Selnara

The Veilshard Primordial of Ice, Memory, and Silence

Titles and Epithets

• The Veilshard
• Lady of Stillness
• Keeper of Forgotten Echoes
• Frostmother Eternal
• The Memory that Sleeps

Mythic Description

Selnara is less a god than a presence—a chill in the air that turns breath to fog and silence into dread. She is the Primordial of Ice, yes, but also of lost time, buried secrets, and the emptiness left behind. Her influence stretches through forgotten glacial tombs, fading dreams, and memories long suppressed.

Selnara is most often depicted as a shrouded figure of glacial crystal, with shards protruding from her form like wings or thorns, her face obscured by a veil of frost. Some say she is the very embodiment of time unlived, of paths unwalked, of memories buried beneath snow.

Where Ifrexus burns and Zepharos howls, Selnara waits—watching.

Portfolio of Powers and Abilities

• Absolute Dominion Over Cold: Selnara can conjure cold so intense it stops thought, breath, and motion. She can flash-freeze cities or still the blood within a beating heart.
• Memory Manipulation: She can erase or bury memories, share ancient echoes, or instill false pasts into a mind with chilling precision.
• Echostep: Can move between reflections, ice-mirrors, and forgotten thoughts, making her nearly impossible to track.
• Dream-Hunger: Her presence induces torpor and sleep. She can feed on memory, suppress trauma, or create amnesia.
• Stillheart Curse: Those marked by her can no longer speak of certain truths, locked in psychic frost.

Historical Timeline of Selnara

The Era of the Glacial Quiet (~Pre-500 AR) According to Nyssavren ice-lore, the world once slept under Selnara’s gaze. Her silence allowed peace, but her power began to grow in the absence of war. It is said she almost froze the stars before she was sealed.

The Sundering Flame War (417–429 AR) Selnara did not awaken fully, but the excessive use of relics and fire-magic disturbed her rest. Northern Nyssavren saw creeping glaciers swell forward, and entire villages vanished into “mirrorfrost” chambers.

The Binding of Reflection (432 AR) Selnara was sealed beneath Thessryn, the capital of Nyssavren, using an intricate ritual known as the Sevenfold Reflection, performed by the Dreamwalkers of the north. The ritual fractured time and memory in the region, causing The Hollowing, where entire years are unremembered by those who lived them.

Present Tensions Relic smuggling, dream-fractures, and strange cases of “unbirth” (where children are born with ancestral memories or no identity at all) suggest that the Veil is thinning.

Beliefs and Legends

Among the peoples of Nyssavren, Selnara is not hated—but revered and feared. She is seen as a test of humility and silence, a reminder that truth is not always salvation.

Common Sayings

“The snow knows.” A whisper that every secret eventually finds its way into Selnara’s embrace.

“Dreams melt in her gaze.” A warning not to speak of visions received in deep sleep.

“Stillness is not death—it is her listening.” Used when silence descends over a group, especially in winter.

The Binding of Reflection

Selnara is imprisoned within the Crystal Hollow, a mirrored void sealed beneath the Glacierheart Sanctum, located in a deep faultline under Thessryn. Her prison is held fast through the Sevenfold Reflection—a metaphysical construct based on mirrored truth.

Key Aspects of Her Seal:

• Seven Obelisks of Thought: Towering runestones placed across Nyssavren, each one tethered to a Dreamwalker Circle. Each obelisk suppresses one type of memory: love, fear, war, names, fire, betrayal, and time.
• Veilshard Mirror: A massive circular lens of frost and soulglass, hidden in a frozen chamber deep below Thessryn. It refracts belief and keeps her unaware of the present world.
• Mnemonic Wardens: Chosen Dreamwalkers who carry fragments of the sealing rite in their minds. If they die, those fragments are lost forever unless passed on.

Disruption to any of the seven obelisks causes ripples in memory and identity across the continent.

Relics Tied to Selnara

• Veilshard Dagger — A translucent blade of soulglass said to erase a memory from the victim (or wielder) upon each strike.
• Cradle of Silence — An amulet of ice and bone that allows the bearer to walk unseen by memory itself. Even gods may forget the wearer’s presence.
• Frozen Echo Ring — Whispers long-lost secrets into the mind of the bearer. Most go mad within days.
• Heartmirror Pendant — Allows one to reflect damage back to an enemy—but each use burns away a cherished memory.
• Stillborn Crown — A ceremonial circlet used by the Dreamwalkers. Said to let the wearer speak directly with slumbering Selnara… at the risk of being frozen in thought forever.

Signs of Selnara’s Stirring

• Frost flowers bloom on glass, even in heated rooms.
• People experience gaps in memory or know things they shouldn't.
• Mirrors crack in rooms where difficult truths are spoken.
• Dreams are filled with the sound of crunching snow and the sigh of forgotten names.
• A Dreamwalker Circle in Halvyr’s Crest reports multiple instances of lost identity—people waking up believing they are someone else entirely.

Summary

Selnara, the Veilshard, does not wish to destroy—she wishes to erase. Her domain is not violence, but forgetfulness. She is the Primordial of endings without closure, peace without truth, and silence as shelter.

Should she awaken, Velastra may not burn or break—but it may simply… forget itself.