Seren's Light

It's all right, dearest. I can't stay with you any longer, but our Lady will keep me safe, and I'll be right there in the skies every night with Her. See that diamond? That's where I'll be, watching over you.

The skies are full of stars - glimmering balls of power that most mortals cannot hope to ever reach. To the common man, they are unchanging: each night drapes the same curtain over the blue skies, laying forth patterns of constellations that every culture grants a different meaning.
And though Galasthin may hold the star goddess Desna in the highest regard, they do not go so far as to give her domain over all of the sky's constellations. The elves grant meaning to Ketephys' Arrow, to Yuelral's Heart - and particularly to Seren's Light.
Though most mortal races believe souls pass into the River of Souls that flows into Pharasma's realm of the Boneyard, elven belief - universally, with even the drow making mention of the tale in their own stories - is that all elven souls must first pass through the gates of their mother-goddess's crystalline realm, where their memories leave lasting imprints on the crystals and let their lives ever live on through the crystalsong.
Seren's Light marks a physical representation of this gateway: eight stars arranged in a diamond, mimicking the goddess's symbol, that hangs in the skies above Melaeden. Elves of the northern hemisphere can often be found watching the stars at night, particularly if they have recently suffered a loss, to remember those they've lost, and to speak with them - if only in spirit.

History

No matter where you go, the stars will follow. You might not see them in the blackness of space or the brightness of day, but they're always there to watch over you. They remain present in a way the living do not - is it any wonder the elves, long-lived as they are, chose something so permanent to attach their memorials to?

Elves have a history that long predates their arrival and settlement of Istralar, and the diamond structure of Seren's Light is one that seems to be common to the skies of every home they've had - despite differing stars forming the diamond each time. The link between the heavens and the stars is one obvious even to modern-day elves, but the initial beginnings of their belief in the dead persisting within extraplanar crystal is unknown - it certainly holds parallels to the dwarven method of remembering their dead, but with a far longer-lasting focus.
Whatever the origin, the belief was one brought to Istralar from another world and remains one that has endured countless millennia. It has been cited in some studies as a potential influence on the development of the drow, as the underground species have no way of seeing the stars. Despite the wild theorising, there is no proven connection.
Seren's position on the supposed gateway of souls and crystalline memory-garden is unknown, but the goddess has claimed responsibility for the constellation's occurrence. Why, exactly, she maintains the diamond is unknown. Her entwining imprisonment of Marvaeth has had no discernible impact on the diamond's integrity, leaving Seren's Light as one of the few facets of Serenist faith that has not been corrupted or abandoned by modern-day elven faith.

Alternative Name(s)

Death's Tear, the Gateway of Souls, the Lit Path

Type

Star

When all seems lost and the world is at its darkest - look up, and let the memory of the lost carry you to peace.