Hand of Avei

The Hands of Avei are the mortal paladins for Avei, the goddess of femininity, strategy, and justice.

Hands of Avei have a reputation as leaders and ferocious warriors, as well as for being both judgmental and close-minded.

Hands of Avei are given divine weapons and armor, in addition to being allowed horses out of Avei's divine stables. Arjen is the most famous of these horses. The divine armor, weapons, and horses can be summoned at will by the Paladins and, occasionally, by truly brave and loyal people.

Hands of Avei are frequently, but not always, called one at a time. However some occasions have called for multiple hands, such as the second to last invasion of a dwarf city, when the population was laid low by a plague, when two Hands of Avei held the city gates alone against armies of Orcs.

Hands of Avei are normally accorded the rank of General in the Silver Legions.

Historical opponents of the Hands regard Avei's as particularly annoying and officious. Ellilial remarked that she'd never personally harmed a Hand of Avei, but normally patted them on the head, given them advice, and sent them on their way. She also remarked that the bluster and outrage uniformly demonstrated by the Hands to such circumstances was particularly amusing.

Hands of Avei are a Knight's Knight and expected to be found in the middle of any martial action. Hands of Avei have a particular set of instincts which make them particularly aggressive in hunting demons. Hands of Avei have always enforced the will of Avei (and roughly the mainstream of the Pantheon), historically being called upon even to put down rogue hands of other gods like Salyrene, or, in the past, warring against the hands of Omnu and Sorash.

Trissiny, the current hand, was alarmed to hear Eserite courtesan Glory relate the non-avenist historical perspective that Hands of Avei were to be feared for their ruthless heavy-handed tactics and heedlessness of collateral damage.

Hands of Avei feature into the greatest of Avenist poetry and romances, especially the prototypical Aveniad.

Known Hands of Avei:

-Trissiny Avelea, current hand.

-Laressa of Anteraas: uniquely a paladin called by Avei from outside her own faith. A pacificist and a clever schemer, Laressa has a series of famous escapades to her name such as arranging for herself to be beaten in public to arouse sympathy against a sitting governor, preventing an Eserite theft from an Avenist Temple, and haunting a Sultana of Calderaas to prevent an ill-considered invasion of the Drow city Ahkivar.

-Shahai the Hammer: fought with a particular ferocity during the last of the Hell Wars. Carried the scorched earth tactics over into Pax Pantheon, resulting in her starting the War of the Scions by killing Sorash's demigod heir and his mother, Sorash's mistress.

-Sabah Aldarasi: killed by the Enchanter's Bane. Formerly a companion of Principia Locke's, and Sarsamon Tirasian (later Emperor).

-Laurel Aselstyne, spanked like a little girl before her whole army by Arachne Tellwyrn and afterwards her career was a joke. (Prologue, Vol.II).

-Tarsha of Mathenon, Hand of Avei approximately 3 centuries before current time, ended last undead plague by personally wiping out entire villages (11-17)

-Razeen Alshadai, last surviving hand of Avei during the Third Hellwar when forced under Ampophrenon the Gold forced a truce. (Bonus #46) [Ed. this appears to contradict other statements about Shahai the Hammer surviving the Hell Wars to use scorched earth tactics against fellow Pantheon worshippers and starting the War of Scions.].

-Rendre, a hand of Avei who opposed Narkroth the Summoner and his hordes of undead. Rendre sliced, literally, through waves of undead as well as her own party and herself using a lightsaber-type beam weapon. The beam weapon, a very dangerous artifact left over from the Infinite Order, fell into her hands through an arrangement made by the Black Wreath. (12-45).