Selune

The Night Light Lady

She Who Guides

**Selûne** (pronounced: /sɛˈluːnɛ/ *seh-LOON-eh* or: /sɛˈluːneɪ/ *seh-LOON-ay*), also known as **Our Lady of Silver**, the **Moonmaiden**, and the **Night White Lady**, was the goddess of the moon in the Faerûnian pantheon. In the 14th and 15th centuries DR, she held the portfolios of the moon, stars, navigation, navigators, wanderers, questers, seekers, and non-evil lycanthropes.

## History

In the time of ancient Netheril, when she was a greater goddess, she held the portfolios of the moon, moonlight, and stars; beauty and purity; love and marriage; navigation and navigators; tracking, wanderers, and seekers; diviners and dreams; good and neutral lycanthropes; and autumn. Hers was the moon's mysterious power, the heavenly force that governed the world's tides and a mother's reproductive cycles, caused lycanthropes to shift form, and drew one to the brink of madness, and back again. Her nature, appearance, and mood all changed in turn with the phases of the moon. She was also known as **Bright Nydra** in the Farsea Marshes; as **Elah** among the Bedine of Anauroch; and as **Lucha**, called **She Who Guides**, in the Shining Lands, where she was part of the faith of the Adama. Her name was shared by the moon of Toril, Selûne; it was unknown if the moon was named for the goddess or the goddess for the moon. Regardless, most Faerûnian humans believed the moon to be the goddess herself watching over the world and the lights that trailed behind it to be her tears, from both joy and sorrow.

## Personality

Again like the cycles of the moon, Selûne had many and changing moods and natures. Her faithful, coming from many walks of life, viewed her in countless different ways, and she reflected this.[2][4][7] Sometimes she was enthusiastic, vivacious, joyous, and majestic, given to action and dance.[4][9][7] At other times, she was subdued, motherly, and almost poetic[4] or tranquil and embracing.[9] Then she was remote and weighed down by sadness at defeats and tragedies, even those that happened long, long ago.[4][6][7] Finally, she could be aggressive and fierce, but cold, and with little mercy for her enemies.[4][9] These shifting personalities made her versatile.[9] Nevertheless, she was viewed as a calm power *circa* 1489 DR.[8]

Nevertheless, at all times, Selûne was caring and accepting of most beings, and forgiving of most of her followers' faults. She was both ageless and ancient. She was quietly mystical and, as a being of chaos, well used to change. She had a serene and peaceful nature and was slow to anger; she would not fight if she could help it, but nor did she hold back if she must. She was fiercely protective when confronted by evil. The one constant was her eternal conflict with Shar.[2][3][4][5][6][6][10]

She was generous and freely bestowed gifts and blessings on mortals.[2][4][5] She also made few demands of her followers.[3][4][5] When beseeched by her clergy, she always responded.

## Divine Realm

Selûne dwelled in a planar realm called the Gates of the Moon.[4][25][7] Under the Great Wheel cosmology, her realm stood on the plane of Ysgard, also called Gladsheim.[1][2][3][4][5][9] Under the subsequent World Tree cosmology, the Gates of the Moon was considered its own plane.[7][26][25] Under the World Axis cosmology, the Gates of the Moon was a dominion in the Astral Sea.[11] In the middle of the Gates of the Moon, Selûne resided in a shining silver hall named Argentil, a place of beauty, quietness, and moonlight.