Cesedra - The Great Love

In the dawning days of the First Era as the Tharameni could finally find a moment of reprieve, Cedhelieth took to making the smallfolk of Tharador like the Dwarves and Halflings. But what is seldom known is her creation of the first of the Selvaneri, the divine and watchful warriors of the Tharameni that were given the chance of reincarnation or resurrection after their deaths as mortals. Cesedra was this, a priestess of Cedhelieth who perished in Leacianus during the trials of the Tharameni. It was in this time as the Leacianans shifted their worship away from the Tharameni and towards Brinilmin that the remaining temples of the Tharameni became persecuted by Brinilmin’s followers. Cesedra did not waver in her faith, and those that still clung to the old ways joined her in open worship in the condemned temples that had been barricaded shut and planned for destruction by the Leacianan Elite. In a bid to rekindle the High Elves love for Cedhelieth, Cesedra began the Rite of Heart’s Renewal, a ritual that would take three days and three nights to complete, ending with each person in the city blessed with Cedhelieth in their dreams at the end of the third night. But the Elites of Leacianus could not stand this intrusion as their new faith still tried to find its feet. A squad sent by the Magistrates stormed the temple on the third night before the ritual could complete, demanding the head of their high priestess. Though Cesedra was unarmed, her followers were powerful sorcerers in their own rights and could go toe to toe with the hit squad sent after their leader. Battle began and blood stained the consecrated ground of Cedhelieth’s temple. The rite was tainted, and Cesedra ended her ceremony, booming her voice across the temple to cease the fighting. Wanting no more bloodshed in her Divine’s home, she offered herself to her enemies. Even Brinilmin worshippers who watched from afar wiped tears from their eyes as they watched on, feeling the divine warmth of Cedhelieth that radiated in a loving aura from Cesedra. So she stepped forward, but her sacrifice was in vain. Cesedra was sentenced to death, and the execution carried out immediately as she had a knife thrust into her heart on the very altar she had been praying at for the last three days. Her death came as a decisive blow to the spiritual conflict that spanned Leacianus in the First Era, but Cesedra became a marker for the ultimate faith and devotion to Cedhelieth. Cedhelieth was moved by this selfless act of her disciple, and for the first time ever a Beremeni was given a choice after their death, to walk among the living again as a divine messenger and champion. So Cesedra was reborn, garbed in the clothes of her loving god and given wings of grace. Though her presence among mortals is rare, she appears when times are dire and hatred, bitterness and loneliness are being stoked like smouldering embers among a garden.