Shelyn

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Everbloom; The Eternal Rose; Our Lord and Lady of Chrysanthemums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

There are some stories about an ancient goddess of love who gave birth to twins, Delight and Delirium. In some versions, they're called Euphoria and Dysphoria. Or sometimes, the goddess herself was broken into two parts. There are many stories about the warring twins, one the champion of art and Beauty, the other spreading torture and pain. Every struggling artist, every distanced or unrequited lover, every poet was the battleground of these two siblings. Great epics were told, over the ages, exploring the nature of love and beauty, of pleasure and pain. The churches to these disparate deities began to overlap in places, and while there are still outlying cults and factions, the contemporary view is that "The Everbloom has thorns." Shelyn is both Delight and Delirium, they are the emotion of pain and the relief from it.

Within that duality is the diligence and study of the artist, but if it isn't met by the chaos of imagination then the artist may more likely settle into the domain of Torag and the comforting routine of the craftsman. Focus and care are capricious and fleeting, lending a sense of irony to the name of Everbloom. Bloom is a verb, after all, it is a liminal space, an event between blossom and flower - poets and philosophers of Shelyn have spent many pages exploring this image. Do mortal creatures exist as one event, to bloom and to die? Or do we bloom again and again, as seasons pass - is that what ever-blooming is?

The domain of Love itself is too much, it is too many things. As such, Shelyn is the reflection of all the things mortals may be or become - her followers claim that we must love as broadly and deeply as we are able, to lessen the burden on them to love every contradictory thing so much, or else they may break like their mother did.

Songbirds are special to Shelyn, even nightingales, though bright-feathered peacocks and parrots are also treasured. Tree frogs and jeweled snakes are sacred reminders that beauty can poison and bite. (Some of the more eccentric rituals may involve ingesting psychogenic venoms from these creatures.) Colorful fish are also seen in their iconography, often swimming around their head or the heads of great artists, or of children. An ideal temple of Shelyn would be an open-air amphitheatre bordering a meadow brimming with wildflowers, but even at the littlest hole-in-the-wall theatre you'll find a shrine somewhere, probably brightly painted and overflowing with floral offerings.

Paladins of Shelyn, when they are so called, favor glaives and frequently adorn them with ribbons to resemble paintbrushes when they swish through the air. If they use shields, those are splashed with paint like a palette. This is to serve as a reminder that if they fight, it ought to be for the beauty in this world and nothing else.