside from those winged elves who remain, very few of the Fair Folk primarily worship the Lady of Air and Wind. The Queen of the Avariel is seen as flighty, even for the chaotic Seldarine, and somewhat distant, and the inclusion of the aarakocra and other avian races slightly diminishes the strength of elven devotion to her.

Aerdrie's temples, known as aeries, are usually located on high hilltops or mountain slopes having a good view of the land around them and the open sky. While the Winged Mother's shrines are little more than alpine ledges, accessible only to those creatures capable of flight, Aerdrie's temples are delicate crystalline spires bedecked with glass chimes whose ringing tones peal across mountain valleys, borne by swirling winds. Small open-mouthed caves, connected by short tunnels that honeycomb the peaks on which the goddess's temples rest, allow access to Aerdrie's glass-enclosed chapels and permit the wind to whistle through the heart of the peak.

Novices of Aerdrie are known as Eaglets or the Tethered. Full priests of the Winged Mother are known as Winged Brothers or Sisters. Titles used by Aerdrian priests vary widely from temple to temple, with many high-ranking priests having unique individual titles. Among the priest caste of the winged elves, commonly employed titles include Aquiline Hunter, Cloud Walker, Feathered Dancer, Rain Bringer, Rising Thermal, Silent Screech, Sky Diver, Soaring Spirit, and Wind Chaser.

Specialty priests are known as halcyons. At one time, the clergy of Aerdrie was dominated by winged elves (90%), but her church today consists primarily of high elves (40%), gray elves (38%), aarakocra (10%). and elves and half-elves of other subraces (8%). A handful (4%) of winged elves (including half a dozen or so half-winged elves whose wings are strong enough only for gliding) compose the remainder of her clergy, scattered across the most distant and inaccessible reaches. Although specialty priests compose only a small fraction of Aerdrie's clergy (20%), they occupy nearly all of the high positions within the Wind Mother's church. The remainder of Aerdrie's priests are either clerics (42%), including multiclassed half-elven clerics, air elementalists (30%), or mystics (8%). About 59% of Aerdrie's clergy members are female, the remainder are male.

Dogma

The ever-changing reaches of the sky are the great gift of the Winged Mother. Take flight into her windswept embrace, and gambol amidst the everchanging clouds. Honor those who dwell with the Lady of Air and Wind and cherish the birds who dance on her tresses. In change there is beauty and in chaos there is the birth of new life. Ascend, soar, glide, dive, and ascend again and relish in the freedom that the Winged Mother bequeaths. The air is the breath of life.

Day-to-Day Activities

Aerdrie's priesthood is primarily concerned with exploration and maintaining good relations with sentient avian races (for example, giant eagles and aarakocra). With the decline of the avariel, few elven priests of the Winged Mother are capable of flight without magical aid. As a result, many Winged Siblings work to create new spells and items by which magical flight is possible, and a not a few of their more adventuresome brethren seek lost relics of yore that permit the same. Similarly, members of Aerdrie's clergy raise winged steeds employed by the aerial cavalries of elven realms and tend cotes of fanciful birds from far-off lands to dwell in formal elven gardens and to supply the molted plumage employed in elven fashions. As servants of the Bringerof Rain and Storms, Aerdrie's priests work closely with elves involved in agriculture and horticulture to ensure favorable weather systems for their Winged Brothers and Sisters are also charged with destroying evil avianse such as eblis, perytons, and simpathetics, as the Lady of Air and Wind considers them perversions of nature.

Holy Days/lmportant Ceremonies

The Festival of Air is a semiannual festival held on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes to celebrate the changing seasons and to honor the Winged Mother. The winds are always strong on such days no matter where Aerdrie's followers gather. Celebrants make offerings of beautiful feathers and join in an aerial ballet danced to the music of wind instruments played by some of the participants. Those who lack wings or magical means of flight may Ride the Wind as a gift of the goddess herself. For the duration of the formal ceremony, recipients of Aerdrie's blessing are usually tethered by long ropes to others who can command their own aerial movements. Once the dance breaks up, however, wind dancers, as they are known, are swept across the forest canopy for miles in a breathtaking flight before settling gently in a sylvan glade not too far from home.

Major Centers of Worship

According to legend, great aeries of the avariel may be found in underexplored lands all over the Flanaess. great ruins of Avariel cities and temples are said to be scattered among the Yatil Mountains, the Lortmil Mountains, and even the Sepia highlands within nthe Vesve Forest. The Avariel tend to be reclusive, and the reasons for their dwindling numbers are unclear. There are some who belive that some Avariel, in their hubris, turned their backs on Aerdrie, and she in turned cursed them as a race, to dwindle in number until they repented of their ways. One possibility is that they were plagued by an influx of dragons into the areas where they lived. It is known, however, that the Avariel, already dwindling in numbers, lost many during the Hateful Wars, the wars that drove the humanoids out of the Lortmil Mountains.

Not many Avariel have been seen in the Flanaess since. There are stories among the elves that the last of the Avariel are hidden away in the Griff Mountains, in a city known as Shangriliah, a city known only to legend. Although well into the northern climes and higher elevations, legend states that the area inhabited by the Avariel has a temperate climate year round, even during the depths of winter.

