Teaching new tricks to old gods

[Pronounceable]

Went faster than expected.

AURIL (intermediate goddess), the Frostmaiden, Crushing Glacier, Icicled Maw, Queen of Air and Darkness, Scourge of the Sun, Winter Crowned Queen
Domains: winter, cold, ice, evil, chaos, fey

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Auril is a fey queen who somehow gained power of winter and ascended to actual godhood. Ever since her ascension, she’s been a petty and vindictive plague upon mortal worlds who demands worship and constant sacrifices to stall her divine AND material wrath. Her legions of cruel and cold hearted fey enter Material Plane inside giant hollowed chunks of ice launched from Feywild by Auril’s breath, crashing down onto mortal worlds in a shower of icy comets, flattening settlements and geography alike, eager to hunt down all the mortals that survived their frozen bombardment. They enjoy starving and freezing their captives, mocking them as they’re forced to huddle without shelter or food until they die in merciless winter. Her mortal clergy is no better (and usually worse), sharing the temparement of their goddess and working hard to prove themselves equal to her fey marauders. Appearance of Auril’s clerics on any mortal world is a sign that a fey attack is coming soon and can only be averted by a flurry of sycopanthy and wealth heaped at their feet, and even that’s no guarantee. While Auril’s armies usually don’t fall directly on powerful and militarized lands where they might meet heavy resistance, nowhere is really safe from Auril.

More usually, mortal worlds being targeted by Auril see a surge of worship in Pelor and other deities of sun, fire or summer as mortals beg them for help against the Frostmaiden. This works too and is cheaper than paying the exacting tributes Auril demands. While she always sends some attackers once her clerics have heralded her, fey forces sent to worlds where opposing gods have been roused to action are never very large and it’s generally accepted that Auril is afraid of the Unblinking Monarch.

Which is wrong. Auril actually likes her boss who granted her dominion over cold and ice in the depths of Plane of Negative Energy, hidden from eyes of other gods and powerful beings by the Allmother’s cloak. All she had to do in return was to do what she’d have wanted to do with divine power anyway, only slightly limited in choice of targets. Pelor was getting quite displeased that the mortals he created himself kept liking deities made by his siblings’ hands or even raising their own, especially when they were doing this right under his fiery eyes, and decided they needed reminding which god was the most important for their wellbeing. But Pelor was no short sighted tyrant, he needed to be the carrot and not the stick. Eager Auril does her job flawlessly and is liked by her benefactor in return. While she sometimes regrettably targets worlds where Pelor worship is going strong to maintain her image of an unpredictable goddess of evil, the damage is usually minimal in such cases. Such a capable and strong agent is useful in other capacities too, where Pelor's own use of force would look inappropriate.

Today, Auril mostly commands armies of evil fey going from world to world, killing and looting in her name while her divine wrath manifests as deadly colds and extended winters that help her legions and hinder their enemies. The few mortal clerics she empowers to be her heralds on mortal worlds usually get transformed to fey and come with her armies when they leave (assuming they survived). Auril doesn’t establish lasting churches or keep flocks of mortal worshippers after she’s done with their world. Nobody would have reason to stay loyal to her when she’s not there to bash their face anyway, there’d be no point in attempting to keep permanent mortal worship. She’s become an intermediate goddess due to all the fear and worship she gets from mortals in tribute. She considers herself to be a sun goddess, just with a different approach than most.

Pretty much every deity followed by mortals hates Auril and she doesn’t lack for enemies. Corellon and all of Seldarine are her sworn enemies for her numerous attacks on their worshippers, Chauntea and Umberlee join forces only when she’s around, Queen Titania of the Seelie Court is her oldest nemesis and a source of constant battling in Feywild and the myriad of war gods all see her invasions as a challenge and insult. However when out in the multiverse and not oppressing and ruining Material worlds, Auril is perfectly well behaved and is quite liked by many planars, deities and beings of power and influence with no interest in Material Plane for her cold beauty, regal demeanor, tendency to generously spend her considerable wealth on trivialities and many exciting stories (of horrible atrocities inflicted on mortals). Auril can have some very strong friends and allies in a pinch, such as Lolth and Gruumsh (who approve of all the trouble she causes to Corellon), Silvanus (who feels responsible for her evils and wants her corrected instead of destroyed), various gods of destruction (both as a kindred soul and as an extension of Gruumsh’s favor), many demon princes (who’d just love to have a piece of that sweet evulz action) or Waukeen (because even Auril needs a place to store her ever increasing ill gotten gains). Any serious effort towards stopping Auril’s marauding is quite likely to spiral into an all consuming divine war that might wreck the multiverse, which is how she gets to keep ravaging Material Plane.

Apparently the goodness of an idea is proportional to the speed I can whip up these things. Because blackops Auril was a damn good idea and probably the best of the lot.