Church of Lurue

The Church of Lurue was the primary religious organization dedicated to the worship and service of the goddess Lurue, the Unicorn Queen. Members of the clergy were often referred to as Lady Knights of the Silver Moon.

Dogma
The creed of Lurue was one of romanticized ideals, life lived to the fullest with zest and flair, and benefience to all no matter how strange or special. Everyone was to be praised for their strengths, comforted regarding their weaknesses, and given gifts on a whim. It was an adventurous doctrine in which quests were taken on dares and even the impossible was attempted for the sheer wonder that the dream just might come true. An existence of laughter and delight was not only worthwhile, but of practical use, for nothing dispersed evil faster than a rapier's wit and unrestrained happiness.

In the faith, the Unicorn was a symbol representing hope, joy, salvation and protection for the forlorn, forsaken and anyone in need, and in pursuing the unicorn, happiness was found.

Attitudes
Save for special circumstances, hunting unicorns for their horns or merely owning alicorn, let alone killing unicorns, was considered a grave offense by the followers of Lurue, to the point they were known to put to death those convicted for the latter crime.

Beliefs
While sightings of any unicorn were considered lucky, an appearance from their Queen was considered a blessed event.

Some worshipers of Lurue venerate moonbows.

Membership
Most of the worshipers of Lurue were not humanoids but intelligent creatures that somehow possessed the ability to speak, such as unicorns and pegasi, their unique abilities often making them seem strange amongst their own kind.

All of Lurue's priests were female, and included the likes of humans, elves, and half-elves. Most unicorns and quite a few pegasi could be considered lay priests of Silverymoon.

Hierarchy
The worship of Lurue was a personal and direct faith and the clergy had no formal hierarchy.

Titles
Junior clergy were referred to as "Sisters of the Moonlit Sky" while senior clergy were "Sisters of the Silver Moon." Any priestess blessed to have ridden a unicorn earned the title of Ladycorn.

Sayings
To "search for" or "chase" the unicorn was a phrase in the Lurue clergy tying back to the founding humanoid members and their experience with Lurue, a concept echoed in the church's dogma.

Classes
A collection of clerics, crusaders, mystics, and specialty priests called silvermaids were devoted to Lurue, and all were capable of riding steeds, whether regular horses or unicorns. There were also cultists of hers known as whitehorns and totemists within her beast cults.

Orders
Lurue was among the deities who looked favorably upon the Harpers and granted a divine boon to their agents in the form of the speak with animals spell usable thrice a day.

Lurue was a patron of whitehorn cults, a type of monster cult that worshiped unicorns themselves, and beast cults which revered her simply as "The Unicorn".

Activities
Priestesses of Lurue spent their days helping visionaries achieve their dreams, providing aid and comfort to those in need and rescuing those in danger. Many were adventurers who traveled Faerun seekng wrongs to right, and balanced fun, self-improvement and gaining new experiences well.

Although most of the clergy was periodically struck with wanderlust and few stuck to a single duty for long, they reliably saw specific, individual tasks through. Even senior priestesses had a great degree of personal independence when compared to those of other deities.

Whitehorn cults with Lurue as their patron worked primarily to safeguard and sequester unicorn glades, but they also helped recently awakened animals adjust. Her beast cults were benign and benevolent groups that typically lived in harmony with nature while praising their noble totems.

Rituals
Most of Lurue's clergy, being animals and furthermore outcasts among their own kind, maintained no written histories and had few if any oral traditions. Priests and druids of Lurue prayed for their spells at midnight, if possible in a moonlit glade or sylvan glen.

Celebrations
Lurue's twin holy days are Midsummer's Eve and the Feast of the Moon. The former was a night-long festival celebration of revelry, antics, and hullabaloo marked by wild rides through the countryside and sky, theatrical skits, humorous oratories, grand group songs, mock duels and romantic declarations. Many unicorns took a mate for life on this night. The latter by contrast was a quiet ceremony marking the onset of winter and served as a time for remembering those who have passed away and now "dance with the unicorns." Many great works of art and epic song are unveiled at this time to quiet applause, particularly in Silverymoon, which celebrated its founding that day.

Base of Operations
Though no temples specifically dedicated to Lurue existed, any glade or other location where a unicorn tread was considered sacred ground. The largest concentration of Lurue's followers was found in the city of Silverymoon which was named in her honor.

Orders
A group of adventurers pledged their support to Lurue and begun calling themselves the Knights of the Unicorn. Following the Time of Troubles the group split into smaller units collectively referred to as the Order of the Unicorn in order to spread goodness throughout Faerûn.

Dress
Priestesses of Lurue wore simple white robes of cotton, linen or silk woven with threads of pure silver, often to form Lurue's symbol. When expecting combat they protected themselves with relatively light armor, typically gleaming silver chainmail (of elven make when possible). They wielded lances or longswords and shields polished to a mirror shine, and such was the radiance that they rivaled the mythical defenders of Silverymoon's fables in argent luster as well as martial prowess.

The irises of priestesses newly dedicated to Lurue changed to a deep shade of blue or purple and their hair, worn long and free, turned white or silver (although the latter was possibly just dye or bleach).

Related Items
Silver Mail of the Unicorn Queen was a type of +1 elven chainmail bearing the symbol of Lurue on the center of the chest. It protected its wearer like a periapt of proof against poison, allowed the casting of cure light wounds thrice per day, and aided them in interactions with goodly magical beasts, including the likes of unicorns, pegasi, and giant eagles. The non-good who wore the armor were partially depowered, and the only way to return to full strength was to remove it.

The Staff of Shoon and associated Tome of the Unicorn were created by the Shoon qysars through the slaughter of over a dozen unicorns, a fact that still gnawed at the minds of those who held unicorns as sacred. The sentient faithful of Lurue and her superiors (Mielikki and Silvanus), especially unicorns, could sense the corrupted presence of the stolen horns and of the artifact's bearer, and though they might not fully grasp why, they could unerringly locate the wielder within no matter the mundane or magical efforts made to hide. They also wished the wielder great harm to a fanatical degree, having been driven to mad recklessness by the staff's influence.

Magic
As a beast cult deity, Lurue granted her especially devout followers the ability to summon aid in times of need. For humanoid followers this would most likely take the form of the wise counsel of a talking owl. Intelligent beasts meanwhile would receive the assisstance of Lurue and the Silver Herd, the sight of a stampede of angry, ghostly unicorns usually being sufficient to scare most threats away. In times of true crisis however, an animal horde spell might be bestowed upon the beleagured worshippers to call upon not only the herd, but an entire menagerie of intelligent creatures and talking beasts.

Any unciorn who worshiped Lurue was granted a potentially even greater power, the ability to cast one beneficient clerical spell once per day, regardless of its area of influence or power.

Spells
Notable spells of Lurue included:
 * Alicorn lance
 * Dance of the unicorns
 * Favor of Yathaghera
 * Silver tongue and starry eyes