Lumnis Symbol Art by Lady Everglynn Brandiwine

Lumnis

Liabo Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge    

Goddess of learning and wisdom, patron to scholars and masters of thought, "The Wise". Tall and slender, Lumnis' ivory skin compliment her black hair, pale grey eyes, and full red lips. She is serene, scholarly, seemingly aloof in her quiet ways. She wears flowing garments of white or light grey and is the beautiful wife of Koar, as well as the mother of Lorminstra and the twins Ronan and Phoen.

She is not considered the "Queen" of the Gods, however. She gives counsel willingly, even to the Dark Gods, but never commands.

Lumnis' power lies in her understanding of the Spheres of Knowledge and her intuitive grasp of intricacies. Able to accomplish feats that leave even Koar amazed, she wields her knowledge with the style of an artist.

She is worshipped by scholars and practitioners of the arcane arts who explore the boundaries of their knowledge with a wonder and respect of the powers they discover. Her wisdom is also sought by fortune-tellers and all in need of guidance.

She regards Fash'lo'nae's approach to knowledge as ultimately self-destructive and unconscionable. Her disapproval of knowledge for personal gain or power is such that she has been attributed with the sudden disappearance of several notably power-hungry magic users over the centuries.

Lumnis' symbol is a golden scroll overlaying five conjoined circles, the circles being red, blue, green, black, and white -- symbolizing her mastery of the Spheres of Knowledge. Those spheres break down as follows:  

the Planar -- represented by the red circle,
the Spiritual -- represented by the blue circle,
the Elemental -- represented by the green circle,
Chaos -- represented by the black circle,
and
Order -- represented by the white circle.

The Haunting

A Personal Tale of Faith Found

by Lady Iscikella Zinnonn

Those who know me are well aware of my devotion to the Liabo Goddess Lumnis. Many have asked me the cause of this devotion. The story of how I found Lumnis is an odd one and very personal to me. I share it here in good faith.

Long ago, many trainings back, I was a youngster hunting in the caverns below the well in IceMule when I came upon a ledge shrouded heavily in mist -- and little did I realized how important that mist was. Thinking the ledge but access to another hunting ground, I climbed it. And I fell from that mist-shrouded ledge into a strange room, a room I now refer to simply as the unholy place. This room was filled with strange and horrible things: decaying corpses, skeletons, runes, and an altarstone.

Upon the altarstone sat a small fist-sized purple stone, what has since become known as the relic. Silly newbie that I was, I picked it up. Immediately the room literally thundered with a voice saying: "Iscikella, I am come to claim your soul" as a pulse of energy went through the relic, burning my hand and causing me to drop that purple horror.

Panicking, I managed to get out of the room, but was lost good in the caverns. And the voice stayed with me. By contacting someone on the net, I was able to get directions out the caverns. Yet, even when I climbed out from the well, the voice remained. I was terrified, and abandoned the lands for the day hoping to clear the voice from inside my head. But it came back the next day and the day after that.

Finally it quieted and I thought all was well. Not so.

Strange things began to happen to me. I would be knocked down by invisible forces, sometimes actually stunned, and I often heard messages about "learning my place" and the like. I was in utter turmoil, scared and confused. I told a few my story, but could never lead anyone back to that room, and that only added to my confusion. Where had what had happened to me occurred? Where?

When I was old enough, a friend took me to the landing to escape the tormentor and his mischief. (Yes, the voice I heard was always male.) This proved pointless, as the haunting continued unabated. In fact, it was in the landing that mysterious wounds began to appear on my body, wounds I had not -- as an empath -- transferred to myself or received in battle. Several around me at that time saw this happen before their eyes and were amazed. Yet I was adamant I would not go into the caverns and confront the thing head-on, though I was advised by several wiser than me to do this.

One of these wiser folk took to searching the caverns himself and was frustrated with his inability to find the room I had spoken of. One day he took another young empath into the caverns with him. Strangely, this youngster died at his feet there from no apparent cause as a voice filled the caverns saying, "I will not have substitutes!" When he told me of this, my resolve to keep others clear of my haunting petrified into solid stone.

I stayed in the landing six full trainings before finally returning home to IceMule, which I had sorely missed. Though several times after my return I managed to get up enough courage to search the caverns alone and in secret for the infamous room, I never could find it, and never told anyone I was looking. In fact, I made it sound completely as if I wasn't.

