Avandra

Avandra, the Changebringer, is a Prime Deity and the god of change, freedom, travel, and trade. She is commonly depicted as a young woman with dark skin and dark hair, and her worship is common among adventurers, merchants, travelers, and the free-spirited. She has few temples within cities, though a major temple is dedicated to her in Port Damali, and most of her shrines are found along roads.

Description
Avandra appeared during The Calamity as a tall, young woman with light brown skin and long black hair. Depictions by her followers usually show her as a dark-skinned young woman with light brown hair that changes into a road behind her. She is said to encourage her followers to venture into the unknown, and most depictions of her show her in constant motion.

She is also known by the epithets "the Changebringer" (variously spelled as "Change Bringer"), "the Changebearer", and "the Luck Bringer". She is also known as "She Who Makes the Path". Her alignment is chaotic good.

The Founding
Avandra is one of the gods of the pantheon who came to Exandria at the beginning of the Founding. The gods, then collectively known as the Protean Gods, arrived as formless and nameless young divinities. As they tamed the elemental chaos of Exandria, shaped the world, and created its peoples, these gods were given shape and names as their creations worshiped them. Though they were previously formless, it is believed each god had unique motivations and thoughts that were codified through this worship. Some believe that Avandra created halflings, but it is ultimately unknown which god created the people.

The Primordials, whose presence on Exandria was unknown to the Protean Gods, fought against the shaping of the world and destroyed many of the gods' creations. This led to the Schism in which part of the pantheon sought to defend their creations, becoming known as the Prime Deities, and the rest sided with the Primordials and wished to abandon Exandria to start anew elsewhere, becoming known as the Betrayer Gods. Avandra was among the Prime Deities, who were ultimately victorious.

Age of Arcanum
According to the family mythology told by Caduceus Clay, the day after the Raven Queen ascended about 120 years before The Calamity, she told her three champions to seek out Melora to determine what to do with the body of a fallen hero. Melora sent a vision to one of these champions, Stone, telling him to take the limbs and wander until he discovered an oasis with a cave veined with red and gold. He was instructed to feed the limbs to the local beasts and told that there will become a menagerie as a gift from Melora to Avandra, reminding Avandra that nature is infinite. This story is the origin of The Menagerie shrine in the Whitedawn Lagoon.

At the end of the Age of Arcanum, the Betrayer Gods were released back into Exandria, starting a second war between the gods known as The Calamity. This war was fought over the next centuries. During the war, Avandra was present at the Battle of the Barbed Fields at Bazzoxan and led soldiers there. During the battle, she saved Alyxian from death and blessed him when he prayed at her shrine underneath the Betrayers' Rise in Bazzoxan, Xhorhas, becoming the second of three gods to do so. Torog mocked her for helping Alyxian. She is said to have grieved for Alyxian because she was afraid that blessing him had forced him to give up so much of himself that he lost his future, though this detail is possibly untrue.

At some other point in the war, she defeated Asmodeus, her nemesis, by tricking his armies into attacking one another. Her blessing also allowed Pelor to succeed in banishing Tharizdun.

The Prime Deities eventually banished all the Betrayer Gods to their planes. They decided to leave the Material Plane themselves and constructed the Divine Gate to prevent all gods from returning to Exandria. This event became known as The Divergence and ended the Age of Arcanum.

Post-Divergence
In the Post-Divergence, Avandra wanders the Outer Planes "where serenity can be found" and does not have a specific domain.

Campaign 3: Bells Hells
Imahara Joe gave FCG a token of the Changebringer after realizing FCG felt somewhat lost regarding their possible involvement in the Care and Culling, and told them that he'd found meaning in the Changebringer as a deity associated with guidance. FCG accepted the coin. Later that day, he began flipping it in order to help him make decisions. Following a brutal combat in which the party had to decide whether to resurrect only one party member, FCG used the coin again to help Fearne make her decision, and uttered a brief prayer before handing it over.

Pike Trickfoot not long after confirmed to FCG that not only did they have a soul, but the Changebringer's gaze was upon him. With that information, FCG sought out a temple, the Horizon Temple in Whitestone, and spoke with Guide Osli Kamyda. Osli encouraged them to speak to the Changebringer, either in the temple or along any road or path, as those are also her holy places, and that worship entails opening one's self up to her guidance. FCG asked Avandra for a sign she was there and knew who he was, and left a small offering.

