-Vanessa-
Symbol: A sigil of a tree, often made in easily carved lines to represent the trunk, the branches, and the roots. These carvings are most often formed in a series of curved lines resembling a circle, however any simple representation of a tree can be utilized to represent her for the purposes of ritual or prayer.
Place of Existence: The Fae Wilde, a plane that is not mapped in accordance with the balance of the universe. It is considered to be a realm that bends the vision of the Creator God and is able to reach into the Realms all around it, similar to the permeating abilities of the Tower of Death. It is the Realm that contains the origin of the idea of nature; the creation of plants, animals, spore, and faery.
Signs: Natural growth, greenery, weeds, and rings of mushrooms. Butterflies are considered to be good omens, tied often also to Christianna, and moths are thought to be omens of doom or disaster, often attributed to signs of Aurora's coming.
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Vanessa is favored by the wood elves who believe that she is the creator of their people and also the creator of their homelands. They offer worship to her with rituals that observe the changing of the seasons, the growth of new seed, and the hunting of prey creatures that are considered to be gifts from the Fae Goddess to the world of Nhearn. Although plainer elves worship Katrina, the Goddess of the Element of Air, more so than they do with Vanessa, they do respect her as the creator of their people and their homeland in the same way as wood elves. Plainer elves also pay their respects to Vanessa for the abundance of plant life, the offering of prey animals, and the passing of the seasons. Among the humans of the Empire of Man, Vanessa also finds devotion. She is worshipped in human settlements by lumbermen, woodsmen, and even Legion rangers who are often called on to scout woodlands, however most humans that offer respects to the Fae Goddess do so to avoid danger in areas of nature or to undo the trickery of Fae folk who prey upon the minds of humans.
While Aurora is considered to be the most proactive god against the forces of evil, many religious historians consider Vanessa to be the most active god of the entire pantheon upon Nhearn following the Age of Woe. While she does always works against the evil will of Annabel, she also struggles against the powers of other gods and the elements. She is considered incredibly dangerous to the enemies of her creations and she works zealously to defend the balance of the world of Nhearn, at times controlling the wills of other elements to design disasters. Due to the overactive behavior of the Goddess her signs are thought to be less subtle than others. Where darkness or light might hint at the presence of a deity, Vanessa is said to appear as a monstrous animal, as a giant faery, or as a plant that has gained sentience, but in all accounts she is a physical entity that is visiting the world to show herself to witnesses.
Despite so much violence within the lore surrounding Vanessa, she is ultimately considered to be a loving Goddess and a motherly presence to her worshippers and creations. Even among the darker nature cults, the worship of Vanessa is thought to be from the viewpoint of a child requesting power from a parent. She is recorded as being kind to the other creations of other deities, kind to the beliefs of other deities and faiths, and will even rebuke the opinions of Christianna and Aurora if she finds them to be overstepping in their judgment of other deities. She is nurturing, passionate, and willing to teach those who are faithful to the ideals of nature.
When discussing the purposes of Vanessa it is difficult to separate the hatred between elves and dwarves of Nhearn. There has always been a great rift between the elves and the dwarves that is often attributed to a religious struggle, however the love that Vanessa has shown to Helena, the Goddess of the Element of Earth, in ancient lore remains evidence to the contrary. For being such a proactive deity on Nhearn Vanessa does not openly end the ideology and the struggle between elves and dwarves has roots that begin in the old stories of both of their myths in the times of antiquity. The best reasoning behind the continued struggle of elves and dwarves is the deep love that Vanessa holds for natural creations. Wood elves represent this love well with the construction of their homes in sacred dwelling trees which are not hindered in any way while they grow. The ideology of the dwarves however, is to carve and create with the material of their god's creation.