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

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

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 sea elves. However, unlike their aquatic kin, the winged elves were nearly wiped out by the dragons before the First Flowering, and what was believed to be the last of their race in the Flanaess flew eastward over the Solnor long before the Invoked Devastation and Rain of Colorless Fire provoked the great eastward migration of humankind. Today, high, gray, 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 nonevil 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 one of the three elven goddesses – the other two being Hanali Celanil and Sehanine Moonbow – 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. Since the Time of Troubles, Aerdrie has been romantically linked with her long-time ally, the human god Phaulkon, the "Birdfriend," but this new twist in their relationship is undoubtedly little more than a passing fancy, at least on the Winged Mother's part. Aerdrie contests with Procan and Telchur, for they challenge her control of the winds and often seek to wield them for purely destructive purposes. Velnius and Aerdrie have a remarkably close relationship, considering how much their spheres of influence overlap. What competitiveness exists between them is largely initiated by their own followers, but there are some who believe that Velnius's rise in status among the Oerdian Pantheon has much to do with Aerdrie's own sponsorship, perhaps as a means to ensure that her interests are more broadly accepted among the encroaching dominance of humankind and their inexorable eastward migrations.
Aerdrie Faenya, the winged goddess of air and sky, is thought to ferry souls from Arvandor into the world, bringing them down from the heavens to begin their mortal lives anew. A decade in which many elves are born across the world is thought to be a harbinger of danger that great numbers of elves will be needed to withstand. In contrast, if an elven community goes a century or longer without a new birth, members take this as a sign that the community has stagnated and must disband.
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 Alfheim. 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 in the Flanaess.

Manifestations

Aerdrie appears as a tall, slim elflike female with sky-blue skin, feathered, flowing white hair and eyebrows, and large birdlike wings whose 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 cleric spells involving air, weather, flight, electricity, and gas, although she can cast spells from any sphere or school except elemental earth and fire.
Aerdrie rarely manifests on Oerth, except through natural processes such as strong winds, rain showers, and even powerful storms. The Lady of Air and Wind manifests around the Spindrift Isles as great storms, vast cyclones, and winds of hurricane force that affect only nonelven ships. Her efforts also ensure that no ill wind or weather can ever destroy the Green Isle.
The Winged Mother does watch 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.
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 aarakocra, aasimar, aasimon, air elementals, aerial servants, androsphinxes, asperii, atomies, avorels, azmyths, birds of all nonevil species (particularly eagles, falcons, hawks, kingfishers, and owls), cloud dragons, cloud giants, crystal dragons, djinn, eladrin (particularly bralani), faerie dragons, firetails, fremlins, frosts, griffons, gorse, hippogriffs, hollyphants, kenku, kholiathra, ki-rin, lammasu, lillendi, noctrals, opinicus, pegasi, pegataurs, phoenixes, pixies, reverend ones, rocs, seelie faeries, shedu, silver dragons, sylphs, spirits of the air, sprites, storm giants, sunflies, swanmays, swarms of grasshoppers or locusts, sword archons, talking owls, tempests, tressym, t'uen-rin, vortexes, windghosts, and wind walkers. 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.

The Church

CLERGY: Elven clerics, mystics, and air elementalists
CLERGY’S ALIGNMENT: CG, CN
DOMAINS: Life, Tempest, Trickery

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 of Crystalmist Mountains, commonly employed titles include Aquiline Hunter, Cloud Walker, Feathered Dancer, Rain Bringer, Rising Thermal, Silent Screech, Sky Diver, Soaring Spirit, and Wind Chaser. Clerics who draw upon the Aerdrian domain are known as halcyons. At one time, the clergy of Aerdrie was dominated by winged elves (90%), but her church today consists primarily of gray elves (40%), high 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 other clergy, scattered across the most distant and inaccessible reaches of the Flanaess. Although halcyons 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 Bringer of Rain and Storms, Aerdrie's priests work closely with elves involved in agriculture and horticulture to ensure favorable weather systems for their crops. Winged Brothers and Sisters are also charged with destroying evil avians, such as eblis, perytons, and simpathetics, as the Lady of Air and Wind considers them perversions of nature.
Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: The Dance of Swirling Winds is a semiannual festival held on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes (Growfest 4th and Brewfest 4th, respectively) 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. 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 undiscovered lands far to the east of the Flanaess, whose inhabitants are descended from winged elves who fled the relentless annihilation of their race by the great wyrms of the North during the Time of Flowers. Before they fled, the center of Aerdrie's faith was the Aerie, a great temple-city said to have been located amidst the Crystalmist Mountains. While some claim that the Aerie's last remnants are now inhabited by a great red wyrm known to humans as Inferno, more credible tales hold that Elaacrimalicros, an ancient green dragon who has savaged the surviving population of aarakocra in the region, has claimed the legacy of the avariel.
The Aerie of the Snow Eagles is a crystalline citadel built somewhere atop a mountain summit in the Corusk Mountains. The last redoubt of the avariel in the Flanaess, Aerdrie's preeminent temple has long been forgotten, even by the Fair Folk of Celene, Highfolk, and the Spindrift Isles. From these steep, icy slopes, the Children of the Winged Mother take flight across the frigid skies of the Thillonrian Peninsula, fishing in the freezing waters of Icy Sea, hunting across the desolate reaches of the Taival Tundra, and engaging in aerial acrobatics across the northern sky. The crystalline, inverted conical temple is nearly 3,000 feet in diameter at its base and 3,000 feet high at its peak.
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’s distant lands gambol and caw while young winged elves test out their wings overhead. The avariel community of the Corusks, including the crystalline temple on the mountain top and winged elven nests on the mountain's flanks, is loosely governed by Winged Father Aquilan Greatspan, an avariel. Aquilan has led the last remaining major enclave of winged elves in the Flanaess for nearly five centuries, and his wise leadership has seen the avariel survive, if not exactly prosper, amidst the harsh lands of the Thillonrian Peninsula. Like the Stout Folk who preceded them, the greatest threat to the avariel are the terrible white dragons that dwell in this region in frightening numbers.
Affiliated Orders: The Wing of Plumed Kingfishers is an aerial s military order composed primarily of gray and high elven crusaders and rangers. The order is subdivided into aerial cavalry divisions by the species of their mounts, with asperii, giant eagle-, griffon-, hippogriff-, and pegasi-mounted Plumed Kingfishers predominating. Before the power of elven civilization began to ebb in the Oerik, this order patrolled the skies above most forests of the Flanaess, protecting land-bound elves below from threats above. Today only two major branches of the ancient order of Plumed Kingfishers survive, one based in Celene and the other based in the Spindrift Isles. The Wing of the Spindrift Isles includes a division of gray elves mounted on giant eagles, a division of high elves mounted on pegasi, and a handful of gray and high elven dragon riders mounted on gold, silver, and bronze dragons. The Wing of the Celenese Eyrie includes a large division of gray elves mounted on giant eagles and a smaller division of the Teu-Tel'Quessir mounted on asperii.
Priestly Vestments: Ceremonial garb for priests of Aerdrie consists of 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.
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, clerics 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.

