Appearance

Cassandra appears as a human woman with soft features in the twilight of her youth. She keeps her tawny brown hair pinned to the side. Her eyes are warm and kind and sit lightly upon a face that betrays the slightest signs of ageing. Upon her voluptuous, pear shaped figure she wears a simple short red dress over more practical brown pants. Across her shoulder, resting on her hip, she carries a magical bag said to be capable of holding any object of any size.

While Cassandra uses no weapons or armour, the Lady of Life is not defenceless in combat. In times of trouble she can teleport safely to any resurrection or healing circle. Should she find herself injured beyond the capacity her own formidable restoration magics, she can draw healing from any of her favoured. Outside of direct combat, Cassandra able to cast any healing and life giving magic without effort.

Tenets

Five things a Cassandra follower should do:

1. Show mercy to all living things. Through mercy and compassion any spirit can be redeemed.

2. Above all things, preserve and maintain mortal life. Make use of all the Lady’s gifts, including magic, alchemy, and medicine.

3. Establish or support institutions that heal, shelter, or protect the innocent and injured. Hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens and the like are critical in preserving life.

4. Promote peace in all forms. Be it a peasant family in the midst of domestic dispute or armies on the brink of war, be a mediator and a voice of compassion.

5. If you cause harm to another, heal threefold more.

Five things a Cassandra follower should not do:

1. Take life. Strive to save all, even those that fall by your own hand.

2. Allow a child to die, for their death is final. Sacrifice everything to ensure a child’s safety, including your own life.

3. Discriminate in who you give aid. All life is sacred and deserving of the Lady’s mercy, regardless of race, gender, religion or loyalties.

4. Forget that while magic and medicine heal the body, it is warmth and compassion that heal the spirit. The simplest act of kindness can ripple through the Arthos and heal a distant heart.

5. Allow your pride to grow larger than the mercy in your heart. Your deeds and charity will challenge your humility as you gain favour and love. Remember that all life is weighed equally in the Lady’s heart.

Celestial Heaven

Cassandra’s heaven, while nowhere near as grandiose as the realms of her peers, is the largest of the Celestial Realms. This is not a reflection of her pride or a desire for power, rather, it is caused by Cassandra’s willingness to take in as many of her worshippers as she can. Those who worshipped her in life or those who have been offered salvation in death are welcome within her heaven, and as such the population is ever-expanding at a rate that the other Gods of Light sometimes envy. The realm is a vast countryside interconnected by canals, with a central settlement wherein the majority of her angels and champions can be found.

It’s difficult to consistently describe the layout of Cassandra’s Celestial Realm, owing in part to the fact that the different regions are constantly shifting position in regards to one another. Like a farmer rotates their crops, so too does Cassandra rotate areas within her realm.

A large portion of the countryside is dotted with farmsteads where those who wish to live out their afterlife in quiet peace may find home and hearth. The fields are tended by worshipers and champions alike, and on occasion even one of Cassandra’s own angels can be seen moving through the rows of wheat to survey their growth. The crops themselves are varied from patch to patch, with any two plots growing side by side sometimes having plants from wildly different climates and seasons growing without issue.

Separating the fields are curated forests, often roamed by the Wild Elves and Bestial races that reside within the heaven. A few of these forests bear fruit or flower regardless of season, though many have been left to their natural cycle for the comfort and familiarity of those who choose to reside there.

This agrarian sprawl continues to expand outwards as new people come to stay with Cassandra in their afterlives. Connecting everything is a series of clear rivers and streams, as well as an elaborate and finely maintained canal system. People use these waterways as the main source of travel both within the heaven and should they need to travel outside to the inner planes. Cassandra is capable of appearing within any healing circle that has been placed, and so too can she send her messengers and servants to these circles. One of the first skills a new arrival to Cassandra’s heaven is taught is how to navigate these canals, and at any given time one can see at least a few boats on the water.

Central within this plane, even when the surroundings shift and cycle, is the University of the Angelheart and the town surrounding it. It is here that the majority of Cassandra’s chosen tend to reside, and it is here that many departed worshippers fill their days with philosophy and learning. The university is massive in scale, with lectures given on anything from methods of healing and medicine to philosophical debates on ethics and pacifism. Cassandra believes that when a life ends, at the very least the spirits of the departed should be given a chance to continue to learn and grow. The goddess herself can be found walking these halls, occasionally sitting in on discussions though rarely offering her input lest her worshippers take her word to be final say. Her office within this university is where she and a construct known as The Encasement often work, occasionally entertaining visitors but otherwise planning where most The Lady’s aid is needed on Arthos. The Encasement, once a servant of the now deceased god of merriment known as Festus, was taken in by Cassandra just as many lost souls seeking salvation were. They act as an aid and a conduit, overseeing the distribution of Cassandra’s divine magic to her faithful whenever the Goddess herself is personally involving herself in another matter. They also, however, tend to fall back on old habits from time to time, and if ever a particularly rowdy party takes place at the university, it is usually The Encasement at its center.

The courtyard gardens of the university are of particular import to Cassandra and her divine host, as the sprawling garden is deeply tied to the Plane of Life. The connection is strong enough that the space can be used as a way to enter the plane if need be. A central fountain within this garden runs with waters from the Plane of Life, and grievously injured angels can sometimes be found tending to their wounds within the waters.