FCG's use of the coin as a means to make decisions continued, with a mixed reception from the rest of Bells Hells (see Changebringer coin); the responses were often cryptic or contradicted what ultimately would occur, leading FCG to try and justify why they had received these results.

En route to Molaesmyr, during the ongoing apogee solstice following the Ruby Vanguard's ritual intended to kill the gods, FCG cast Commune for the first time to attempt to contact the Changebringer. He asked if she was real, and she appeared far in the distance. He then asked if she had been watching him, and she flipped his coin to heads up, indicating she had. Finally, they asked if she needed help, to which the response was also yes.

Worship
Avandra is worshiped as the god of change, freedom, trade, travel, adventure, the open road, and luck. She is also said to watch over "the potential of mortals".

Her holy day is New Day on the 1st of Horisal, the first day of the first month "when the old year gives way to the new". Celebrations in the Menagerie Coast involve feasts at dusk on the shores, where celebrants watch the sun set and discuss their hopes for the year until sunrise. In Emon, Tal'Dorei, a midnight feast is held that usually includes a short play celebrating changes in the past year.

Around 545 PD, shortly after the end of the Marrow War in Wynandir, Wildemount, Avandra's worship was outlawed as "idol worship" in the Dwendalian Empire by Manfried Dwendal. The ban was in response to an uprising led by priests in the recently conquered Julous Dominion; Manfried initially sought to outlaw all religious worship but ultimately banned gods whose domains did not suit the goals of the Empire.

Symbols and artifacts
Avandra is commonly represented by a woman's profile embossed on a gold coin or a pendant. During the Calamity, her followers created a necklace Vestige of Divergence, the Kiss of the Changebringer. She is also one of three gods associated with another Vestige, the Jewel of Three Prayers.

Worshipers
She is often worshiped by merchants, adventurers, and the free-spirited. Even those who do not worship her sometimes pray to her before a journey, and merchants in Emon often seek her favor before a risky venture. There are few temples dedicated to her in cities and urban areas, but shrines can be found along roads.

In Tal'Dorei, she is one of the main worshiped along the Lucidian Coast and on the Rifenmist Peninsula. The Horizon Temple in Whitestone is dedicated to her.

She is worshiped in the Menagerie Coast, and a large temple dedicated to her called the Pearl Shrine is located in Port Damali. Though her worship is outlawed in the Dwendalian Empire, some continue to worship her in private and risk fines or imprisonment; the Triumph Chime in Zadash used to be a temple of Avandra. A temple was dedicated to her in Bazzoxan, Xhorhas, but it was abandoned after its caretakers were killed or driven away by demons, likely when the city was overrun by creatures from the Abyss in about 795 PD. A prayer site has also existed underneath the Betrayers' Rise, also in Bazzoxan, since the Calamity. Her iconography is also carved into its door (though something has attempted to scratch it away), and she is depicted in a mural in one of its halls.

Avandra is one of the main deities represented among the holy symbols worn by the guards of Vasselheim in Issylra.

Known worshipers

 * Lady Diassa Kwynn, a paladin in Tal'Dorei
 * Father Dwondaff Pierce, dwarven head of the Pearl Shrine in Port Damali, Wildemount
 * Fresh Cut Grass, aeormaton adventurer and member of Bells Hells
 * Imahara Joe, a tinkerer in Bassuras, Marquet
 * Guide Osli Kamyda, priest in the Horizon Temple of Whitestone
 * Stone family, caretakers of The Menagerie funerary shrine in the Whitedawn Lagoon, Menagerie Coast
 * Wallace and Gilda Schuster, husband and wife in Hupperdook, Wildemount where worship of Avandra is illegal

Namesakes
As the god of luck, the dice game Avandra's Favor is named after her. It is played in casinos in Ank'Harel and Kymal. The Myriad speakeasy beneath the Grumpy Lily also serves a strong, syrupy drink called the Changebringer's Nectar. It is sweet with a burning and numbing sensation and is meant to be sipped.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 1: Vox Machina
 * Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein
 * Campaign 3: Bells Hells
 * Exandria Unlimited
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