Vyel the Unloved

Vyel the Unloved was a tribal deity of the Fahrish humans and the brother of Veyn.

Also known as the Forsaken One, the Lord of the Hollow Heart, He Who Waits Beside the Door, Vyel was once a deity of a Fahrish tribe, but when his tribe was accreted by another, which worshipped his sister Veyn, all worship in both tribes turned to her. 

In the silence that followed, Vyel’s form withered. His beauty rotted into bitterness, his youth fell away, and his voice became a whisper that seeps into lonely hearts. He learned a cruel truth: “If love gives life, then to be unloved is to die. And so, I shall make all things unloved, that none outlive me.”

He moved unseen, feeding on the ache of abandonment. Lovers quarrel, children feel forgotten, and even gods feared the slow death of their worship — all in Vyel’s name.

“Better despair than deception.”

Vyel’s priests dwelt in ruins, empty temples, and abandoned chapels. They collected tokens of failed love — rings, letters, portraits — and burned them in rites called The Unbinding.

Some say Vyel granted strength to those who renounce all affection, promising: “I will love you, when all others have turned away.”

When Vyel drew near, warmth faded, and the air smelled faintly of dust and iron. Fires guttered low. The sound of laughter becomes distant.

His cult was accreted into the pantheon of the Grand Temple of Heaven. He is alleged to have descended from the children of Heimos, but the earliest mentions of this deity predate the rise of Heimos in 3700ey.

Veyn the Beautiful

Veyn the Beautiful was remembered first among the Fahrish tribes as a goddess of beauty and desire. In her earliest hymns she is not praised for her gifts to mortals, but for her radiance reflected back upon herself. “She is her own mirror,” the chants say, “and she burns with the flame of her own perfection.”

Where her brother Vyel governed the end of things, Veyn governed the illusion of permanence—youth that never fades, loveliness that does not wrinkle, admiration that turns ever inward. She was adored, but also feared, for her worshippers whispered that those who loved her most were doomed to be hollowed, left chasing a beauty that did not return their gaze.

When her cult was drawn into the Grand Temple of Heaven, the scribes softened her sharper edges, presenting her as a radiant daughter of Heimos, patroness of brides and maidens, a bringer of delight. Yet in private, astrologers admitted her worship had always carried a darker mirror. To follow Veyn was to risk becoming consumed by longing for one’s own reflection.

Her earliest presence predates Heimos, and this is the riddle of her worship. The Fahrish sang of her centuries before the gods of Westrun rose, describing her as a being who “walked the hills alone, desiring none but herself.” Some suggest she is a remnant of an older spirit, perhaps a shard of creation that turned inward rather than outward. Others claim she is not truly of Heimos at all, but only bound to his lineage by later priests who could not abide a goddess unmoored from heaven.

Veyn is depicted as a woman of flawless youth, sometimes half-hidden by veils or mirrors. Her eyes are said to catch the gaze of the viewer and turn it back upon them, so that to look upon her is to see one’s own longing reflected, magnified, and made unbearable.

Rites to Veyn were performed with mirrors, pools of water, and veils. Her priests were famed for their charisma and accused by rivals of vanity, but they claimed that to reflect beauty was to honor Veyn. Offerings were perfumes, combs, glass, pearls, and silks—all things meant to adorn and please the eye.

Lovers who swore vows in her name found their passion bright but short-lived, for Veyn’s gift is always fleeting.

It is said she once stood before the sun itself and demanded to know who was more radiant. The sun smiled, but did not answer.

Some prophecies warn that when Veyn casts aside her veil for the last time, the world will be consumed in a beauty so perfect it unravels all lesser forms.

The Red-fingered Woman

The legend of the Red-fingered woman is that she serves drinks eternally at a public house on the banks of the Hyburleth River in Sopora -- the Shadow Lands of the Dead. Some hold that she is none other than Veyn the Beautiful, a goddess of an earlier age who is serving out a divine punishment in exile.

To be called "Red-fingered" refers to the legend of the Dwarven King who painted his vault doors in order to discover who was embezzling from his treasury. So this woman was caught in the act of some crime or another -- just what has never been explained.

Despite a perpetual grimace at her lot in life, the Red-fingered Woman is said to have a secret weakness for a good story or a well-told joke. Thieves believe that if they can make her smile, she will hide them beneath her robes while others will be ushered upon the Ferry. 

While being hidden this way will not get them to their preferred destination of Whiskerhaven, they believe they will at least avoid any other divine judgement awaiting them. With the Red-Fingered Woman they will be able to drink forever and find themselves slumbering at each day's end in her ample bosom.

Some other notable myths have accreted to the person of the Red-Fingered Woman, including one that says that she will be transformed by the right man into the once beautiful version of her younger self. In this form, she will enjoy his company for all eternity.