Flower

Flower's High Woldian Symbol.

Ethos	"Love never claims, it ever gives." - Mahatma Gandhi
Domains	Community, Good, Healing, Giving
Prestige Classes	Server, Troubadour
Holy Days	Wedding days, birthdays, New Year's Day, Day of the Dove in the Month of Flowers
Sacrifices	Time spent loving and serving others, Gold given in service and love to those who need it
Favored Weapon	{{{weapon}}}

Flower is the patron of deep love in all its forms. She is responsible for the well being of the families of The Wold. She sees that the family flourishes. She is responsible for midwives. Since families are the building block of the community, she patrons the community by educating them in the ways of love and peace.

She believes that the woman's place in society is more than being a wife and mother, but that her responsibility to her mate and her children come before other interests. She believes that the man's place in the relationship is to be an equal to his mate and to share in the responsibilities of child-rearing. The responsibility of a man to his mate and children also come before other interests.

She guides and teaches the Noble Races about true and deep love. She instructs against the building of relationships upon passion. Passion alone is childish and immature. Passion, however, does has it's place in a marriage of equals who have deep love for one another. She believes in monogamy and fosters that type of morality. She believes in marriage as an institution for life. She hates marriages of convenience and believes that all people have the right to choose who they will marry and love. Love should be the sole reason for marriage. When true love governs a couples life, maturity is the result.

Due to her mortal background, she is also the patron of the arts. She believes in celebrations of life and dance. She believes in the ability of performances of artists to teach morals and pass on the oral traditions of a culture.

The God of Love

Godly Powers

Flower has the ability to recognize deep love wherever it occurs. She can force mortals to remember deep love forgotten. She can cut through all the bad memories, mistakes, faults, and bitter tears of a relationship and make it so that those involved see again the deep love which they once shared.

Appearance

Mortal Form -- In her mortal form, she appears as a beautiful blond haired, blue eyed beauty. Her figure is that of a dancer. Her outward beauty is only surpassed by the inner beauty of her soul.

Avatar Form -- In pictures, Flower wears a mask, so that only her inner beauty shows. To do otherwise would cause those seeing her to instantly give into their passions and become obsessed with the sight of her.

Divine Form -- In dreams and when appearing to her faithful, she holds the form of a Dove with blue eyes that pierce to the deepest feelings within the heart.

Worship

The worship of Devotees is anything but traditional. Everything taught is done through some sort of performance. Poems are read and plays teaching morals are performed. Stories of love are told. Many, who are not followers of Flower, attend her services for their entertainment value. Many of those leave as followers.

One unique part of the service involves the giving of alms for the poor. Those with more give to those who have less, directly and in person. This also teaches the joy of accepting a gift gracefully, which is a hard lesson of servanthood: the lesson of letting someone serve you and accepting their help. Many times, devotees lead the congregation in acts of love by exiting the temple to spend a precious hour or two helping others before returning to their daily tasks.

Holy Symbol

A flower-shaped symbol, closely based on its High Woldian root, though the true meaning of the glyph is forgotten by most these days.

Priests' Appearance

Clerics of Flower dress in white robes, trimmed in red. Many wear their hair long. Most are beautiful on the outside as well as the inside, however, this is downplayed so that the Servant can exhibit his inner beauty. Powerful Clerics of Flower sometimes glow with an inner strength and beauty that overpowers their outer features.

Clerics in Society

Known as Devotees of Flower, these priests work among the Noble Races of The Wold teaching the concepts of Deep Love and Acts of Servanthood. The most prevalent method of doing this is by example. They are willing to sit with an ailing nobleman and the next day help a peasant repair the holes in his barn. Many of them marry and have large families, which they raise to love and serve their fellow man.

Some Devotees serve as ambassadors for nations. Others work as mediators in the marketplace. Some find a great work to dedicate themselves to for life or for an extended period of time. Others move from place to place teaching and devoting themselves to the needs of the communities they visit. Some become adventurers heroically protecting the Noble Races from danger and hatred.

Wherever they are, however, they strive to teach about true love vs. passion. They strive to show that passion does not bring joy or satisfaction. They teach that the pain of loving someone deeply is better than the emptiness of passion.

History and Relationships

Flower was born during the time of the First Massacre of Windhorn Hamlet. Each year Windhorn Hamlet holds a Festival to draw enough people to Windhorn to supply the Dragon Sentinel with enough power to keep the dragons of Dragon Bay off of the Peninsula for another year. One year, during the ceremony when the Sentinel was at it's weakest, a group of Blue Dragons burrowed underneath the Sentinel and slaughtered the people of Windhorn Hamlet.

Alemi was furious that this had been allowed to happen as various of the Gods of Wold were to watch the bay each year during the ceremony when the Sentinel could not do it's job. So he sent the entire pantheon down to cast the spells for Gargul to resurrect each and every one of them.

During this process, Caeroldra, who at that time was the God of Love and the consort of Alemi, came upon Flower's father and saw that he was handsome of face and strong of body. Caeroldra had always been somewhat obsessed with earthly beauty along with love and the sight of this handsome man struck down in the prime of life was simply too much to bear. She had to console him -- to love him. This action infuriated Alemi who put Caeroldra aside as his consort forever. 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.

Nine months later, Flower was born. Alemi refused to let the half god stay to be raised by her mother and instead sent her back to Windhorn Hamlet to be raised by a spinster who could have no children of her own. This woman's name was Thisafel The Crone. Thisafel loved Flower deeply and considered her a great gift. Flower; however, spurned Thisafel for she was exceedingly ugly.

From an early age, Flower was obsessed with the movement of dance. She would dance with the birds in the fields. She danced with the deer in the forest. When traveling entertainers would pass through the town, she learned from them too.

