Vaerith

Athenaeum entry. Correspondent of record: Vel Asharen. The subject is difficult to interview. Appointments held in the open air tend to be inconclusive, as the subject is frequently observed to be both present and somewhere else at the same time.

Form

Vaerith is the hardest god in the pantheon to look at directly. The form, when it is held, is usually that of a tall, lean figure in loose travelling clothes — gender variable, hair worn long enough to be in constant motion, no shoes — but the form does not stay still in the way mortal bodies do. Witnesses describe him as standing in one place while also having walked past them, or as turning to look at them while continuing to face away.

More often, Vaerith is present only through evidence: a sudden gust through a calm room, a particular rustle in dry grass, a sail filling without weather, a door opening on hinges that had not been touched. The clergy have learned to read these signs and consider them visitation in the technical sense.

He speaks rarely and briefly. When he does speak, witnesses report that the words seem to arrive from several directions at once — not loudly, but distributed, as if the air itself were the throat producing them.

Domain

Vaerith holds the domain of wind in all its forms — the steady trades that make ocean voyages possible, the sudden squalls that ruin them, the dry desert winds that strip topsoil, the gentle breezes that move pollen between flowers. He is also, by extension, the patron of travel that changes direction — voyages whose course is altered en route, decisions made on the road, the small adjustments that turn one life into another.

His pacts are most commonly held by sailors and messengers, but extend to anyone whose work depends on the movement of air or whose life has been notably reshaped by an unexpected turn. He is generous with the granting and consistent with the upkeep. He asks of his pact-holders only that they never refuse a traveler shelter when shelter is in their power to give.

Worship

Vaerith's temples are usually open to the sky — sometimes literally roofless, sometimes built with great louvered openings on every wall. Coastal cities tend to maintain at least one substantial shrine to him at the harbor, and inland trade towns place his minor shrines at the crossroads where caravans turn.

His most consistent observance is informal: the small offering left in a wind-blown place by a traveler about to set out, asking for safe passage and a favorable shift if a shift is needed. Vaerith is reliable about these. He has, by the long testimony of the sea-captains' guilds, never failed to provide some wind when asked, though the wind is occasionally not the one the asker had hoped for.

The Four Weathers

Vaerith is the senior figure in a loose grouping of weather-aligned deities widely known as The Four Weathers — four minor gods, each holding a single elemental aspect of weather, who operate adjacent to Vaerith's broader domain. They are not his children in any formal sense. They are not his subordinates either. They are, in his preferred framing, colleagues, and he treats them accordingly.

The arrangement is unusual within the pantheon. Most major gods do not maintain ongoing collaborative relationships with minor deities at all. Vaerith does, and the Four are visibly the better for it.

Relationships

Veshen — His closest working friendship. The winds and the seasons coordinate constantly. They are often depicted together in folk art, and a notable tradition of dual shrines exists in agricultural regions.

The Four Weathers — Vaerith maintains active correspondence and casual collaboration with all four. See above and the Four Weathers entry.

Meni — Vaerith carries the souls of those lost at sea to Meni's threshold personally. The arrangement was Vaerith's offer. Meni accepted it without comment. It has held for several centuries and is one of the quietest acts of grace in the pantheon's working life.

Krorus — Mild mutual amusement. Krorus knows where every wind goes before it arrives. Vaerith carries the wind regardless. They have, on rare occasions, exchanged what mortals would call a wink.

Aerith Soln — Her sun warms his winds. He brings her small offerings from distant places — a pebble from a particular shore, a feather from a bird she once mentioned in passing. She accepts them without comment. He keeps doing it.

Noil — A working relationship. His winds carry Noil's children to new places; his winds also disperse them where they would have settled. Vaerith does both without taking sides, and Noil has chosen, after long observation, not to read either way as preference.

Saessa — He flirts with her constantly. She flirts back with equal enthusiasm. Neither has, by every available indicator, ever followed through. The clergy of both find this entertaining and the two gods, by the correspondent's reading, find it relaxing.

Lobelia — Her snow rides his winds. The collaboration is unhurried and almost wordless. He finds her presence soothing in a way he cannot quite articulate, and has not tried to.

Thurim Ironwake — The wind shapes the forge as much as the bellows do. Thurim has quietly named the prevailing forge-wind of every major smithing region after some aspect of Vaerith. Vaerith finds this appropriate and has, on occasion, returned the courtesy.

See Also

• _Pantheon Index
• Veshen
• The Four Weathers
• Meni
• Krorus
• Aerith Soln
• Noil
• Saessa
• Lobelia
• Thurim Ironwake
• Yggdrasil World System

— Vel Asharen, The Interplanar Athenaeum