Selune, Our Lady of Silver

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Domains: Chaos, Dream, Good, Moon, Protection, Purity, Prophecy, Stars, Travel

Favored Weapon: Heavy Mace

Selune represents the mysterious power of the moon, the celestial force that influences the tides, changes lycanthropes, orders of reproductive cycles, and pulls at the edges of sanity. An incalculably ancient deity, Selune approaches existence with the placid calm of dappled moonlight. Like the moon itself, the quietly mystical Lady of Silver has many faces. At times, she seems distant, cloaked in the sadness of past defeats and tragedies. At others, she dances joyfully, her lithe form glowing with majestic radiance. A chaotic being well accustomed to change, Selune can be count on for at least one constant – her ceaseless war against her archnemesis Shar. Together the two created Toril and infused it with life, and ever since, they have battled over the fate of their creation.

Obedience: At moonrise, bring offerings of milk and wine poured upon an altar under the moonlight. Once you have poured out these offerings, dance or lay out in meditation beneath the moon’s rays and reaffirm your closeness to the Night White Lady; commune with her when possible. If there are other believers in your company, do these things in concert together, rather than alone, and make your affirmations not only to yourself and the Goddess but to each other. Gain a sacred bonus of +2 on the caster level of any divination spell you cast, and +4 on perception rolls in areas of dim light or darker.

Boons
1: Moonlight Caller (Sp) faerie fire 3/day, glitterdust 2/day, or daylight 1/day (visible effect is moonlight)
2: Lunar Frenzy (Sp) Three times per day, you can cast moonstruck with a caster level equal to your character level. You can choose to have the target affected by haste rather than confusion; you make this choice each time you use this ability.
3: Moon’s Sight (Su) As a swift action, you gain the ability to see things as they truly are, things that are hidden by magic, and through any sort of darkness, even magical, as the True Seeing spell, for a number of minutes equal to your character level. You do not have to use these minutes consecutively, but they do have to be spent in 1-minute increments.

Archetypes: Holy Guide (Paladin), Guide (Ranger), Mooncaller (Druid)

Specialty Priest: Silverstar (Oracle)

Divine Fighting Technique: Moonstricken Mace

Magic Items: Cloak of the Night Sky, Dream Candle, Starfaring Robes

Prestige Classes and Class Feature Replacements: Crescent Moon Knight, Sphere Singer, Stargazer

Spells: Dream Feast, Haze of Dreams, Traveling Dream

Traits:  Follower of the Stars, Starchild

Unique Spell Rules

Cleric/Inquisitor/Warpriest
Handfire may be prepared as a 1st-level spell.
Moon Blade may be prepared as a 3rd-level spell.
Wall of Moonlight can be prepared as a 4th-level spell.

Paladin/Ranger
Locate Object may be prepared as a 2nd-level spell.
Handfire may be prepared as a 1st-level spell.
Moon Blade may be prepared as a 3rd-level spell.

Clergy and Temples

Many of Faerun’s residents live according to the dictates of the night sky, and hence Selune boasts a highly diverse body of worshipers. Seafarers turn to the star-speckled canopy above their nocturnal voyages to navigate the seaways, often offering prayers to the Moonmaiden to protect them from Umberlee’s attentions. Nonevil lycantrhopes honor Selune as the master of their fate, as do astrologers and fortune tellers, albeit for different reasons. The common folk know servants of Selune as mysterious agents of good, enemies of evil were beasts and undead, and caretakers of lunatics and the infirm. Though few understand the intricacies of her ancient religion, most good-hearted Faerunians respect her clergy and pay homage to her when the moon is full.

Clerics of Selune pray for their spells at night, always facing in the direction of the moon when visible. Women heavily outnumber men, and many of the church’s rituals honor the woman’s role as a teacher and role model in the home and in society at large. Selune’s doctrine suggests that the moon exerts a subtle influence upon the natural cycles of a woman’s body. A female cleric of Selune believes she is closest to her deity during the full moon, and during that period, she conducts morning ceremonies to open herself to special visions, insights, and intuitions. Milk, as a symbol of motherhood and the sustaining power of the feminine, plays an important role in most Selunite ceremonies. All clerics observe two annual holidays, the Conjuring of the Second Moon and the Mystery of the Night. The Conjuring of the Second Moon, held every Shieldmeet, is a coordinated chant at every Faerunian temple of Selune. This confluence of devotional energy summons the Shards, a cadre of blue-haired female planetars, to do the bidding of Selune’s terrestrial clergy for a single night–usually battling the forces of Shar. On the following dawn, the Shards elevate one moral cleric to their order. The Mystery of the Night must be performed once every year by each cleric of Selune. During the ritual, clerics fly high into the air to commune with the Moonmaiden while in a deep trance. Selune’s clerics often multiclass as bards, silverstars, or sorcerers.

Her church possesses a very chaotic hierarchy, which occasionally shifts with the phase of the moon or other less predictable heavenly phenomena. Clerics of Selune value self-reliance, humility, and practical application of common sense far more than rigid adherence to stodgy ceremonies. Clerics frequently arm themselves with a special kind of mace known as the Moon’s Hand, which replaces the standard head of the weapon with a representation of the moon (those of different temples prefer different phases). Moon’s Hands come in heavy and light varieties, and are in all other ways identical to maces.

The appearance of Selune’s temples vary as much as her clerics, from small shrines in the wilderness to huge open-air or skylit buildings the size of great mansions. Reflecting ponds, small gardens, and feminine zymology dominate Selunite architecture.

Itinerant clerics wander Faerun in search of potential worshipers, always keeping an eye out for those afflicted by lycanthropy or madness. Those with the capability to heal sufferers do so; others accompany them to the nearest temple of Selune, where they are cared for by senior clerics. Wanderers of the church also subtly spread an ideology of female empowerment entwined with Selunite homilies. Those clerics who remain bound to temples dispense healing, earn coin for the church by telling fortunes from star charts, and minister to residents of the sanitariums and asylums that frequently abut Selunite temples. Both types of clerics unite when evil lycanthropes threaten the community, doing everything within their power to root out the magical affliction and cure or destroy it.