The Best Goddess in Dungeons and Dragons

gods are at the top of the power pyramid in dungeons and dragons they hold all the power and live with that power in the different heavens or hells of the multiverse there are many of them some stronger than others today we're going to talk about what i personally consider to be the best goddess my favorite goddess not necessarily the strongest or the most powerful not necessarily even the most well-known one either i just think she is the coolest and i want to show you why today we're going to talk about elis trey the goddess of beauty sun and dance freedom sword work and hunting the only good god of the drow before we get started though this video is brought to you by the kickstarter grim hollow players guide a book filled with toolkits that you will definitely need to upstart your campaign and characters grim holo is a dark fantasy world setting that came out from a book released from a very successful kickstarter a few years ago the book was awesome quite frankly the setting itself was fantastic but what really caught my eye back then were the tools and character options that they gave you to make your adventure better see they added new properties that you could add to your mundane or magical weapon something that i've been asking for so long so for example you could have a brutal great axe or a swift grade axe or a scatter grade axe and each of those changed the way your great x function making it feel completely different they had a playthrough of feats and new spells and i've already blown your ear before about their transformations which i still hold that they are revolutionary i am literally transforming one of my players into an eldritch aberration thanks to that book it's awesome thing is that book was mostly a campaign setting book the book was designed to bring you into a new world now they're doing a full book that is literally just filled with character tools a glorious full book just filled with things that i already know that i will use from new subclasses to new spells to new transformations that your characters can go through based on the amazing job that they did with the character options on the first book i just can't wait to see what they do here thing is their kickstarter is about to end so this is your last chance to get in before it's over by reaching 450 000 they already unveiled that they're doing a spectre transformation and i am all over myself about it i cannot wait to get in there before it's over grim hollow the player's guide on kickstarter but now back to the video the silderin as it is known is the pantheon of gods that the elves revere however thanks to a major schism the pantheon was radically split with some breaking away to become the dark seldorine those gods left the heavens to follow the dark elves and rule over them now the dark siltering has eight gods championed by the leader lol goddess of assassins chaos darkness and spiders some of these gods you might hear from every once in a while like veyron for example is the god of drow males and the god of evil activity on the surface so quite a popular one gonodor is a big name too for he is the god of jellies oozes ropers and slimes but elise trey in the lore she's quite unknown in fact if you were to ask a drow about her they wouldn't know what to tell you most of them don't even know that she exists the drow matriarchs and keepers of knowledge hide information about her kids don't get taught about her and anyone that even mentions her name gets radically punished see ellis trey has one mission to save the drow from lolt to bring those dark elves from their subterranean homes and usher them out to have them see the real world to smell the flowers to dance under the moonlight to save them from their webbed prison ellis tree is the protector of the feud route who long to return to the surface at peace with the other races to abandon their endless conflicts and live in happiness if you are an escaped drow if you have somehow broken the chokehold that lolth had on you and escaped elystrai is your champion the one who will take care of you the one who will offer you sustenance a home the one who will teach you the ways of the world the one who will finally grant you the happiness that loth took away the day of your birth ellis tree appears as a naked glossy skinned female drow nine feet tall with ankle length swooping hair of glowing silver her hair and wandering silvery radiances cloak her body in a smoothly continuously moving array of beauty most times she's only seen from afar perched on a hillock or battlement silver hair streaming out behind her other times one can only see a silver radiance accompanied by a wordless snatch of song or few echoing harp notes the only times that she's ever seen close is to dance with her followers she sometimes appears in the midst of a dance in her honor as her followers dance all together around a fire she might be seen leaping amid the flames of the feast unharmed the most rare of apparitions is when she manifests to a worshiper who honors her with a solitary dance as the silver radiance transforms the recipient's hair into a mane of silver fire for a month or sometimes even permanently now that is to those above the ground to those below she offers guidance and light to those who need