Shelyn

## Description

Shelyn's is a unique beauty unparalleled. She is beautiful both without and within; all who see her see what they envision as the most perfect beauty (meaning she appears different to everyone). Depictions of Shelyn, regardless of race or ethnicity, show her as a young woman barely out of her youth, with eyes of blue or silver (or sometimes both at the same time). Shelyn's ankle-length chestnut hair bears several strands colored bright red, green, and gold. She always wears tasteful clothing and jewelry that accentuates her beauty without revealing too much.

## Edicts

Be peaceful, choose and perfect an art, lead by example, see the beauty in all things.

## Anathema

Destroy works of art or allow one to be destroyed except to save a life or in pursuit of greater art, refuse to accept surrender.

## Relationships

### Zon-Kuthon (brother)

When they first came into being, so very long ago, their mutual parent forced Zon-Kuthon to swear an oath to the forces of Law. Zon-Kuthon swore that he would never harm Shelyn, nor would he stand by if others tried to harm her in his presence. In exchange for making the oath, he received the glaive, *Whisperer of Souls*.

To this day, clerics of Zon-Kuthon never harm known clerics of Shelyn - doing so results in harsh punishments that do not end with death - but sometimes they actually try to protect such clerics. This behavior earns them divine rewards. For their part, clerics of Shelyn return the favor by looking the other way when they meet known clerics or cultists of Zon-Kuthon. The exception to this rule is if the clerics or cultists are obviously harming innocents, defacing art, or otherwise being unforgivably evil. This arrangement might seem like a serious drawback for Zon-Kuthon, as other evil deities might take advantage of it to put him into a difficult position. However, no gods ever really move against Shelyn or her clergy.

### Other deities

Shelyn is respected and admired by all other non-evil deities. They enjoy talking to her (and occasionally trying to woo her), and they certainly like looking at her. The relatively recently ascended god Cayden Cailean frequently attempts to win her over (and always fails), and has contributed greatly to her art and violin collections.

The evil deities (and most evil creatures) are mostly neutral toward her, although she and Urgathoa frequently argue (and their clergies do tend to get into skirmishes). She and Pharasma tend to have long philosophical debates, which always end when Pharasma points out that beautiful things like flowers grow from dead things (Shelyn has no argument against this). For the most part, evil deities leave Shelyn alone (and by extension, their clergy tend to ignore her clergy). She is not a martial goddess by any stretch and tends to stay as far from battle as possible, thus she has built up no animosity from the evil deities or their followers. To this day, only Rovagug, god of wrath, disaster, and destruction can resist Shelyn's charms at all times. He alone opposes her on any long-term basis.

## Temples

Temples to Shelyn are spacious and filled with art and constantly have some kind of music playing within. They tend to be architectural marvels, and architects and builders frequently vie for the honor to build or repair a temple of Shelyn in order to show off their skills. Most settlements have at least a shrine or altar dedicated to Shelyn, but only the largest cities can really afford a dedicated temple.