Caeroldra
God of Passion
Contents
Realms of Responsibility
This goddess is the patron of everything that is lovely, beautiful and full of passion. She believes that love is what old people talk about when they have no passion. Caeroldra has lived the pure life and seen all the people who stay together for their children even when love has vacated the home. She has seen relationships that sour into "honey dews" and even abuse. She has even experienced some of this with her former mate Alemi and her daughter Flower.
Caeroldra has now has come through to the other side and knows that love is a falsehood. Why should someone sacrifice when they can celebrate? Why should someone remain in the captivity of love when one can stay true to her feelings and never grow old? People should use their bodies while they are young. For that matter, one should still follow their passions even when one begins to age.
Caeroldra patrons the concept that passion should be the sole reason for marriage. When the passion is gone, then the marriage should end for the good of the children. To do otherwise would be to teach your children that adulthood is full of suffering and sacrifice, rather than joy and passion! Love is fleeting and does not last. So why should marriage or relationships last after the passion is gone? If this were not true, there would be lots of songs written about the joys of passion after thirty years of marriage -- instead, the bulk of them are written by young people about the joys of new found love.
Caeroldra believes that the concept of passion is to be applied in all the other aspects of life. Life is too short to spend it doing things that bring pain and suffering. Instead, one should do what brings them joy! They should follow their passions -- even if they hurt someone else. After all, your passion is more important than theirs, unless their passion adds to yours.
Raising children can be a passion for some. Those persons should remain parents. However, not everyone has a passion to be with and raise children. Those people should not do so! If you do not have a passion for children, the children most likely do not like you either. There are orphanages where your children will have other kids to play with and caretakers who have that all important passion for children.
Love is mental and not physical. It is a decision and not a feeling. It is a commitment rather than a joy that bring happiness. This is wrong and does not lead to true happiness. Passion is physical and involves emotions rather than commitments. Above all, passion is satisfying. Passion is free. One must test oneself through passion, exploring all manner of things until one finds the passion that will truly drive one's life to perfection.
Godly Powers
Caeroldra has the ability to recognize the true passions in any being. She is drawn to acts of great passion. She can force mortals to return to their passions. She can cut through all the responsibilities, decisions, and regrets of a life spent loving rather than exploring passion and make the person realize the futility of love.
Appearance
- Mortal Form -- In her mortal form, she appears as a beautiful full figured half-elven woman with fair skin, black hair, and azure eyes.
- Avatar Form -- In pictures, Caeroldra appears as a dazzling perfect female wearing a toga. This toga may be magically dropped or retained, depending on her passions. This occurs even with statues and artwork made in her image.
- Divine Form -- In dreams and when appearing to her faithful, she inhabits the bodies of all females in the area and speaks through them. They take on her likeness for the duration of the visitation. She prefers borrowing the forms of her most loyal priestesses.
Holy Symbol
A classic slim urn called an amphora. It is worn around the neck and has two handles like hands on hips. It symbolizes a vessel to receive or pour out passion. At times it is used to store potions or magical ointments.
Priests' Appearance
Clerics of Caeroldra dress in the latest fashions according to their current passions. During worship, they wear white togas, or nothing at all. All are either beautiful on the outside or carry an incredible charisma about them. All are accomplished at maximizing their outer beauty.
Clerics in Society
Known as the Joyous Spirits of Caeroldra, these priests spread passion throughout The Wold and teach their goddess' concepts of passion over love. The most effective method of this is by helping others find their own passions through experimentation. They are willing to try anything if it will help another fellow being become attuned to their true passion. Teaching passion is a passion of the priest of Caeroldra.
Priests of Caeroldra, having found their true passion, follow it where it leads as an example to others to do the same. Some settle down to follow a single passion. Others, continue to move from passion to passion devoting themselves to their own current needs. Some join adventuring groups to experience the passion of heroism and to protect the rights of the individual to explore their passions to perfection.
Wherever they are, however, they oppose the followers of Flower and her restrictive teachings. They strive to show that love does not bring joy or happiness. They teach that the pain of love does not compare with the joy of passion. It is love that truly empties one of the passion of life
Worship
The worship of the Joyous Spirits is a very creative and impromptu experience. Those attending are considered equals with the priests in attendance. All are encouraged to rise and share the passions of their soul. Ultimate praise is poured upon the person who has found the ultimate passion for their life.
New passions are shared and fads and styles of passion are discussed. The ceremony usually ends with declarations of passion where a worshipper expresses his intention to experiment with a new passion so as to find out what that passion has to teach him about life and his personal happiness. This tends to create fads of passion. An example of this is the recent fad known as "extreme adventuring." This passion involves groups of adventurers who "raid" a dungeon, castle, or other adventurous location. The concept of extreme adventuring is to risk greatly for the thrill of it. Extreme adventurers rush from room to room, not stopping to plan, strategize or check for dangers. The idea comes from the idea that such locations have a "grand ending." Everything else is prologue and should be ignored. If there is a trap, they run and leap over it. If there is a monster, they shrug and look for the next room for something to fight it.
