Esselyne

(a.k.a. The Silver Maiden, The Great Silver Heron, The Moonmaiden)

Esselyne is the old god of the moon, dreams, and prophecy in the Elechyreon, the sister of Serra, and the patron deity of the Church of the Silver Heron. She created the Feywild and the Eladrin, who worshipped her as the goddess Tura'silma.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Esselyne appears as a pale-skinned humanoid woman with shining white hair beneath a heron-shaped tiara of pure silver, the long beak of its avian shape curving down to just above her nose. She wears a flowing, shoulderless, floor-length dress fashioned from blue heron's feathers and which completely obscures her feet. Her steps are graceful, giving her the appearance of floating on air. Her slightly-too-large eyes are starry pools of night and devoid of any iris, though standing in her presence one can feel when her gaze is upon them. Her expression is somber, though there is a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The Divostran moon of Essen was a common focus of worship in the Divine Epoch across multiple cultures, who all told similar stories of the celestial body's divine origins. Essen was unique in that the shadows stretching across its surface resembled the figure of a heron, a feature that was observed and made important by the religions that formed around moon worship. Initially, the moon was worshipped as a symbol of change, with religious leaders using the lunar cycles to predict upcoming events. While more often than not these predictions would be wildly off-base, enough of them would come true that the association between the moon and prophecy became a tradition for many cultures.
These religious practices would influence the Thaumic Weave to give birth to the heron-headed god Esselyne, who began to appear in the visions of people across the world. People visited by Esselyne were given prophetic dreams that were initially written off as lunacy by members of their congregations, but as more and more of these prophecies came to pass, Esselyne became a more important part of many disparate moon-worshipping religions across the globe. As people migrated and cultures intermingled, these religions would organize into the Church of the Silver Heron, solely dedicated to the worship of Esselyne.
Esselyne collected the dreams of her followers and used them to craft her own divine realm which she called the Dreaming, more commonly known as the Feywild. The plane began as a chaotic amalgamation of various dreamscapes and etheric creatures that Esselyne found fascinating, serving as a menagerie of her ethereal collection where the laws of physics followed dream logic. However, the goddess was not content to merely play with the dreams of others; she wanted to make her own. She tapped into her connection to the Thaumic Weave and used her divine powers to create the Eladrin, the first sentient species native to her divine domain. The Eladrin would diverge into modern-day elves and fairies, while Esselyne continued to create the many fanciful fey species that now populate the Feywild, all of whom grew to worship their creator and further grow her power.
The Primordial Titans viewed Esselyne as a usurper to their divine authority and sought to weaken her influence upon the Thaumic Weave. None were more vehement in their loathing than Istishia, who had created the moon and whose divine domain most overlapped with the goddess. Attempting to draw Esselyne out into the open, the Water Titan sent a tsunami that destroyed the city of Lunesia, long considered the holiest city on the plane by followers of the Silver Heron. When Esselyne appeared to confront Istishia, the Titan overpowered her and imprisoned the weakened goddess in the moon, separating her from her followers while simultaneously devastating the most important city to their religion.
As news spread of the destruction of Lunesia, other cultures viewed it as a sign that followers of the Silver Heron had been cursed by the gods. Her worshippers were persecuted and their temples destroyed, further weakening the imprisoned goddess. For centuries she would remain trapped in the silver moon, her followers scattered across the plane and stripped of any power or influence, only able to watch as the Titans solidified their control over Divostra.
The titans were unaware of the existence of the Feywild, but trapping Esselyne within the moon prevented her from offering divine intervention during the The Retribution. The influence of the Material Plane upon the magic of the Dreaming had the unintended side-effect of allowing the lingering essence of Kai'ossh to infect the realm via mortals' dreams, corrupting the inhabitants of the Shadow Glen, the plane's dark underrealm where Esselyne had drawn power from the nigthmares of mortals. The fairies, who had once been Eladrin living within the Shadow Glen, invaded the overworld, slaughtering or enslaving their kin and conquering the Dreaming, subjugating the rest of its inhabitants to centuries of tyrannical rule. The Eladrin who managed to escape the purge fled to Divostra, becoming the first high elves to settle the Material Plane.

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Tura'silma (Sylvan: Tura'silma'welen, lit. "great silver bird")
Argenta (Draconic: Argen'taqlar, lit. "silver maiden")

Aligned Organization

Prime Pantheon

Related Myths

• The First Day and Night