Myurdin

"Ascended from mortals, cloaked in divine darkness, she left her kinsmen the keys to the Script itself." — The Keys of Jeharoa

The Sable Witch

Myurdin is one of the twelve deities in the pantheon of the Heavenly Council. She is the goddess of magic, wizards, witches, sorcerers, prophecy, the blind, and secrets. Unlike all of the other deities on the Heavenly Council, Myurdin was born mortal and not a goddess. How she ascended to godhood, let alone obtained a seat on the Heavenly Council is a matter of fierce scholarly and religious debate. Moreover, it seems as though Myurdin was not on the Heavenly Council until quite recently, only a few years prior to Sundering Arcana. Many who worshiped the Council before the Sundering see her as an interloper who contributed to the collapse of the Palladian Empire, while those whom have taken up her worship and her crafts claim that it is only thanks to her intervention that the Material Plane remains intact today.

Divine Domains

Myurdin is the goddess of magic, wizards, witches, sorcerers, prophecy, blindness, and secrets. Her divine domain is Knowledge and Grave.

Holy Books & Codes

Myurdin is not mentioned at all in the Heavenly Codex. Instead, followers of Myurdin gather scraps of scripture taken from arcane manuals, philosophical treasties, and debates on religion and the natural sciences to create their own kind of religious canon. Some of the most popular of these texts include: The Testament of King Jopha, the Aim of Sages, the Keys of Jeharoa, the Book of Hadrian, and the Canticle of Saint Torquila.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Myurdin's divine symbol is a dogwood wand surrounded by seven crystal shards. Her sacred colors are deep purple and black.

Holidays

Myurdin's feast month is Star's Favour, the ninth month of the Auloan Calendar. She is often associated with the Day of Omens, an important holiday falling on the Autumnal Equinox when the boundary between the Ethereal Plane and the Material Plane is thin and porous and wisps of the weave move freely between the two realms. Myurdin has no weekly services as she has no formal clerics or church associated with her.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Myurdin is typically shown as a hooded woman with dark skin and red hair. She is always blindfolded and dressed in dark purple. In Mithrilic descriptions of Myurdin, she has the head of a raven. However, sometime after the end of the Mithril Era, during the period when worship of Myurdin was rare, her followers ceased depicting her in this way, and instead changed her head to that of an owl.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Little is known about Myurdin's life before her ascent to godhood. It is widely believed that she was Temekanian, perhaps a princess or a sorcerer of great renown throughout the Empire. However, at some point, she left society and pursued the arcane crafts with intense passion. She appears to have also known or had some contact with Ozha-Ban, the Doom Lich, when he was a mortal.

Divine Classification

Deity

Alignment

True Neutral

Current Location

Celestial Mountains

Ethnicity

Temekanian (ethnicity)

Date of Birth

Late 1st Intermediate Period

Birthplace

Old Temekan

Aligned Organization

Heavenly Council

Related Historical Events

• 1 B.S.A.
  The Sundering Arcana

Hallowed Arms:

The Dogwood Wand & the Staff of Dreams

Holy Orders:

• Acolyte: Padawan

• Cleric: Senex (Knowledge Domain)

• Paladin: Booker (Oath of Devotion)

• Monk: Sage (Way of the Cobalt Soul)

• Bard: Whisperer (College of Lore)

• Leader: Archsenex

• Temple: Scriptorium

Holy City:

Tanis

Animal Harbingers:

Owl (formerly Raven)

From Nioa: An Adventurer's Guide—

Yes, the goddess of magic herself was once a mortal Temekanian. Though little is known about her mortal life, she was clearly a witch of great renown, she was the first of her kind to unlock the secrets of the Script, the ebb and flow of phenomena that dictates the shape and times of the universe. She became incredibly powerful, so powerful in fact, that the gods began to fear her. With the help of her servants, the race she created known now as the kenku, the gods managed to lock her away but not before she cursed her children to speak only through mimicry and to walk as a mere mortal. Eventually, over the eons, while locked within the arcane vault, she realized the cycle of the universe and so agreed to submit to the Heavenly Council, resulting in the Sundering Arcana.