Holy Days
All holidays and days of celebration.
Content of Sacrifices
Time spent finding one's passion and helping others do the same.
Ethos
"Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things." -- Denis Diderot
Spell Domains
Prestige Classes
- Hand of Love
- Obsessed
- The Servants of Passion are obsessed with trying to show everyone how romantic passion should rule a life and thus bring happiness. Love involved commitment and brought pain and suffering. Romance created joy and no responsibilities that were unwanted. This group is at odds with the Hands of Love and oppose them.
History and Relationships
Caeroldra was born a mortal in the first age of The Wold. In this age, all humans lived in or near the Valley of Annande, which means "gifts." All elves lived across the river of Nen Alasse, which means "joy," in the Forest above Rainbow Falls, known in elvish as Lanta Elyanwe. Caeroldra, however, was neither human nor elven. She was the first ever in The Wold of what would become a quasi-race known as Half-elves.
She began life on her father's trading boat going back and forth from Lanta Elyanwe to Mankind Glen. Born in the 20th generation of humans and the 5th generation of elves, Caeroldra was unique, both in race and beauty. With the huge, expressive, and eternal eyes of the elves along with the strength and grace of form of the humans, she was perhaps the most beautiful mortal to ever live. By the age of 10, her father was receiving regular proposals of marriage on her behalf. She was being sought by families of wealth and prestige as well, charming rogues of great charisma, and knights of great renown. Many offered her father much in the way of dowry promises for her hand in marriage when she reached the accountability age of 15 turns. Her father, ever holding out for more, put each off without declining their offers. Caeroldra learned to despise her looks, thinking that it was a curse destining her to marry some ugly old fool with balding hair and money.
When her 15th birthday drew nigh, sure enough, there was a line waiting at the docks near the human village of Blessing and at the front of the line was a bald man dressed only in a tunic holding a chest of jewels and platinum on each shoulder. He introduced himself as Domi, the slave of his master Alemi. Alemi was an arch-mage, yet was known for being a teacher. Caeroldra had heard of him and had no intentions of marrying some old man who read books all day and wore a dress like a woman. When her father choose the bald servant's master, her heart sunk.
During the night, she decided that if she could no choose her own mate for life, she would have no mate. She escaped her father's grasp and asked for asylum at the local Temple of Love. There she became a priest forswearing all men forever.
Then the most frustrating things began to happen. The temple announced that it would close due to a lack of funds. Suddenly these funds appeared in a massive contribution. She was shocked to find out that the gift had come from Alemi. Her father died. There was no money to pay for a funeral. The bald-headed Domi showed up with the money. She was furious! How dare he think that he could do all these things for her? She didn't belong to him! She made up her mind to travel to Alemi's Oshirr House and tell him so to his face. She was not going to accept being controlled by gifts from a schoolteacher!
That night, however, the beasts attacked the Valley of Joy and by the next day the beasts took control of the town square. The head priest fell in battle leaving Caeroldra in charge of the abbey. She gave shelter to those who came to her and kept the abbey locked tight. Food was low and the water was purposely spoiled by the beasts. Then appearing as if from heaven came knights, mages, fighting priests, and rogues amazingly working together in ways she had never seen...ways that no one had ever seen. They blended their talents into a seamless front scattering the beasts that did not flee at the sight of them. Riding behind them on a alabaster white horse was a regal man--tall in the saddle and with golden hair. He surveyed the scene with an air that could only be royalty.
Instantly she felt a passion stir in her for him. Her whole demeanor changed when a bald man came to consult with him, because that meant that the regal figure was none other than Alemi, scourge of her life!
He came over to her, dismounted and went to one knee before her. She melted. He scooped her up and mounted his horse to the cheers of the townsfolk as he took her away with him. The next few years were a blur of romance and emotion as she became, not only Alemi's consort, but a supporter in the school teaching the ways of the trader to the students as well as advanced skills of the priest.
However, as with all things the honeymoon period came to an end. Alemi grew more and more obsessed with the beasts and their commander, Lord Gargul. Strange breeds and colors of beasts began to come out of the breeding vats of Gargul's Strongholds. He asked Caeroldra to intercede for the Noble Races with the Gods of Yore and she did. When the Gods refused to take a side, and she informed Alemi of this, he grew frustrated with her asking her to return to her god in prayer and petition again and again. She knew that it was pointless and even dangerous to petition the gods when the gods had already made a decision and refused. He grew angry and in front of her denounced the Gods of Yore.
Caeroldra left him and returned to her abbey refusing to explain her presence there nor her absence from the Oshirr House. The Beast Wars escalated and Alemi began to look for other sources of help. In his research, he found a text written by King Toazz from the first generation of Woldians describing the appearance of the Gods and stating that in fact The Wold had been created by a being known as The Jericho. Time past, Domi contacted the Jericho, the war against the Gods of Yore was won, and the 2nd age of The Wold began.