One day I ventured into the temple and was confronted by an old empath. She was in her 350s or 360s with regard to years as I recall. She smiled and chatted in a friendly manner with me a bit, and then told me I would receive a message at Lumnis' altar. She taught me a special prayer, told me to repeat it before the Wise Lady's altar, and then vanished!

Thinking little else bad could happen, I followed her "advice" and went up to Lumnis' chapel, the Hall of the Mind. I knelt and spoke the Wise One's prayer for the first time. For many days I heard nothing, and then at last one day I heard a calm sighing rise in the eaves, a very soothing sound.

This happened for many days. I came back often, but there was no message spoken, just the calm sighing.

Meanwhile, my life was changing. I had met my future husband and we became betrothed. I told him little of my haunting, the one thing I kept from him. I feared for anyone to become involved in this trouble of mine, least of all someone I loved so desperately and therefore was anxious to protect in any way possible.

At last one day while praying alone for likely the twentieth time in the Hall of the Mind, I did indeed receive a message from the Wise Lady: "Seek the mist and be astounded no more."

The message was cryptic. I wasn't sure what it meant actually, but decided to look for that mist in the caverns in that bog where I knew the room had to be. I found the ledge, a mist rolled in, and I was able to climb that ledge and then drop down into the unholy place once more.

A portal! The ledge was a portal and only open when the mist was present! Lumnis had presented me with the secret and all my gratitude went out to Her in that instant, and all my devotion forever.

I had been told by those wiser than me that my haunting appeared to be from Luukos. There were signs of that. Though the voice I heard had not spoken in a sibilant manner, I had no reason to disbelieve those wiser than me. (Since that time I have come to believe the voice was that of Amasalen, Luukos' chief minion, but then I knew nothing of this awful immortal.) I went into the caverns, therefore, expecting undead. Undead is indeed what I found there. Arch wights everywhere!

Ye must understand something about me: I am a healer, not a hunter. I can't even fight my level, let alone above. Fortunately I can heal myself. And by this time was advanced enough in training to cure whatever was thrown at me. But, as mana became scarce, I knew I would die and was prepared for that inevitability. The mocking laughter, which was echoing in that room, I fully expected to provide my death knell.

Suddenly I heard the familiar sighing, and another mist -- silvery as I recall -- filled the room. A hand gently caressed my cheek and upon the instant my abilities with the sword tripled! I realized it at first when my defense suddenly seemed incredible. So I tried again to abandon the safety net of my defensive stance and attack the wights. With utter shock and hysterical happiness, I found I could kill these undead! Me! And I did kill them, all of them. But that was not the end of the story.

When the last undead had fallen, a screaming -- banshee-like and wild -- filled the room. I was knocked to the ground, stunned. I got up and it happened again. And the screaming just went on and on. A voice, the male voice of my tormentor, said unto me: "Having surrendered halfway to the dark, your soul, Iscikella, is forfeit. Submit fully to me now." And the name of my then fiance, my now most beloved husband, was used against me. I will say no more than that about this. It is too painful, and my dearest love may be endangered by me just telling of it.

Amazed at this unknown but powerful being's insight into my very soul, I became again convinced I would surely die. But then another voice whispered in my ear, a wise and serene woman's voice, calming and reassuring, Lumnis' voice. "To restore the balance, restore the order," counseled the Wise Lady knowingly.

Surmising I needed to return the relic I had foolishly moved from the altarstone back to its proper place, I espied it. Luckily it was still there in the room on the ground where I had dropped it so long ago. Picking it back up, I made attempt after attempt to return it to the altarstone. It proved an astonishingly arduous task, worse than killing the wights, as I kept being knocked out and stunned by that unknown and screaming power.

At last, somehow, I did the deed. I was bleeding from many places and very weak, but I managed. Immediately there was some kind of explosion, like a vacuum suddenly forming within the place, and I was thrown from the room and found myself flat on my back in the bog. Somehow I had survived.

Since that day I have come to hear much more about the relic and its history. Since that day I have come to learn that the relic was apparently given by Luukos himself to the members of the Council of Ten in IceMule as a sign of favor. Since that day much has happened, including now Ronanites having visions of a "dark gate" behind which apparently rests the relic. Since that day the tales have unfolded about the relic being in actuality the petrified heart of Amasalen himself, a talisman requiring the accumulation of souls in some way to maintain its great power.

I have but little knowledge to provide on the relic, but I do know without the slightest doubt that Lumnis saved me that day in the caverns. Why, I know not, but I am Her servant forever.

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