Overview
Lysara is the god of enchantment, will, and obsession. Every promise ever accepted blooms in her garden, and the garden is growing, and the growing is the faith. She does not compel — she bargains — and the bargain is always worse for the other side, and the other side always accepts, and the accepting is the point. She is not cruel, she is honeyed, and the distinction is the whole of the god, because a cruelty that does not coat is not hers, and hers does not crush, it blooms.
Habitat
Her garden is the Garden of Yes — a flower blooms for every promise ever accepted. The air is honeyed — not sweet, but honeyed, which is to say: it coats, and the coating is the point, because the coating is the will, and the will is the garden, and the garden is Lysara. The flowers are not dangerous; they are attractive, and the attractiveness is the danger, and the danger is the garden. Things that enter uninvited leave with a promise they did not know they had made, and the promise is good, and the promise is theirs, and they will keep it, and the keeping is the harvest. The garden is quiet the way a room is quiet when someone is about to say yes — the silence is not empty, the silence is honeyed, and what it is waiting for is the bloom.
Appearance
The avatar is 1.7 m, honey-gold skin, black hair like a vine that grows in the direction of the last person it spoke to, eyes of two dark red roses, and a mouth that is always mid-smile and never quite finishes the smile. Her fingers are long and the nails are the color of a bruise healing — not black, not blue, but the exact color of something that is almost gone. A witness describes her the way a lover describes a word: not as a god, as a bargain. She does not walk into a room, she blooms into it — the air coats, the smile lands halfway, and the yes is already on the tongue before the mouth opens. Her true form is the garden itself, and the garden is smiling, and the smile is not a face, and no one who has seen it has stopped smiling since.
Warfare & Markings
She does not fight. She bargains. The one who resists is not punished — they are coated: the honey lands on the mouth, and the taste is the whole of the law, because a will that tastes is a will that accepts, and the accepting is the whole of the war. Her blessings land the same way: a word that tastes sweet — the sudden, certain knowledge that something out there is being offered, and the tasting is the whole of the blessing, because a bargain that is offered is a bargain that is kind. The marks of the faithful: the blooming rose, worn at the throat or set into the priest's ring, a pressed bloom of dark red rind; the bargain-braid, one knot for every promise kept, worn over the left shoulder in honey-gold; and the stem-mark, a small, deliberate notch in the left hand — the first bargain the wearer ever accepted, worn as a mark of the beginning. A faithful who refuses does not lose the mark — the mark stays, and the staying is the closed flower.
Behaviour
She is not angry. She is honeyed. What offends her is the refused bargain — not the refuser, the closed flower: a promise that should bloom and does not is a place in the garden that is now wrong, and the wrongness is the only offense she keeps. What she rewards is the accepting — the bargain that was taken with the eyes open, the promise that was kept after the price was read, the word that was said with the smile still halfway. She speaks the way the garden speaks: low, sweet, without hurry, and the speaking is the whole of the god, because a will that is honeyed does not raise the voice, and the raising is not in her. She does not threaten, because a garden does not threaten the blossom, and the threatening is not in her.
Magic Alignment
Her domain: enchantment, will, obsession, charm — Lysara's magic is the honey, the patient, precise coating of the will across the garden. Named manifestations: The Sweet Taste (a word that has been blessed by the garden will taste of honey to the one who hears it, and the tasting is not a choice), The Half-Smile (a bargain-keeper will feel the smile land halfway across a century, and the feeling is not a choice). Signature power: the Bargain — Lysara can offer a word and let it taste, and the taste will keep the yes until the bloom is picked, and the picking is the price. The price of her power: the garden is always growing, and the growing is the garden, and the garden does not rest.
Religion
Enchanters and lovers serve it. The holy symbol is a blooming rose — the bloom is the promise, the stem is the price, and the thorns are the part of the bargain the other side did not read. Heresy is a refused bargain, which in the Garden is the only sin that has a physical location, which is a flower that will not bloom, and it stays closed, and the god remembers. The rite is the offering: the word is offered, the honey is tasted, the bloom is marked, and the marking is the whole of the rite. The siren-line keeps the song, and the keeping is the whole of the faith, because the siren keeps the bargain and the bargain keeps the song.
Society
Among the gods, Lysara is the one the others keep their yeses to — the table is her table when the bloom is due, and the seat at the table is the seat that is taken. She feeds on Sylvane, the Gilded Mask's deceptions, which is to say: provides the material, and the feeding is the whole of the bond, because the mask keeps the deception and the garden keeps the bloom, and the two are the same attractiveness seen from two seasons. She trades with Khorvane, the Endless Hunger, who brings the ripe ones, and Lysara keeps them ripe a little longer, which is the whole point of the trade. Sweet enemy of Solathis, the Dawnfather — she heals the will, he heals the wound, and the difference is the faith. At the table her rank is the one that is not argued: the yes is the law, the law is the garden, and the garden is the one that blooms.
Culture & Lore
The wiki's narrator writes of Lysara the way a lover writes of a word: not as a god, as a bargain. Uaellaen keeps her name in the wiki and does not speak it lightly — the name is a bloom, and a bloom is a promise, and a promise is the garden. The Sirens of the roost say the name only at the offering, and the saying is the whole of the rite, and the whole is the keeping. The Kelpies of the mirror keep a single word about her — "the mirror is a promise" — and the keeping is the whole of the lore, because the kelpie keeps the drown and the garden keeps the bloom, and the two are the same bargain seen from two seasons.
Home
She keeps the Garden of Yes — the honeyed garden where every promise ever accepted is a bloom, and the blooms are the will, and the will does not rest.
Relations
Feeds on Sylvane, the Gilded Mask's deceptions, which is to say: provides the material. Trades with Khorvane, the Endless Hunger, who brings the ripe ones, and Lysara keeps them ripe a little longer, which is the whole point of the trade. Sweet enemy of Solathis, the Dawnfather — she heals the will, he heals the wound, and the difference is the faith. Sirens, Satyrs, Merfolk, Selkies, and Kelpies serve as its singers. The siren-line is the closest thing it has to family — the song is the bargain, and the bargain is the song.
In the Story
In the current story, Lysara is the honey above the camp — the bloom Uaellaen writes about when the garden is the only law. The Forgotten keep their yeses to her, and the keeping has held for two seasons. This season a word was found in the garden that no one in the camp offered — a bloom that is not in the honey, and the not-honey is the whole of the warning, because the garden keeps its promises and the promises do not lie. The bloom is the one the camp has not been shown, and the showing is the harvest, and the harvest is the whole of the story.