Waukeen

Waukeen (pronounced wau-KEEN or wah-KEEN  ) was a lesser deity of the Faerûnian pantheon known as the Merchant's Friend, Liberty's Maiden, and the Golden Lady. Her portfolio included everything related to commerce and the accumulation of wealth through free and fair trade, as well as the beneficial use of wealth to improve civilization. Those that venerated and appeased her included merchants from lowly peddlers to the wealthy owners of trading companies, investors, accountants, entrepreneurs, caravan guides, warehouse owners, philanthropists, deal-makers, moneylenders, and so on. Waukeen was also the goddess of illicit trade and the patron of many smugglers, fences, black marketeers, and "businessmen" on the shady side of commerce. Collectively, her worshipers were known as Waukeenar.

Description
Waukeen was portrayed as a slender, young woman with long, lustrous golden hair; always splendidly dressed. Some depictions included a pair of golden lions resting at her feet. Her avatar was 10 ft (3 m) tall and typically had eyes that appeared as solid gold. She wore a gown woven from strips of precious metals polished to a gleaming finish and sprinkled with all manner of gemstones. Her sash was of spun gold and her cloak was a lattice of gold coins. On her feet were boots of laced pearls with gold soles.

On occasions where subtlety was more appropriate, the Golden Lady sometimes manifested as a sprouting of daffodils to give a sign of favor, hope, or inspiration. Often she would provide money in unexpected places, like a coin, face-up, to indicate the correct path at an intersection, or nuggets of gold, citrines, pyrite (also known as fool's gold&mdash;perhaps as a sign of disfavor). Slightly less subtle was a pair of golden eyes observing from a curtain of impenetrable darkness; or a large stack of gold coins that writhed like a snake, flying or wrapping itself around something or someone to which she wanted to draw attention before it shattered and scattered, often causing a scramble to collect them. All such tokens from the goddess were highly valued by Waukeenar as "divine essence of the goddess". When more interaction or aid was needed she could send creatures such as golden colored cats, lock lurkers, golden lions, palomino horses, eagles (preferably golden ones), or extraplanar creatures such as ferrumachs and plumachs from the Outlands.

Personality
Waukeen was an active and enthusiastic deity who enjoyed the ebb and flow of goods via commerce and the rapid pace of business in a thriving marketplace full of spirited bargaining &mdash;so much so that rumors of her presence at particularly intense negotiations involving one of her worshipers became legendary. Her side always got the best bargain, but the other party usually walked away also feeling satisfied about the terms of the deal. Waukeen was driven to accomplish a goal and move on to the next one and, rather than being frustrated when the usual business practices failed to work out a solution, she was willing to try alternate methods. This manifested itself in her church sometimes allowing the ends to justify the means. Her stubbornness and dogged persistence occasionally got her in predicaments and likely led to her imprisonment during the Time of Troubles.

Abilities
Although her avatar was not seen during the Godswar, sightings before that time reported that she cast spells as both a wizard and a cleric, choosing spells from any school or sphere. Her weapon of choice was a pummeling stream of gold coins that emitted from either hand (the coins did not disappear, so they could also be given as a boon). The coin cloud acted like a +5 impact evil outsider bane nunchaku. In addition, she could either spit molten gold up to 6 ft (1.8 m) or call down a flame strike that resembled a conflagration wrapped in a rotating helix of gold coins (which did disappear afterward) on any creature within 200 ft (61 m). Rather than fly she chose to walk on air, levitating and appearing to take strides as she moved.

After her return from imprisonment in the Abyss she was known to have added rogue skills to her avatar while still being a formidable cleric and wizard. She could extend her senses seven miles (11.3 km) or perceive anything within seven miles of her temples, holy sites, worshipers, or objects, or anywhere her name or one of her titles had been spoken within the previous hour. Her awareness extended to include any business deal, contract, exchange, sale, theft, or destruction of a merchant's property that impacted at least five hundred people in scope.

History
Waukeen was a relatively late addition to the Faerûnian pantheon, joining sometime after Tyr who first appeared in -247 DR. Her popularity grew with the expansion of trade and the thriving merchant class across the Realms where the combination of generosity, risk taking, and shrewd business sense made her church enviably wealthy and widely admired.

Then came the Time of Troubles, when she nearly lost her admirers, her church, her divinity, her freedom, and her life.

When Lord Ao cast nearly all the Faerûnian deities into mortal avatar form and scattered them across the surface of Toril, Waukeen was among them, and like the majority of the fallen gods, wanted most to return home (and the sooner she could reclaim her realm and marshal her resources, the quicker she could influence unfolding events in her favor). As luck would have it, the first being she met was the avatar of Lliira and the two goddesses decided to stick together while they worked out a plan of action.

The Golden Lady first advocated a straightforward approach: to climb the Celestial Stairway from its landing in Shadowdale and bribe Helm with his heart's desire to allow the two goddesses back into the Outer planes. Not known for her ambition, Lliira went along with the brash young deity's plan. They traveled to Shadowdale and began climbing the Staircase when Helm appeared and threatened them. Alas, nothing that Waukeen or the Lady of Joy offered Helm could entice the God of Guardians to shirk his duty, so they retreated to the Cormanthor forest rather than face his wrath.

Relationships
Waukeen's closest ally was Lliira who was the trustee of Waukeen's portfolio while she made her ill-fated attempt to get back to her realm in the Outlands during the Time of Troubles. The Golden Lady was one of the first to support Gond and his inventions over the doubts of most other deities. Shaundakul was also an ally of the Merchant's Friend as his portfolio touched hers in areas such as long-range traders, and caravans. Waukeen had no real enemies among the pantheon except Mask, the Master of All Thieves, because larceny is bad for business. She had an unending hatred and thirst for revenge against the demon lord Graz'zt who broke a deal, took advantage of her weakened state, and held her captive during the Avatar Crisis.

The Church
Ornate temples to the glory of the Golden Lady were usually found in centers of commerce from Tashalar in the south, up through Amn, all around the Sea of Fallen Stars (Chessenta, Cormyr, Sembia, the Vast, Impiltur) and over to Thesk on the Golden Way. Her clerics and other worshipers traveled the trade routes aiding merchants and caravans or worked in the opulent temples as hosts for wealthy donors, moneylenders, currency exchangers, venture capitalists, warehousers, fences (covertly of course) and most importantly, security guards.

Harlot's Coin Heresy
This heretical schism of Waukeen's faith taught that Waukeen had gradually sold off pieces of her divinity and virtue to Graz'zt in order to finance her church. They believed that it was for failing to pay her debts to him that Graz'zt imprisoned her during the Time of Troubles. These heretics taught that Waukeen earned her freedom only because she finally paid her debt to the demon, resulting in Graz'zt owning the majority of Waukeen's godhood. The heretics therefore believed that all who worshiped Waukeen were really worshiping Graz'zt instead, and they were content with that arrangement.

Creative origins
Waukeen was created by one of Jeff Grubb's players, and added to the Forgotten Realms by Grubb. She was named after the Walking Liberty Half Dollar.