Vaelyn

Vaelyn was the last of the gods to be created directly by Sirona, and was born to control the afterlives of mortal souls. She oversees Death and the Afterlife, according to Avalyran beliefs. She created no deities of her own, unlike the other gods born of the Ancient Mother.  

Description

Due to the often taciturn demeanour of Vaelyn's followers, reports of her manifestations are few and far between. However, those that do exist are consistent, all speaking of a tall, slender figure, covered in a long, flowing black cloak. The figure is said to hold her hands clasped before her, the cloak sleeves covering them completely, and to move with an ethereal grace, almost gliding. The few glimpses of a face that have been reported tell of a feminine elvish appearance, with deathly pale skin, pure white hair, and eyes like two pools of the darkest ink.
More common are mentions of Vaeyln manifesting in dreams and visions, where she sometimes takes on the same form as her avatar. Others speak of simply a voice, echoing through their mind as they sleep or commune with the goddess. Those that do see her tell of The Beyond, an almost featureless white sand desert and black void surrounding them.  

History

  After the mortal races were placed into the world of Amion, Sirona needed a shepherd for them when they passed on. Thus, she created Vaelyn, charging her with shepherding souls from the mortal plane into their afterlife. To do this, she crafted The Beyond, a plane overlapping the physical world where all souls ascend to as they pass from Amion, and the Bridge, built from the bones of all who have died, and all who will die.
The Bridgekeeper awaits souls at this bridge as they wander The Beyond, and she guides them across it, into the realm of whichever god they belong with. She abhors necromancy, and other magic that holds souls on the mortal plane after death, seeing them as an affront to her work.  

Relationships

Some followers of Ethos hold the belief that as Judge Over All, he judges mortal souls moving on into the afterlife. Worshippers of Vaelyn, however, decry this belief, holding that no one but the Bridgekeeper holds sway over judging the dead. Some among the devotees of Vaelyn suggest her power rivals and even exceeds that of the other gods, even Imir and Sirona. They hold that as the Shepherd of Souls, she has the power to draw souls away from other gods, sapping their strength while adding to her own. While the vast majority of her followers simply see her as a guide for the dead, some followers of other deities, most notably the Church of Harmony, seek out and destroy texts detailing Vaeyln's true power, declaring them heretical.  

Worshippers

Only a small number of people actively worship the goddess of death; most of her followers are funerary priests and the like, who perform rites and assist souls in their passing to The Beyond. There do exist clerics and paladins that have devoted their lives to Vaelyn, and these individuals typically roam the world, aiming to destroy those who practice necromancy and other soul binding magic.