#𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ˖ 𖥔 ݁ . study .

[merdeva]

something real malicious and rotted about inara killing all other descendants of jergal so that only she can claim that birthright. as a young child she might have ached for family, but now she'll do anything to be the only survivor of her bloodline.

[merdeva]

inara as the goddess of immortality can grant her highest of champions immortality (that is, eternal life outside of being killed in battle). I think she can only make one immortal a year to keep the balance of life and death. and in exchange for a life time 's worth of immortality, the balance asks for one hundred souls, so it's a rather bloody, violent, selfish act.

[merdeva]

WHICH SYMBOLIC FRUIT ARE YOU?

CHERRY.

In popular culture, cherries have come to represent sensuality, sex, and seduction. In the cult classic, Twin Peaks, Audrey Horne expresses her sexual expertise by tying a cherry stem with her tongue. "Cherry" is also used to refer to the concept of virginity: why? I don't know to be honest, but here we are.

Much like the cherry, you're a sensual person who enjoys all the creature comforts the world offers. You enjoy delicious food, dynamic relationships, passionate lovemaking and stimulating conversation; however, you may also come across a touch vapid or shallow, due to your quickly fading attention when something has served its usefulness to you. To quote some man on tinder: "you're here for a good time, not a long time". You can come across, at times, slightly tart, carrying a bit of a bite to you that not everyone can handle. That’s okay: you’re an acquired taste!

tagged by: no one, I made this quiz! tagging: @sorcerav @arachling @wizofwaterdeep @shemurder @kerymarael @soulskept @sunderdust

[merdeva]

A TASTE OF DIVINITY .

INARA MARASVELT, the goddess of immortality. otherwise known as the death maiden.

depiction. all iconography and portraits of inara from before her ascension were destroyed when she ascended –– now the only imagery that remains is of her chosen visage in the presence of her followers. she is oft seen as a tall woman with long, flowing black hair and an ornate face mask styled like this. her black wings are massive and can wrap around her body twice, the feathers sharp enough to draw blood if she so wishes. rumors say that down the center of her chest runs a long, raised scar that she can open at will, from which she can give the gift of immortality to her chosen acolytes. her symbol is of a crow or raven with a dagger stuck through its left eye and emerging through its body. other associated portents are that of a red-feathered raven appearing at liminal hours (sunset and sunrise, for example).

divine domains. many of the death maidens' clerics are granted powers of death, the grave, arcana, blood, and knowledge.

enemies. many of the good-aligned gods are in opposition to inara's godhood, and so many of them are natural enemies. however, inara's archnemesis is mystra, for she holds all the secrets of the arcane world, and before she was a goddess, the death maiden was but a wizard at the whims of the weave. (additionally, in verses in which inara is known to be couple with gale as the god ambition, that is anotheroreason for her hatred of mystra). bhaal, or what remains of him, is another known enemy, being that he is inara's own father. other known enemies also happen to be vecna and his forces, as well as the descendants of jergal... who no one knows to be of inara's own blood.

allies. asmodeus, being the god of lies and king of the hells has been a tentative ally of inara's as their portfolios do not overlap, but their goals often do. asmodeus' forces have often helped inara with her goals, with the expectation that when the time would come for asmodeus to cash in, inara's followers would assist with his goals as well.

commandments of the death maiden.

rebel against death with your every breath. subvert the forces that would seek to shackle you to the mortal coil.

immortality can be achieved in many forms and in many ways –– infamy is as viable a path as fame itself. do all you can to not be forgotten; make your mark upon the world however you must.

achieve your goals with careful discernment and planning. the ascent in power is carved from intent and not from chaos. do not shame the death maiden with a fool's hand.

[merdeva]

when inara ascends to godhood, the most major transformative element is that her wings become fully functional. as they are now, she can only use them for about a minute at a time (as with the regular aasimar race), even though they are always corporeal and present. however, with godhood comes specific privileges, and not only are they healed and strengthened, but their size also increases as well by about an arm's length.

[merdeva]

if i had to explain inara's main desires and fears I would say that ranking first is her fear of being unimportant and forgotten. this is where the core of everything she does comes from. her thirst for power, for love, for any of those things comes from an unwillingness to be no one. it's funny because she's very much 'the main character', but the concept of being someone so easily forgotten terrifies her. she wants to be someone to everyone –– whether they cower or hate her, whether they desire or love her... at least that means they know who she is. this is why the concept of immortality is so important to her, and why she has respect for art almost in equal measure to magic, because art is immortality.

beyond that fear, but close by that is the desire for power out of a fear of being powerless. inara's dedication to gathering knowledge is so that she will never be weak or powerless. bodies break down and fail, but the mind ( if you're lucky ) will never fail you. in some ways, she understands the emperor's argument about human bodies being so weak, because being at the mercy of a body that will age and betray you is sickening to her ( in that way, she would very much be tempted by his offer to turn into a full illithid ).

and so though she gives into the urge often, that is why ultimately inara scorns bhaal, because she refuses to be anyone's pawn piece. she doesn't do it for the right reasons, just for her own independence and freedom.