it she manifests silver fire to those lost in the darkness to guide them she manifests light to those who feel alone and in need of support she will guide you and help you find something you dropped in the darkness or give you a song of encouragement if you're giving birth in the night but most of all to those underground she aids in escaping the dark maiden sings her call to all dark elves from the highest matron mother to the lowest male slave sending them dreams or visions showing them a different better life and the beauty of the world and despite the continued effort of lolth to stop these visions many drow definitely come to feel the dark dancer at some point in their lives illystrae calls them outside to the moon to relinquish their shackles and armors and dance naked in the moonlight now all clerics of illystree are female and collectively they are called dark ladies whereas acolytes and aspirins and those who wish to join the temple but have not yet attained the full priesthood are called maids in essence anyone who wants to support and help and pray to illistry can and everyone will receive her help and guidance but only females will get clerics and paladins spells that being said there actually aren't many clerics per se or paladins for that matter only about six percent of the clergy of illicit are clerics and only two percent are crusaders the overwhelming bulk of the clergy are what we call sword dancers taking over 90 percent of the clergy see ellis trey is a goddess of beauty and song a goddess of peace and dance but her symbol doesn't have her carry a sword for nothing she's also a goddess of sword work and her style is that of a dancing symphony of blades the signature weapon of her and her sword dancers are what we call singing swords powerful longswords enchanted to sing loudly when drawn a singing that enchants and empowers the wielder with bravery and finesse thanks to the enchanted music the wielders were immune to any magic that would alter their mental state of being and any magic that was based off of sound like the music of harpies or the scream of shriekers just does not work on them the swords glue with a silvery fire that also protected the blades from breaking or rusting these sword dancers were trained to be able to sing and dance through pain so they could perform in the midst of combat something that was needed since some of the most powerful and signature spells of illustrate were based out of songs music and song held a particular meaning in the church as they were the intimate nature of illystrae's iconic magic they call it the spell song a melody capable of healing creating and protecting there were two types of spell song the lesser variety and the greater variety the lesser variety though is ironically quite frankly broken mechanically speaking it is just very strong lesser spell song is a third level evocation spell with a casting of one round that enabled the caster by song and supplication to illustrate to cause an effect equivalent to any desired pre-spell of third level or less the spell would have its normal effect range duration and saving throws however if the spell had a material component requirement higher than 100 gold pieces then you would have to sing for an extra round for each 100 gold piece of value above the first 100. to put it mildly a lesser spell song just allowed you to cast any cleric spell of third level or lower without having to prepare them or effectively without needing to pay the cost of the material components you could cast reviveify without needing a diamond as long as you sang for just about three rounds straight now the real spell song a sixth level spell allows for a multitude of things from replicating spells of fourth level or lower to granting spell immunities to heal to cure blindness poisoning and disease to even creating the spell regeneration the more dancers and singers that joined on the chorus of the spell the more powerful the spell became essentially spellsong worked as a weaker version of wish using divine words or in this case singing to produce a plethora of options that would aid the caster another famous illustration spell was blade dance where blade dancers could enchant their weapons to gain a will of their own to fly an attack on their own the warrior would throw the weapon into the air and then both the warrior and the sword would join together in a dance of death against the enemy now aside from being female another restriction that the clergy of illysree must follow is that they must be skilled in the playing of at least one of the dark maidens favorite instruments the horn the flute or the harp they must also be adequate singers for the magic to work and they must also be fit and graceful dancers the clergy is meant to nurture beauty music the craft of making musical instruments and song whenever they find it priests of the dark maiden who have the coins to do so are expected to hire any strange minstrel or bird they meet for a song or two lay worshippers are encouraged to do so the clergy of lystrae are not just beautiful but also deadly see there's just much danger that the drow faced not just from loath and her evil drow but also from the humans and elves from above look quite frankly humans don't trust dark elves and they have good reason not to dark