Outside the university is a sprawling town, dotted with gardens and houses that the more urban-inclined residents of the heaven populate. Some of the houses are dug into the ground beneath hills to allow for any of the residents who prefer darkness some respite from the brightness of the heaven. The gardens are lovingly maintained and alive with wildlife, with robins of course being a common sight. It is not unusual to see one of Cassandra’s angels pausing their tasks to feed ducks at a pond, or to find a long dead champion playing cards with other residents under the shade of the trees. Many of the flowers and plants on the garden take on a pinkish hue, and some glow with soft light whenever the sun sets on the Celestial Heaven. The further from the center of the town one gets, the more spread out the homes are, eventually shifting to a series of cottages before giving way to the farmsteads of the ever changing countryside. Upon a hill overlooking the countryside is a solitary cabin that Cassandra frequents. After periods of great upheaval and bloodshed Cassandra secludes herself away there for a short time, sitting in quiet contemplation and grief before she sets to work in repairing what she can. During this time she very rarely accepts visitors, and it is seen as something of an honor to be allowed to sit and grieve with her during this initial period of raw emotion that preludes the flurry of work that comes with any great loss of life.

Those within the realm live at peace with one another, and fighting of any sort is not tolerated. Violence is nearly unheard of, and while some of her champions may spar for fun or for practice amongst themselves, none remain hurt once blades are lowered (though it is uncommon for blood to ever be drawn during such exercises in the first place). Due to the protection offered by Roland’s Celestial Realm it is uncommon for threats to ever breach Cassandra’s heaven, but any foolish enough to try are met with the reality that her Celestial Realm is far from defenseless.

Cassandra’s angelic host is made up of a wide assortment of angels, varying in size and power, however the majority of her angelic host are Cherubs. These Cherubs are small, and often appear quite young, despite having spent millenia in the defense of the innocent and in aiding Cassandra’s mission. They tend to have snow white wings, though a few have plumage that resemble those of robins, and all carry bows or other ranged weapons designed to aid in the liberation of lost spirits. Cassandra is unusual in the fact that very few of her angels actually remain in her heaven to protect it. While a handful can be found throughout the realm, the vast majority of them move through the Deadlands, pulling souls from the Black Tide and offering them sanctuary within Cassandra’s Heaven. The small size of the Cherubs is a benefit when within the Deadlands as they can move with great dexterity over the waters of the Black Tide, calling out to the spirits within the water and avoiding any malicious spirits who might hunt them. In their stead, the souls of her fallen champions fight alongside a large force of tree ents presented to the goddess by Dunarthos as a sign of good faith and friendship. Also residing within her realm is an Angel of Ryiak who was assigned there by their god to act as a runner to Cassandra’s Cherubs should a large invading force ever arrive.

While Cassandra may lack any particularly offensive capabilities, she and her angels possess limitless access to healing magic. While this is in part due to the heaven’s proximity to the Plane of Life, by her very nature Cassandra can tap into an unceasing reservoir of healing magic. This magic permeates the very plane, radiating through the plants and the land itself and eating away slowly at any undead who dares set foot inside. This turns any pitched fight within her realm into a battle of attrition that most invaders are doomed to lose from the start, for any that falls by their blade will inevitably be healed moments later to continue the fight.

This abundance of healing magic has led to the other Gods of Light sealing away dark relics within her heaven, particularly ones that radiate infliction or other harmful magics. Beneath the central fountain of Cassandra’s gardens lies the Mender’s Tomb, a vault situated over the nexus point between Cassandra’s Celestial Heaven and the Plane of Life. Cassandra offers this place to the other Gods of Light to hide away and protect relics of great evil if they cannot be destroyed. Often these relics are of such power that the gods themselves covet them, though all are deemed too dangerous and corrupt for any of the Light Pantheon to tolerate being used. Those few angels that stay behind in Cassandra’s realm often take turns standing guard above the entrance to the vault, and it is considered a great honor for any spirit to be asked to assist in this task.

So important is this vault to the other Gods of Light that in a time when the Gods of Light were young, even the Lord of Autumn tried his hand at pillaging the treasures hidden within. In the times before Dunarthos had offered ents to bolster her defenses, Cassandra was once attacked by the armies of Malagant while the other Gods of Light were occupied with matters of their own realms. Cassandra and her blessed champions sought to stave off the army of undead, and for a time they were successful. Malagant, however, was dead set on one of the necromantic relics stored in the Mender’s Tomb, and had come prepared for this venture. For every undead that fell to the healing of the plane, more would take their place. The battle raged on for days, with Cassandra too preoccupied in maintaining her defenses to send word to her angels within the Deadlands. In the end, it was an angel of Ryiak who stumbled upon the battlefield at the boundaries of her heaven. Sent to by their god to offer Cassandra congratulations on the establishing of her celestial realm, they instead found themselves witness to the goddess attempting to stave off Malagant’s armies. Upon seeing the carnage they took off without another word, speeding across the planes to rally Cassandra’s angels and explain the situation. The angelic host returned just as her defenses were failing and the undead were starting to overwhelm Cassandra’s meager forces. Her angels poured back into the plane, filling the sky as they rained down arrows that pulsed with healing magic. The countryside exploded with a dazzling light slaughtering the undead in only a few volleys. Malagant, frustrated, pulled back whatever bits of his army he could salvage, and the Gods of Light came together to figure out how to prevent this from ever occurring again. Their offers were varied, and in the end Cassandra opted for Dunarthos’ ents, for her magic would be able to heal them just as well as any living creature. Ryiak also opted for his angel to remain in the area so that they could, if needed, bring word back to Cassandra’s scattered angelic host in times of trouble.