Calistria

The Savored Sting

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Realm: Gardens of Deceit and Delight (Elysium)
Temples: brothels, churches, hideouts, mansions, taverns
Worshippers: elves, hedonists, performers, scorned lovers, thieves
Sacred Animal: wasp
Sacred Colors: black and yellow
As symbolized by the three daggers of her religious symbol, Calistria has three aspects: lust, revenge, and trickery. Silver-tongued and charming, she is a master of weaving insults into compliments and laying intricate groundwork for retribution at its finest. She is a goddess of vengeance, but it would be a mistake to assume that means she pursues justice. Calistria is fickle, shifting her loyalties and interests as her whims take her—though she never forgets a slight, and any who think she has forgiven will surely find it is only a matter of time before they are targeted by a long-term plot of revenge to lay them thoroughly low.
Though she is one of several elven deities, Calistria is by far the best known outside of elven communities, and thus many non-elves view her as the representative (or even the only) elven goddess. This conclusion is not entirely unreasonable, as Calistria represents those aspects of the elven ancestry that many other people see as alluring, intriguing, and fascinating. Among elves, she embodies characteristics endemic to elven culture and identity, such as free-spirited pursuit of one’s own path, and further embodies a truth lost on shorter-lived peoples: the flexibility and capriciousness of Calistria provides a model for maintaining perspective and composure over a centuries-long lifespan. As a result, she is closely associated with the elven people by elves and others alike. Of the elven deities, she receives by far the most worship from non-elves. 
As the goddess’s whims are ever-shifting, her worshippers are also often somewhat transient. Even among elves, worship of Calistria is usually intermittent or secondary to faith in another deity. Prayers to Calistria arise from individuals who find themselves driven by lust, engaged in trickery, or driven to revenge, and the people offering those prayers may have no commitment to the faith beyond the prayer offered in that moment. As followers’ lives lead them in different directions, they move on to other deities, just as the goddess herself moves from one lover to the next to suit her shifting interests. This personal freedom is a value held dear by the goddess and her followers alike, and perhaps one of the most central values to elven society as a whole. Though some elven societies, especially the Diarchy of Athamia, grant this freedom only to themself or other long-lived races. Some of Calistria’s most devoted followers work to promote this tenet, quietly working to undermine tyrannical governments, exacting revenge upon slavers and freeing their captives, or simply demonstrating the benefits of a freedom-driven lifestyle. During the human slave rebellion numerous devotees of Calistria aided the human population, through shelter, tending the wounded, political influence and weapon supplies. For this reason Calistria has a sizeable following in the Ilaian Repbulic. 
Though rumor would suggest all her temples are brothels, these gathering spaces are often more akin to intellectual salons—albeit more encouraging and supportive of sexual interaction between attendees than most equivalent secular institutions. Others function more akin to a thieves’ guild, providing a place to sow and reap rumors, plot acts of questionable legality, and perhaps also engage in lust-driven interactions—all activities suitable to take place behind closed doors. Clerics of the goddess endeavor to hold the three aspects of their goddess in balance, as a lifetime in service to any one can easily become monotonous, and Calistria abhors her followers becoming overly consumed by a single pursuit. Champions are sometimes more focused, such as those who dedicate themselves to fighting slavery, but even these are careful to avoid becoming so wrapped up in their work that they lose sight of the other aspects of life that make it worth living.
Special rituals, conducted as needed, include invocations of the goddess’s blessing when a worshipper begins pursuit of a desired lover, divinations to determine her approval or disapproval of set courses of revenge, initiation rites for those who wish to devote themselves to the faith, and birth and death ceremonies. But Calistria’s faith places little stock in marriage; between the goddess’s own shifting interests and the mercurial nature of relationships between long-lived elves, marriage is much less of an institution as it is among other peoples.
Wasps are iconic to Calistria, as widely recognized as a symbol of the faith as her formal religious symbol. Like the goddess, a wasp inflicts extreme pain in retribution for an offense, far beyond what it seems a simple insect ought to be capable of. Further cementing the similarity is the fact that the wasp seems to take a perverse pleasure in its attacks, pursuing offenders and stinging repeatedly. Many followers of Calistria carry yellow-and-black tokens on their person as a form of homage. Priests are known to cultivate giant wasp allies and pets, and many Calistrian gathering places harbor swarms of wasps under the eaves or in similarly sheltered spots. These swarms tend to ignore worshippers but descend in force upon any interlopers, defending such locations with even greater spite than expected from a typical wasp.

Divine Domains

Lust, Revenge and Trickery

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Divine Classification

God