elves that are seen under the night sky above ground are always there to enslave and murder the clergy of illyshtree need to be able to protect themselves and those they care about from those who don't understand however the sword is only there for protection most of the work that the clergy of lystra go through is that of peace and help at least that's what they're supposed to do so now let's talk about the dogma of the goddess quote aid the weak strong grateful and churlish alike be always kind save in battle with evil encourage happiness everywhere lift hearts with kind words jests songs and merriment learn how to cook game and how best to hunt it learn new songs dances and ways with weapons and spices and recipes and pass this learning on whenever possible learn how to play make and repair musical instruments practice music and sword work defend and aid all folk promoting harmony between the races strangers are your friends the homeless must be given shelter from storms under your own roof if need be repay rudeness with kindness repay violence with swift violence that the fewest may be hurt and danger fast removed from the land the faithful must aid drow who are in distress if the distressed or fighting with other drow the combat is to be stopped with as little bloodshed as possible so long as the drow met with are not working evil on others they are to be aided and given the message of illystraee a rightful place awaits you in the realms above in the lands of the great light come in peace and live beneath the sun again where trees and flowers grow and quote see ellis tree actually cares it's not just about saving the drowl from loath and taking them up above ground it's about making sure that they can actually have a place to live up here it's no good if they only find hatred and despair in here as well and so elish trey teaches her followers to help strangers whenever possible to lift hearts with kind words and to meet rudeness with kindness slowly the people will understand that not all drow are bad and soon enough they will accept them now the priests are allowed to keep and accumulate money that is given to them as offerings as long as the money is to be used to buy food musical instruments and tools such as good swords for example to serve the will of the goddess they are even allowed to go on adventures as long as they feed aid and defend the needy along the way quote faithful of lystrae are encouraged to give food to others in need with a prayer to the goddess to act with kindness and to give food and money they can spare to their priests priests are to feed themselves by their own gardening and hunting skills as much as possible and to try to convert at least one stranger per moon to the worship of illistrae when priests of the goddess must fight evil they are to burn the bodies of the evil creatures they slay as an offering to the goddess unless such creatures are edible and non-sentient and there are hungry folk near any hungry travelers met with who offer no threats are to be fed by the faithful of illysree while traveling priests are to carry food with them for this purpose at all times where food cannot be purchased or received it must be gathered or hunted for faithful of the lyshtre are to set aside food and give it as often as possible to strangers in need particularly outcasts and those of other races if food yet remains it is to be given to the priest of illystre that they may do the same and none shall go hungry in times of plenty store food for lean times ahead in harsh winters patrol the lands about to find and take in the lost the hurt and those caught in the teeth of the cold whenever possible food should be eaten with the accompanied of song except for properly set occasions a feast should be accompanied by merriment the faithful of the dark maiden are commanded to promote happiness and deity whenever possible when faithful and allies of a priest fall in battle any priest present must if possible provide burial and a funeral song and comfort to the bereaved end quote the thing about elisha is that she's a practical goddess she teaches her followers what they need in order to survive in a new and hostile world especially because i mean drow have no clue what the overland is really like they have lived in darkness their whole life and they have no cattle in the underdark they have no traditional farms you don't hunt in a forest in the same way you hunt in the underdark a drow have no clue how to survive out there and ellystrae understands this she teaches them hunting gathering feeding and how to share the knowledge that they have gathered onto others now let's go and cover the important ceremonies that the clergy goes through and the temples of illustrate see the the temples are interesting because they're not technically constructions at leastra as one would imagine from an elvish goddess appreciates natural beauty more than tall and complex constructions her temples are found in natural glades in the middle of a forest in a place where one could easily see the night sky and appreciate the moon and a place where one could just dance freely and move about typically there will be a beautiful cave nearby where the clergy may rest but generally speaking those temples are quite simple all that's actually needed is a place to see the