Overview
Nerissa is an ancient water-and-earth goddess of Theryssa and Thiravos who empowers mortal wielders through the wave shard. She was once the sole goddess serving both island nations and later shares their divine life with Pyragos after saving him. She protects the islands through seclusion, technology, gates, and shard-wielder power. Her survival-first politics eventually draw them into Raphael and Gabriel's attack on Xalmyrra.
Nerissa is also a first-generation god-core being, created in Malverand's first batch of god cores from the essence and will of thousands of mages. She belongs to the same early generation as Gabriel, Kharvos, and Khauren. Later island religion worships her as a primordial goddess while hiding or omitting her Malverand origin.
Appearance
Nerissa forms bodies from water, sand, earth, and divine essence. Near the ocean she can take the shape of a woman formed from the sea, with blue hair flowing into the water and eyes like waterfalls. In Pelagia and other landward settings she often uses a sandy, more human form with brown or golden-brown hair, earthy eyes, and robes shaped from water, light, sand, or essence.
Wave Shard
Nerissa's wave shard rests in the wielder's palm. Remiella's swirls in her open hand, while Nero's later palm shard or shard-mark can be visible, hidden, or dimmed.
Personality
Nerissa is protective, secretive, pragmatic, and willing to use coercion when she believes Theryssa and Thiravos are endangered. She hides Malverand history after Isandriel makes her swear to it, refuses for centuries to name Lucilla's father, and gives Nero the wave shard through a pact that carries both political and personal consequences.
Nerissa shows affection toward Lucilla, Nero, and Pyragos. Her protection of the island nations has hard limits. When she decides survival requires it, she accepts attack on Xalmyrra, deception, and mass-casualty magic as tools for keeping her nations alive.
Abilities and Limits
Nerissa's divine magic commands water and earth. She moves through oceans, raises and shapes waves, controls moisture, creates protective bubbles, senses through water near her domain, forms bodies from sand or sea, and shapes earth and rock on a battlefield scale. The wave shard lets her empower a mortal wielder, speak through or to that wielder, and channel her power into large spells. Remiella once wielded that power in the wave-shard spell that turned Thiravos and Theryssa into islands; Nero becomes Nerissa's later wielder in 5208 AX.
Nerissa also understands Malverand gates, gate sequences, god cores, and ancient divine history. Her direct descent gives her enough power to confront other gods and nearly kill Orin by holding him in place with water and crushing pressure.
The Plains of Eternity make descent difficult, and her divine strength depends in part on followers and belief.
History
Nerissa's older history is bound to Malverand and Remiella. During the Thiravos-Theryssa Civil War, Remiella used Nerissa's power through the wave shard to separate the lands, shattered them into island nations, overloaded, and died. Nerissa manipulated Remiella into the fatal overload so she could seek a new wielder and free Thiravos and Theryssa from Malverand, leaving herself weakened until worship restored much of her strength.
After the guardians fall, Nerissa guides Theryssa and Thiravos. She saves Kharvos, known locally as Pyragos, introduces him to Thiravos, shares ancient knowledge with the islands, and keeps them separated from much of mainland Valrindor. Her history with Isandriel leads her to suppress Malverand history in the island nations and to hide that Isandriel is Lucilla's father.
In 5208 AX, Nerissa chooses Nero as her wave-shard wielder after her previous wielder dies. Through Nero, she guides Theryssa and Thiravos's defenses, investigates Raphael and Rahmavir with Renneth and Maric, and draws the island nations into the Zarephon aftermath and Raphael's attack on Xalmyrra. She also teaches Renneth and Maric parts of Malverand's god-core history, including Renneth's past as Kharvos/Pyragos and the shared history of Kharvos, Thamrielle, and Pyrathalor.
After the destruction of Zarephon's mountain, Nerissa orders Nero to flee and expects the Order and other gods to blame them. Gabriel exploits that pressure in Pelagia, offering Raphael's protection and demanding an attack on Xalmyrra plus gate knowledge. Nerissa accepts after insisting that Garrik be spared, using the alliance to buy time until Lucilla can unmake gods.
Nerissa leads the island-nation fleet toward Xalmyrra with Nero, Lucilla, Kalyx, and Brontes while Gabriel backs Nerissa's fleet with a stormcloud crystal. She prepares a tsunami while Nero approaches Brynor and Orin as if diplomacy is still possible. During Nerissa's Invasion of Xalmyrra, she and Nero raise a massive wave, she gives Gabriel's stormcloud crystal to Kalyx, and she eventually descends to save Nero from Orin. When she nearly kills Orin with water and pressure, Lucilla turns on her and unmakes her. Nero's wave shard dims as Nerissa shatters into white particles.
Relationships
- Lucilla: Nerissa's daughter, head consul of Theryssa, and eventual killer. Nerissa trains her, refuses to name her father, and later tries to use her unmaking power as leverage against Raphael and Gabriel.
- Nero: Nerissa's wave-shard wielder and closest mortal agent. Their pact gives him immense water-and-earth power and binds him to Theryssa and Thiravos's politics.
- Kharvos / Pyragos: Nerissa saves him after his former wielder dies, introduces him to Thiravos, and resumes an old divine partnership and romance with him. His later life as Renneth complicates her relationship with Xalmyrra.
- Remiella: Remiella is Nerissa's ancient wave-shard wielder and the focal point of the island-splitting wave-shard spell. Nerissa manipulated her into the fatal overload that killed her.
- Isandriel: Isandriel is Lucilla's father and the source of the secrecy around Malverand history in Theryssa and Thiravos. Nerissa honors his demand to keep that history and Lucilla's parentage hidden.
- Raphael and Gabriel: Nerissa distrusts Raphael. She bargains with his faction after Zarephon. Gabriel pressures her nations directly, and Nerissa uses the alliance as a temporary shield for Theryssa, Thiravos, Lucilla, and Garrik.
- Theryssa and Thiravos: Theryssa and Thiravos are Nerissa's first loyalty. Their worship restores and sustains her, while her choices isolate them, advance their technology, pull them into attack on Xalmyrra, and eventually rupture their relationship with Xalmyrra.