Auril

Auril (/ˈɔːrɪl/ AW-ril),^[1] the Frostmaiden, is the goddess of cold and winter in the Forgotten Realms, for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

Publication history

Ed Greenwood created Auril for his home Dungeons & Dragons game set in the Forgotten Realms.^[2]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)

Auril first appeared within Dungeons & Dragons as one of the deities featured in Ed Greenwood's article "Down-to-earth Divinity" in Dragon #54 (October 1981). Here she is described as the Frostmaiden, goddess of cold, a neutral evil demigoddess from the plane of Pandemonium with a connection to Talos. Auril is described as one of “The Gods of Fury,” which is what these four gods are known as collectively: "Talos is served by Auril, Umberlee, and Malar." Auril is commonly worshipped by neutral evil magic-users, thieves, and clerics; Greenwood notes, "If a DM is partial to variant “specialist” NPC magic-users ... A worshipper of Auril would have ice and cold-related spells doubled in power, while spells related to the other elements would be half-strength."^[2]

Auril later officially appeared as one of the major deities for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set's "Cyclopedia of the Realms" booklet (1987).^[1]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

Auril was described in the hardback Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990),^[3] the revised Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1993) in the "Running the Realms" booklet,^[4] and Faiths & Avatars (1996).^[5] Her clergy was further detailed in Warriors and Priests of the Realms (1996),^[6] and Prayers from the Faithful (1997).^[7]

Her role in the cosmology of the Planescape campaign setting was described in On Hallowed Ground (1996).^[8]

Her relationships with the nonhuman deities in the Forgotten Realms was covered in Demihuman Deities (1998).^[9]

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)

Auril appears as one of the major deities of the Forgotten Realms setting again, in Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2001),^[10] and is further detailed in Faiths and Pantheons (2002).^[11]

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003-2007)

Auril is one of the deities described as appropriate for a cold-based campaign in Frostburn (2004).

Description

Auril is most powerful in those regions that are affected by deep winters or crouch at the edges of the Great Glacier. She is a native of the extradimensional plane of Pandemonium. Her symbol is a white snowflake on a grey diamond.

Auril is similar to Umberlee in many ways. She is worshipped out of fear, she serves Talos, and much of her ethos is similar to that of the god of nature's destruction. Like Umberlee, she has seen much of her personal power eroded by Talos himself, and as a result, the winters have grown colder to remind the people who still controls the power of cold.

Auril's priests wear ice white robes with blue trim, and are easily identified by the dire warnings they proclaim of the wrath of Auril come the winter. They have also been known to cast many of the cold based wizard spells.

Relationships

Much of Auril's power has been absorbed by Talos in recent times, weakening the minor deity. Despite this, or perhaps as a result of, Auril has quietly been siphoning power from the slumbering deity Ulutiu who is in stasis under the Great Glacier. Kossuth and Auril are mortal enemies, but their followers seldom come across each other. Sune opposes Auril, as she blames her for the destruction of much that is beautiful. Uthgar hates Auril as she has turned the Elk Tribe away from his worship.

As a denizen of the Deep Wilds, Auril is technically a subject of Silvanus, the dominion's ruler, although Auril does not consider herself accountable to the greater god.

References