Vanth

Vanth is a goddess, the child of Nenlos, and one of the Heirs. She is the goddess of liminality, twilight, transitions, and is the patron goddess of those who are lost. Unlike most other gods, she eschews both a title and a realm to call her own, wandering the entirety of Ramunda through the Interstice.

= Description = Vanth is universally depicted as a feminine figure in a long, flowing gray robe, one that fades away into nothingness at the edges  The race she depicts herself as seems to be variable: what small handful of scattered reports of mortals meeting her physically have only kept the robe as a constant.

Artistic representation of Vanth mandates that the artist physically create the face of what they think Vanth looks like, but then they either need to destroy, mar, or cover up the face so no one else can see it. Mortal followers that have encountered Vanth attest to the fact that only the barest facial features could be made out through the shadow of the cloak’s hood.

= Personality = Vanth, as a goddess of transitions, is usually depicted as something of a detached figure, providing a model that some members of her follower base build upon. She is not cruel or incapable of bonds; for instance, her relationship with her father, Nenlos, is one built of mutual love and understanding. But she is not one to encourage stagnation or safety. Constant moving toward the unknown is one of her core tenets, and as such leaving behind what is comfortable is encouraged in her clergy.

While she provides support to those diving into the unknown (making her something of an unofficial patron goddess for adventuring parties), that does not mean she smooths all burrs and removes all stones from the path. Her worship is not about clearing the path for others (“removing trolls from their bridges”, as her follower Lath once put it), but rather going off the path entirely, being guided by nothing preexisting around you. For those that are in unfamiliar territory, surrounded by nothing resembling the comforts of home, and the only familiar thing is yourself; those are the people blessed by Vanth the most, as those are the folks that can truly find themselves.

= Divine Realm = Much like her father, and unlike most of her extended family and peers, Vanth maintains no realm to call her own. Instead, she simply wanders the width and breadth of Ramunda via the Interstice, seeing where her feet take her. As such, she has been spotted all over Ramunda. Delirium’s shifting nature also appeals to her in several ways; the plane’s resonance with her has led her jaunts there to be very enjoyable.

As a result of this, the fate of her loyal followers that receive her blessing upon their deaths mean they join her in wandering the planes, now fully as spirits, transcending the flesh. While they don’t call themselves anything, many planar beings call the whole of Vanth’s spiritual flock the Gray Procession. Protected from outside influence by Vanth’s blessing, the Gray Procession wanders the planes as spirits, now free of several limitations.

= Relationships = As mentioned previously, Vanth has a good relationship with her father, Nenlos. By the nature of their portfolios, they actually run into each other quite a bit, as Nenlos guides the spirits to their respective afterlives.

Despite their almost diametrically opposed natures, Vanth is also on very good terms with her sister, Culsa. However, thanks to Culsa’s duties as the Pallid Knight, they see each other very rarely.

Otherwise, Vanth maintains a pleasant neutrality with most of her extended family. Her reluctance to engage in the power struggles between the various factions mean she is permitted to wander each and every plane. Her adherence to the lost and liminality, however, does mean friction with family members like Idona, Enerin, and especially her aunt Ujun, who prioritize clear understanding above all else.

= History = It is said that Vanth is the child of Nenlos and one of his mortal followers that fell deeply, truly in love with him. The details, unsurprisingly, are near impossible to actually iron out; by Vanth’s very nature, these things are obscured and difficult to decipher. For instance, even the race of Vanth’s mother is obscured, not helped by the fact that Vanth, depending on the eyewitness, is a different race for every person. This even extends to when she was born; the small size of Vanth’s worship base makes it incredibly difficult to decipher when she fully assumed her role as a goddess. It’s been postulated that she was born in the middle of the Age of Faith, the beginning of the Age of Sovereignty, or perhaps even before the Age of Faith, as some claim.

Regardless, as Vanth grew of age, she began to differentiate herself from the rest of her divine (yet not deific) siblings by taking on more and more of a portfolio, finding kinship with those being lost. Eventually, this grew by degrees to her fully mantling the concepts of twilight, liminality, and the lost. However, none of this was actually documented: this was simply figured out through common sense, as this was the process towards godhood that each of the Heirs went through.

= Worshippers of Note =


 * Glath ahn Latha: drakeblood cleric, member of Team 3.5