Leira

Leira ( ), also known as Lady of Deception or the Lady of Mists, was the goddess of deception and illusions and patroness of illusionists and liars.
==Personality==
She was an enigma, never telling the truth when falsehood would do. Everything she did and said was shrouded in layers of illusion and lies.
==Divine Realm==
Leira maintained a divine realm called the Courts of Illusion on the chaotic plane of Limbo. After her apparent demise, her body was thought to be adrift on the Astral Plane, like those of other dead powers.
==Worshipers==
Leira had quite a small following. Her priests, known as Leirans, or Worshipers of the Mistshadow, wore silver masks and often disguised themselves to deceive those around them. Leirans would speak the truth only to other Leirans. High-level clerics of the Leiran faith were called Mistcallers.
Every morning, and on every moonlit night, Leirans lay face down and prayed to the Lady of the Mists. If there was any mist, Leirans would walk through it and pray. The most revered act in the Leiran faith was the "Unmasking", a purification ritual performed when new followers entered the faith or if a follower changed rank. During the ritual, the follower would walk barefaced among its peers while the clergy would hold up candles and reflective surfaces.
The faith of Leira was the state religion on the island of Nimbral and its vassal state Samarach. When the people of Nimbral rebelled against the influence of Leira's clergy following her apparent death in the Time of Troubles,and banned state religions, the Leiran priests fled to Samarach and continued to hold sway there.
Not widely worshiped, the majority of her worshipers were users of illusion magic. While Leira may have had few dedicated followers, a worshiper of the Faerûnian pantheon often would pay homage to her before an important decision or judgment.
===Orders===
;Mistcallers: 
: Specialty priests of Leira with limited powers of illusion, the Mistcallers were the clerical order most commonly associated with the church, though no one could be sure how many there were.
;Mistwalkers: 
: A sect of the church first appearing after the Time of Troubles, the Mistcallers continued to display the ability to cast divine magic, but were purposefully ambiguous about the "alleged" death of their goddess and whether their magic was granted by a living Leira or by Cyric.
==Relationships==
Leira's allies were Mask, who betrayed her, and Azuth. Though she had no enemies, she was opposed by Oghma, as her lies were a hindrance to knowledge.
==History==
Months after the Avatar Crisis, Leira was slain by the new deity of death, Cyric, at the village Blackfeather Bridge, wielding the sword Godsbane, which was in fact an avatar of Mask. Her portfolios were subsequently absorbed by the mad god.
Upon her death, her godly power erupted in a blast that reached her places of worship all across Faerûn. Motes of her divinity coalesced into incorporeal beings known as glamers.
Some still believed Leira was alive and that she had used her death as a grand illusion, but the general consensus was that she was a dead power. Leiran traditionalists on Nimbral who believed her to be alive in fact gained spells from Cyric.
By the late 15 century DR, it became known that Leira was in fact alive and delighted in the confusion created by rumors of her demise and return. At this time, the faithful of Cyric also considered her to be his daughter.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
In the Player's Handbook 5th edition, Leira is listed in the "Deities of the Forgotten Realms" table, suggesting she is officially considered alive once more in the 5 edition of the setting.
===Gallery===
Priest of Leira.png|A male priest of Leira.
===References===
de:Leira
Category:Chaotic neutral deities
Category:Deception domain deities
Category:Illusion domain deities
Category:Mist domain deities
Category:Shadow domain deities
Category:Faerûnian pantheon
Category:Human deities
Category:Lesser deities
Category:Trickery domain deities
Category:Inhabitants of Limbo
Category:Inhabitants of the Astral Plane
Category:Inhabitants of the Outer Planes
Category:Inhabitants of the Great Wheel planes
Category:Inhabitants of the Courts of Illusion
Category:Inhabitants of feminine gender