Sune, the Firehair

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Alignment: Chaotic Good
Domains: Art [Costume], Chaos, Charm [Love, Lust], Good, Pleasure, Pride, Protection [Defense].
Favored Weapon: Whip

Sune Firehair is said to be the fairest of the powers. When she is represented, she is shown as the most beautiful woman in the Realms, with sweeping, radiant, red hair and incredible charms. The Sunite faith is a popular one in large metropolitan areas and among the nobility. Those of a literary or artistic bent, as well as people falling in love or looking for lifemates, often venerate the Lady Firehair.

Sune is benevolent and sometimes whimsical. She always appears as a radiantly beautiful red-haired woman of incredible charm. She alternates between deep passions and casual flirtations and has been romantically tied to many of the other Faerunian deities. Sune enjoys attention and sincere flattery, and avoids anyone who is horrific or boorish. Lady Firehair loves and protects her followers, who in turn manifest and protect the beauty of the world.

Dogma: Beauty is more than skin deep. It issues from the core of one’s being and reveals one’s true face to the world, fair or foul. Believe in romance, as true love will win over all. Follow your heart to your true destination. Love none more than yourself except Sune, and lose yourself in love of the Lady Firehair. Perform a loving act each day, and seek to awaken love in others. Respond to love at least once a day. Encourage beauty wherever you find it. Create or acquire beautiful items of all sorts, and encourage, sponsor, and protect those who create them. Keep your own body as comely as possible and as attractively displayed as situations warrant. Let hairstyle and clothing best suit your personal appearance, striving to stir and delight others who look upon you. Moreover, hide not away, but always seek to present yourself to those around you in a pleasing variety of garbs and activities so as to move them with love and desire. Love those who respond to your appearance, and let warm friendship and admiration flower where love cannot or dares not.

For Deific Obedience

Obedience: Paint a small picture, compose a short poem or song, dance a scene from a ballet, or gather flowers with roses from a garden into a bouquet, whispering praise to Sune’s beauty and grace as you do so. The art you create need be neither large nor complex, but heartfelt and made to the best of your ability. Gift your work to a stranger and pay them a sincere compliment as you do so. If there are no suitable individuals around to receive the gift, leave it in an obvious place with a note praising Sune and asking whoever finds it to take it with your warmest wishes. Gain a +4 sacred bonus on Craft and Perform checks.

Boons
1: Devotionals (Sp) unbreakable heart 3/day, calm emotions 2/day, or good hope 1/day
2: Choose one of the following boons; once chosen the decision cannot be changed:

  • Joyous Ally (Sp) Your sense of beauty and the loyalty you bear your goddess have attracted the notice of her celestial servants. Once per day as a standard action, you can summon a lillend from Sune’s divine realm to aid you. You gain telepathy with the lillend to a range of 100 feet. The lillend follows your commands perfectly for 1 minute for every Hit Die you possess before vanishing back to its home on Arborea. The lillend doesn’t follow any commands that would cause it to commit evil acts or destroy works of art, and the creature could even attack you if the command is particularly egregious.
  • Versatile Artist (Ex) Drawing on Sune’s divine inspiration, you can substitute your bonus in a specific Perform skill for your bonus in another related skill, as the versatile performance class feature. Select one type of Perform skill which you can substitute for its associated skills. If you already have the versatile performance class feature when you obtain this boon, choose an additional Perform skill to substitute; you gain a +2 bonus on checks with this additional Perform skill.

3: Scarlet Lash (Su) Even in battle, you partake of the beauty with which Sune graces her devoted followers. As a free action, you can cause a ribbon-like trail of red to follow every swipe and motion of your weapon. When you do so, a single weapon you hold gains the holy and shock weapon special abilities, as well as the disarm and trip weapon qualities. (You can use this ability on a ranged weapon, and it will confer the benefits to its ammunition, which will leave the same effect as tracers, but not grant the trip or disarm weapon qualities.) If you drop the weapon or give it away, this ability’s effects immediately end. You can grant weapons this ability for a number of rounds per day equal to 1 + 1 for every 4 Hit Dice you possess (maximum 6 rounds). The rounds don’t need to be consecutive.

Paladin Code

The paladins of Sune are peaceable promoters of art and beauty. They see the ugliness in evil, even when cloaked in the form of beauty, and their mission is to defend those who devote their lives to the creation of beauty, bring it forth themselves, and prevent the weak and foolish from being seduced by false promises. Their tenets include the following adages.

  • I see beauty in others. As a rough stone hides a diamond, a drab face may hide the heart of a saint.
  • I am peaceful. I come first with a rose rather than a weapon, and act to prevent conflict before it blossoms. I never strike first, unless it is the only way to protect the innocent.
  • I accept surrender if my opponent can be redeemed — and I never assume that they cannot be. All things that live love beauty, and I will show beauty’s answer to them.
  • I live my life as art. I will choose an art and perfect it. When I have mastered it, I will choose another. The works I leave behind make life richer for those who follow.
  • I will never destroy a work of art, nor scar a thing of beauty, unless greater work arises from its loss. I will only sacrifice art if doing so allows me to save a life, for untold beauty can arise from an awakened soul.
  • I lead by example, not with my blade. Where my blade passes, a life is cut short, and the world’s potential for beauty is lessened.