[merdeva]

inara's symbology and a lot of her motifs and themes are based around goddesses of death like mictecacihuatl (aztec mythology) and persephone (greek mythology), but in particular she is very much influenced and based in the lore and history of kali, the hindu goddess of death, rebirth, and destruction. kali's fearsome feminine energy played a huge part in the story I built for inara and how I perceive her.

[merdeva]

inara as a descendent of jergal means that she carries his line of power when he was the original god of death. she's not overpowered innately, but the threads to his previous domains are there, she only has to find them and pull on them. divinity is in her bloodline, and it is her birthright. I cannot imagine jergal having reproduced, but I do feel the ancient netheril-inhabitants who worshipped him as nakasr were blessed with motes of his being that essentially made them his 'children'. their individual bloodlines were marked by divinity, some more powerful than others, leading to offpsring who manifested as aasimar (like inara), divine soul sorcerers, shadow sorcerers, and other curious magical states that they were predisposed to as a part of jergal's lineage. how this impacts inara is that she eventually knows she is not the only descendent of jergal... and she does intend to kill them all so that only she can call herself his true heir. inara is motivated by power and immortality more than anything. the concept of family is alien to her at the very least, and she would feel no familial or emotional ties to these strangers. instead, she'd look at them the way monarchs often saw each other : in this case, inara is elizabeth the first, and all the other descendants are mary queen of scots, representative of a threat to her birthright of power. and because powerful female characters are awesome : I do think inara is one of the more powerful children in terms of raw potential. over time, she could (and does, in some verses) become the self-decreed queen of death (though what that means exactly I have yet to figure out).

[merdeva]

inara appears to be blind –– her pupils are a very blurry, glassy violet. however, she is not blind. when she was young, she experimented with her magic in an attempt to be able to permanently see into the ethereal plane. she did not succeed fully, but once per long rest she can see into the ethereal plane for one minute. as a result, her eyes are the way they are.

[merdeva]

divergences from the dark urge storyline :

she is bhaal's spawn –�� bhaal specifically built her body out of his own, but also using that of the many descendents of jergal that he'd found, hoping to make her even more of a perfect vessel.

her formative years with the cult of bhaal were... essentially brainwashing. she felt taken in there, and gave into her urges because they made her feel powerful. inara can be very charismatic and rose through the ranks, becoming drunk on the power of steering the cult.

her relationship with orin may also be different because I think inara would have admired orin's methods more vocally.

but after she became leader of the cult (around 22 years old) a lot of it was her pretending too, not being sure of anything, even her values. rakiale, was the only reason she questioned a lot of her own opinions –– their voice of reason consistently kept her just a tiny bit rational.

she wanted to impress her father and enjoyed her status a goddess too much –– she didn't want to go through with the plan purely because she liked gortash's idea a lot more. she wanted to rule, basically, and how can you rule over anyone when they're all dead?

when she was betrayed by orin, I hc that orin had somehow found out that inara was struggling and not as committed to the cause or plan as everyone believed, and that was just another reason to betray her. she likely was told by the elder brain, who knew that inara was hoping to control it.

as for whether inara will eventually resist and become her own person, or become bhaal's chosen again.... I'm torn. I can't see her choosing to be bhaal's chosen because she has found she'd rather rule over death in her own way. she gives in to her urges yes, but does not want to be bhaal's chosen, because she wants to be her own person.

[merdeva]

kalica, mara's familiar, is a black cat –– i've decided to take creaive liberties, and am thus bending the raw of d&d 5e to say that because inara is a blood wizard, her find familiar ritual has bound her to the undead spirit of an awakened restless warrior cat (a jaguar) from thay. the spirit has long forgotten their name, but inara has chosen to name them kalica, a half-common half-celestial word of her own creation, meaning death's destroyer. there's an untranslatable pun there in celestial that essentially equates to 'purr-death' in common.

[merdeva]

inara couldn't fly before the tadpole. despite her wings, there was something defective about them that made it incredibly painful for her to even attempt to fly. she could maybe manage it for a few seconds if she really pushed herself, but tended to prefer not to unless it was necessary. but like with astarion and his new ability to walk in the sun, the tadpole's influence has overridden whatever it is that was causing her so much physical pain. this new ability is a source of pride for her, and something she's not entirely happy to potentially have to give up. for now though, inara can often be seen showing off, flying ahead of the group, and teasingly offering to give flying tours to anyone who wants them –– with the aid of a potion of hill giant strength, since she absolutely cannot carry anyone without it.

[merdeva]

inara's deva (who has yet to be named and is nonbinary) kept her a little bit more balanced, I think (subjective to changing as I get through the durge plotline), but when the tadpole was injected, it quieted them down. the emperor's influence then led to him taking the form of that deva, further confusing inara who can't quite remember them, but can tell something is off nonetheless. I think, until she gets rid of the tadpole, her deva is pretty much quiet, or at the very least, barely able to reach her except in some specific, ultra-rare circumstance.