Auril

Auril, also known as The Cold Goddess, The Frostmaiden, Icedawn , the Goddess of Winter, , and the Frost Sprite Queen, was a fickle, vain, and evil deity, who was primarily venerated out of fear. The few among the Iulutiuns of the Great Glacier who worshiped her called her Saukuruk. She was additionally seen as being synonymous with the Queen of Air and Darkness by some communities of fey, such as those of the Shiverpine Forest in the Deep Wilds. However, after the Sundering the Queen of Air and Darkness was seen to be only impersonating Auril in order to retain followers on Toril.

Description
Auril appeared as an attractive human woman with blue skin. Her body was made from ice and snow.

Personality
Auril was the embodiment of winter's wrath. She was arrogant, capricious and unpreditable. She took great pleasure in torturing her enemies and harrasing her foes. Sacrifices and worship to her was often done out of fear. An evil goddess, her main goal is to cover the Realms under ice and snow.

Divine Realm
Auril had a divine realm called Winter's Hall in Pandesmos, the topmost layer of Pandemonium in the Great Wheel cosmology. Norse god Loki also made Winter's Hall his abode, a place to hide away whenever he fell out of grace with the other Aesir.

During the Spellplague, Auril's realm was located within the Astral Dominion of the Deep Wilds and was known as the Land Under Eternal Ice.

Relationships
Following the Spellplague, Auril gained significant power by siphoning the faiths of Ulutiu, Aerdrie Faenya, and Gruumsh/Talos into her own. In addition to her classic portfolio of cold and winter, the Frostmaiden claimed dominion over wind and storms, bringing her into direct conflict with the ancient primordial power Akadi.

In earlier centuries, Auril was a member of the Deities of Fury, along with Malar, Umberlee, and Talos. Umberlee and Auril cooperated with some degree of confidence, while Malar and Auril despised each other.

Auril and Chauntea were mortal enemies, constantly battling each other. Kossuth and Auril were also mortal enemies, but their followers seldom came across each other. Sune opposed Auril, as she blamed her for the destruction of much that was beautiful. Uthgar hated Auril as she turned the Elk Tribe away from his worship. Rellavar Danuvien, a minor elven god of cold, sought to interfere in the plans of Auril whenever he could.

At one stage, Auril was in a relationship with Thrym, god of the frost giants. During that time she became the mother to the empyrean daughter Nalkara.

Worshipers
In the North, Auril was a commonly worshipped, and feared, goddess and an integral part of northern cultures. Worship of the Frostmaiden was common in lands such as the Great Glacier, the Icerim Mountains , Sossal and Vaasa.

Northlanders considered Auril one of their primary deities and was a key part of their culture. She was feared and seen as the harbringer of winter upon the whole world. In the late autumn and over the winter, regular sacrifices were made to her. Sacrifices of food were place upon rafts which were then set adrift in the ocean. Human sacrifices, usually prisoners of war or slaves, were placed on these rafts. Human sacrifice was a rare occurence and was only seen during dire times.

In the Moonsea region, followers of the Frostmaiden were shunned by society and was most commonly encountered in Mulmaster and Zhentil Keep. During the winter in Zhentil Keep, followers of Auril openly recuited from the destitute, homeless and refugees. They were offered salvation, instead of the risk of freezing to death in an alley, if they joined the faith.

Worship and sacrifices to Auril were sparse in the Sea of Fallen Stars region, isolated to the northern shores. Illuskan invaders brought the worship of Auril to Tethyr.

Auril is a key part of the religion of taers and most taer clerics venerated the Frostmaiden.

Auril was one of the deities worshipped by air genasi and water genasi, especially those who lived in cold regions. Air gensasi tended to be zeolotous in their worship, with a fanatical devotion to Auril. They enjoyed inflicting pain on other creatures using cold air.

Auril was one of the deities worshipped by members of the Arcane Brotherhood.

Clerics of Auril worked to establish themselves as a powerful figure within a tribe. They used this power to form a cult and channel a tribe's worship away from their traditional deities towards Auril. The tribe was taught to channel their fury towards those not of the tribe, as a way to be spared the harshness of winter. This led the subverted tribe into a life of pillaging and raiding.

