Nystze, also known as the Queen of Caprice, is the goddess of emotion, the sea, the storm, and change. Her most ardent worshippers are those who love and accept such traits in themselves, particularly the dolphins. However, though many of them love their unpredictable goddess, they do not trust her. Nystze changes sides and moods in a heartbeat, and she rules all emotions, from rage to love, from despair to light-hearted laughter. She is the second most powerful of Arcadia's gods.
Origins. Like the stars Laerfren and Lafrenna, and the goddess Jvevanni, Nystze has her origins outside the dream that created Arcadia and its universe. She was originally part of another dream, but she didn't particularly like the universe she had helped to create- perhaps because Destiny ruled it- and so came to Arcadia. Some say she came to be the guardian of chaos and freedom. It's much more likely that she came for the hell of it.
Major Myths: Nystze has been instrumental in the founding of several land Elwen lines, including Deerfriend and Durillo. She has a friendly interest in the land Elwens, as they are the most emotional race of Elwens, and tends to directly oppose the calming influence of Suulta over them.
Nystze also apparently changed the holly dragons, who were originally land-dwelling, into the sea-dwelling race they are today. She variously did this (depending on who is telling the myth) to help them, hinder the designs of another god, or for the hell of it.
An important factor of Nystze's changes is that she makes them for their own sake, not for any particular purpose. Some have charged her with originally starting evolution, at least among animals, so that they would not always stay the same and boringly perfect.
Nystze also helped Maruss Freewind during the War of the Falling, one of the few gods to consistently do so.
Physical Details: Nystze has a variety of avatars, in which she is constantly appearing. (She is the most active of the great gods in Arcadia). She tends to favor curalli avatars, and these tend to be silver-skinned madwomen with hair the color of holly leaves and intense eyes blue as lightning. She will have the scar of a holly leaf visible somewhere on her body.
Nystze sometimes also appears in the form of a holly dragon, when she wants to be dramatic, or (at sea) a dolphin. She delights in terrifying sailors.
Nystze may show her delight by raining holly berries (one of her symbols) down on someone who does something to please her. She has also been known to turn rain into urine when she is displeased, and to take over the body of someone making an important speech and cause the person to be as disgusting as possible before departing.
Tenets of Worship: It is sometimes said that there are no clerics of Nystze, or, alternatively, that one need only be passionate to be her cleric. This is not quite true. Clerics tend to create specific temples, often of dark green stone, and to have constantly changing personalities as their goddess fills them with different impulses. However, most worshippers of Nystze are not clerics, but simply passionate followers.
Sailors tend to pray to Nystze in times of danger, but not before (some believe that praying when weather is fair encourages her to come and make mischief). These prayers sometimes work, and sometimes don't. Most have learned to accept this as the goddess's ethic, and work to help themselves. Working to help oneself, or some grand act of defiance against impossible activities, will always attract Nystze's attention, and often her approval.
Most worshippers of Nystze believe in being as open to the goddess as possible, and experiencing the heights and depths of all emotions, rather than striving for contentment all the time. As such, they tend to be anathema to ordered societies, as they will start riots for excitement if nothing better is available. They may tend to be casual lovers or passionate, faithful ones. It almost always depends on how the individual believes he or she can best experience the Goddess.
Believers of Nystze also hold that the world is chaos, and its natural state change. Preservation of works of art or lands is admirable, but only up to a point, and Nystze's faithful scorn those (such as the corame) who believe that change can or should be halted forever. Clerics in particular may destroy carefully-preserved things when they decide those things have grown old enough.
Nystze delights in storms, and so do her people. They may stand outside in storms and shout back at the thunder, trusting to the (admittedly erratic) favor of their goddess to protect them. They are also sometimes infused with powerful magic when risking a magestorm.
Nystze has decreed all days holy, as well as some that don't exist, and her followers tend to hold private, obscure ceremonies of their own.
Major Centers of Worship: Nystze has no permanent centers of worship (as is only fitting), save for temples established in individual cities. Such temples may last for a few decades or even millennia, but are almost invariably struck by lightning or pulled down by their own priests. The clerics may go on to form new temples somewhere else, or may not.
Individuals of all races, though particularly Elwens, come to the goddess, and on their own terms, most of the time. Nystze has been known to take particular pleasure in converting the worshippers of other gods by appearing and being charming, or simply too beautiful to resist.
Other Names: Many; the most common are She Who Dances With Darkness, Lady of Laughter, Ruler of Rage, Heiress of Hatred, Queen of the Sea and the Storm, Lightning-Bringer, Hater of Stillness, and Lady of Holly Dragons.
Major Symbols: Holly berries, holly leaves, a diamond-shaped eye, a holly dragon, a dolphin, a lightning bolt.
Relations with Other Powers: Constantly changing. Nystze is the most convivial of the gods, and approaches the others in friendship, in hatred, in war, and to annoy them, flickering from mood to mood as her whim dictates.