Aerdrian Domain

Clerics of Aerdrie Faenya may select the Aerdrian Domain instead of the Life, Tempest, or Trickery Domains if they choose.

DOMAIN SPELLS

Cleric Level	Spells
1st	feather fall, fog cloud
3rd	animal messenger (avians only), conjure animals (winged creatures only)
5th	fly, wind blast*
7th	freedom of movement, storm sphere
9th	control winds, steel wind strike

*indicates a new spell described below.

Fight or Flight

When you choose this domain at 1st-level, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier while you wear no armor and do not wield a shield. You also gain proficiency with blowguns, hand crossbows, heavy crossbows, and longbows. You may use either Dexterity or Wisdom (your choice) when making attack rolls and dealing damage with blowguns, bows, crossbows.

Reed in the Wind

Also starting at 1st level, you can surrender your motion to the divine winds, flowing out of the way of incoming harm. When an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you, provided you are not restrained or prone. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Channel Divinity: Eye of the Storm

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to create a swirling vortex of air that encircles you, yet leaves you unruffled at the center of the tornado. As an action, you present your holy symbol, and you become surrounded by swirling air that lasts for 1 minute. During that time, you become immune to inhaled poisons and any spells whose effects can be dispersed by a strong wind.
Additionally, the vortex has a number of charges of divine power equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum one charge). When you or a creature that you can see within 30 feet of you is attacked by a creature that you can see with a ranged weapon, you can expend 1 of these charges as a reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll, using a gust of wind to bat the weapon aside.

Channel Divinity: One with the Wind

Beginning at 6th level, you can use your action to cast gaseous form, targeting only yourself. When affected by gaseous form, your flying speed is equal to your normal base speed and you can talk. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.

Divine Fletching

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your ranged weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a ranged weapon attack, you may cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 thunder damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

Storm of Birds

At 17th level, you may unleash a storm of spirit birds upon your foes. As an action, you may choose to spin in a circle, targeting any number of creatures you can see within 60 feet. Creatures in the area must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw against your spellcasting DC or suffer 5d8 thunder damage, be pushed back 10 feet, and gain vulnerability against all damage until the end of your next turn. Creatures who succeed on the saving throw suffer half damage, but no further effects.

Aerdrian Spells

Wind Blast

3rd level alteration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: self
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Instantaneous

A line of powerful wind 60 feet long and 10 feet wide blasts from you in a direction you choose. Each creature in that line must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed 20 feet away from you in a direction following the line and suffer 3d12 thunder damage on a failed save. If the save is successful, targets suffer only half the damage and are pushed only 5 feet.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th or higher, the damage increases by 1d12 for each slot level above 3rd.
The material component for the spell is a legume seed.

Intermediate God

Elven Pantheon

Titles
The Wiged Mother, Lady of Air and Wind, Queen of the Avariel, She of the Azure Plumage, Bringer of Rain and Storms
Sphere of Influence
Air, weather, avians, rain, fertility, avariel
Alignment
Chaotic Good
Symbol
Cloud with the silhouette of a bird
Home Plane
Olympus/Arvandor and Ysgard/Alfheim

Superior
Corellon Larethian
Allies
Cyrrollalee, Eachthighem, Ehlonna, Eilistraee, Fionnghuala, Koriel, Myhriss, Phaulkon, Remnis, Sheela Peryroyl, Syranita, Stillsong, Velnius, the Seldarine, various Animal Lords
Foes
Joramy, Procan, Telchur, the drow pantheon (except Eilistraee)
Worshipers
Elven bards, clerics, druids, rangers, sorcerers, travelers; winged beings
Worshiper's Alignments
CG, CN, NG, N
Domains
Life, Tempest, Trickery, Aerdrian