Thaemenar, the God of Life (THAY-men-arr)
Thaemenar is, were one to simplify it, the God of Benevolence. He embodies the concepts of Life, Kindness, Pity, Forgiveness, Healing, Growth, Light, Purity, and other such concepts. Being the antithesis of the evil goddess Vyshareth, he is most commonly referred to as the God of Life or God of Kindness over his other traits.
Thaemenar is a simple god to understand, as among all the gods, he is undoubtedly the most compassionate and understanding of mortals and wants to be understood by mortals in turn. When the gods first entered the Emergent Plane, Thaemenar created more races than any of the other gods, being credited with the creation of Humans, Halflings, Wood Elves, and all manner of flora and fauna.
As Thaemenar is responsible for a multitude of positive concepts, he is by far the most worshipped of any god in terms of sheer numbers. People of nearly all humanoid races view Thaemenar positively, and above all the other gods, he is a god of the people, prompting his worship to be the most frequent of any god among commoners. Particularly those who work humble jobs, farmers and herbalists in particular, but he is also the most common object of worship for Rangers and Druids, as well as a decent amount of Clerics.
Thaemenar's history is, essentially, a multitude of tales showcasing his love for mortals. When Malavach brought fire to the world, it was Thaemenar who made it more than raw destruction. When Vyshareth brought disease to the world, it was Thaemenar that taught mortals how to combat illness and resist her dark influence. When Daemaskorn or Alleniel wants to condemn a soul, it is Thaemenar that advises pity. Thaemenar presides over multiple realms, but the one nearest to the Emergent Plane is known as the Blissfields, and is perhaps the most akin to the Emergent Plane in appearance. Unlike the other planes, the only detrimental effect to being in his plane, referred to by mortals as "The Endless Bliss", is losing the desire to ever leave. Additionally, of all the realms, his is the most recorded, as while those deserving go to his realm after death, he does not "trap" mortals who have not yet died in his realm, and the effect of the plane is not intended to lure mortals into staying, more as an offer to relieve them of their worldly woes.
Due to The Blissfields being, as one might guess, a highly desirable realm to preside in, it is not uncommon for mortals to attempt to infiltrate it. However, a being that is not innately good at heart will find themselves entering a far different experience than they expect. The Blissfields are connected to the other, more primal realms of Thaemenar, referred to as "The Elemental Planes". While The Blissfields a paradise, the same cannot be said for these chaotic realms of life. A selfish or unscrupulous being attempting to enter The Blissfields is far more likely to find themselves struggling to swim in an ocean with no end or dying of heat in a realm almost entirely encompassed by fire. One might wonder why a being of benevolence would create realms that seemingly are deadly to mortals, but some obscure religious texts have records of a mortal asking Thaemenar these very types of questions, to which they got a response:
The Elemental Planes exist because Thaemenar believes it blind and foolish to only view mortals that fit within the Emergent Plane as worthy of life. The Elemental Planes are a home for all creatures of the universe that survive in extreme environments, and as such each one exists as, in a way, a realm like the Emergent Plane specifically tailored to the beings that thrive in such environments. To Thaemenar, traversing these realms is like a gardener walking among the things he's nurtured and watched grow. To most mortals of the Emergent Plane however, it's stepping into realms where Krakens hide beneath the waves, or greedy Efreeti enslave mortals to work in fiery cities. The Elemental Planes are extremely dangerous, and on a fundamental level are not designed to sustain mortals.
Thaemenar is credited by mortals as largely being responsible for the beauty of the world, creating the grass, trees, rivers, oceans, and other aspects of the Emergent Plane necessary to sustain life. While it's hotly contested by followers of the other gods, devout followers of Thaemenar claim that the other gods did not even give enough consideration to mortals as anything more than entertainment for it to occur to them that these beings they created couldn't survive in the Emergent Plane, and it was Thaemenar's adoration for the mortal races that prompted him to create a landscape they could thrive and grow in.
Depictions of Thaemenar vary wildly. Some show him as a wizened old man, with a grandfatherly love for those he watched grow. Others depict him as a young boy, viewing the world with the wonder and joy that diminishes as mortals age. Regardless of how he's viewed, all images of Thaemenar are intended to evoke emotions of happiness, contentment, and inner peace, usually with him performing some act of kindness for a mortal. Some artwork shows him taking a more active role, battling Vyshareth directly, but this is more metaphor than literal, as it's commonly believed that Thaemenar does not act in such a way, utilizing more subtle, day-to-day methods to aid mortals in pushing back such evil.
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