When she was 12, she performed for the first time in front of an audience. The setting was a small inn in Windhorn Hamlet. She was a sensation. She combined both innocence, technical difficulty, and added the natural fresh sensuality which came naturally to her as the daughter of her mother.

Three notable personages made their presence known at this first performance. As the introductions were being made, Caeroldra herself stood and said, "Behold my beautiful daughter! May she ever remain young!"

Then a handsome powerfully build mage stood and said, "Hello, my daughter. You are cursed by your mother's supernatural beauty. Every man in the Wold will want you and will strive to have you. May you ever remain pure and untouched, no mater how many men despoil your honor."

After the performance, a young bard remained standing long after the audience ceased their cheering and had regained their seats. He, with stars in his eyes, said, "Beautiful creature. I am Pursis, grandson of Ursis the Bard Sage and I declare before this audience that I will personally train and educate this young woman. When she is ready, the whole Wold will have the fortune to see her perform."

And perform she did. For several years she performed in taverns, circuses, and theatres throughout The Wold. Every man desired her. Every woman wanted to be her. And yet throughout all this she remained pure of body. She had affairs with men of state and beggars from the street. Yet, her gift kept her chaste. She also seemed not to age.

Her mind however, did. The end result was a bitter woman in a child's body. Friends were hard to come by. She grew to resent her gifts and called them curses. For a time this drove her to excess. However, once a person has done most everything there is to do and see everything there is to see, she began to see that the things she was doing did not bring her satisfaction or a sense of accomplishment.

Out of frustration, she decided to marry the ugliest and most revolting man she could find. She found Duke Darius. He was a Councilman by birth for the South Harbor region of New Elenna. He adored her. She hated him. She never stayed true to him, meeting men at all hours of the day and night behind his back at first and then openly. However, he remained true to her. He served her in every way, spoiling her in the attempt to gain deep love for him from her.

After a few years, however, he came down with a magical disease and began to fade. Having enough of him, and no patience to deal with a sick Duke Darius, she left him. She moved to Plateau City and moped.

A few months later, at a royal party, she met King Claudia. Both young women were in the spotlight and faced similar problems. There was one contrast, however. Whereas Flower wanted to get away from the popularity that performing brought, Claudia ached to be free of her responsibilities and go among the public as a normal person. So King Claudia found an item in the Royal Treasure Vault that allowed two people to trade bodies.

So occasionally, the two young women began to exchange bodies for a time. Flower relished the order and stability of Claudia's life and Claudia adored the freedom of Flower's existence.

It was during this time that Flower learned the enjoyment of serving others. She felt great joy when she solved a problem for a citizen, or was able to help absolve a wrongful debt.

It was during one of these times that The Dragon Flame saw Flower, when she was really Claudia and instantly fell in love with her. He began to plot and plan to make her his. Eventually he made a deal with the Priests of the Cult God Raven. he'd deliver Claudia to them to make into an avatar of Raven and they would deliver Flower into his waiting clutches.

This legend is told in other places; however, to summarize, Flame received Claudia in Flower's body rather than Flower herself. Kidnapped, the Gold Dragons began to search for Flame to return Claudia in Flower's body. During this time, Flame loved Claudia and she became pregnant. During the pregnancy, the young women were stuck in each other's bodies out of fear for what would happen if hey switched with two young souls being formed.

During this time Flower in Claudia had to rule the kingdom and she did well. She grew to love the responsibilities and the decisions of the position. Claudia had always rebelled against the position forced upon her. Flower began to change. She matured. She learned even further the joys of giving and serving others. She tried to share this with those around her, but they didn't see the transformation she was undergoing. Most thought she was simply King Claudia finally beginning to grow up and act like a King should act.

The children were born innately evil, monsters without souls. When Joe Hand, the consort of Claudia took them and killed them, she was both mortified and heartbroken. She began to realize that deep love, even though it was often painful, was much better and more satisfying than passion and the freedom she had enjoyed before.

She learned love for her friend Claudia even as Claudia committed suicide after her children were killed. She learned love for Joe, who was willing to do anything for Claudia. She learned the love of friends as she watched how Valdor and Mordrid cared for one another. She wanted deep love in her own life. She wanted someone to serve as Joe served Claudia Service and love were becoming intertwined in her heart and mind. She longed to serve someone just because she loved him and craved someone to love for the feelings of joy it would bring to her heart.

This, however, was long in coming. She returned to the men she had physically loved in the past and none of them showed any sign of loving her deeply. Neither did she feel any joy when she tried to serve them. They simply just had passion for her and became obsessed with her outward beauty. That was until she out of pity returned to Duke Darius in South Harbor.

He, by this time was near death and the sight of him stirred her heart. She realized that she truly loved him. She spent her whole fortune and much of his to find a cure for his disease. Her service to him and for him bought them a couple of extra years together. They were the happiest years of her life. However, despite her efforts, he eventually died. Once again, she was changed. She had known deep love! She did not know if she would ever find it again.

She headed to the temple of her mother and sought solace there. However, it was the same games all over again. All the male priests sought her out simply for crude passion. In fact, it seemed to her that passion, rather than love, had become the norm for her mother and those who worshipped her. So she rebelled.

She donned a mask to hide her beauty and began planning and scheming to rid herself of the curses that bound her to her misery: her eternal youth and her unchanging chastity. Allying herself with unusual gods and forces, she beat her curses and began to age. She remained chaste out of choice. Do to her methods, many thought her evil and adventuring bands began to hunt her and her followers.

So for protection she allied herself with other gods who were being hunted and maligned...or so she thought. She thus, with help became a fully formed god known as The One. Many assumed that she was pushing passion and free love. Caeroldra, now having totally given up the tenants of deep love for which she was responsible, blamed many of her passionate actions upon her upstart daughter.

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.