moon a place to dance and enjoy and eat a furnace to make swords and well preferably a place with oar that they could mine and smelt for said swords prayers to alistray are interesting too worship to her is typically done as a hunt the dark ladies perform a hunt that is then followed by a feast after the feast there is a dance and a circle of song in which the worshippers will sit and dance in turns in a circle each one in succession leading a song as far as more traditional prayers go there are daily prayers that are song whenever there is time but typically this happens in the evening this is more often than not where you'll find a cleric leading others in a single beautiful big song at night worshipers of illistrae perform what is called an even song a personal intimate and most often times wordless song done in private where the person tries to let out all those gathered emotions of the day see ellishtree likes helping her worshippers and so she tries to relieve them of their stress anxiety and emotional baggage by listening to their even songs at night and then calming them down and lending them her strength some of the rougher parts of the clergy as we talked about before is that they must learn how to cope with pain so that they may dance and sing in the middle of combat as that's just how their magic works one of the rituals that they go through in order to practice this is through the enchanting of their weapons quote whenever a sword is finished or first taken into use by a worshiper of the dark maiden a priest tries to call down the blessing of the goddess upon it this is done by planting the blade point down into the ground out of doors and by night and then dancing the sword dance circles the blade and involves the priest drawing blood from each of her limbs by dancing momentarily against the blade if successful the blade glows with a silvery radiance for 3 months it does not break or rust if they draw a weapon it is also made immune to the sun and though lacking a bonus or dwemer can strike creatures normally hit only by magical weapons end quote this is particularly important because drowl made weapons are really strong but their enchantments only work in the dark their enchantments fade if they ever see the sun and then the sword gets ruined this ceremony protects the blade from such a factor and remember most of these dark maidens are actually drow so this matters a lot one of the less commonly seen rituals that they go through is the one they call the high hunt this one only happens once in each of the seasons but essentially the clergy of lystrae prepared to haunt a great and dangerous beast sometimes a monster as it is tradition the hunt cannot be made with ranged weapons only with a single blade the hunters who follow the dark ladies may wear whatever they like but the priestesses themselves must go naked if the monster is slain you will get chanted prayer and a circle dance to the goddess they must do this once a season including winter and even more rare tradition is the one they call the run this one is a mandatory ceremony that worshipers of illystrae must do at least once a year where they go alone to where they would be strangers basically they leave their community and their friends to go look for communities of other races any place where they would not be recognized and or probably even be feared in there they must rely on their music on their kind ways and sometimes even sword skills to keep them from being slain see as a drought this is very difficult for drought and to be attacked on sight many times but if you happen to not be a drow and you're attempting to do the run as a disciple or priest of illystree you're expected to blacken your body with natural dyes and oils and boil certain leaves and berries to make your hair silvery to make yourself basically look like a drow you may also use spells like this guy's self to change the way you look and then you perform the run priest of the dark mate and go where they are strangers making an effort to seek out other communities and then bring them game kindness and helping hands they try to learn new songs music and sort ways this way too they try to show the world basically that drow can live in peace with others they don't do this to preach their faith or to make a mark for themselves but instead to promote the idea that drought can be good now priests that do not die in battle and actually get to survive to old age can perform the greatest ritual to illustrate the last dance quote in the old age elishtraes priests hear the goddesses singing to them by night calling them to her when the song feels right they go out on clad under the moonlit sky and dance never to be seen again those who have observed such dances say that the goddess comes and sings overhead and the aged priest begins to dance more effortlessly looking younger and younger her hair begins to glow with the same radiance as the dark maidens and then she becomes slowly translucent fading away as the dance goes on in the end only a silvery radiance is heard with two voices the goddess and her priest raised together in melancholy tender song end quote and then lastly let's talk about the clothing and attire for the priestesses since i bet this is probably a worry for many of you who might be thinking of being a cleric