Laemindira

Goddess of Eudaemonia, Death, Hedonism, Destruction, and Emptiness

In a Single Breath there passes Three Thousand Years.

• All things have their wonders, even darkness and silence.
• Rather than the world promised which hereafter shall forever be, seek out the world which none but you shall ever see.

The Last of the First, the Nothing, The Terminarch, Endling, All-Consuming Void, The Lover at the Threshold, Lady Pale Milky White, She Who Walks Beside, the Keeper of the Empty Garden Beyond the Hole

Laemindira was the victor of the last Ascension, the Ninth of the Second World. As Roka (or Eushraka), she was known as the Great Nymph of Nothingness, but in godhood has become something decidedly more than a personification of the void. More than any other deity, Laemindira espouses hedonism, experience, and a death suiting the life you lived — pointless, meaningless, but altogether satisfying. She rejects all shackles, all traditions, all laws which would prevent even a single creature from enjoying themselves as they please, and as such is constantly near coming-to-blows over the matter with Pantokra. She counts Ninanna as her staunchest opponent, though Laemindira, like with all other things in this world or any other, refuses to take her seriously.

Despite her apparently nonsensical creed suited only for drunkards, murderers, and self-enlightened philosophers with too much money, Laemindira is an easy enough goddess to placate — in fact, many do so as a side product of observing Veil’s festivals, as all she requires of mortals is to enjoy themselves, enjoy life, and not try so hard to “change the world” — after all, they don’t even know all there is about the world, so changing it is a waste! She is also quite fond of adventurers for their propensity to go out and see the wider world and experience things they’ve never even imagined before, although her fondness usually comes at the price of arranging further adventures and further perils — and if you die alone in a hole in the ground, well, at least you had fun doing so. Ironically, she dislikes those doomsday cultists who simply seek the end of all things, and is one of the most reliable supporters of adventurers who seek their disbandment. More than anyone else, Laemindira knows the oppressive void of Nothing; it is not her wish to return to it any time soon, and she sneers at the cultists who in their self-absorbed arrogance believe they have so much as glimpsed depths that lie beyond the Hole in the Tower.

Clerics

Laemindira’s clerics are different from all others in that they can truly claim to have a personal relationship with their god; even, in some sense, an equal relationship. The vows of her clergy bear a striking resemblance to marriage vows, and while they gain no special spells, nor even a divine font, Laemindira instead sends a minor avatar of herself which manifests from their holy symbol. This avatar is corporeal when it wishes to be, and has a will all its own. It cannot go very far from its cleric, but is otherwise almost entirely independent and may as well be a completely separate, living creature. The avatar is usually designed to be attractive to the cleric and — as natural for Laemindira — usually interested in them as well. The avatar is not actually alive, however, and cannot bear nor father children.

The presence of the Avatar brings creeping cold, listlessness, ennui, and fatigue. Those who would take an Avatar from Laemindira must be able to resist this, for Laemindira does not tolerate ennui amongst those who she walks alongside.