Hanali Celanil

Hanali Celanil is the elven goddess of love and beauty. She embodies romance, beauty, love, and joy in elven spirits, her only flaws being her own mild vanity and flighty nature. Although she rarely appears to her faithful, Hanali delights in seeing the growth of love among elves, and she often acts in secret to protect young lovers.

Hanali is both an aspect of Angharradh and one of the three elven goddesses who collectively form the Triune Goddess (the other two being Aerdrie Faenya and Sehanine Moonbow).

Worshipers, Clergy & Temples

Hanali's clerics were flighty and somewhat vain, given to dancing and wild celebrations. The hierarchy was loosely organized, and clerics were free to join or leave a temple's ranks as they wished. They presided over marriages and rites of passage ceremonies for young elves, although they weren't required to marry, as Hanali's concern was love, and not necessarily marriage.

Members of Hanali's clergy spent their days cultivating beauty and love in all their myriad forms. Many of Lady Goldheart's clerics tended fine gardens, while others amassed personal or temple-based collections of gems, crystal sculptures, and other fine works of art. While things of gold and crystal, particularly jewelry and statues, were favored. Beautiful art in any form was admired, collected, and displayed.

Hanali's clerics always had to be finely dressed, and displaying one's personal beauty to its best advantage was a requirement of every cleric of the Heart of Gold. The clerics dressed in gold robes and worshiped her by fountains and springs.

Vestments

Hanali's priests must always be finely dressed, and displaying one's personal beauty to its best advantage is a requirement of every priest of the Heart of Gold. Paramours wear golden robes sprinkled with gold dust, and they wear their hair long and unbound without any covering. Gold rings, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, and earrings are common adornments. The holy symbol of the faith is either a miniature gold rose or a miniature gold stylized heart. Both forms of Hanali's holy symbol are often worn as a brooch or necklace.

Hanali's priests are drawn to romantic quests like moths to a flame, and thus they take to adventuring more than one might otherwise expect. In dangerous situations, Hanali's followers must strike a balance between beauty and pragmatism. Paramours favor weapons and armor that are a beauty to behold, emphasizing the natural elven grace of their bearer, yet that also guard against any weapon strike or spell that might mar their natural beauty. As such, Hanali's priesthood prefer chainmail (of elven make if available), shields, and weapons unlikely to bring them into melee combat or to disfigure the appearance of an opponent.

Hierarchy

The hierarchy is loosely organized, and priests are free to join or leave the church as they wish. Novices of Hanali are known as the Beauteous. Full priests of the Heart of Gold are known as Paramours. In ascending order of rank, the titles used by Hanalian priests are Dove, Suitor, Lover, Libertine, Soft Caress, Heart's Desire, and Fiery Ardor.

Temples

Temples of Hanali are bright and beautiful, with fountains and springs throughout and great gardens encircling the central chapel. Most of Lady Goldheart's houses of worship are designed with young lovers in mind, providing endless mazes of shady paths, babbling brooks, quiet pools, leafy bowers, and flowering hedgerows, so as to facilitate amorous trysts and romantic rendezvous. Interior chambers are designed so as to permit the entrance of the sun, moon, and gentle breezes.

Many chambers display beautiful works of art, serving the local community as museums, while others are designed as great concert halls from which strains of music spill out into the surrounding gardens.

Rituals

Clerics of Hanali prayed for their spells whenever the moon was highest in the sky, a time of romance.

While Hanali's clerics were given to frequent impromptu revels, their greatest celebrations were held every month beneath the bright light of the full moon. Such holy days were known as, Secrets of the Heart, as romantically involved participants were said to experience the full bloom of their affections on such nights, allowing them to evaluate the strength of their feelings. Likewise, the inner beauty of celebrants visibly manifested as a rosy glow in their cheeks and eyes for days thereafter. Offerings of objects of great beauty were made to Lady Goldheart during such holy festivals, some of which were swept into Arvandor while others were returned to be shared among Hanali's followers. It wasn't uncommon for artists to unveil their latest work at such holy days, nor was it rare for young lovers to either pledge their troth secretly or proclaim it to all assembled, as doing so was said to invite Hanali's favor.

Orders

The Chaperones of the Moonlight Tryst are a fellowship of romantically inclined rogues and rangers who discretely safeguard young elven lovers from those who would take advantage of their distraction and/or innocence. Members of this merry band are also called on occasionally to facilitate secret meetings between lovers of rival houses or to aid them in eloping against their family's wishes. Chaperones of the Moonlight Tryst usually work closely with the priests of the local temple of Hanali, as those who serve Lady Goldheart often receive the confidences of those struck by the arrows of the Archer of Love.

Dogma

Life is worth living because of the beauty found in the world and the love that draws twin hearts together. Nurture what is beautiful in life, and let beauty's rapturous glow enliven and brighten the lives of those around you. The greatest joy is the rapture of newfound love and the tide of romance that sweeps over those wrapped in its embrace. Find love wherever it takes root, and bring it to its fullest bloom so that all may share in it joy and beauty it creates. Always give shelter and succor to young lovers, for their hearts are the truest guides to life's proper course.

Appearance, Manifestations

Hanali is an eternally young elf maiden with shoulder length hair, who wears sheer silk shifts and the like. She is a being of timeless beauty and benign nature, she always forgives minor transgressions and delights in rewarding her followers with the bliss of unexpected love and affection.

Relationships & History

Hanali opposed the machinations of the evil drow deities and the Deities of Fury. She additionally opposed the cruelties of deities such as Bane, Cyric, Shar, and Talona.

Her allies included Eilistraee, Cyrrollalee, Isis, Lliira, Lurue, Milil, Sharess, Sharindlar, Sheela Peryroyl, Sune and Tymora, as well as her leader, Corellon.

Related Imagery

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Source: Faiths and Pantheons