Veru

Divine Overview

Portfolio

The portfolio of Veru comes in two portions: her most fundamental love characteristics, and her later growth through myth and legend. Love is the basis of all Veru's aspects, and not just romantic love. She is the goddess of all forms: romance, procreation, friendship, and self-love. She controls the motivations behind these as well: beauty, passion, loyalty, and feelings.
The rest of Veru's portfolio may be called consequences, or - more romantically - passions, resulting from her core aspects. She is fundamentally a war goddess, especially early in history, when conflicts stemmed more from personal slights between rulers.
As history progressed, this took the form of a goddess of questing and oaths, whatever those meant to the cultures representing her. Finally, in some regions, she is associated with witchcraft, specifically a phenomena seen with young women, where the divine magic of the goddess blesses them in times of acute threat.

Appearance

As the goddess of beauty, depictions of her are malleable to the beauty standards of the time and place of her depiction. Like other Natural Gods, she is also depicted through various avatars - powerful beings left behind or manifesting upon the Mortal Plane - used to circumvent the Crossing Over. However, as a favorite of Maru and a goddess less involved with Creation, she is believed to still have access to the Mortal Plane.
Various depictions of Veru pop up across cultures, time, and place. While much of the iconography emphasises her attractiveness, there is a certain trickery aspect to it as well. From carvings of her symbols in hidden locations by Anharan students, to art of her stealing the manhood of poor lovers in al-Tahat, Veru is seen as a mercurial goddess.

Plane

The divine plane of Veru takes different forms depending upon the cultural depictions of her portfolio. For example in Anhara, it is the Pearled Tower, an island tower of white stone surrounded by a magical hedge maze. Encapsulating Veru's domains of questing, oaths, and love, the Tower is wrapped up in Anhara's long tradition of the Romance of Nobility.

"The Lady Semillon was trapped deep within the maze, as punishment for her Court of Love's farcical mimicry of its Veru-blessed forebear." - Braelea Loyalist Book of Tales

It is believed that she governs oaths not taken to specific gods, and oathbreakers are sent to wander her hedge mazes after death. Her court within the tower is populated by the most interesting oath breakers, unrequited lovers, and those who were overly ambitious in life. While for some this is a punishment, with them cast out into the mazes once they no longer interest her, she also takes in the spirits of lovers and those who nobly failed on quests, keeping them at her side.

Historical Overview

Primordial Origins

Creation Myth

Veru's presence in Creation has two theories, that she is either the oldest or the youngest of the Natural Gods. The first myth suggests that Veru was created from only one aspect of Maru, his love. This explains Maru's lack of interference in the affairs of the world, and in turn why Veru was not affected by the Crossing Over.
The latter myth instead has Veru coming to the Mortal Plane at the end of Creation. Here she instills feelings and emotions into humanity. Each nation has their own myth as to the creation of mortals, all along the general theme of their respective Natural God creating the human body, and life being instilled into it. After that point, Veru appears, as the final step in Creation.

Growth of Passion

While instilling basic emotions in mortals is a self-explanatory group of aspects, Veru evolved past that over the course of the world's early history. Passions lead men to swear oaths, a sort of divinely-bound magic. When oaths are sworn to a specific god, that gives the deity permission to pierce the Veil and violate the Crossing Over. When oaths are sworn to no god in particular, they default to Veru, falling within the realm of passion.
Another act following from passion is war. War somewhat falls within Veru's domain, largely in its inception. Carnage, strategy, death, and most aspects readily associated with war are outside of her portfolio. But, war's start, its highs and lows, the furious rush of battle, the swell of patriotism, and other such passionate urges are of Veru's doing.
In particularly early stories of wars started over women, Veru is often invoked directly. Veru came into play in stories of conflicts over dowry issues, kidnapped brides, and spurned lovers in Anhara's early noble house conflicts.
Lastly is her magic. Magic comes from three sources, the divine, study of formulaic spells, and inherent biological aspects. Veru's magic is one of the smallest divine gifts and a mix of formula. On one hand, she comes to the aid of spurned women or battered women, gaining her witchcraft aspect in some places. On the other, more formulaic side, she is associated with glamour magic - a sort of disguise.

Contemporary Views

Anhara

In modern Anhara, Veru remains largely the goddess of romance, oaths, quests, and witchcraft. Foremost, her name and symbols are invoked in romantic poems. Anhara is a land of quests, and chivalry has a high cultural value. Quests play a hand in romantic works, but stem largely from Veru's association with oaths. Veru acts not only as a motivation for the frequent romantic quest, but as the looming threat of an enforced oath for those sufficiently in the know who read between the lines.
Veru's association with witchcraft is fully fleshed out in Anhara, though a smaller aspect than some other nations. The occasional Fence-Bard will use her glamour to disguise himself, looking young far beyond his years. So too will the particularly powerful courtesan or matriarch - as this magic is near impossible to detect, unlike a simple disguise. She grants spells as well to the sheltered or abused women of Anhara, coming in their time of deepest need.

al-Tahat

Boreal North

Litoric Islands

Panag Rho

Divine Classification

Natural Goddess

Domains

Arcana
Life
Light
Trickery
War

Portfolio

Beauty
Feelings
Friendship & Loyalty
Love & Romance
Passions & Procreation
Quests & Oaths
Witchcraft

Titles

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Gender

Female