Sarenrae

Sarenrae, also known as Raei, the Dawnflower and the Everlight, is a goddess of redemption, healing, and temperance. Pike Trickfoot is a cleric of Sarenrae, who redeemed the Trickfoot family line.

Personality
Although Sarenrae shares influence over certain domains with other gods, she is neither jealous nor territorial. She could expand her influence by taking a more interventionist role in mortal affairs, thereby accumulating more followers, but she remains somewhat aloof from the world. For example, she sent visions to Pike in the Underdark and even manifested an avatar of Pike to aid Vox Machina in Whitestone, but Pike is rather private and non-proselytic about her devotion to Sarenrae. Sarenrae could have chosen another worshipper that would have praised her before the masses and encouraged the building of temples, but Pike simply completed Sarenrae's objectives and moved on.

Sarenrae is also willing to forgive and redeem the transgressions of her followers. When Pike unnecessarily slit the throat of an unconscious duergar foe with her Mace of Disruption in Emberhold, her holy symbol of Sarenrae cracked, and her connection to Sarenrae's divine energy became strained. However, when Pike later sought to atone for her cruelty, Sarenrae not only restored the connection but empowered her with stronger divine energy (completely healing Vax'ildan's lava-damaged foot) and chose her for more important tasks in the future (including the Whitestone Rebellion and pursuit of Vestiges of the Divergence).

Background
Sarenrae is a minor deity with spheres of influence that overlap some of those of more influential deities, such as Pelor with his Sun and Healing domains. Her belief that the corrupt can be redeemed led to a betrayal by the Lord of the Hells that left most of her following decimated in the Calamity. After the Divergence, Sarenrae's influence diminished even more, with her ancient temple in Vasselheim falling to ruin.

At that time, for followers of Sarenrae, religious activity and worship was mostly private and passed down through tradition rather than centralized at temples and institutionally trained.

Pre-stream
Wilhand Trickfoot chose to break away from his family's history of thievery after receiving a divine dream from Sarenrae. He taught his descendants the ways of Sarenrae and ultimately was responsible for Pike choosing the life of a cleric.

When Pike was killed in a fight with a glabrezu, the other members of Vox Machina rushed her to the small Temple of Sarenrae in Emon, where she was successfully resurrected in a ritual.

The traumatic experience filled Pike with a determination to be stronger to face the evils of the world. She changed from a Life domain cleric to a War domain cleric, and spent months as a sailor building her physical strength, allowing her to wear plate armor.

Kraghammer and Vasselheim arc
After a brutal coup de grâce on an incapacitated duergar during the Emberhold assault, Pike's symbol of Sarenrae cracked and caused her to lose some of her power.

When Vox Machina traveled to Vasselheim in 810 PD, they got word that a temple to Sarenrae had been just recently discovered in the city's Braving Grounds District beneath the cursed ruin of the tower of Syrac, having been lost to time for hundreds of years; Pike led the effort to restore the temple.

Pike later returned to the temple of Sarenrae because of her fractured connection with the goddess, aware that she had tapped into her darker side since traveling abroad on the ship. Pike spent six hours over two days in the temple, in silent prayer reaching out to her deity, to reconnect and tune in as well as apologize and confess.

After an intense communion with Sarenrae, she felt all of the steps and missteps that she had gone through over the past six or seven months, trying to find her path, rediscovering herself, and explaining to Sarenrae that the love never left and that this was all with the ultimate purpose of achieving her ultimate purpose as her instrument, and Pike wishes not to cross that again, and if there’s any way to redeem herself, to let it be known.

At the end of that, Pike felt the thread reconnect, the warmth filled her, and the sweat stopped as her entire body seemed to be humming with energy. For a brief second in Pike saw Sarenrae smiling at her as she reached down and touched the side of Pike's cheek and said, “Be forthright. Be grand. Burn bright and beautiful, and I shall always be at your side.” And with that, she released Pike's cheek and vanished.

Vax'ildan, who was casting about for purpose, sewed a symbol of Sarenrae onto the back of his glove while gearing up to help liberate Whitestone from the undead.

At one point, when Pike asked Vax'ildan why he was avoiding her, he admitted that he had decided that the next time he saw her, he was going to ask to join her in service to Sarenrae, but that he had to make the deal with the Raven Queen to save his sister in the Sunken Tomb.