Clerics of Auril wore ice white robes with blue trim, and a wide silver colored belt. Their ceremonial axe hung from this belt. They also wore a circlet of silver around their head. Specialty priests of Auril were called icepriestesses. Sacrifices to the Frostmaiden were common, especially in the North, as people hoped to appease her and thus avoid cripplingly cold winters. Travelers forced to travel in the winter tossed coins, usually gold or silver coins, into a cold stream or the snow before embarking into cold. At the first sign of winter, it was common for farmers to throw some of their harvest into the north wind.

Fanatical members of her cult engaged in human sacrifice. Humans sacrificed to the Frostmaiden are often left tied up to perish from exposure to the cold, or drowned in ice-cold ponds.

Auril used frost giants and winter wolves to deliver commands to her cults, while frostwind viragos and winter hags were the handmaidens of the Frostmaiden.

Holy Days

 * Midwinter (Night), Hammer 30 to Alturiak 1. This was the most holy night of the year for the clergy, a festival of ice-dancing that lasted all night. Druids were also known to pay respect to the Frostmaiden on this date.
 * The Coming Storm and the Last Storm, informal but enthusiastically celebrated rituals where the priests gathered and called howling ice storms down on a region to mark the onset and end of winter.
 * Auril's Blesstide, or Auril's Day, was a holiday (of sorts) held annually in the city of Waterdeep on the first day of new frost in the year. It was not so much a holiday as a way to seek to appease the Frostmaiden in hopes of a mild winter.

Temples
Shrines dedicated to Auril could be found in Bezantur, Calaunt , Iriaebor , Nashkel , Phlan , Tasseldale , and Zhentil Keep

Notable temples to Auril were:
 * The House of Auril's Breath in Glister
 * Icedawn's House, south of Nashkel
 * The Towers of Fury in Calimport
 * The Winter Palace in Luskan
 * Ice Temple, located between Andora and the Wandering Village in Icewind Dale

Magic
Clerics of the Frostmaidan were bestowed a natural immunity to cold which was identical to the effects of the resist cold spell. Powerful clerics had the innate ability to duplicate the effects of the ice storm spell, and summon ice para-elementals. Clerics of Auril had access to the spells of both the Time and Wards spheres. Unlike rank and file clerics, speciality priests of Auril were unable to turn the undead.

The Codicil of White was a magical book containing basic rites, rituals, services, and major ceremonies of Auril's faith. The book also had several pages devoted to the goddess' favorite arcane magic. It was created as a tool for Aurilian wizards and sorcerers to gain a better understanding of the faith.

Many of the following divine magic spells were believed to be recorded in a holy book of Auril called Revelations of the Icedawn.
 * Auril's flowers • Cold fire • Cold snap • Corona of cold • Freeze • Frost breath • Frostbite • Frost fingers • Frost whip • Heart of ice • Heat leech • Ice axe • Ice blade • Ice gauntlet • Snowshoes • Mass snowshoes

Notable worshipers of Auril

 * Artus Cimber, Chosen of Auril following the Spellplague.
 * Bjornhild Solvigsdottir, queen of the Reghedmen Tribe of the Tiger during the late 15 century DR.
 * Cierre, wandering drow surface spy.
 * Gerti Orelsdottr, effective leader of the Shining White frost giants.
 * Hedrun Arnsfirth, Chosen of Auril during the Second Sundering.
 * Iyraclea, self-styled queen of the Great Glacier.
 * Lysan, priestess of Icewind Dale.

History
In the late 15 century DR, Auril encroached onto Umberlee's domain by freezing her chaotic tides. Though Umberlee was once allied with Auril, she cut off this alliance, and turned to the other Gods of Fury, Talos and Malar. The three allied deities sought to take down the Frostmaiden, and she was forced to retreat to the most frigid region of Toril: the Sea of Moving Ice. Specifically on an island known as Solstice, the Goddess of Winter caused a seemingly eternal winter over the area, including Icewind Dale. As such, Auril became very weak and vulnerable, and self-isolated. In fact, she became so powerless that she could be slain by mortal creatures, which could force her to be banished until the next winter solstice.

In, Chosen of Auril, Hedrun Arnsfirth, began her war in Icewind Dale.

Trivia
Among the northern islands of the Trackless Sea, such as Gundarlun, the Purple Rocks, Ruathym and Tuern, the constant, bitterly-cold northwest winds were called "Auril's Breath".

Connections
Auril