Meta:Shelyn

Messageboard posts

Paizo messageboard posts from 2007 by Mike McArtor established many details about Shelyn prior to the publication of canon works containing those details. While some of these details were included, expanded upon, or modified in subsequent published works, others conflict with those works. PathfinderWiki long cited these posts in support of canon assertions.

The PathfinderWiki canon policy privileges published works over new canon details provided by Paizo staff outside of the development and editing processes that lead to published works. In particular, Night of Frozen Shadows, Inner Sea Gods, Chronicle of the Righteous, Gods & Magic, and to a lesser extent Skeletons of Scarwall, The Windsong Testaments, and Treasure Vault have either made canon or overridden many of these details.

Removed content includes the following:

She started life as a relatively minor deity of beauty, art, and music, but with the destruction of her unknown mother, claimed by some to be a former goddess of love, Shelyn gained her mother's portfolio. Shelyn continues to focus on beauty and the related areas of art and music, and has expanded upon her mother's relatively narrow view of love to include all forms of the emotion.

Later, presumably after the Age of Darkness, the siblings quarreled again. Zon-Kuthon responded to Shelyn's tears and her pleading with violence, until she wrested his weapon, a golden glaive, away from him, and a tenuous peace of silence and avoidance was established.

Before she became the goddess of love, Shelyn was flighty and shallow. Since discovering the capacity intelligent beings have for loving people and things that lack beauty, she tends to look for beauty in everyone and everything. "Beauty comes from within" is a relatively recent saying she introduced to Golarion, and it is a philosophy she not only practices herself, but she requires from her clerics. In this way, it is quite possible for a physically unattractive person to become a cleric of the goddess of beauty.

Shelyn focuses just as much attention on internal beauty as external, and she is considered also to have the most beautiful personality, which changed greatly when she became goddess of love. While lesser beauties might inspire jealousy in those who see them, she does not; nor does she herself feel jealous when another receives attention. She encourages the growth and appreciation of beauty, regardless of its source or admirers, and thus she is never jealous.

Darker rumors put her in the bed of her half-brother, but such whispered rumors never persist for very long, as Zon-Kuthon does not tolerate such things.

... (Shelyn favors gifted artists) but not as much as an ungifted artist who struggles for days to create something mediocre. A naturally talented person who fails to try and creates something mediocre is shunned by Shelyn (and by extension, her clergy). Clerics of Shelyn frequently are artists themselves, although those with little talent more often become art critics or collectors.

Shelyn herself has an extensive collection of artwork, mostly gifts from potential suitors or worshipers, most of which portray her. She also has a massive collection of violins and a secret collection of glaives. The relatively recently ascended god Cayden Cailean frequently attempts to win her over (and always fails), and has contributed greatly to her art and violin collections.

The few paladins who worship her practice courtly love, with female paladins attempting to win the attentions of attractive young nobles.

When they first came into being so very long ago, their mutual parent forced Zon-Kuthon to swear an oath to the forces of Law. Zon-Kuthon swore that he would never harm Shelyn, nor would he stand by if others tried to harm her in his presence. In exchange for making the oath, he received the glaive Whisperer of Souls.

To this day, clerics of Zon-Kuthon never harm known clerics of Shelyn—doing so results in harsh punishments that do not end with death—but sometimes they actually try to protect such clerics. This behaviour earns them divine rewards. For their part, clerics of Shelyn return the favor by looking the other way when they meet known clerics or cultists of Zon-Kuthon. The exception to this rule is if the clerics or cultists are obviously harming innocents, defacing art, or otherwise being unforgivably evil. This arrangement might seem like a serious drawback for Zon-Kuthon, as other evil deities might take advantage of it to put him into a difficult position. However, no deities ever really move against Shelyn or her clergy.

She is not a martial goddess by any stretch and tends to stay as far from battle as possible, thus she has built up no animosity from the evil deities or their followers. To this day, only Rovagug, god of wrath, disaster, and destruction can resist Shelyn's charms at all times. He alone opposes her on any long-term basis.

Much to the frustration of Whisperer of Souls, it cannot seem to corrupt Shelyn or influence her in any way, earning her the title "the Incorruptible". Instead, Shelyn has managed to exert her own influence on the weapon, slowly morphing it into a beautiful work of art as she releases its captured souls.

Weapon training, which only occurs for about an hour every other day or so, if at all, builds off motions learned from the acolyte's art or music (paladins frequently practice calligraphy, as the movement of the pen mirrors that of the glaive).

(Temples) tend to be architectural marvels, and architects and builders frequently vie for the honor to build or repair a temple of Shelyn in order to show off their skills. Most settlements have at least a shrine or altar dedicated to Shelyn, but only the largest cities can really afford a dedicated temple.

Rituals dedicated to Shelyn involve singing, regardless of the skill or tone-deafness of the participants. Only those who play a wind or brass instrument (or a chin-set instrument like a violin) are excused from singing. If a ritual cannot be held at a shrine or temple to Shelyn, it should be held in some place surrounded by beauty, either natural or constructed.

For the version of the article prior to revisions that cited canon sources for, amended, edited, or removed the above assertions, see revision 469802. -Oznogon (talk) 21:46, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

Unincorporated sources

In addition to the cleanup work proposed below, there is a major article about Shelyn in Pathfinder 50. --Fleanetha 11:37, 29 October 2011 (UTC)
Chronicle of the Righteous (sourcebook) 39 --Fleanetha (talk) 22:30, 30 August 2013 (UTC) -Oznogon (talk) 21:46, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
Faiths of Purity 14f., 27, 31 --Fleanetha (talk) 17:07, 2 June 2015 (UTC)
~~The History section is not right as currently Shelyn takes the glaive twice. --Fleanetha (talk) 21:49, 20 August 2015 (UTC)~~
Paths of the Righteous 14f. --Fleanetha (talk) 17:38, 25 March 2017 (UTC)
The Flooded Cathedral 74 --Fleanetha (talk) 19:47, 18 March 2018 (UTC)
Divine Mysteries 98–101 -Oznogon (talk) 19:38, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
- 33 117 118 119 284 294 Listens to prayers like music, focusing on sounds out of place, using servitors and powerful followers to also listen the same way and answer. 25 Worship in Tian Xia & Arcadia 99 Storm giants Syriss 99 Arazni Fields of Resolve 40 41 Calistria 48, 99, 100 Kholos thinks Younger twin of Calistria 99 Cayden Cailean 52 Desna 52 54 55 56 57 96 97 100 101 115 116 Sarenrae 52 54 55 56 96 97 100 115 116 Nocticula 100 f. 154 Abadar 36 116 Asmodeus 44 116 Dou-Bral Zon-Kuthon 40 56 57 98 99 100 101 110 112 115 116 Iomedae 68 Erastil 60 Mwangi Expanse kholo 98 Urgathoa & Petrescu of Ustalav 101 109 115 Thron The Prince in Chains 98 100 112 113 Whisperer of Souls 98 112 Rahadoum and Nidal 99 Heartbond 99 Ardentia 99 Lover’s Lament 99 Bolka 100 Blossomheart Isle of the Penitent 101 Spirit of Adoration 101 Phlegyas 215 Guardians of the Sacred Self 243 Radiant Prism 243 f. --Stejo (talk) 15:10, 24 December 2024 (UTC)