or paladin of illustrate the priests wear their hair long and they dress practically for any activity if they are hunting they generally wear leathers for battle they wear armor a priestess of illistrae is not going to cook without an apron for example however for rituals they will wear the least amount of clothing possible many times that means in the nude and when relaxing you will see many of them in transparent gowns now for adventurers it is a tad different during adventures it is expected for the clergy to guard themselves for any eventuality so typically with magical armor or armor of drow make when it comes to weapons you must always use swords in battle if no swords are found then you must use a kind of bladed weapon bows and ranged weapons are kind of taboo for ellis tried but if there's no other option then it is allowed and you are however expected to always be carrying your sword and as being clergy of lystroid you actually have to know how to craft swords too illystrae's dislike of ranged weapons is actually very interesting and it is tied up to her history see lystrae is actually the daughter of both corellon lorethion the patriarch and leader of the elvish pantheon and lolf the matriarch and leader of the drow pantheon both karlyn and loth used to be lovers back then before she became lol she used to be called auroshnee together they had a son and a daughter varum who we talked about at the beginning of the video and ellis tree now ellis ray was a true huntress with incredible perception and great skills with the bow a free-spirited and kind-hearted goddess with a fiery streak in her personality she adored her father loved him with all of her heart but not everyone did her mother arushni prepared a plan to kill him so that she may take the mantle as the leader of arvandor the heaven of the elves her plan had two faces the first phase would have her create a fake peace treaty between coralin and his greatest nemesis grumpsch the god of the orcs in this meeting grumps would attack coralon and attempt to kill him and in order to help make that happen aurashnik created it she crafted a beautiful scavenge for corellon's sword a cursed item however the cursed item was meant to betray corylon in his weakest moment so that he may kill him the plan being that when it was time for krillin to fight grumch his sword might not bulge out of the scabbard that plan failed however and the scaverd was lost in the battle a failure that was actually partly intended for there was a phase 2 to this plan before phase 2 could be enacted a problem arose it had seemed that zhane mumbo a goddess of dreams and moonlight in the elvish pantheon saw the treachery in her divination as she attempted to counsel arushni to stop this madness she was captured by her with the help of veyron it had seemed that coraline's own son and illystra his brother was in on the plan with sehanian captured then continued phase 2 had verone take advantage of illystrae's adoration of her father and lead her to attempt to find the scabbard with her great eyesight and tracking skills which she did however before she could return it to her father arvander was attacked the attack came from many of kroylan's enemies including gonedauer and many other ogre gods now the dark maiden took part in the battle enthusiastic and proud to be able to fight by her father's side in defense of their home and then in the heat of the battle that ensued when goneedauer made its entrance it became obvious to korilyn that someone had betrayed him for an evil monster like gonedauer could only enter arvandor if another great evil already existed within that would allow him entrance in the distraction and shock that korlin had an ogre god charged towards corellon and almost ended his life ellis try seeing his father in danger and in hopes of saving him she quickly loosened an arrow at the ogre god what the young goddess didn't know was that the scavenge that arushini had crafted for coral and sword was imbued with a curse which magically drew the shaft of the arrow changing its path to instead pierce the chest of her father the other gods unaware of the deception charged in on a lystrae and subdued her now in spite of all of this the battle was won by the silverine but carlin was almost mortally wounded and all the gods gathered around him this was to be the end of the second phase of arushini's plan faking grief and sadness she pretended to attempt to save her lover but instead she looked to use a concoction of poisonous herbs to kill him the herbs were typically made by illistrae to coat the arrows of the mortal dark elves she wanted to pass the poison as a healing elixir and in the case that she was discovered and she could simply blame elystrai as the potion was indeed her work the plan in the end didn't work as sehani munbo escaped her prison ahead of time and saved korilyn at the last minute with her illuminating everyone as to the real culprit of it all it had seemed that all the dark elven gods were behind the plot all of them except for alistrae who was merely an unwitting participant korylan then banished all the dark elven gods from arvandor for this treachery in spite of the fact that illystre was cleared of any wrongdoing and allowed to stay she decided instead to take in the punishment as well as she