In the battle with Vorugal, Pike stepped out and used Divine Intervention, praying to Sarenrae for assistance, and succeeded. Sarenrae's hand came down and punched Vorugal out of the sky, knocking him to the ground.

When Pike was affected by Feeblemind she entered the anti-magic field from the orb in Whitestone to be able to pray to Sarenrae for guidance. Sarenrae granted her a vision of the world beyond the orb: a desolate, gray landscape with a single obsidian tower at its center.

When Pike tried to contact Sarenrae, she kneeled at an altar to pray. She was rewarded with a vision of the goddess, who told her to come visit and gave her a tuning fork attuned to the plane of Elysium.

After Vox Machina arrived on the Island of Renewal, only Pike and Scanlan were able to enter the crystal palace where they saw from the flames a vision of Sarenrae, who spoke to both of them. They told her that they had fought Vecna, and that he was seeking to ascend to godhood, much the same way as the Raven Queen once did.

Sarenrae responded that the Ritual of Seeding, used previously by the mortal who became the Raven Queen, is forbidden knowledge that had been sealed for eternity by Ioun. However, if Vecna was indeed able to complete the ritual and ascend, it would fall on Vox Machina to seal him away. She recommended that they visit Pelor to learn how to do such a thing.

Sarenrae thanked Pike for her role in restoring worship at her temple, and showed her how the pearl-like granules on the beach are actually the souls of worshippers come to live with her. As a parting gift, she granted Pike the Blessing of the Everlight.

After a bit more discussion, during which Pike and Vex gave back the pearls they had taken from the beach, Sarenrae offered to transport them to Pelor's realm. With a flash, they found themselves in an orchard, no longer on the Island of Renewal.

Pike called on Sarenrae in Pandemonium to grapple a dust titan. Sarenrae apparently appeared in person, and though her grapple didn’t last very long, it was long enough to ensure that Vox Machina avoided taking three slam attacks and possibly an engulfing.

Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting
As of 812 PD, Sarenrae's faith had only recently been rediscovered. Her holy days had been long forgotten, and her followers had yet to reach a consensus on how and when to celebrate her festival.

In the story hook Monolith of the Hells, one of Sarenrae's celestial messengers gives a dying request to the adventurers to address a mysterious crisis in K'Tawl Swamp. A virtually identical hook is in the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn

Known Followers

 * Pike Trickfoot: A member of Vox Machina and devout member of Sarenrae's clergy, following in her great-great-grandfather Wilhand's footsteps. Led the effort to restore the Temple of Renewal.
 * Wilhand Trickfoot: Coming from a long line of thieves, Wilhand's life (and the destiny of the Trickfoot family line) changed forever when Sarenrae came to Wilhand in his dreams and redeemed him. In his twilight years, helped with small tasks around the emerging House of the Everlight on the northern edge of Westruun.
 * Father Tristan: Head cleric of the Temple of Sarenrae in Emon.
 * Gesyra: A painter who met Pike at the newly-discovered Temple of Renewal, accompanied by the only two other followers of Sarenrae she knew in Vasselheim: a blond young man in simple clothes and an older gnome with a crutch.
 * Acolyte Sheila: Helped Pike restore the Temple of Renewal and became one of the first acolytes there.
 * Acolyte Vincent Clor: Keeper of knowledge and scripture at the Temple of Renewal.
 * Coraline: One of the head priests of the Temple of Renewal.

Trivia

 * Although most of the primary deities in the Critical Role campaign are from the Dawn War pantheon, Sarenrae was imported into the fifth edition D&D game from the cast's original Pathfinder game so Ashley Johnson wouldn't have to switch deities.
 * Sarenrae is never mentioned by name in the Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, as she is considered Product Identity of Paizo under the Open Game License. Instead, she is known exclusively by her title, The Everlight. She is also renamed Raei in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, as the book was published by Wizards of the Coast.
 * In Pathfinder, Sarenrae is a former angel and the niece of the archdevil Asmodeus, the Lord of the Nine Hells, but it is unknown if this is true in Exandria.
 * Sarenrae appears in The Legend of Vox Machina, where she is, similarly to the Tal'Dorei campaign setting, referred to by only her title, The Everlight. She is voiced by Tracie Thoms.