Sweet, Lovely, Fairest, the Golden, the Singer,
Sister of Song, Jewel of Heaven, Lady of Love
Aymara (ai-MAR-uh) is the chaotic good goddess of love,
music, passion, romance, marriage, lovers, musicians,
artists, and bards. She is associated with all aesthetic
delights, and her name is spoken first by those who see
the arts as the greatest achievement of the mortal races.
Curiously, Aymara did not bring music and dance to the
world. Her mother did, but none surpass Aymara’s skill
in the arts, and Zheenkeef has never been too interested
watching over artists.
Aymara is usually shown as the most beautiful woman
the artist can imagine, and therefore is whatever race the
artist prefers. She is usually shown with golden hair, for
she is remembered as Aymara the Golden, but occasionally her hair is dark, and her skin maintains the golden
burnish. She is very tall and always dressed in the finest
courtly attire. Many depict her with a lyre under her
arm or in her lap, as she plays and sings for the delight
of others. Other images show her singing so sweetly that
even the rocks weep.
Musical instruments of gold or silver represent the
goddess, but a silver lyre like the one she plays in so many
legends has become the most common one. Members of
her clergy wear small versions of the instruments they
play, so a flautist might wear a small silver flute, or a harpist, a golden harp. If one simply needs a symbol, though,
one always uses the lyre, the most universally recognized
instrument of Aymara.
Songbirds (particularly the nightingale) are associated
with the goddess. She is also closely tied to the pegasi, and
rides a silver pegasus herself, for the only appropriate steed
for the most beautiful of the gods is the most beautiful
of beasts.
Aymara’s worship is extremely popular among the elves
and, in olden days, she was thought to be their mother and
father. The elves still sometimes refer to her as mother,
and show her in the comely shape of a female elf. The
other races revere her, especially at weddings, but she is
not particularly popular among dwarves, whose artists are
usually adherents of Korak, and make clever and beautiful
works with their artisans’ hands. Among all the gods,
Aymara is the only one regularly associated with the Shee,
the last of the div races remaining on earth. Some believe
she tarries in their forests, which are now fairy woods,
and many dryads, naiads, pixies, and sprites have reveled
under the moon with the Lady of Love
Arts and Desires
Aymara is a true patron of the arts and desire. As the
myth reveals, she cannot abide a place where music is
not heard or where love is shunned. She works to make
a world safe for love, delight, and art, but she knows
the world is not so happy a place that people can spend
all their days in revelry. She is realistic about her wish.
Aymara reminds mortals that in beauty they can find
hope, and in love and music they can be reminded of why
they persevere through difficulties.
Any seeking to ease pain through beauty are especially
blessed by Aymara, and she often makes her blessing
manifest by filling their lives with love and delight. However, she also sees deep into the artist’s temperament, and
knows the best among them might require sorrow to make
their greatest works. She has been known to oblige, providing the tragedies and afflictions for some of the mortal
races’ greatest artists, resulting in the saying, “as unhappy
as a singer.” She believes the great art that arises from
these sorrowful lives do such long-term good that one
lifetime of pain is a worthy trade. Besides, these artists
end up rewarded in death, abiding with her in Heaven, or
in the Fourth Hall of Maal’s kingdom.
Aymara is certainly mercurial. Her favor falls upon and
departs from mortals with equal alacrity. She is very emotional, longing for true and immortal love. From time to
time, she believes she finds a mortal couple with such a love,
and heaps blessings on them, only to see them quarrel over
nonsense, and then strips them of her blessings. Tales of such
star-crossed lovers fill countless comedies and tragedies.
If there are two emotions in which she is constant, it
is her love of her family and her hatred for Kador. She
believes, rightly, that Kador, who is now Asmodeus, plots
to destroy the kingdom of Heaven. Because of this, she
remains forever vigilant, and even directs an order of mortals to watch over matters diabolical, prepared for a war
against Hell.
The Lyceums of Aymara
The lyceums of Aymara, where the Aymarans worship, are
sacred and lovely places. Popular among those dedicated
to Aymara and others, the lyceums host concerts, plays,
dances, and other performances. In major cities, there are
events in the lyceums almost nightly. There are few performance halls finer than these.
The worship of Aymara is enormously popular, though
few dedicate themselves to her wholly. As the goddess of
love as well as the arts, people come to her lyceums at least
once in their lives to pray to her when they believe they
have found love.
The lyceums play host to most marriages
as well. While those sworn to only one of the gods in the
pantheon or members of the Great Church are likely to get
married in those other churches, most people get married at
either a lyceum or a Rontran foundation. After all, Aymara
is the goddess of love, and can bless a union’s romantic
heart, while Grandmother Earth is the wellspring of fertility. At either church, the other church’s goddess is invoked
during the ceremony.
On the surface, the Aymaran faith exists to promote
love and the arts. It gives money to artists who are worthy
of regard, holds festivals in its halls, praises love, and
unites couples under its roof. However, the Aymarans are
not content to merely celebrate beauty—they know efforts
must be made to make and keep the world safe for beauty.
This ethos lies at the heart of the Aymaran agenda. While
the lyceums promote love and art, the holy orders of the
faith work abroad, opposing the enemies of love and
beauty, just as Aymara did in legend. Much of this effort
is focused on opposing the work of Asmodeus. That is the
deeper, more abiding purpose of the Aymaran faith: to
oppose Hell and all its works. For if there is one being in
all the planes who Aymara hates, it is him.
Aymara takes pride in her church, though she seems
to have more interest in its public face than in the secret
order of the watchful eye.
While she does hate Asmodeus, and comes to the aid
of the members of this secret
order, she believes her church is
at its best when it is promoting
beauty, not combat.
Aymara has difficulty understanding the mortal need to attack
what offends them. Hell is evil and
Asmodeus is the greatest evil of all,
but why can’t her faithful be content
with the joys of art? She gives them great
power to protect those who pursue lives of
beauty, and they make her proud, keeping artists
and their works safe, yet her faithful don’t just rest
then, and make art themselves. They remain vigilant,
questing against evil even when it’s a distant threat. She
admires their courage, persistence, and faith, but also
knows their struggle, waged in secret, might take them
closer to the darkness than is healthy. Spend too long
studying the ways of the beast to destroy it, and you
might become it.
While Aymara would prefer her church to pursue only
love and beauty, this does not mean she tries to move
them away from their vigilance and zeal. She simply worries over them, like a mother over her children
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