Mystra
The Mother of All Magic, Mystra
The goddess of magic, Mystra (/mɪstrɑː/) is known through cultures as the master of The Weave and great patron of all spellcasters. Trough her, the Weave came to be, and through her, magic comes to mortals. Thus every spell cast is a prayer for Mystra, and display of her glory.
As the very embodiment of magic, prayers to Mystra are common from those who seek power, wisdom and hidden knowledge. Her name is also invoked to ward and protect against magical catastrophes.
Divine Domains
Under Mystra's control are the powers of magic and spells, as well as spellcasters and magical creativity. That said, Mystra's main role is as the personification of The Weave, the very flow of magic that moves through planes and gives the mortals the ability to cast spells, and other powers to give their gift of magic to their followers, were they clerics, paladins or warlocks. She has also power over creation and invention, particularly with things with arcane nature.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Symbol of Mystra is a blue-white star. There are many variations of the star, which are used cross-culturally in the goddess' honour, as well to mark magical places and things. Mystra's association with the colour blue has also made many lesser symbols for her, depicting blue wands, staffs and other blue things to invoke her presence. Also, a prism is sometimes used as a mark of a scholar, that walks on Mystra's path to excellence.
Tenets of Faith
- Always seek, learn and create new magic and knowledge, as that is the greatest gift
- Learn when and where to use your magic, creativity will fuel your success
- Share the gift of magic, use it wisely to benefit yourselves and those around you
- Love magic and knowledge, preserve them and cherish them; let them be teachers and temperers for you and generations to come
Physical Description
Body Features
Mystra is most commonly described as a regal and beautiful young woman with intense blue eyes and dark hair, which reflects all the colours of the rainbow when light touches it. She is described always wearing blue, and her skin has a white-blue glow.
Colour of the goddess' skin seems to vary between depictions; sometimes she is described having blue skin, other times her skin colour is similar to humans, but the shade seems to be different depending from whom you ask.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
According to most repeated of the legends, Mystra came to be when goddesses Shar and Selune where creating the world, to have a place for goddess Chauntea to create life on. On some tellings, Shar and Selune couldn't agree on how to proceed, Mystra was born out of their indecisiveness, to exist between the light and dark, the spark that would fuel the creation.
Legends of humans tell, that Mystra came personally to teach them the art of magic, by given her magic to her chosen, first of the Archmages, who would share the gift of magic with others. This story is contradicted by legends of elves, who believe themselves learning magic first from either Corellon Larethian of dragons (depending on the telling) and then departing this information to other species.
Intellectual Characteristics
Intelligent, witty, curious but unpredictable; like magic itself, goddess of the Weave is very mutable, driven and even dangerous. She seeks for knowledge relentlessly and drives her followers to expand their capabilities and test the boundaries of their magical capabilities and share their gifts with others. This can cause awful things happening in her name, just as well as beautiful ones.
Morality & Philosophy
While Mystra has a great love for life and is not a malicious entity, she is known to get too intrigued by the potential of her followers to stop them when they do horrors with the power that comes through her. Her natural curiosity and appreciation of free thinkers can be a double-edged sword, both promoting progress and causing mayhem.
It is told, that some spells have only been cast once as Mystra deemed them too dangerous, and prevented them ever been cast again. But you might argue; if those spells were so dangerous, why where they allowed to be cast even that one time at all?
That said, Mystra's eagerness to promote creativity, talent and progress have more times led to the common good than destruction, and her benevolence is shared to living beings indiscriminately. Mystra doesn't care where you come from; as long as your thirst for improvement is pure, she showers you with her blessings.
The Mother of All Magic
Our Lady of Spells
The Hidden One
Controller of the Weave
DnD details
About Divine Domains & Deity Alignments
By the classic rules of DnD, certain deities are connected to certain oaths, domains and alignments, and the paladins & clerics to said deity are suggested to have same or compatible features. However, when in Melyria, we tend to be a little more permissive.
Players, as well as NPCs, are able to have alignments and domains beyond the ones assigned to a certain deity, as long as there is an explanation to this that makes some sort of sense. Make an argument that sounds reasonable, and we ain't complaining in these parts!
For example, a deity with nature and life domains might bless their cleric with the Grave domain powers, if the cleric in question fights undead to prevent them from destroying life.
I think my favourite section is about morality and philosophy. I like that her curiosity sometimes leads her to allow certain spells to be cast when perhaps they shouldn't be.