Ollandra - Goddess of Medicine, Affliction, Alchemy, and Aging

One of the most often beseeched of the Othlorian deities, Ollandra is the goddess of affliction and medicine, alchemy and aging. She is both blamed and beseeched for everything from common illnesses to crop failure to brackish wells to plague. Ollandra acts as a patron of alchemists. Pharmacists offer prayers to her while crafting potions, as do the ill or infirm before imbibing a supposed remedy. Likewise, a body’s slow transformation is sacred to her, whether it be the inevitable effects of aging or the petrification of her medusa children’s victims.
In the earliest days of Othlorias, Ollandra seeded the world with countless secret truths—mysteries of medicine, minerals with strange properties, nexuses of magic, and the like—which she hid among Ghyran’s and Keranos's wilds and the shadows of Mythrax’s Underworld, leaving clues where mortals might find them. It isn’t altruism that drives her; she studies the innovation and suffering of mortals, deciphering in them ever greater mysteries as she treats Othlorias as her personal laboratory. Little escapes Ollandra’s cool gaze. Even when outwardly friendly, she is cunning and calculating, watching for the slightest sign of weakness or desire that she can exploit later. Those who offend her rarely recognize their misstep until she strikes.

Appearance

Ollandra typically takes the form of a green-skinned human woman with the lower body of a snake. Her hands are thickly scaled and a pair of bronze-scaled vipers seamlessly emerge from her chest. She is never without her kylix, a drinking cup within which she can produce virtually any medicine or toxin. When her aims require subtlety, Ollandra often takes the form of a serpent or a medusa, or sometimes an withered crone with a cup or a vase. It’s common practice to mark a container of poison with her holy symbol, three droplets in a triangle, and during epidemics folk paint the same image on the homes of the infected.
Though she is often the recipient of prayers, Ollandra has almost very few temples and few cults dedicated to her. A cult or a shrine to her might arise in an area after it suffers from pestilence, when some of those who survived decide to revere her or even become priests. Within the Elven Pantheon, Ollandra is considered a "Mirai" Goddess. One that can be invoked, but should be done sparingly, lest one fall to the temptations of inflicting pain and disease one others, or get lost down the ruthless pursuit to slow or halt aging.

Divine Relationships

Myths suggest that Ollandra is the Sister of the Goddess of Health, Ishran. Despite her venomous reputation, Ollandra has provided nearly every god with a cure or an otherwise essential tonic at a crucial moment. As a result, she’s rarely in outright conflict with her fellow gods, yet she’s always willing to jeopardize peace with her peers if it means indulging some audacious new experiment. In particular She and Selûne enjoy each other’s silent company. Ollandra rankles somewhat at the attention Mythrax gets from dying mortals, chafing at their tendency to appeal to him when they could beg her for healing or for a painless death. She also comes into contention with both Pelor and Ishran who seek to grow and heal, while Ollandra's providence is often the opposite; to sooth pain as one transitions to death. Ollandra has her most complex relationships with the gods of knowledge. She loathes that Ioun gifts wisdom to the undeserving, while Andormu and Shar represents mysteries even she has yet to fathom. No god is more precious to Ollandra than Ghyran. She adores Ghyran as the source of nature’s abundant bounty and delights in Ghyran’s warmth. Anyone who threatens or offends Ghyran is likely to also earn Ollandra’s enmity.

Ollandra’s Champions

Alignment: Usually neutral, often evil
Suggested Classes: Cleric, druid, ranger, rogue, warlock, wizard, Artificier (Alchemist)
Suggested Cleric Domains: Death, Knowledge, Life, Grave, Nature
Suggested Backgrounds: Criminal, guild artisan, hermit, outlander, sage
Most champions of Ollandra seek to uncover the world’s greatest secrets through science, alchemy, and magic. They are often enamored with the mysteries of life and death, along with snakes or other venomous creatures.