For Followers of Sune

Archetypes and Alternate Class Features: Songhealer (Bard), Ruby Rose Knight (Cavalier, Fighter, Paladin)

Specialty Priest: Heartwarder (Cleric)

Divine Fighting Technique: Sune’s Silken Sash

Feats: Beacon of Hope, Bestow Hope, Clarifying Channel, Divine Expression, Hands of Valor, Intrepid Rescuer, Persuasive Performer, Protective Channel, Seductive Channel, Trick Spell.

Magic Items

Prestige Classes: Arcane Devotee, Divine Champion, Divine Disciple, Divine Scion (Unchained), Divine Seeker, Devoted Muse†*, Unchained Devoted Muse†*
*Rather than the glaive, the Devoted Muse gains proficiency with the whip (if she doesn’t already have it), and Whip Mastery as a bonus feat at level 1. And the whip may be treated as a one-handed piercing weapon for the purpose of feats and class abilities.

Spells: Aspect of the Nightingale, Tap Inner Beauty, Trail of the Rose.

Traits: A Shining Beacon, Alluring, Enchanting Conniver, Inner Beauty, Intense Artist, Mighty Protector, Protective Faith, Purity of Faith, Split-Second Defense, Unswaying Love, Wedded Bliss.

Unique Spell Rules

  • Charm Animal can be prepared as a 2nd-level Cleric or Paladin spell
  • Charm Person can be prepared as a 1st-level Paladin or Inquisitor spell
  • Good Hope can be prepared as a 4th-level Cleric, Inquisitor or Paladin spell
  • Memory of Love can be prepared as a 3rd-level Cleric spell
  • Sympathy can be prepared as a 8th-level Cleric spell

Clergy and Temples

Aside from those who despise love and beauty as a manifestation of weakness, the church of Sune is widely loved throughout Faerun and has many adherents to its teachings. However, as most Sunites are seen as flighty, vain, and superficial but basically harmless, the church of Sune has less influence than its prominence might otherwise suggest. Sunites have an intense but friendly rivalry with the followers of Hanali Celanil, the elven deity of beauty, as it is said that the two goddesses share the waters of Evergold that runs between Arvandor and Brightwater.

Sune’s clergy Sune’s clerics pray in the morning after a refreshing scented bath (or after at least washing their hands). Greengrass and Midsummer Night are both Sunite holy days, celebrated with a great deal of outdoor frolicking and with night-long flirtatious chases through forests and parks. Individual temples celebrate numerous local holy days as well. At least once a month, the church of Sune holds a Grand Revel, a large party with dancing, poetry recitation, and heartrendingly beautiful or soulfully rousing music to which outsiders are invited with the intent to attract converts. A Feast of Love is a more intimate, quiet affair, open only to the faithful, who lie on couches and indulge in liqueurs, appetizers, and sweet pastries while lone dancers perform. These dances are interspersed with readings of romantic verse, prose, and songs of love sung by skilled minstrels. Such rituals always break up into private gatherings, though bards are always on hand to relate tales of courtly love or mysteries of Faerun for those who do not feel like socializing more privately. Sunites also offer personal prayers to Sune by standing in a pool or bath and looking into a mirror lit only by natural light or candles. Sune sends guidance to them by visions visible in the mirror, often by altering the reflection of the worshiper in some way. The influx of adventurers into Sune’s clergy in recent years has reduced the huge former gender disparity in the church so that now females only outnumber males four to one.

The Sunite church’s organization is loose and informal, varies from church to church, and its leadership can change regularly with the whims of its clergy. Little is thought of a cleric dropping everything and going bounding off into the wild, particularly if the goal is some beautiful object or some beautiful individual, and such behavior creates little scandal in the church. The church has no universal titles for their priesthood, except for Sune’s specialty priests, the Heartwarders, which comprise a small but growing percentage of Her priesthood, as with many of the gods’ specialty priests.

Sunite temples buy beautiful items of art, sculpture, and handiwork whenever they find it, sponsoring good artists where necessary and overpaying for such items so as to drive prices up, create more demand, and so increase the supply of things of beauty. All clergy of Sune also strive to create beauty in a personal way, preferably as a creator of static fine art (blown-glass ornaments, paintings, or tapestries are all fashionable), but as a dancer if one fails at all else. When one of them gains expertise in crafting things of beauty, she or he is obliged to pass on such learning by training others and turning away no one who shows genuine promise.

Sune’s clergy build friendships and romances with themselves and among others at any opportunity. Although Sunite clergy can rebuff unwanted advances, they generally strive to build friendships and romantic feelings between themselves and others in general wherever they go so that love may prosper everywhere in Faerun. As the lonely are in most need of such things (and the most likely to join in love of the Lady Firehair), they are sought out by diligent clergy.