The Lunar Ember Chorus

The Lunar Ember Chorus is a decentralized community of artists, seers, and emotional guides. Temples are called Moonhearths, each led by a Heartflame—an elder performer or visionary chosen through ritual vulnerability under a full moon. Supporting roles include Cindertongues (confessors and poets), Emberdancers (sacred performers), and Glowhands (healers of heartache). Membership is based on emotional authenticity and creative openness rather than lineage or training.

The Chorus celebrates passionate expression, honest desire, and the divine power of emotion. Love, sorrow, joy, and longing are not distractions—they are the sacred medium of connection. The faith embraces queerness, fluid identities, and chosen family. Beauty is truth, and truth must be sung. Shame is to be melted away through ritual performance and shared catharsis.

The Lunar Ember Chorus seeks to create spaces of emotional safety, inspire personal transformation through performance, and rekindle love in the world. They oppose repression, cruelty, and any force that would suppress the honest heart. They welcome orphans, the lonely, and the misunderstood, often acting as emotional healers within cities and border communities.

• The First Ember: Selaveth sings the first love song under the moon, giving form to emotion.
• The Burned Veil: The Chorus is born when a group of forbidden lovers perform their hearts before execution—Selaveth weeps, and their flames dance forever.
• The Ember Diaspora: Driven out by puritanical regimes, the Chorus spreads in hidden moonlit groves and urban underbellies.
• Current Era: The Chorus flourishes in tolerant regions and hidden enclaves, known for their moving performances and emotional miracles.

Key myths include The Moon’s First Flame (Selaveth kindles divine passion), The Choir Undying (spirits of artists who still sing under moonlight), and The Broken Song Rewritten (a tale of heartbreak transformed into healing). All myths point toward rebirth through vulnerability and beauty.

The Chorus formed from itinerant performers who received visions from Selaveth during night rituals. Her divine presence was felt most in confessionals made under moonlight. Their first songbook, the Flamepetal Codex, was composed entirely from remembered dreams.

The moon is the divine mirror reflecting the soul. All emotion is divine resonance echoing across lifetimes. Night is not darkness—it is the stage on which the heart reveals its truth. Love is a current that flows through time, returning in endless forms.

• Feel deeply, express fully.
• The heart must never be silenced.
• Beauty is a divine language.
• Shame is a cage—burn it.
• The moon sees, hears, and understands.

Silencing others’ expression, shaming love, or performing falsehoods in sacred rites are the deepest sins. Forgiveness is encouraged, but only after mutual vulnerability. Love must be free, not manipulated. Truth, even painful, is sacred.

Worship takes the form of song circles, poetry nights, moonlit dances, and intimate confessions. Full moons are holy and marked by Open Flame Nights, where no mask is worn, and all are encouraged to reveal their hidden emotions. Offerings include handwritten verses, perfume, tears, and locks of hair.

Priests are Heartflames, selected by the community through open confession and emotional vision-quests. They carry Flamecharms, enchanted instruments or accessories linked to Selaveth’s grace. They lead performances, hold sacred spaces, and bless unions.

Clerics of Selaveth may invoke:

• Emberheart (kindles courage and emotional clarity)
• Moondrift (creates illusions shaped by desire or memory)
• Searing Confession (purges shame and falsehoods)
• Lover’s Flame (links emotions between two willing creatures)
• Ballad of Becoming (transforms sorrow into strength)

Bards devoted to Selaveth are considered sacred vessels of divine expression. While their magic stems from personal inspiration, the goddess blesses their artistry with unique resonance:

• Verse of the Open Flame (your Bardic Inspiration also reveals emotional truths or memories)
• Melody of Moonlight (performance under moonlight grants allies temporary hit points)
• Chorus of Catharsis (a song that dispels charm, fear, or grief effects)
• Echoes of Desire (illusions tied to the bard’s strongest feeling manifest during a performance)
• Heartstring Harmony (link two listeners' emotions for the duration of a performance)