Mystryl
Basic Information
Title(s)	The Lady of Mysteries, the Muse, the Mother of All Magic, Our Lady of Spells, the Hidden One
Power level	Greater deity
Alignment	Chaotic Neutral
Influence
Portfolio	Magic, spells, the weave, wizards, spellcasters, energy, creativity, knowledge, invention, song, time, spring
Worshipers
Worshipers	Wizards, bards, elves, and any type of arcanist
Worshiper alignment(s)	LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE

Mystryl, the Lady of Mysteries, was a greater deity and the first incarnation of the goddess of magic. Later incarnations of the goddess were renamed "Mystra". Mystryl was most notably known as the being who provides and tends to the Weave, making possible spells and magical effects, but she has many other portfolios including song, creativity, time, and the spring season.^[1] Mystryl's symbol was a single blue-white star. Her divine realm resides in Limbo in a place called Dweomertor. She sacrifices herself in -339 DR in order to save the Weave from Karsus' folly, and her role as goddess of magic was immediately reborn again as Mystra.

Appearance Edit

Mystryl appears as a beautiful human woman with multi-colored hair and blue eyes. She wears a simple but elegant blue-white robe made of heavy silk. She also appears as a vaguely female humanoid multi-colored flock of will-o-wisps.^[1]

When she manifests her will on Toril, she typically appears as as a blue-white glow on people, items, or locations that the goddess wishes to draw attention to. When she needs to be more forceful, she appears as a single blue-white will-o-wisp that can cast spells.^[1]

Mystryl was known to be chaotic and seemingly contradictory in nature and temperament. At times she will be profound and business-like, whereas at others she will seem fickle and flirty. Her moods seemed to match the moment, and overall she did what she thought was best for the Weave and magic use in Toril. If she had flaws it was that at times she seemed naive and too trusting.^[1]

Relationships Edit

Mystryl distrusts Shar, who along with Selûne were her progenitors, for Shar seeks to constantly usurp her power and role. Mystryl also dislikes Selûne's motherly suggestions, whom she views as overly maternal. She was an eternal enemy of both Kozah and Moander, whom she sees as trying to ruin and destroy all that she and her worshipers seek to build and accomplish.^[1]

Worshipers and Clergy Edit

The majority of Mystryl's followers were human, but all natives of Faerûn were welcome. Given the pantheonistic nature of worship in the Realms, anyone that wishes to become more powerful in arcane magic (rather than though divine aid) at least supplicates themselves to her and appeases her, even though their patron deity might be another divine being. Mystryl prefers to have magic items burnt in her name as worship, and this was most commonly done by temporarily enchanting an item with a spell before burning it.^[1]

Mystryl's clergy were a varied lot, and just like her followers they were allowed to be of any alignment. Relations between the different groups of Mystryl's faith was surprisingly good despite this. Priests of Mystryl were generally known as Servants of Mystery, whereas more senior priests were called Ladies or Lords of Mystery. In addition to these, other titles existed within each subgroup or temple. As a general rule, talent and ability for a position outweighed raw power, so the most capable spellcasters did not necessarily have the highest rank within a temple.^[1]

As part of their daily activities, all Mystryl worshipers were expected to devote some time to researching new spells or magic items, in order to enhance and expand the usefulness of magic.^[2]

Weaveglow Edit

All priests of Mystryl can cause their bodies, or parts of their bodies, to glow softly with a blue-white radiance for as long as they wish. This was known as weaveglow, and the effect of the light was only to about 5 feet away, essentially just enough to read by. Usage of weaveglow was not generally known outside of the clergy, and most of the clergy kept this as a secret.^[2]

History Edit

At the dawn of age Lord Ao created the universe. Eventually, two beings began to form, one of light and the other of darkness. Together, these two beings created the heavenly bodies as well as the goddess Chauntea, who represented the world of Toril. Chauntea asked these two powerful beings, Selune and Shar, for warmth in order to nurture life. In this, the two beings could not agree. Selune acted on her own and formed a star, which Shar then immediately sought to put out. In the conflict, Selune tore all the aspect of magic out of herself and threw it at Shar. When it hit, it tore right through and pulled with it all of Shar's aspect of magic, and created the greater deity known as Mystryl.^[3] In this manner, Mystryl (and later goddesses of magic) acts as a balancing force between Selune and Shar.^[4]

In 3520 NY (-339 DR), the netherese archwizard Karsus cast the only 12th level spell that ever existed, Karsus's avatar.^[5] This spell was used to rob a deity of their power and grants it instead to the spellcaster. Karsus chose to rob Mystryl of her power, and when her godly essence (and the very Weave itself) poured into him he found that he was incapable of wielding such power.^[6] Magical effects doubled in power briefly, then became wild and chaotic. To save the Weave from permanent damage, Mystryl chose to sacrifice herself, which immediately stopped all magic.

When the goddess of magic was reborn -- this time as Mystra -- she used, as a basis, a beautiful peasant girl who was just learning cantrips but who had the capability of one day becoming an archwizard.^[7] This new being would prove to be different than the old Mystryl, most notably in her alignment (Lawful Neutral).

Time TravelEdit

Since Mystryl was the goddess of magic and time, she was able to keep a strict control on time travelers, limiting them to traveling only to the past. Up until -339 DR (at the time of her sacrifice), she prevents any attempt to travel forward through time and any time traveling that did not meet her agreement, whether it was performed by magic or by planar travel.^[8]

There exist some ancient texts of Mystryl that give hints as to the location of several time gates, ancient portals through which individuals can travel back in time.^[9]

References Edit