Soryna
Soryna is the goddest of Peace, reflection, springs and water. The Mother of waters, stands as the guardian of groves, her serene presence pervading tranquil spaces. A committed pacifist, she shuns hostile engagements even when faced with threats. Though quiet and enigmatic, Soryna conceals profound depths of character and unspoken determination that remains unyielding. Confronted with challenges, she strategically withdraws, leading opponents to overextend and find themselves in untenable positions, often resulting in their eventual conversion to her cause. Presently, she faces numerous assaults from Menas and his followers, with the People of the Black Blood desecrating several of her sacred pools.
In her role as a guardian of life and peace, Soryna vigilantly watches over the remnants of deceased deities, long forgotten in the Astral Plane.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Clergy, Temples and Worshippers
Sorynians are organized in a simple hierarchy where a dozen or so clerics report to a senior cleric who in turn reports to a grand cleric responsible for a realm or larger region. Most dwell in forest communities with open-air sacred places of worship, spending their lives tending unspoiled places to ensure that they survive and even flourish in the face of Human and other depredations. They rarely resort to any sort of open confrontation, instead working subtly. Few Sorynians live in large settlements, but many dwell in springside cottages within an easy ride of settlements. Clergy of Soryna are all taught to swim, and often teach this skill to nonbelievers in return for small offerings of food and coins.Day-to-Day Activities
Sorynians usually spend their lives tending unspoiled places to ensure that they survive and even flourish in the face of Human and other depredations. Priests of Soryna replant burned areas, purge areas of plant diseases, construct boulder firebreaks, irrigate wooded areas, and clear streambeds to make rivulets flow more swiftly or create dams to slow runoff and encourage the life created by small pools. They even make bargains with nearby foresters to cut only in certain areas and leave other woodlands alone.Soryna has a hatred of indiscriminate and greedy woodcutters, those who use fire as a weapon, and avaricious millers and careless beings who foul rivers and other waters. Her clergy are pledged to work against such individuals by whatever means seem most prudent for long-term success. They rarely resort to any sort of open confrontation for as long as possible as it tends to bring attacks down on the clergy—but hidden priests can work in opposition unhindered.
Sorynians are also charged with observing and recording what sort of birds, beasts, and plants dwell in what places and the changes in the amounts and locations of such flora and fauna over the years. They are to report such things to their superiors on a regular basis so that the senior clergy members, working with those of Silvanus and Ehlonna, can interpret long-term trends in regional ecologies. To raise funds for personal and church support, priests of Soryna may act as water-dowsers by employing an infallible (water divination spell known to the church, as herbalists, gardeners, or as potion-makers. Few Sorynians live in large settlements, but many dwell in springside cottages—often with trained guard animals—within an easy ride of cities or large towns so as to be able to serve the local populace as sources of medicines and potions. Clergy of Soryna are all taught to swim, and often teach this skill to nonbelievers in return for small offerings to the church and the goddess of food and coins that the priests can use.
Priestly Vestments
Priests of Soryna dress simply in green and blue robes decorated with water-colored (blue, green, translucent, and opalescent) semiprecious gems and embroidery in water patterns. Specialty priests don a series of sheer robes, each in different shades of blue and green. The sleeves and hems of the garments are artfully cut to look ragged like tossing waves or water ripples. All clergy wear Soryna's symbol as a holy symbol; the sky-blue disk is fashioned of painted wood and fresh fern fronds are planted or affixed over the painted ones on the symbol whenever possible.Sorynians priests dress practically in the field, though some like to accent their dress with blue and green and allow the sleeves and hems of their garments to become ragged to simulate frothing water. Most wear leaf-green robes with moss-green accents, gray sashes, and brown overcloaks. Peacemen and peacewomen wear no armor and sport garb similar to their ceremonial dress made up of multiple layers of semitransparent robes and tabards over an opaque foundation robe or dress. Sightings of Sorynians in the deep woods have given rise to many legends of wild folk of the woods.
Rituals
Clerics of Soryna pray for their spells once per day at a time selected after great personal reflection.Tenets of Faith
Peace can only come from within and cannot be taught or imposed. Seek stillness and thereby find peace. Plant trees and green-leafed things and tend such things when they need it, wherever they may be. Nurture and aid, and do not to restrict or punish. Work violence only to defend, and slay no thing of the forest except to prevent it from slaying themselves or another under their protection. Swear to take no thinking life except in direst need. Share with all beings the beneficial things that grow in or come from running water that all may know of and praise Eldath.
Holidays
The only calendar-related holy day of the church is the Greening, a gathering and festival celebrated at Greengrass. It is preceded by the Firstflow, a festival held at varying times when the waters break up and begin to flow at the conclusion of winter. The Chant of the Fastness is performed at the dedication of new open air temples or shrines of the goddess, where the water is blessed and empowered with healing magic for a few days. Many clerics and druids multiclass as rangers.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Shy and enigmatic, Soryna, the Green Goddess, whispers through the rustle of leaves and the murmur of streams. A pacifist to the core, she chooses quiet resilience over aggression, her gentle nature masking a wellspring of untapped power. Guardian of verdant sanctuaries, hidden groves and even druids' groves, she wields influence not through force, but through the unwavering pulse of the natural world she embodies.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Soryna once served Silvanus alongside Ehlonna, but finds the Oakfather’s robustness intimidating. Ehlonna and Eldath consider each other sisters. She also maintains close relations with Thea, Lune, and Helios, for they share common interests. While Soryna opposes all that Kord stands for, she does not consider him a personal foe. He in turn considers her naïve, but respects her convictions and generally ignores her.
Soryna and The Raven Queen's relationship is an enigma, both represent the opposite, however Chronepsis, the Dragon deity, has mediated between them, unifying their duty to the realms and the world.
Titles:
Nurturer of the Waters;Divine Songstress of Waters;
Goddess of Verdant Serenity;
The Serene Presence;
Guide of the Departed;
Divine Classification
Intermediate Power
Alignment
Neutral Good
Realm
Children
Other Affiliations
Ruled Locations
| LG | NG | CG |
| LN | N | CN |
| LE | NE | CE |
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