Wee Jas

*See Myths and legends, below.

Hundreds of shadowy souls moan, lost, begging for her guidance. She ignores them. The pupils of her eyes glow golden and her hair hangs in long, reddish, bedraggled locks. She wears a stark white dress, glowing bright as a sun in this shade land. A silver chain of skulls, each with ruby eyes hangs from her neck. Wee Jas’ eyes are mysterious... meeting them is like looking into the birthing of a universe. Her voice is powerful, but quiet. Stern, but feminine.

A tear of blood falls from the beautiful face of Wee Jas. It falls to the ground, where it becomes a ruby.

Description

Wee Jas usually appears as a Suel woman of astonishing beauty, with pale skin and long, unkempt, red hair. However, it has been suggested that she could appear as another humanoid race if she so wished, and that her appearance varies by what her followers in the area would consider most attractive. Wee Jas normally wears her holy symbol as a piece of jewelry.

Wee Jas is a stern goddess who expects strict obedience from her followers. However, she is also capable of love and great tenderness.

Aspects of the Goddess

Law

The laws that concern Wee Jas are those of the Suel Imperium, those that govern Magic, and those that govern life & death. She is little concerned with the modern laws of cities and nations, although her servants may or may not be. Her temples, as a general rule, will be careful to exist in cooperation with local law - at least superficially - for political reasons, unless local law directly conflicts with the laws or values of Wee Jas (such as the forbiddance of magic).

Priests of Wee Jas are, nonetheless, often called upon to act as arbiters and judges in matters of local law, a role which they are glad to fulfill and fulfill very well; they simply have no vested interest in what those laws happen to be, and are willing and capable of administering them with a cold detachment.

In regions dominated by Jasidin faith, the laws often mirror those of the ancient Imperium, although residents of the area are unlikely to be aware of this.

Magic

“It is I who cause the Weave to flow through the blood of Suel mortals. When you embrace your magic, you are embracing me.”

- Wee Jas

Among the Suel, magic has been the dominion of Wee Jas for as far back as mortal memory stretches. Her age is unknown, but it is believed that for as long as she has been divine she has been the Mistress of Magic.

In the distant Suel-blooded north of Rhizia, the association between magic and death that was instilled in the cultural mind after the Rain of Colorless Fire (see Death, below) has persisted with significant effect. In Rhizia, magic is so dreaded that its use today is punishable by death, and anyone even suspected of ‘witchcraft’ is swiftly executed. In Rhizia, Wee Jas is no longer worshiped as the giver of magic, but instead as the protector against it.

Death

Wee Jas acquired her Death aspect after the Twin Cataclysms, when the Rain of Colorless Fire killed some 90% of the Suel population. Death and magic thereafter became inextricably linked for the surviving Suel, and they looked to the Mistress of Magic for answers and solace during that darkest of hours.

Wee Jas is often called Death’s Guardian, or the Taker. It is she who presides over the Shadowland, the domain between the gateway to the afterlife and a soul’s final destination in its god’s realm. She considers herself the steward of the dead, guide and protector of every soul as it traverses the treacherous path between mortality and immortality. For more on the Shadowland and Wee Jas’s role there, see the Afterlife.

Wee Jas and Nerull are equally matched rivals in their dominion over Death. Nerull has more dominion over the moment of death, the act of dying, while Wee Jas has dominion over the soul once it has departed the body. However, this is not an ideal state of affairs for either deity; both would rather claim the entirety of the domain of Death for themselves. They do not war openly upon one another, but they do seek to undermine one another. Wee Jas’s methods tend to be the subtler of the two, while the followers of Nerull can sometimes be violent, pressing the issue.

Views towards Undead

To come

Vanity

To come

Relationships

Wee Jas is a daughter of Lendor, although it is unknown whether she was always divine or was born mortal first. She and her sibling, Norebo, have been romantically linked. She bears great enmity toward Phyton, for his dominion over beauty. She jealously dislikes Myhriss for her claim of dominion over love and beauty. Among the other Suel gods, she is closest to Phaulkon and Bralm, and also considers herself an ally of Boccob, Lendor, Fortubo, and Osprem.

She is close to all lawful deities, for she favors Law above all things, and will work with deities such as Heironeous and Hextor as the need arises. Demons and other chaotic beings generally despise her for this reason, which makes her on-again, off-again romance with Norebo that much more unusual. She can summon lawful undead or dragons to do her will.

Wee Jas considers Beltar, Dalt, Phaulkon, Phyton, and Vatun to be her foes because of their chaotic agendas in the world. She is occasionally at odds with Norebo for the same reason. She and Nerull are rivals over their shared domain of Death, although they usually avoid direct conflict

Realm

Wee Jas has two realms in Acheron, in Tintibulus (called the Patterned Web) and in Ocanthus (called the Cabal Macabre).

Dogma

To come.

