Vela

Vela

Domains	Twilight, Nature
Aliases	Goddess of Wayfinding, Patroness of the Lost, The Way in the Dark, The Guiding Stars
Plane	Astral

Vela is a goddess of the stars and helping those who would guide and those who are lost.

Description

In artwork and sculpture, Vela is often pictured as a great woman with deep red skin like the night sky, with stars at her joints, wearing a great white sail as a makeshift tunic, most often seen, pointing into the distance to guide the way of the lost.

Vela is known from the legend of Aurora, where a woman among the first peoples of Quelmar was cast out of her village and told to walk into the deserts of Pteris, a wasteland where nothing could help her to find or mark her way, just endless sand and sky. The goddess Vela came down to Aurora and taught her how to use the starts to navigate across the desert without losing her way and led her to the next tribe. Aurora took the knowledge she gained and taught others how to map the stars to travel the great deserts. She then sent those she taught to the edges of Pteris to map all of its skies and generation after generation, they grew in number and knowledge. The navigators and cartographers left Pteris, seeking to map all of the skies of Quelmar.  

Vela is not only known for leading those who are lost physically, but also those who have lost their way spiritually. Her followers will open their arms to the weary and those seeking some kind of solace, as a waypoint on their travel through their life, and remind those lost that Vela does not expect their devotion or loyalty, only for them to find their path, even if it leads them away from her in the end.

Works

Vela is known for granting a sight of specific constellations and insight to her followers and even just those who have lost their ways, interceding when someone is alone and has no one else to turn to.

Once, for only one night, in order to confuse a grand army from attacking her faithful, Vela rearranged the stars so that they would be guided far away and protect the village, as an act of Divine Intervention.

Worshippers

Common Worshippers: the Auroran Nomadic tribe, the Crystalline Conclave, twilight clerics,  circle of star druids, celestial warlocks, paladins of ancient, devotion or glory oaths, as well as commonly druids and rangers of all kinds.

Holy Symbol:

A deep red oval with white stars in the form of her constellation

Notable Holy Sites

It is said that in the center of Pteris, if you stand in the place where Vela first touched down and took Aurora’s hand to lead her, on the night of the new moon with a sky full of only stars, a pool of water to reflect the sky will form beneath your feet, supposedly what is left from Aurora’s tears. In Pteris, followers will make a monthly journey to this place to collect the water for rituals and spell components.

The Crystalline Conclave

A devoted group of Vela’s faithful, mainly comprised of Earth Genasi, though they welcome all. Those who live within the conclave answer to the matriarch called the Alsephina, who is chosen upon the passing of the previous Alsephina by all of the followers who have contributed to the Conclave with either a new map or bringing a new member to the conclave, through birth or belief. The elders and teachers of the tribe are known through their titles of Ananuca, Kalausi, Markeb, Suhail, and Wattle.

The Conclave is based in Amusa, traveling throughout and working towards mapping the wilds.

Hymns and Holy Scriptures

Vela’s First Blessing

Alone, Aurora was set out in the sands

She’d spilled her brother’s blood with her own hands

She’d done this, she said, as he had meant her harm

But she had slain him when he was unarmed

And So-o alone, Aurora wandered wide

Through the sands of Pteris, and no help she could find.

Alone, Aurora, pity no one would take

Alone, Aurora, with a spirit bound to break

Lost Aurora, surrounded by the heat

Lost Aurora, no comforts did she meet

Then one she fell down, in to the burning sand

She laid there until evening brought its frigid hand

She looked up and found herself beneath a million stars

And suddenly, four of them moved to her alarm.

Black and red and starlight, robed in gleaming white

Found her in the sand and helped her to stand

A woman made of stars said “I know you by name.

I know you’re Aurora and you’re quite afamed.

You didn’t want to live in pain and agony

And so struck down your brother and set yourself free.

I have known your story and I know your heart

Aurora, the stars will guide you, this is a brand new start.”

Vela took Aurora’s hand and showed her one by one

How the stars would guide her when there was no sun.

When the stars glow above, you can see your path.

And so Aurora crossed Pteris’ desert at last.

Aurora found the ocean and settles in its waves

She called out to Vela, “Is this way one saves?”

Aurora took down charts and charts of stars up above

Taught everyone she met about the goddess she loved

She introduced them to how stars guide our path

She left behind the worst she’d done and knew her way at last.

The Velorum

the Holy Scriptures of Vela, spoken by Aurora and transcribed by her partner, Kaelun

Gamma, the guide to the lost

Vela, the great goddess of the stars, touched down to our lands in Quelmar with two purposes in mind. She intended to lead the lost to safety and to teach us, when we have found our way, how to lead others. This is why we were shown how to read the stars and calculate by them how to guide ourselves across great distances in the cool of the evening, when the sun has abandoned us. While the sun shows us one direction, the stars stretch out so vastly that we are able to see paths in all directions.

It was not only her intention to guide those who are physically lost on the land and the sea, but also to lead those who had lost their way, either by not knowing what purpose their future holds, but also those who have been forced out of their path by those who surround them.

Our duty to one another as followers of the great sail is to encourage one another. We are to cherish community but also hold tightly to the ideals of having your own path, set by your own course that you have charted and Vela has guided. No one is intended to follow a path that is set for them that was wholly designed by someone else. We are to create maps, of both the stars and ways to live a good and complete life, but a map does not show you the direction you must take, but rather the directions that you are able to take to get the end result of what you desire. In this same way, when someone comes to ask, asking for how it is that Vela may guide their path, we must show them the beneficial ways that can be taken, but allow them to put their own feet to the ground.

If anything, Vela is not a jealous goddess. She does not harbor ill toward those who follow other gods and goddesses, nor does she grow angry or disappointed by those who would leave her path. As a guide and patroness of the lost, Vela intends for her followers to walk alongside her and take her hand for as long as they believe necessary. Some may follow her for their whole lives, striving not only to find their path walking hand in hand with her attributes and love and starlight their whole lives, while others will only join the path for a short time, wanting a moment of guidance when feeling completely lost.

[More to come]

Alsephina, the guide to nature

These are paths for those who wish to follow Vela’s guidance on living in harmony with nature. [More to come]

See also: The Circle of Stars subclass for Druids

Markeb, the guide to healers

These are paths for those who wish to follow Vela’s guidance on aiding those who are ill and wounded. Such as, “When we are not worried about our body, we can focus our mind on the path ahead that much easier, so it is your duty as a healer to aid others quickly and skillfully so they have no concerns over their physical body.” [More to come]

See also: The Twilight Domain subclass for Clerics

Avior, the guide to defenders

These are the paths for those who wish to follow Vela’s guidance on arming yourself and aiding those who need defending and rescuing from forces that would otherwise enslave and encroach on someone following their own path. [More to come]

Coming soon: The Oath of the Found subclass for Paladins

Suhail, the guide to leaders

These are the paths for those who wish to follow Vela’s guidance on being priests, bishops, archdruids, and other leaders of whatever groupings would form to worship and spread the word of Vela across the world. [More to come]

Common Blessings and Prayers of the Velorum

• Vela, our Great Guide; Patroness of the Lost. She, who has taught desert wanderers to read the stars so they would never be lost again. Do you know your path?
• May Vela guide your path
• You are never lost as long as there are stars

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