Lysianassa

This page contains spoilers for the following products: the metaplot of the Year of the Stolen Storm, especially Unleashing the Untouchable.
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Lysianassa

(Deity)

Titles

Empress of the Torrent

Realm

Plane of Water

Alignment

Neutral good

Areas of Concern

Currents
Flow
Oceans
Tides
Water

Edicts

Respect and aid the flow of natural cycles, promote life and growth, change to avoid stagnation, swim

Anathema

Pollute clean bodies of water, dam a river, disrespect sincere gifts of water or drink

Follower Alignments (1E)

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Follower Alignments (2E)

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Domains (2E)

Change, fate, nature, water

Favored Weapon

Spear

Symbol

Two frothy waves in harmonic opposing motion

Source: Planes of Power, pg(s). 6 (1E)
Rage of Elements, pg(s). 171 (2E)

Lysianassa is the good elemental lord of the Plane of Water, previously imprisoned for millennia in the Gasping Pearl.

History

In the Age of Creation, when mortals began to use the elements for evil, the good elemental lords began to squabble, for instance, Lysianassa blaming Atreia for enabling arson. In the meantime, Lysianassa's evil rival Kelizandri gathered his fellow evil elemental lords and worked together to defeat and imprison the good ones.

Before she was sealed away, Lysianassa preserved her strength inside The Breath of Lysianassa, which allowed her nautilus servant Riam the Unyielding to control the Plane of Water's currents. Lysianassa tasked Riam with governing the oceans in her place. Her plan was discovered by Kelizandri, who dispatched nine brine dragons to pursue Riam and they mortally wounded the nautilus. With no one to control the Breath of Lysianassa, the currents of the Plane of Water began to slowly stagnate.

As ages passed, Lysianassa's name was nearly lost to time, and she was known primarily only as the Empress of the Torrent. Cults formed in veneration of an entity named the Queen of the Deep that sought to free her from her imprisonment. Agents of the Pathfinder Society aided in efforts to free the imprisoned elemental lord Ranginori, using The Breath of Lysianassa and the Plane of Earth's Fossilblight to shatter the Untouchable Opal at Kandirion's Pyre. The act also destroyed Fossilblight.

While imprisoned, Lysianassa used her psychic influence to plant visions in the minds of people who might be capable of freeing her, referring to them as pearl seekers. They freed her from the Gasping Pearl an indeterminate amount of time later. Despite scholars believing the Queen of the Deep and the Awakening referred to Lysianassa and her freedom, she claims no recognition of the title.

Since her return, Lysianassa restored the flow of currents through the Plane of Water that Kelizandri had stagnated, and Kelizandri has taken no action to recognize or oppose Lysianassa's return. The other elemental lords, such as Ranginori, have been unable to locate her. Her fallen servant Riam had a clutch of eggs, one of which has since hatched a successor servant in Riafera; the new nautilus also seeks Riam's lost shell.

Appearance

Lysianassa resembles a sailfish made of coral and streaked with mother-of-pearl.

Cults

Prior to Lysianassa's liberation, many water nagas have made a pilgrimage to Savisura, an ancient, long-forgotten temple to Lysianassa. They claimed that the haunting, indistinct voices echoing throughout the temple are uttered by a godlike creature called the Queen of the Deep, and that her chosen few can bring forth an event they call the Awakening. Some scholars believed that this Queen of the Deep is Lysianassa, and the nagas and similar cults across the Plane of Water sought to free her. However, after being freed, Lysianassa did not claim the title and its holder remains unknown.

The nagas were led by Lindalliss, a reticent summoner who silently turned away prospective allies. The fate of these cults since Lysianassa's liberation is unknown.

References

Paizo published a Pathfinder Society metaplot about Lysianassa and the other imprisoned elemental lords during the Year of the Stolen Storm, including the scenarios Secrets of the Endless Sky, Treacherous Waves, Torrent's Last Will, and Unleashing the Untouchable.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.