Callie
Goddess of Love
Goddess of Love Calliandra (a.k.a. Callie)
Love is such a broad thing. No one can truly agree what it means, and the god of it, Callie, is given a different title because of this descrepency. The goddess of love is, to the people of the Undervoid, the only true god, for she is the only one who stood by their side through all the years they were threatened. Why would other gods abandon them if they really had power? While they didn't know gods were even an applicable theory when they met Callie, her immortality, agelessness, and pure power convinced them within just a hundred years.
As for who the goddess herself is, she's a recluse. Even before the dark elves taught her basic things like speaking, reading, writing, or anything else resembling language, she'd sat in her self-carved cave all day, scribbling wordless yet emotional love stories on her walls. Now that she knows things, she lays in a plush, carefully crafted bed she received as a gift years ago reading romance books all day.
When the dark elves found Callie, she was sitting in her cave, carvings covering the walls. She was calm and benevolent but otherwise wild. The dark elves wrapped her in some extra bedding they'd brought along and took her back to their camp. After almost a week of others trying to get her hair untangled and properly brushed, Callie was introduced to the meaning of 'cleanliness'. From that point on, Callie was carefully integrated into the small, endangered, and nomadic group. About two weeks after she was found, a talented seamster made her a dress out of materials he had scavenged. This made her officially feel like she was indebted to them, so, using her divine powers to create temporary shields during the night, she helped so many people just stay alive if nothing else.
Over time, she slowly grew more distant from her people, preferring to protect them from afar while focusing on romantic tropes at the same time. Since she still made an effort to protect the people, however, their devotion to her only strengthened.
When the Undervoid was rediscovered, Callie was never found. Seeing what happened to the peacemakers who had dared to greet the people on the surface, she quickly hid as many people as she could. Despite her help, however, villages were burned, families were broken, and livelihoods were destroyed. After her failure at protecting everyone, she took a more hands-on role in rebuilding. With her working day and night to try and fix what was broken, the restoration of the buildings took just a year. The lives lost, however, could never be rebuilt, no matter how much she pleaded with Adi (Adhaya, Shivani).
While the people's belief in her strengthened, her own morale faltered. She secluded herself even more than she already had, using her already-established intrests as an excuse to avoid the feeling of eyes on her.
Because while she loved and still loves her people, love is pain, and pain is difficult to work through, even for gods.
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