Sune

:"For the given name see Sune (name)"

Forgotten Realms Deity|fgcolor=#fff


bgcolor=#000
fgcolor=#fff
name=Sune
title=Lady Firehair
home=Brightwater
power=Greater
alignment=Chaotic Good
portfolio=Beauty, love, passion
alias=
super=None

Sune is the deity of love and beauty in the fictional world of the Forgotten Realms. Her dogma is primarily concerned with love based on outward beauty, with primary importance placed upon loving people who respond to the Sunite's appearance.

Publication history

Ed Greenwood created Sune for his home Dungeons & Dragons game.Fact|date=August 2008 She was very loosely inspired by the Greek deity Aphrodite.Fact|date=September 2008

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)

Sune first appeared within Dungeons & Dragons as one of the deities featured in Ed Greenwood's article "Down-to-earth Divinity" in "Dragon" #54 (October 1981). [Ed Greenwood, Dragon magazine #54 - "Down-to-earth divinity" (October 1981)]

Sune later officially appeared as one of the major deities for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, in the "Forgotten Realms Campaign Set"'s "Cyclopedia of the Realms" booklet (1987). [cite book | id =ISBN 0-88038-472-7 | title = Forgotten Realms Campaign Set | author = Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb and Karen S. Martin | year = 1987 | publisher = Wizard of the Coast]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

Sune was described in the hardback "Forgotten Realms Adventures" (1990), the revised "Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting" (1993) in the "Running the Realms" booklet, [cite book | title=Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting | author = Ed Greenwood | year = 1993|id = ASIN B000K06S2E ] and "Faiths & Avatars" (1996). [Martin, Julia, and Eric L Boyd. "Faiths & Avatars" (TSR, 1996)]

Her role in the cosmology of the Planescape campaign setting was described in "On Hallowed Ground" (1996). [McComb, Colin. "On Hallowed Ground" (TSR, 1996)]

Sune is described as one of the good deities that celestials can serve in the supplement "Warriors of Heaven" (1999). [Perkins, Christopher. "Warriors of Heaven" (TSR, 1999)]

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)

Sune appears as one of the major deities of the Forgotten Realms setting again, in "Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting" (2001), [cite book | title = Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting | author = Ed Greenwood et al. | year = 2001 | publisher = Wizard of the Coast | id = ISBN 0-7869-1836-5 ] and is further detailed in "Faiths and Pantheons" (2002). [Boyd, Eric L, and Erik Mona. "Faiths and Pantheons" (Wizards of the Coast, 2002)]

Appearance

When Sune appears to the mortals of Faerûn she wears only a diaphanous gown.She is known for her lustrous red hair that drapes down to the ground. She haseyes of shining emeralds and ruby red plump lips. Her symbol is that of a beautiful woman with red hair. Sune is known to enjoy long-term relationships, and many casual flirtations.

Dogma

Sune's dogma maintains that physical beauty or lack thereof is more than simply a function of physical factors; to the Sunite, that which is beautiful is good and ugly things are undoubtedly evil, for they believe that beauty radiates from one's inner being and reflects the core nature of an individual. (This outlook when taken literally will often result in the deception of a Sunite by a fair-seeming evil creature.) Followers of Sune do all they can to protect their beauty.Sunites are also often narcissistic, being commanded to love themselves more than anyone except Suneherself. Apart from these specifics, Sune's dogma revolves around nurturing and encouraging love andpassion. (This is not to say that all Sunites are hedonists, this being the domain of
Sharess rather than Lady Firehair.)

Orders

*Order of the Ruby Rose/Order of the Reddest RoseThe Church of Sune has a small affiliated order of fighters, paladins, and bards who serve to guard temples and holy sites along with the clergy and who sometimes pursue quests or do good works in Sune's name to promote her faith. To become one of the Sisters and Brothers of the Ruby Rose, a candidate stands vigil in a church of Sune all night. If the Lady Firehair appears to the candidate in a vision during the night or somehow shows her favor, the candidate is admitted to the order. Members of this order are given to writing essays and songs of courtly love when not engaged in vital business, and often adopt a beatufiul individual to adore from afar whether that individual would be flattered by such attentions or not.

Clerics

Sune's specialty priests are known as Heartwarders. They are known to be very beautiful, and wise.

Relationships

Sune is served by Lliira and Sharess, who she rescued from the influence of Shar during the Godswar. For this, Shar considers Sune her enemy, and Sune now aids Mystra in her struggle against Shar and the Shadow Weave. She is also allied to Selûne (who once served her much as Sharess does now, but has since gone her own way), Milil, and Lathander. She dislikes the Gods of Fury (Talos and his follower deities) as well as Tempus for the destruction they cause to beautiful things. Despite this, she has no true enemies among the gods, as the Gods of Fury dislike all others and Tempus considers her too flighty and therefore irrelevant to be worth the conflict.

References