Zalhara

Overview
One of the most powerful goddesses among the dark elves, Zalhara followed a cadre of elves south rather than remain in Phalha after the Rupture of the Golden. One of the last vestiges of the common elven culture, Zalhara rules over funerary rights and the associated celebrations and the most important parts of those celebrations—drinks, sex, poetry, visual arts, literature, and anything else that might be made with passion and creativity.

Appearance
Named for her body paint, which represents the bleached white of bones abandoned in the desert, Zalhara's skin is a rich gray. Adorning herself with scraps of green and violet, she walks as any other dark elf among funeral celebrations, joining her children in their revelry.

Divine Mission
Zalhara's original purpose among the elven panthen has been lost to history. In more modern times she reminds the dark elves of the lives they lived, lives worth celebrating and memorializing. The goddess of funerals, she fills the citizens of the Vrahn Queendom with a sense of fulfillment, by providing bright spots of hope in the darkest of moments. She is the goddess of both death and life, and under her domain are the pleasures that make life worth living.

Dark Elf funerals are funded by the estate of the deceased, and involve, instead of mourning, orgiastic celebrations in honor of the dead. The only time dark elves break their formal veneer, they strip naked and paint their bodies skeletally in a rush of wine and joy where all are equal.

Religion
All dark elves follow the Pale Lady. Living a measured and regimented existence either by choice or by Vrahn's orders, Zalhara provides a chance at release. On the rare occasion a dark elf dies, their estate and wealth funds a lavish celebration inviting friends, family, and those off the street to carouse in a blindingly bright celebration that offers a measure of anonymous debauchery lasting for several days and nights. Walking among and encouraging these celebrations, the Pale Lady hopes to inspire the artists of the dark elves and help them carry on in the face of any obstacles they might face.

The Pale Lady has done her best to be present for both the dark and high elves, but as centuries passed the high elves rejected her presence to the point that scarcely any high elves even know her name.

The Pale Lady is the goddess of duality—propriety of life and the hedonism of funerals, sorrow and joy, loss and gain, life and death, dark skin and white paint, wealth kept in the mortal realm used to celebrate the passage into the next life—all these fall under the Lady's domain, and her priests do well to remember and maintain that. Fattened by the parade of celebrations they organize and participate in, the priest of the Lady keep themselves painted as skeletons at all times. Some Temples of the Lady also offer temple prostitution services, reminding dark elf men and women of the passion that can be experienced in life. While they have faced some opposition, citing Vrahn's stringent expectations of marriage and coupling, both the priests and Zalhara refuse to abandon their position and operate as houses of joy at all times, not merely in times of sorrow.

Afterlife
The Lady hosts a section of the Expanse devoted to endless celebration, creation, and passion. The quieter districts of Osalett offer a place for writers and visual artists to ply their craft, while the rest devotes itself to endless parties sandwiched between showcases of feats accomplished in both life and death.

Magic Properties
A fanfare of instruments, a chorus of voices, and the scents of sweat, wine, and food fill the air when Zalhara works her magic. The faint sounds of celebration fill the air, and rippling emanations the color of bleached bone soar through the air or sink into wounds. Creatures summoned by this spell are skeletons assembled in bizarre shapes and patterns that defy logic but are held together by magic.