> [!infobox]+ Raei > > <div class="infobox-coat-of-arms"> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 5px;"> > <div class="character-name-container"><div class="character-main-name">Raei</div><div class="character-epithet">the Everlight</div></div> > </div> > </div> > <div style="text-align: center; padding: 0.2em;"> > <img src="RaeiSymbol.png" alt="Raei" style="max-width: 250px; height: auto;" class="internal-image"> > </div> > <table class="infobox-table"> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Province</td><td class="infobox-data">Goddess of Forgiveness, Mercy and Redemption</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Alignment</td><td class="infobox-data">Neutral Good</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Symbol</td><td class="infobox-data">A winged woman rising like a phoenix from a flame</td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Holy Day</td><td class="infobox-data"><em>Long forgotten</em></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Type</td><td class="infobox-data">Greater <a href="Deities.md" class="internal-link">Deity</a></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Home Plane</td><td class="infobox-data">Her temple beside the crystal beaches of the <a href="Elysium.md" class="internal-link">Island of Renewal</a>, a sanctuary of flame within <a href="Elysium.md" class="internal-link">Elysium</a></td></tr> > <tr><td class="infobox-label">Divine Champion</td><td class="infobox-data"><em>Not Known</em></td></tr> > </table> ### About Raei, the Everlight, is the greater goddess of forgiveness, mercy and redemption. She spreads a message of understanding and hope in even the darkest of places, and believes that even the most corrupt can be redeemed. That belief has been both her greatest strength and her deepest wound, for it was her trust that the Lord of Lies, [[Asmodeus]], exploited in the [[Dawn-War]], slaughtering her followers and leaving her grievously wounded. In the long ages since, her temples have stood quiet, kept by a faithful few, but in recent years her stories have begun to spread once more. Her followers are most often rural healers and community philosophers, offering a voice of reason and compassion in angry and cynical times. She dwells in her temple beside the crystal beaches of the [[Elysium|Island of Renewal]], a sanctuary of flame within the Blessed Fields of [[Elysium]]. ### Depiction Raei is depicted in two ways. In her temples she is most often shown as a beautiful, strong woman with dark skin and light hair, her arms open in welcome. Elsewhere, she is shown as a great phoenix of golden flame, rising from the ashes, a symbol of the second chance she offers to all who seek it. Her holy symbol joins the two, a woman rising from a flame with the wings of the phoenix spread above her. ### Divine Domains Raei's clerics are most often granted powers of Life, Light or Peace. ### Holy Day Raei's holy day has long been forgotten. In the ages after the [[Dawn-War]], when her faith was all but abandoned, the date of her festival was lost, and her followers have yet to agree when it should be held or how it should be celebrated. The debate has gone on for years, and no great miracle has yet come to settle it. ### Commandments of Raei - Lead with mercy, patience, and compassion. Inspire others to unite in fellowship. - Aid those who are without guidance. Heal those who are without hope. - Those who are beyond redemption, who revel in slaughter and remorseless evil, must be dispatched with swift justice. ### Enemies of Raei Raei has few true enemies, for she would rather redeem than destroy, but none has wronged her more than [[Asmodeus]]. Deep down, she still hopes that even the Lord of Lies can be redeemed, yet she has seen the damage he has done, and the memory of her slaughtered followers keeps her from ever trusting him again. ### History - #### The Age of Founding Raei was born among the Pantheon in the [[Age of Founding]] as the goddess of forgiveness, her fire one that heals rather than burns. It was she who gave mortals the capacity to forgive, and the capacity to change. When the gods began to argue over the fate of their creations, before the [[Age of Founding|Schism]] broke out, Raei argued for mercy, believing that even those who had turned away could be brought back. When the war came, she fought little, and instead walked the battlefields healing the wounded of every side. - #### The Age of Arcanum Raei's faith flourished in the [[Age of Arcanum]] among healers and wanderers, and it was in this age that her original teachings were set down, bearing the goddess's own signature. One copy belonged to a paladin of the Everlight who later perished among the frozen dead of a city of [[Tiamat]] in the north of [[Klioslane]], where it lay until it was recovered by [[Group 8274]] in 3033 PD. - #### The Dawn-War Raei's darkest hour came early in the [[Dawn-War]]. [[Asmodeus]] came to her as a broken god, claiming to have turned against the other [[Betrayer Gods]] and begging her mercy and protection. True to her nature, she took him in. Over many years, he played the part of the helpless penitent so well that she came to trust him completely, and once he was welcomed among her followers, he struck, slaughtering every one of them in a single stroke. The Everlight was consumed in her own fire, and like the phoenix she rose again from the ashes, though gravely weakened. It is said that it was [[Avandra]] who nursed her back to strength, and the followers of the two goddesses have been bound in fellowship ever since. - #### Post Dawn-War At the end of the [[Dawn-War]], Raei left the [[Material Plane]] along with the rest of the Pantheon in the [[Divergence]]. With most of her followers slain, her faith never recovered its former standing. Her temples still stood, but they were barely used, kept by only a faithful few, and for nearly three thousand years the Everlight was little more than a name to most of [[Aeborhia]]. In recent years, her faith has begun to pick up again. In the 3030s PD, during [[Group 8274|Group 8274's]] years away from adventuring, [[Tiven|Ser Tiven]] of [[Group 8274]] travelled widely, spreading the stories of Raei and her message of redemption, and her chapels have since begun to fill once more. ### Modern Worship of Raei The worship of Raei is small but growing. Her followers are most often rural healers and community philosophers, who tend to the sick and the hopeless and offer a voice of reason and empathy wherever they go. Her chapels tend to be small and plain, such as the Chapel of the Everlight on Foundry Row in [[Kraesuine]], a modest, well-loved chapel serving the working district. Her faithful share a warm bond with the followers of [[Avandra]], born of the goddess who nursed the Everlight back to health. ### Known Worshippers of Raei #### Champions *Not Known* #### Other Worshippers - [[Tiven|Ser Tiven]] - A member of [[Group 8274]], who spread the stories of Raei across [[Aeborhia]]. - Sister Enid Calloway - Head of the Chapel of the Everlight on Foundry Row, [[Kraesuine]].