Leira

Leira, the Lady of the Mists, was the goddess of deception and illusion and the patroness of illusionists and liars. Few people other than illusionists saw profit in misunderstanding and deception, so she had few lay worshipers, though many casual worshipers paid her homage to ward her off or placate her before important decisions and judgments were made. Her true appearance was never known, and she was never depicted in (uncensored) religious art. Swirling gray mists— sometimes in a vaguely humanoid form—were always shown to represent her, and her horned altars framed no image above them. She is credited with inventing the language of Ruathlek, the written tongue of illusionary magic.

Leira was an enigma since she covered everything she did and said with layers of illusion and falsehood. She was not an actively malicious power, however, and it is known that those few who managed to visit her realm in Limbo uninvited were normally trapped or restrained rather than simply being atomized, as is the practice of most evil or impatient powers. She was apparently content with her small following and had no great and glorious plans or ambitions. On a personal level, she seems to have been a very private power, and the only passing friendship she maintained was with Mask. She had a formal, cooperative relationship with Azuth, patron of spellcasters, and was disliked by Tyr, who pursues justice through truth.

The Church

The church of Leira has clerics, specialty priests, and illusionists in its organization. Exact numbers of each kind of clergy and the total number of Leiran clergy members are unknown because members of the faith cheerfully lie about its tenets, organization, numbers, and powers. Relations between the various members of the clergy are good, mainly because no one knows fully what is going on.

Leiran clergy members (of all kinds) are called whatever they choose to be called, and official titles vary from day to day and from person to person. Pompous titles are often followed by misleading ones, and this tenday’s high pontiff is next tenday’s acolyte. This wild, constantly changing array of grandiose, silly, frivolous, and obviously spurious titles ranges from Supreme High Lord of the Heights and Depths to Most Holy Guttersweeper. Within the faith, specialty priests are known as mistcallers to distinguish their capabilities from those of clerics and illusionists, but they sport the same diverse and ever-changing titles as others of their kind when asked publicly what their duties and positions are.

Compulsive liars and workers of illusions, both magical and otherwise, venerate the Lady, as do many wise thieves, but most other folk only make offerings to placate her. They otherwise mistrust her church entirely—a prudent judgment. The only time one can be sure that a priest of Leira is telling the truth is any words spoken between two utterances of the phrase “By the Mistshadow,” although a sure sign that she trusts someone is that she employs huge, impossible lies without a shred of plausibility rather than the sinister misleading half-truths that the folk of the Faith That is Not What It Seems usually deal in. (The Mistshadow is one of Leira’s secret names, known only to her faithful.)

Temples of Leira are few and far between. Most are small, partially open structures of classical construction with large columns and porticoes and a wide inner sanctum where services are held before low, flat, rectangular altars with horns or imitation horns of metal curving upward from their corners. No images or statues of Leira grace the sanctuary anywhere. Leira’s temples are constantly filled with a light white mist that normally remains at ankle height but can rise to fill the room and thicken to obscure vision if the high priest or priestess of the temple desires.

Dogma

Leirans believe that the Lady can be anything, anywhere, that is not what it seems. They are taught to make folk everywhere doubt what they believe and see in order to restore Holy Mystery to the world. Leirans are to give as well as take, to raise hope as well as dashing hopes. Leirans must never tell the truth when less can do and never use a half-truth when a lie would serve better. They should speak truth whenever possible only to fellow worshipers of Leira.

Novices in the faith are charged by the whispering mists of the goddess that: “The Lady is never quite what you think she is. Truth is a worthless thing to know and worth even less to speak aloud. Never speak truth when falsehood will suffice. Cherish and further illusions and rumors, for distortion and legend are what make folk happy and life alluring. Hiding a thing gives it value by the very act of cloaking.”

Day-to-Day Activities

Clergy of Leira spread false rumors—and if they can, create illusions—in return for fees. They are charged with the task of making folk everywhere doubt truth by encouraging (and then revealing) false beliefs, setting up hoaxes, and the like. Leirans are masters of disguise and rent or sell costumes and (for stiff fees) apply makeup for everyone who desires it (usually folk in some trouble). They also aid others in deceptions by acting as actors-for-hire, often pretending to be wives, husbands, collection agents, brigands, paramours, escorts, thieves, or even clergy members of rival faiths as they assist some less-than-honest person in working a deceit on others. When not bent on such dark purposes, most Leiran clergy members work on alternative personas or roles they can adopt “out of mask” to work swindles on others, enriching and entertaining themselves (though it is a tenet of the church that someone they rob must later be aided by Leiran hands to make up for the loss).

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies

Leirans lie face-down on the ground and pray to the Lady every morning and on every moonlit night. They go walking whenever they encounter fogs or mists to chant praises to Leira and speak with the Lady (who is said to sometimes answer as an echoing whisper out of the surrounding mists). They also hold brief ceremonies at altars of Leira (when assigned to a temple) on a daily basis to allow nonbelievers who wish to appease Leira’s caprices to make offerings and to hear and guide the prayers of lay worshipers. In all cases, formal worship of Leira consists of kneeling prayers and standing hymns and chants made while facing her horned altars whose upswept arms frame only empty air.

The most holy rituals of Leira are the Unmasking, and the Invocation. The Unmasking is performed as purification by novices entering the priesthood, priests rising in rank, or priests doing penance for slighting their faith (telling the truth too often, for example). In this ritual, the bare-faced supplicant walks down ranks of priests holding tall lit candles between reflecting pools of water and mirrors. The Invocation is held when the Lady is called upon directly for guidance, and during this ceremony chanting priests swing censers to make thick smoke so that She may appear in the heart of its concealment and speak to them.

Leirans gather for six Conclaves every year at different places and slightly different times; word of where and when spreads quietly throughout the priesthood, but it is not revealed to outsiders. It is believed that by holy writ only truth is spoken at such gatherings and that the clergy members use such occasions to share information, to allow members to transfer from temple to temple, and to permit church elders to vote on the most important missions the faith should undertake.

Priestly Vestments

Leiran clergy members all dress alike: in long, cowled, bottom-fringed robes of russet to ochre, lined and streaked with green, tied with sashes of the same material, and worn with gloves and distinctive smooth, silvered glass masks. These masks entirely cover the face, projecting out below the chin to allow normal breathing, and their wearers can see normally (if dimly) through them. These silver masks reflect gaze attacks, and although their wearers may still gaze through them and so still may meet something’s gaze, they give their wearers a +3 bonus to their saving throws against gaze attacks or effects. Vampires, who hate mirrors, seek to slay Leiran priests whenever possible.

Leiran silver masks are tinted: Red is worn in the morning, blue after highsun, rust at dusk, and gray after the full darkness of night comes. The most holy rituals call for a mask of the same green hue as the robes. All clergy are taught to make the silvered masks (a difficult task requiring much dexterity and patience), and they tend to have several sets (hidden in well-padded traveling cases) in addition to their everyday set. A wealthy Leiran cleric will often hire a wizard to cast glassteel spells on his or her masks just to be rid of worries about breakage.

A priest caught without a silver mask will wear a gauze headsack. Every robe has one sewn into the cowl and another in a concealed inner pocket to be sure that a supply is always near at hand. Although it is no sin to go barefaced, Leiran clergy members are usually paranoid about showing their faces in public when their robes or residency make nonbelievers aware of their faith and profession: Many a priest of Leira has bathed or entertained private company while stubbornly still wearing (only) his or her mask!