foresaw that the dark elves would need a beacon of good within their reach and that her help would be needed for them in the times to come that is why elystrai never uses a bow anymore as she nearly killed her own father with one she swore that she would never used ranged weaponry again lest her missile go astray once more instead all of her clerics get magic missiles as domain spells since those never miss now due to a history of grief and losses and to the suffering of her people melancholy and sadness were deeply rooted in illystrae's heart it was a hard battle to endure one that could weigh her down however it also taught her to search for a nurture beauty everywhere even in places like the underdark where it didn't seem to belong elise trey fought her melancholy by striving to bring hope and joy wherever there was sorrow so that no moment was lost to gloom and to make life flourish wherever she went she learned to find happiness in peace and arts especially music and dance and in simple things like seeing artists composing and performing craftsmen at their work people doing acts of kindness and lovers in tender moments she especially took delight in helping the needy in various practical ways with a soft spot for outcasts and in blessing artists with sudden bursts of creativity and inspiration and on this she attempted to teach these things to her drow so that they may find happiness in the darkness to tell them once again that a rightful place does await them in the realms above in the lands of the great light to come in peace and live beneath the sun again where trees and flowers grow [Music] hope you guys enjoyed the video if you are at all interested in creating for yourself a blade dancer cleric of elystra i would recommend going over to the 5th edition lore book sword coast adventures guide in there you can find a subclass for the wizard called blade singing which is essentially what you would be looking for a martial style of combat where you as the gaster instead of sitting in the back lines go to the front lines and use intricate maneuvers in combination with a single long sword to battle and the maneuvers in this case would be singing and dancing of course it works really well with the theme and style except for the fact that well it is a wizard subclass not a cleric obviously if you could seduce your dm into moving these features over into a cleric domain then you could probably do something even closer and better but otherwise i don't think it is personally a big deal there's no reason why you cannot be a strict follower of illistrae but be a wizard instead of a cleric i mean anything is possible i would like to personally thank my patreon supporters zack bowell barry maskant 5e magic shop morgan johnson rusty rayne biotechnofrag daniel luna duck feeder brad salazar terry kolp the great codini walker motley omega scales karates the bulwark xeron king ozol ariel nelson alex cookson griffin pierce falkie 951 benjamin bosters mr salty thomas hunt drayden tesla coyle the role-playing junkies podcast prince dane light morning crown sabine kershaw solarensis or doric williams latin nathan mccomb silent chapa bushido burrito a.g dare soulless writer role play with advantage stalia items to astound on dm's guild samuel king lost crusader jacob ortiz tython sean du that treb 909 garrett minnick jd green famine 52 george fortland and sovereign mind for supporting me on patreon at the 25 dollar level if you would like to support me as well then please head over to patreon.comrex to support all right guys thank you so much for watching i do want to take this time here to i guess tell you guys that i have actually started uploading my lore play for baldur's gate 3 where we go through the game and instead of just talking about the game player or talking about um i don't know what you would normally talk about on a let's play we just talk about the lore we talk about the world we talk about the characters uh we talk about the um the context of the things that are happening i mean like obviously butler's gate has a lot to do with mind players and gifts so we talk about where the mind flares come from like what's their culture what's the culture of the gift um where do they come from right we basically just talk about what's happening within the context of the lore and um in kind of a walk through like format so if you're interested in that uh i'm uploading those videos over on patreon for any of my patreon so basically from one dollar and up just a single dollar and you get access to all those videos uh we already have um at this point i believe four videos up and we'll be having more of them up every tuesday and friday from here on out so just about two videos a week uh with currently just about four or five videos that are currently up at the time you see this might be four but yeah if you guys are interested in that go over to patreon it's just a single dollar and you get access to all of them um i just my way of just giving you guys a little something for just supporting me over there but yeah that's all i have to say thank you guys for being here and i'll see you all next time bye

Channel: MrRhexx

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Id: a9NxhuwbiRA

Length: 31min 14sec (1874 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2020