Scriptures

The Abominable Devastation. This is a short text considered heretical by most of the Jasidin church. It suggests that Wee Jas deliberately removed the defenses of the Suel Imperium, leaving them vulnerable to the Rain of Colorless Fire in punishment for their sins against magic. It has been argued by religious scholars that Wee Jas is not normally a vindictive goddess, and that it seems unlikely that she would have let hundreds of thousands of her worshipers die for crimes committed by a handful.
The White Book. This tome, over a hundred pages long, explains in a detailed manner the funerary customs of the Suel. Its rites and prayers, which differ according to a corpse's former status in life, can be used to prevent a spirit from rising as one of the undead.

Worshipers

Followers of Wee Jas are known as Jasidin. Wee Jas is especially popular with Suel wizards and sorcerers. As a death goddess, more people look to her for safe passage into the afterlife than harsher deities like Nerull. She is also honored by those involved with upholding and interpreting laws (judges, magistrates, justicars, etcetera), and is sometimes even revered as a love goddess.

Wee Jas was worshiped in Lo Reltarma in Lendore Isle before the elven conquest of that land. She is worshiped by many in the Pale. A splinter sect known as the Cult of the Green Lady, which reveres a long-dead Jasian priestess as a saint, operates from a burial cairn near Diamond Lake.

For the last 20 years there has been a group of fire elementalist wizards in Hesuel Ilshar known as the Cabal of the Everburning Flame. They are all worshippers of Wee Jas. They work as battlewizards for the church or their homeland and sustain eternal flames in the temples in the Scarlet Brotherhood lands.

Clergy

Priests of Wee Jas, known as Karuth, wear layered full-length hooded robes of alternating gray and black. Customarily, their hoods are left hanging in the back to reveal their jewelry-adorned heads. They wear jewelry with skull and gem motifs on their arms and necks as well, and carry staves. Their favored weapon is the dagger, but they will use many weapons of the sort favored by mages.

There are several different arms of the church, but all ultimately answer to the Archon, the ultimate oerthly ruler of the Jasidin. Today the Archon is chosen from either the Karuth or a priest-like order of sorcerers and wizards called the Order of Book and Bone. There are other important orders, such an order of knights, but the head of the church has always been one possessed of significant magic, whether divine or arcane. As well as the official orders, there are also unofficial covens and cults associated with Wee Jas.

For more detail on the church hierarchy and affiliated orders, visit the Church of Wee Jas in Organizations.

Temples

Temples of Wee Jas are built like wizards' towers. They are decorated with beautiful art, and each contains an extensive library. Some have permanent magical fires on the tops.

Within the Scarlet Brotherhood lands there is a beautiful temple to the Stern Lady in every major city. Notable temples to Wee Jas can be found in Hardby, Alhaster, and Hesuel Ilshar. There is also a major temple in Sasserine, in the Amedio Jungle, as the town was originally founded by priests of Wee Jas. Wee Jas's temple in Alhaster is known as the Scarlet Spire.

Rituals

Services to Wee Jas include the reverent flattery of her icons, offering of finery and gems, and magically produced fires. Most temples have extensive magical and law libraries, and all endeavor to preserve what few fragments still remain of the ancient Suel laws.

Holy days

Day of Fire. The most important ceremony to the followers of Wee Jas, and indeed almost all Suel, is the Day of Fire on the 28th of Patchwall, originally said to mark the invocation of the Rain of Colorless Fire and the subsequent deaths of 90% of the population of the Suel Imperium. Over the centuries, the ritual has lost much of its original meaning, and it is celebrated throughout the Flanaess as a time to placate and honor all the dead. It is also a time to renew oaths, forge agreements, and take oaths and pledges (often of vengeance).
Goddess' Blush. On the 4th of Coldeven, Jasidin gather at a temple to burn a piece of jewelry as a sacrifice to the Taker.
Ruby Convocation. A holiday mainly for clergy and laity of high status, the Ruby Convocation is held every ten years. On this festival, modeled after an extravagant ball, contacts are made and reinforced, stories are told, and knowledge is exchanged. At the end, the guests drink wine out of a goblet with a ruby sitting in it; this is known as the Ruby Toast, and is given in thanks to the Ruby Sorceress. After the drink, the ruby is cast into a fire.

Myths and legends

*The Arcane Well. This legend claims that Wee Jas is secretly a greater goddess, the majority of her divine power hidden in a magical well. Although this is supposedly a secret held from the greater gods themselves, mortal followers of Wee Jas all seem confident of the tale's veracity. The well is said to be somewhere within the Stern Lady's realm in Acheron, guarded by powerful servitors and at least one bound demigod. Great wizards and sorcerers are said to be born with a drop of power from the well granted them by the Witch Goddess.
Love is a Gamble. This is the story of the romance between Wee Jas and her lover Norebo, who was created by Lendor almost as her polar opposite. While some versions of the story hold that he seduced her, in this tale she definitely seduced him, and in the morning he escaped the Taker's grasp. She pursues him, and he runs, their love sometimes flaring bright and other times her wrath flaring just as vividly. She attempts to bind him with her laws and traditions, and he shows her how love is about risk and adventure.
The Hellfurnaces. Legend has it that the first argument between Wee Jas and Norebo caused the southern Crystalmist Mountains to erupt into flame, creating the Hellfurnaces.