Astreah
Goddess of Balance, Harmony, and Time
Balance and Harmony
Created with the task of maintaining balance in the cosmos and harmony among creation, Astreah is the Goddess of Balance, Harmony, and Time. Given life alongside her counterpart Varu the Destroyer, she toils to watch mortals and correct the timeline when needed. Astreah tends to steer clear from moral extremities in either direction, making her one of the neutral gods. Druids, witches, wizards, and clerics who follow her tenets tend to be concerned with upholding balance. The abstract, high-minded nature of Astreah's domains leave her a rather less popular deity among most mortals, though she attracts many philosophers to her worship. Her devotees are not eager to spread her teachings. They tend to remain in neutrally aligned orders dedicated to secret, preventative action, steering conflicts in a more orderly direction, and collecting knowledge in their vast libraries to educate their adherents about the past. This act of maintaining harmony in the cosmos includes granting boons to crushed underdogs, striking a balance between warring factions, or causing calamity against the wildly successful. She should not be thought of as a reversal of fortune, but a neutralizer.
The Timekeepers
Many gods have champions, special servants, and created thralls — for Astreah, the Timekeepers are her greatest servants. Mortals who impress the goddess with their wisdom and experiences may be chosen to ascend to the level of Timekeeper. A Timekeeper has the special ability to parse through time itself and correct or alter events of the past. This is done with extreme caution and is never a task to be taken lightly. The Timekeepers only intervene when it will stop an unmitigated calamity that threatens even Astreah or restore balance where it would otherwise have been shattered. Once a mortal becomes a Timekeeper, they should leave all attachments behind and live only to serve balance and harmony, rather than their personal scores. In extremely rare circumstances, Astreah may allow a Timekeeper to go back and correct one mistake, if it will truly bring them peace and allow them to do their job with an unclouded mind.
Wayshrines
One of the reasons why the job of the Timekeepers is so delicate is their method of time travel. When a Timekeeper wishes to go to the past, they must go by way of Wayshrine, a portal which is designated to travel to a specific space and point within time. However, when these portals are created, they can never be removed by mortal means. So for a Timekeeper to venture to the past, there must be a reason significant enough to justify the risk of keeping this portal here, to be potentially tampered with by any passerby. Often, they are hidden in the most clandestine manner, behind layers of secrecy, misdirection, guardians, and traps to turn away curious adventurers or hapless common folk. Without the blessing of Astreah, using a Wayshrine is traumatic upon the traveller's mind, body, and soul. It can easily overwhelm the user and take them out of normal time processes, making them experience time differently, experiencing days within minutes or permanantly transferring them to another period altogether.
Divine Domains
Arcana, Balance, Knowledge, Order, Time
Divine Symbols & Sigils
An hourglass, a yin and yang, a lotus flower, a sundial
Tenets of Faith
Balance
Astreah's devotees extol the virtues of balance, harmony, and equality in the cosmos. They believe extremes in any direction can upset the harmony of creation. Therefore, evil and good are parts of life, to be experienced in particular measures. It is not that they have no sense of morality, rather, they believe a full life must experience glory and defeat, ease and hardship. Secret societies and orders dedicated to the goddess work to strike balance and harmony in the world from the shadows.Inner Journey
Followers of Astreah are expected to go through their own personal journey of reflection. Everyone's personal inner journeys are unique to themselves, often being born out of hardship. Through this slow and difficult process of self-discovery, one can grow to be a stronger, more disciplined individual.Detachment
Life is a journey. Things come and go. Everything is ultimately fleeting. Astreah's faithful are encouraged to come to terms with the fact that the lives of loved ones, cherished possessions, and one's own fortune is bound to come and go sooner or later. As such, it is prudent that one learns to let things go. While this doesn't mean a devotee should be heartless when it comes to loss, rather, one should accept that everything has its appointed time to retire. Life and death aren't singular things in a vacuum, they are all part of the same story of creation.Divine Goals & Aspirations
Astreah's divine goal is to uphold balance and harmony in creation. She works to stop any force, divine or mortal, from becoming too hegemonically powerful with no counter.
Divine Classification
God
Religions
Church/Cult
Children
Eyes
White-gold
Hair
White, cloudy
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Dark, with golden threads of fate running through her blood, somewhat visible upon the skin