Eluri

It is said that the first word ever uttered was spoken aloud by Eluri, when she exclaimed her elation at the sight of the newly built world. While Fulya has control over the aspects of language and sounds, Eluri controls the more symbolic nature of words: magic. Through words and will, reality is made to bend, and everyone who has ever cast a spell has done so as an echo of the magic which Eluri herself can unleash upon the world. Eluri is, to many, a spirit of Freedom, and many of her fables include her tricking or playing pranks on her divine siblings. Aloof and full of life, Eluri elates at the ability to astound and surprise, and it is said that no other god spends as much time as her in the mortal realm, bounding from life to life. Those who worship Eluri almost always either have the capacity for magic, or deeply desire it. This includes witches, wizards, warlocks, sorcerers, bards, and druids. Those who worship her know that magic is at its strongest during the nights of a full moon, and many rituals which Eluri’s worshippers often cast require it to be that time of the month.

### The Mentor

The first of Eluri’s manifestations is the Mentor, a representation that views the deity as slightly more serious than her counterparts. The Mentor appears as a woman in a light-black cloak, a hood pulled over her head, always holding onto a shimmering, moon-coloured book. The Mentor controls the aspects of will, destiny and thought, and hers is the mind which envisions pathways for mortals’ lives. The topic of destiny is a difficult one to broach. For many, destiny is not a set course or path. The main piece of evidence for that is the identity of Eluri herself, for a deity of a rigid destiny could not also be a deity of freedom and chance. As such, the implication is that destiny is a series of paths, which Eluri builds from the paths already taken by mortals, and that each person’s will, choices, and even a little bit of luck, determines a ‘destined’ path. Some find this reassuring, while others would rather know that things have been pre planned for them.

### She Who Spoke the First Word

Next is She Who Spoke the First Word, the manifestation of Eluri which overlooks the aspects of magic, chance, and luck. This manifestation takes the form of a pale woman dressed in a black robe, her eyes covered by the image of a horizontal quarter moon. She Who Spoke the First Word is one of the world’s oldest manifestations, with murals depicting the entity that date back to even unlisted history. Manifestations are said to live and die on the knife’s edge of necessity, and for as long as the world will need or use magic, She Who Spoke the First Word will be there to guide mortals. The Church of Eluri, which encompasses worship for all of the deity's aspects, but She Who Spoke the First Word most of all, is located in Azilu, the shaded city of Im’Shayif. There, practitioners of magic learn about their craft. Additionally, while the Circle of the Archmagi, the leaders of the Free Cities, are not inherently religious, each of them is said to have a small shrine dedicated to the deity of magic, for without her they would not be who they are.

### The Lunar Queen

Lastly, amongst the pantheon that is Eluri, is the Lunar Queen. All of this manifestation’s murals depict it as the moon in some moment of the month, but the most popular is in its crescent shape, which many consider to be a transitional period. The Lunar Queen holds dominion over the aspects of the moon, decisions, choices, and freedom. The Lunar Queen is a trickster goddess, embodying the freedom of choice amongst all mortals, but most importantly, embodying the joys of decision making to the extreme. The Lunar Queen is described as aloof but caring, distant but empathetic, radiant and hilarious, and all who worship her seek, in some ways, to encompass those feelings within themselves. The Lunalites are a group of clerics specifically devoted to the Lunar Queen, and their expression of faith is very similar to most traveling caravans: they go to cities and towns and perform wild shows, hoping to sow smiles and merriment amongst as many people as possible. For some, this is a welcome thing. For others, it's a portent for chaos.

It is difficult to appropriately describe the invisible sort of importance Eluri has in most cultures in the world. Most nations utilize the arts of magic, in some way, and as the progenitor of the art, Eluri technically has partisanship over all those nations. Many would argue that Eluri would be better served as Queen of the gods, but those who truly know her faith would dispute such ridiculous claims: responsibility is the death of freedom, and Eluri cannot be shackled by anyone. One of the most famous fables in the world is entitled ‘the Moon’s Cradle’, and it speaks of a mortal named Daeda who once saw Eluri and wanted nothing more than to marry her. He constructed a machine of immense size and used the magics Eluri gifted to mortals to entice her towards it. But Eluri is the progenitor of all tricks and could not fall for it. Instead, she destroyed the machine, teaching the man the hubris of his ways.