It is within Shangriliah that the largest temple to Aerdrie resides, the Temple of the Clouds. Within the temple's glassteeled walls, endless zephyrs dance hither and yon and tiny rain showers erupt out of thin air, a never-ending manifestation of the power of the Lady of Air and Wind. The temple floor is overgrown with tropical plants nurtured by the brilliant sunshine and regular rainfall to create a jungle paradise. Rare birds from the farthest reaches of Oerth gambol and caw while young winged elves test out their wings overhead. The avariel community of Shangriliah, including the crystalline temple and winged elven nests on the flanks of the mountains, is loosley goverened by Erindil Anvorill, an avariel. Anvorill has led this last bastion of the Avariel for about 100 years, and he has ensured the Avariel have survived. Daily devotion is paid to Aerdrie in hopes that she will bless them with fertility, so the race doesn't just survive, but begins to thrive again, as there are fewer than 200 of these elves remaining in the Flanaess.

Aerdrie is also venerated within the Elven Kingdom of Celene, where the elves raise and train flying creatures to help with defense of the Realm.

Affiliated Orders

The Golden Knights of the Air are an aerial military order composed primarily of high and gray elven crusaders and rangers. The order is subdivided into aerial cavalry divisions by the species of their mounts, with giant eagle-, griffon-, hippogriff-, and pegasi-mounted Golden Knights predominating, and led by Prince Brightflame of Celene. Before the power of elven civilization began to ebb in the Flanaess, this order patrolled the skies above most forests of Celene, protecting land-bound elves below from threats above.

Priestly Vestments

Ceremonial garb for priests of Aerdrie consists sky-blue robes with those of high rank wearing the darkest shades. Feathers are used in decorating their clothing and armor, and at least one feather is worn in the hair. The holy symbol of the faith is a feather of great beauty, willingly given after molting by a sentient avian who venerates the Winged Mother. A new feather must be found at least once per year.

Adventuring Garb

When adventuring, Aerdrie's priests prefer light, flexible armor that maximizes maneuverability and minimizes weight and drag. Streamlined helms, carved to resemble stylized bird heads and padded to reduce concussions, are secured with leather chin straps. Missile weapons—particularly javelins and elven bows with flight arrows—are commonly employed in combat. If at all possible, priests of Aerdrie who lack wings of their own obtain wings of flying or similar magical means of flight. At the very least, they seek to train a steed capable of flight, such as an asperii, dragon, giant eagle, griffon, hippogriff, or pegasus.

Specialty Priests (Halcyons)

Requirements: Dexterity 13, Wisdom 13

Prime Requisites: Dexterity, Wisdom

Alignment: Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral

Weapons: Blowgun, bow with flight arrows, dagger, dart, javelin, horseman's mace, quarterstaff, spear, staff-sling

Armor: Leather, elven chain

Major Spheres: All, Animal, Chaos, Creation, Divination, Elemental (air, water), Protection, Sun, Travelers, Weather

Minor Spheres: Charm, Combat, Healing, Summoning

Magical Items: Same as clerics

Required Proficiencies: Animal Training (avians), Bowyer/Fletcher

Bonus Proficiencies: Animal Lore (avians), Musical Instrument (wind instrument), Weather Sense

• Halcyons must be elves, half-elves, aarakocra, or kenku. While in earlier eras most elven halcyons were winged elves, elves and half-elves of every subrace are called to be specialty priests of Aerdrie's clergy.
• Halcyons are not allowed to multiclass.
• Halcyons may cast wizard spells from the elemental air school as defined in the Limited Wizard Spellcasting section Of "Appendix l: Demi- human Priests."
• Halcyons gain a +2 bonus on reaction rolls when dealing with avian and semiavian creatures such as pegasi and giant eagles.
• Halcyons can cast Feather Fall or Murdock's Feathery Flyer once per day.
• At 3rd level, halcyons can cast Ride the Wind or Whispering Wind once per day.
• At 5th level, halcyons can cast Fly or Gust of Wind or Protection from Normal Missiles once per day.
• At 7th level, halcyons can shapechange into a bird up to three times per day like a druid. Each avian form assumed in a single day must be of a different species of bird. This size can vary from that of a hummingbird to as large as an ostrich. Upon assuming a new form, the halcyon heals 10%) of all damage she or he has suffered (round fractions down). The halcyon can only assume the form of a normal (real world) bird in its normal proportions, but by doing so he takes on all of that creature's characteristics—its movement rate and abilities, its armor class, number of attacks, and damage per attack. The halcyon's clothing and one item held in each hand also become part of the new body; these reappear when the halcyon resumes his normal shape. The items cannot be used while the halcyon is in animal form.
• At 10th level, halcyons can cast Air Walk or Control Winds or Flight of Remnis once per day.
• At 13th level, halcyons can cast Control Weather or Wind Walk once per day.
• At 15th level, halcyons can summon one 16-HD air elemental once a tenday. This elemental remains under the control of the halcyon for one hour and cannot be taken control of by another creature. If the summoner is killed or struck unconscious, the summoned elemental goes on a rampage, attacking everyone in sight except its summoner until its one hour time limit on the Prime Material has elapsed. It is important to note that the elemental summoned is not a servant of the halcyon but rather is looked upon as an agent of Aerdrie that is to be respected. The ability to summon an elemental is granted once each day when halcyons receive their normal complement of spells.

Aerdrian Spells

First Level

Speak With Avians

Third Level

Wind Blast

Fourth Level

Calm Winds
Flight of Remnis

Seventh Level

Conjure Air Elemental
Whirlwind