Caeroldra hearing nothing of Alemi or Domi after the war, traveled to where the Oshirr House stood. It was gone, all signs of it ever being there erased from The Wold. There were no gods to pray to. No benefactor to guide her. She felt alone...incredible alone. There was no purpose to staying in an empty purposeless Abbey so she bought a boat and decided to travel to the lands of the elves to find out what happened to her "other" family of Noble Races.
Travelling east, she found that the Elves had withdrawn from the area separating into groups of families for safety against the beasts. So now there were nearly a dozen elven sanctuaries. The populating of The Wold had begun. She began trading up and down the river in a barge similar to the one she grew up on as a girl. Her travels took her further and further east as she introduced herself to tribe after tribe of humans and elves. She discovered two newer races too: the halflings and the gnomes. Travelling still further east, months away from her homeland, she heard of an insane Golden Dragon who told tales of the Godwars in his sleep. Excited and hoping to learn about what happened to Alemi and Domi, she continued further east to a village on the very eastern edge of the continent. A place named Isil.
There a clan of mixed races worked to build a life for themselves from the river and the boundless ocean beyond. She asked to see the dragon that snored. Inside the cavern she heard the tale of how the dragon had led an army of Gold and Silver Dragonbeasts against the Gods of Yore and how with the blessing of the Creator had been triumphant. On the spot, Caeroldra out of instinct prayed to this Creator about her love Alemi and his friend Domi. The Creator heard her cry and came instantly to the spot declaring Alemi to be a god and head of a new pantheon of Gods: The Gods of Wold. These new gods would be charged not only to protect the Noble Races from threats without, but from threats within. Alemi named Domi his protector and God of War and Courage. Caeroldra was named Goddess of Love.
For a time, all was wondrous again. Alemi and Caeroldra were in love and ruled side by side. They bore children who became gods. But as before, when major threats would threaten his charges, he would focus on them and not on her. Caeroldra learned to dread threats to the Noble Races because she would lose the attentions of Alemi for a time. Eventually Caeroldra and Alemi drifted apart in a more permanent way. Caeroldra looked to her priests and worshippers for attention and comradeship. In this way, through relationships with her priests, she learned the joys of humanity and learned to appreciate the moment as a mortal did once again.
About this time, came the slaughter of Windhorn Hamlet during the Sentinel Festival. Alemi sent the Gods to bury those who died. She found the body of a man in the woods near the town. He reminded her of Alemi and how he looked when he was young. He was handsome of face and strong of body. She raised him and he, unable to refuse her, loved her. The result was a daughter named Flower. This act angered Alemi to the point that he officially put her aside.
This also, according to many, was the beginning in the fall of Caeroldra from the cause of good and when she began the journey to embracing Passion rather than Deep Love.
Many other affairs with mortal men followed, including an affair with the mighty Valdor the Dragonstone. She began to realize that her time staying loyal to Alemi was wasted. The time she spent in the abbey as a mortal was wasted as well. The joy in her life came from when she had passion for what she was doing. She had enjoyed passion as a trader. She really enjoyed having passion for mortal men. Those memories shone like a beacon in her memory filling her with joy and love for life.
Her memories of Alemi and their time together was full of pain and regret. All she remembered of her time in the abbey was that of unwanted responsibilities. She decided to give into to her passions and let them decide the course of her existence. When Caeroldra changed, so did many of her followers. As the Year of Ascension drew near, two cults or sects of Caeroldra were formed. One was the Hands of Love. The other was the Servants of Passion.
The Hands of Love were a power hungry group of Love Clerics who realized that love was the overriding emotion and ruled all other emotions given to the Noble Races. Frustrated love brought revenge. A lack of love brought jealousy. Love fulfilled created responsibility and courage. Love denied created hate. They came to the conclusion that they could and should use love as a tool of power to control those who didn't understand their loves until they did. This organization would do anything to anyone to further their purposes all in the name of love. In many ways, the group became an inquisition because they would resort to torture tactics to teach love to those they would teach.
The Servants of Passion became obsessed with trying to show everyone how romantic passion should rule a life and thus bring happiness. Love was commitment and brought pain and suffering. Romance created joy and no responsibilities that were unwanted. These two groups, along with those who remained true to Caeroldra's former teachings were in direct conflict with each other. These groups continued to develop and define themselves throughout the Year of Ascension.
During this time, Caeroldra feuded with her daughter Flower who was opposing her new philosophy. It was as if the two of them had reversed roles and ideals. When the Year of Ascension arrived, they met in a mighty confrontation. The One was cast out of the Cult gods in favor of Caeroldra who deserted the Gods of Wold. Alemi, seeing the truth of things, immediately offered Flower her mother's former position as the God of Love. Caeroldra became the God of Passion joining the Gods of Testing.
