Storminator
First Post
James Jacobs said:
Thanks for the insight. I appreciate it.
PS
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Pathfinder 1E Gods of Pathfinder: Shelyn, the Eternal Rose
- Thread starter jasin
- Start date
Thanks for the insight. I appreciate it.
PS
Squire James
First Post
I gather even love goddesses get angry now and then. Also, I heard love was a kinda common reason people fight each other, and maybe that glaive is to make sure neither of the two combatants get too close to her! One could even say there's a connection between "love" and "attack of opportunity," at least the way most D&D games go!
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Say, I have another idea about a book you can reprint, once you guys get ToH1 into hardcover again ...James Jacobs said:
James Jacobs
Adventurer
Treebore said:
It's absolutely a rough write up, as is most everything we may post on messageboards; until it sees print on paper, it's not canon, in other words. If/when we do a core-beliefs style piece on Shelyn, we'll give something like that post to the author we hire to write the peice to generate ideas and to provide a framework for him.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Do Abadar next (he said selfishly, since his paladin is going to worship Abadar in the pbp here at ENWorld)!
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
...almost makes me want to go back to the Deity-A-Week thread.... 
At least that took the ideas to their logical and freaky conclusion. For Shelyn, stereotypical boring deity of Romantic ideals, here's my scholar's analysis:
Mythography
[sblock]
Shelyn, as a goddess of love beauty, does much to escape the normal downfalls of other deities, but as a goddess of love and beauty, she falls to the same dangers that those emotions have: Love is blood, red as war. Beauty is challenging, fear-inducing, and waiting to be owned. Shelyn cannot escape the violence and selfishness that love inspires, just as she cannot quite separate herself from the chain of her half-brother.
Shelyn, in many ways, is "too good to be true." Many deities have a dark side, an element of their divine power gone awry, and few gods are truly ever beneficent. Despite Shelyn's welcoming facade, it is true that she has this dark side as well. Namely, that all things of beauty inspire humans to try and own them, isolate them, and capitalize on them. In Shelyn's case, this leads to great wars stemming from the very works of art and creativity that she nurtures. The moment a great painting is produced, a bidding war starts for it's ownership. The moment a great monument is crafted, one side will seek to destroy what the other side owns. The moment a beautiful woman comes of age, two suitors will kill to possess her.
Sheyln herself is a recently matured deity, a creature coming out of the status of the Maiden stage, and slowly progressing into the Motherhood stage. Her desire to not tie down with a single suitor causes much bloodshed in her name, as the more possessive and greedy deities seek to own her or destroy her. The Body Crimson is an immense rose garden, where those that fall in pursuit of Shelyn, the ultimate beauty, are honored with a rose planted in their name. It is said that here, the roses pulse with a red light, in tune to the beating of a heart. Though Shelyn weeps at the thought of lives destroyed in her name, she cannot debate that great beauty also arises from great suffering, and that only a soul captured in the throes of truest and deepest agony is capable of realizing the most intimate and touching beauty.
This raises the issue of her half-brother, Zon-Kuthon, a creature she carries a very curious, possibly incestuous relationship with. The two have sworn a pact, and she seems to be actively engaged in helping her kin, stealing the instrument of his fall and trying to purify it, and purify him. She may very well succeed at this, using her power of True Love to overcome the loss and isolation of a fallen god, but in the transformation, she is likely to be transformed. In being chained in theological marriage to this creature, she will truly embrace her Motherhood, giving birth to something truly new, rather than simply nurturing what exists. She may indeed create a great creature out of love, changing loss into gain. However, as Zon-Kuthon ceases to be what he is, Shelyn is likely to change as well, going to become the Crone, a creature of fear, wrath, and kindred of things like the Hags.
Aside from the danger of war and the danger of her dark marriage, Shelyn presents a rather more mundane danger for her daily worshipers beyond ownership of her and her inspired creations: the challenge of art. The creative force is, by it's nature, a changing force: it confronts expectations, twists them, and causes the viewer to think in new and, often, dangerous ways. Love is not a peaceful force, whatever beauty it may be capable of, and it has been known to rend asunder families, towns, and nations. A princess betrothed to a foreign diplomat in an attempt to end a long war may very well fear the love she feels for a common serf of her own nation, for the death it will bring. Two children of warring families should fear the love they feel, because it may kill them in the end. Great art inspires change, wonderful music excites the spirit.
[/sblock]
At least that took the ideas to their logical and freaky conclusion. For Shelyn, stereotypical boring deity of Romantic ideals, here's my scholar's analysis:
Mythography
[sblock]
Shelyn, as a goddess of love beauty, does much to escape the normal downfalls of other deities, but as a goddess of love and beauty, she falls to the same dangers that those emotions have: Love is blood, red as war. Beauty is challenging, fear-inducing, and waiting to be owned. Shelyn cannot escape the violence and selfishness that love inspires, just as she cannot quite separate herself from the chain of her half-brother.
Shelyn, in many ways, is "too good to be true." Many deities have a dark side, an element of their divine power gone awry, and few gods are truly ever beneficent. Despite Shelyn's welcoming facade, it is true that she has this dark side as well. Namely, that all things of beauty inspire humans to try and own them, isolate them, and capitalize on them. In Shelyn's case, this leads to great wars stemming from the very works of art and creativity that she nurtures. The moment a great painting is produced, a bidding war starts for it's ownership. The moment a great monument is crafted, one side will seek to destroy what the other side owns. The moment a beautiful woman comes of age, two suitors will kill to possess her.
Sheyln herself is a recently matured deity, a creature coming out of the status of the Maiden stage, and slowly progressing into the Motherhood stage. Her desire to not tie down with a single suitor causes much bloodshed in her name, as the more possessive and greedy deities seek to own her or destroy her. The Body Crimson is an immense rose garden, where those that fall in pursuit of Shelyn, the ultimate beauty, are honored with a rose planted in their name. It is said that here, the roses pulse with a red light, in tune to the beating of a heart. Though Shelyn weeps at the thought of lives destroyed in her name, she cannot debate that great beauty also arises from great suffering, and that only a soul captured in the throes of truest and deepest agony is capable of realizing the most intimate and touching beauty.
This raises the issue of her half-brother, Zon-Kuthon, a creature she carries a very curious, possibly incestuous relationship with. The two have sworn a pact, and she seems to be actively engaged in helping her kin, stealing the instrument of his fall and trying to purify it, and purify him. She may very well succeed at this, using her power of True Love to overcome the loss and isolation of a fallen god, but in the transformation, she is likely to be transformed. In being chained in theological marriage to this creature, she will truly embrace her Motherhood, giving birth to something truly new, rather than simply nurturing what exists. She may indeed create a great creature out of love, changing loss into gain. However, as Zon-Kuthon ceases to be what he is, Shelyn is likely to change as well, going to become the Crone, a creature of fear, wrath, and kindred of things like the Hags.
Aside from the danger of war and the danger of her dark marriage, Shelyn presents a rather more mundane danger for her daily worshipers beyond ownership of her and her inspired creations: the challenge of art. The creative force is, by it's nature, a changing force: it confronts expectations, twists them, and causes the viewer to think in new and, often, dangerous ways. Love is not a peaceful force, whatever beauty it may be capable of, and it has been known to rend asunder families, towns, and nations. A princess betrothed to a foreign diplomat in an attempt to end a long war may very well fear the love she feels for a common serf of her own nation, for the death it will bring. Two children of warring families should fear the love they feel, because it may kill them in the end. Great art inspires change, wonderful music excites the spirit.
[/sblock]
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