The Worship of Jaryae

Jaryae is a Demigoddess regarded as a Goddess by the people of Kedas.  Her worship is particularly strong in Odess, thanks to the large population of Genasi located in Glasswyn's Little Maelstrom district.  Jaryae is regarded as the Goddess of Joy and Transitions.  Many pray to her to ease the difficulty of painful transition, but others interpret her call to be one of finding the joy in transitions.

Jaryae was once a Genasi.  As Genasi are tied to the elemental planes, so too is Jaryae.  While her divine visage is not reflective of any one Genasi subrace (or Soul, as many Genasi refer to them), she does reflect them all.  True to her role as Goddess of Transitions, Jaryae is constantly in flux from one visage to another.  One moment, her hair might be fire, flickering and warm.  The next, her skin the color of granite, her voice grinding and resonant.  In another she hums with the energy of lightning and moves with the grace of wind.  Often she manifests features of two or more Souls at once.

Very rarely, Genasi are born with Souls that reflect the para-elemental planes, such as Ice or Magma, or the quasi-elemental planes, such as Ash or Lightning.  While some Genasi shun those with these souls as less pure, most worshipers consider them closer to Jaryae; they represent states of transition between elements, just as the goddess represents transition.  Some take this to the extreme, as well, regarding para and quasi-elemental Soul Genasi as the chosen children of Jaryae, though this is not a mainstream belief.  Still, cults have occasionally sprung up around particularly charismatic para or quasi-Elemental Genasi.

In her role as Goddess of Joy, Jaryae is often invoked at the beginnings of feasts and festivals.  She is said to bless music, plays, and sporting events, especially those which bring together large, happy crowds.  Many Genasi in the Maelstrom learn to sing or play an instrument as a part of their devotion to Jaryae.

Jaryae's most common symbol is a wheel of four colors: red, blue, white, and brown.  Each fades into the next.  Many of her worshipers fashion jewelry featuring rubies, opals, sapphires, and axinites.  While many of these pieces feature equal balances of the gems, some Genasi who are particularly proud of their elemental Souls will favor one gem slightly; rubies for fire, opals for air, sapphires for water, and axinites for earth.  Some quasi or para-elemental Genasi use other gems in order to represent their own elemental Souls.  Jaryae also has two lesser symbols; first is a harp and fife crossed atop a drum, and second is the laughing face of an androgynous humanoid.

Jaryae's main church has an order of Paladins and Clerics known as the Children of Transition or more colloquially the Transitioners.  This order often serves as the protectors of feasts and festivals, as well as funerals.  While many are not trained as bards, members of the order will often keep an instrument with them that they use to bring joyous sound to happy events.

The tenets of the Children of Transition are as follows:

1. Help loving joy to flower; do not allow those who delight in pain or suffering to take joy from others.

2. Ease the transition of those who are suffering.

3. Add to the song of life; do not allow the voices of the downtrodden to be stamped out.

There are small number of Druids who see their polymorphic powers as in line with Jaryae's perview of transition and worship her accordingly.  Similarly, a number of Half-Elves and good Half-Orcs (as well as other groups which mix two racial backgrounds) worship the goddess because of her acceptance of those who are between two states (or in their case, races).  Similarly, Jaryae is often worshiped by those who are transgender, genderfluid, or some other forms of genderqueer.  Jaryae is also sometimes worshiped by those undergoing puberty, midlife changes, or the decline of old age, hoping to ease or improve those transitional periods of life.