Faith of Sublanarya: Gorgyra the Queen of the Black Sun and Iris the Divine Message

 

Some say their worlds will end in fire. Some say in ice.

But on Narya?

The end times, in many cultures of Narya, depict ophidians, snakes and serpents, as the deliverers of said end times. Whether it is the tail of world serpent Jormungandr devouring the sun and killing the All-Father himself or the Niddhog's poison finally killing the World Tree, serpent gods are constantly framed as the ultimate threat to the world. Certainly, there are some snaked gods with less than evil intent and not all serpents are evil, but generalizations against snakes and serpents on this world come from myth, legend and prophecy of such creatures being inherently villainous. Rumors of underground cities of yuan-ti ruled by ancient undead Ophidean sorcerers and of entire empires of serpents in undiscovered jungles certainly don't help this view.

And neither does Gorgyra the Doom-Mother.

The story begins with the daughter of a titan who fell in love with the radiant and beautiful sun god Aurelion. She wished to become his queen and rule the heavens. To achieve this end, she sought out power from the snake gods, who are all enemies of Aurelion after he defeated one of their number as a child. They gave her a poisoned laced cup of gold and told her to have him drink of it. After doing so, he would fall for her and become her slave.

She managed to find him celebrating his daughter Iris's birthday. Iris is the daughter resultant of Aurelion's relationship with the princess of a Wyrd Wars empire. She is the goddess of rainbows, auroras, and all beautiful tricks of the light in dawn or dusk. She serves as the mistress of the angels of the Heavens, sending banner and herald angels to carry messages to the various gods of the pantheon, and is as beautiful as her father. It is said that she has eyes and ears throughout the material plane and that she can find out anything that happens under the rays of the sun.

Iris did not trust the stranger, especially when she offered a gift to her father rather than to Iris. Her suspicions strengthened when she discovered the guest, as she sat enchanting her father with her beguiling eyes, had recently been visited by serpents. When she saw the goblet that the pale Gorgyra had brought, she noticed a glint in the bottom of the cup. She had Yollo, fastest among the gods, to swap her cup with Aurelion's and disguise hers so she would not realize it was the gift she had intended for the sun god.

When the time came for toasts, Gorgyra made a toast to their host and lifted her glass. As they all drank of the heavenly nectar wine, she let out a blood curling shriek, and her cup fell from her hand, clattering to the floor, and dissolving into a dark pool of serpents. She clutched at her throat, Aurelion moving to her side, but it was too late.

Gorgyra was transformed into a monstrous form: her hair became black serpents like in the pool that she had fallen into as she was consumed by the terrible darkness. It seemed the serpent gods had intended not to win Aurelion for Gorgyra but to curse him with some terrible poison. Before she could harm any of the guests, Aurelion acted.

Gorgyra was banished from all that the sunlight touches, forced to retreat into shadow and darkness, some deep dark cave or realm beyond mortal eyes, where she would be unable to ever gaze upon the beauty of the sun ever again.

As she withered in isolation, she gained control of her new found monstrous power and today Gorgyra is known as the mother of the gorgons, the medusae and the cockatrice. She is the goddess of assassins, darkness and deception and, one day, she believes her servants will succeed in darkening the sun's hold of the material plane forever so that she can rule as queen.

GORGYRA
Title(s)

Queen of the Black Sun, Serpent Mother, The Dark Queen, The Dark Goddess, The Mother of Lies

Pantheon(s)

New Gods

Power Level

Intermediate Deity

Alignment

Neutral Evil

Symbol

A coiled black serpent around a sun

Realm

Twilight Realm

Portfolio

Poison, assassination, lies, deception, darkness, envy

Domains

Trickery, Arcane, Death,

Worshipers

Assassins, yuan-ti, medusae, troglodytes and other underground dwellers

Favored Weapon

The bow

IRIS
Title(s)

The Queen of Heralds, The Bright and Brilliant, Her Radiance, The Princess of the Dawn, The Rainbow Messenger

Pantheon(s)

New Gods

Power Level

Lesser Deity

Alignment

Lawful Good

Symbol

An opalescent sun

Realm

Elysium

Portfolio

Truth, honesty, information, dawn, dusk, rainbows, auroras

Domains

Protection Light

Worshipers

Heralds, messengers, scholars, judges, translators, guardsmen,

Favored Weapon

The bow