Mithaniel & Erollisi Marr

Children of the water lord

Mithaniel Marr, god of valour, and Erollisi Marr, goddess of love, are twins, the children of Tarew Marr, god of water. In the old histories they were the last gods to arrive on Norrath, and they asked no one’s leave and made no pacts. In the cold north, near the ruins of the giant lands, they made the barbarians: a young, rough people at war with everything, including one another. The Northmen’s skalds still sing it, and an EverQuest II history of the barbarians says it plainly: “WE are the sons and daughters of Mithaniel Marr… and Erollisi Marr.”

Yet a small minority of those barbarians began to believe in something more, perhaps a seed the twins had planted. From them came the first humans, which is why Erollisi is held partly responsible for humans and Erudites too.

Erollisi among the elves

In their youth the twins walked Norrath looking for a cause worthy of their divinity, as the tale From Pond to Paladin tells it. Innoruuk sent his Teir’Dal to tempt Erollisi into darkness, but her father’s wisdom let her see their wickedness more clearly than their faces. She fled to the lands of Tunare’s elves, and there she found warmth, beauty, and the most mortal of things: love.

Mithaniel in chains

Her brother’s road was darker. Cazic-Thule could not frighten Mithaniel, so his servants lured him into the swamps instead, where trolls, lizard folk and nameless horrors captured him and bound him with their master’s magic. He prayed to his father day and night and was not answered, until at last he fell into an exhausted sleep, and Terris-Thule came into his dreams.

The Truthbringer

Mithaniel is the Truthbringer, or Lightbringer: god of valour, orderly good, who guides paladins and the other servants of good from the Plane of Valor. Only the orderly good and the neutral good may follow him. He is “the picture of paladinhood,” with long flowing hair, shining silver full plate and a glowing enchanted longsword. His sister and Karana are his allies; Innoruuk, Cazic-Thule and Bertoxxulous his hated enemies; and with Solusek Ro he keeps “a friendly rivalry.” His faithful hold that valour is what separates civilised beings from beasts, and they live by a strict code of truth, honour and charity, with little patience for mischief.

Erollisi’s faithful believe that love conquers all and that dying to defend what you love is the greatest good.

Monuments and temples

The frogloks claim Mithaniel as their own. The Valorous Tragedy of the Frogloks of Guk praises the strength he lent them to break a Rallosian assault on Guk, and EverQuest II’s Legacy of Guk tells of retaking the city as Gukta, the outpost of Marr. The first great monument raised in his name, Ardathium, Volume II records, was the Fortress of Ardathium, built by the half-elf paladin Countess Viannay north of the Elddar Forest in the first years of the Monument Age.

In Freeport both twins found a home. The Knights of Truth, paladins of Mithaniel, keep their chapterhouse in the Hall of Truth, while the clerics of the Temple of Marr serve both twins but Erollisi above all, guarded by paladins called the Sentries.

Valor and the Halls of Honor

Beyond the mortal world, the Plane of Valor exists to test those who would enter the Halls of Honor, beginning with an amphitheatre guarded by the Soldiers of Marr. The Halls themselves, home of the Truthbringer and of heroes from every era, are carved entirely from white marble and set with gold and silver. Even in EverQuest Online Adventures his voice was heard: outside Halas an “agent of Honor” called the giants’ invasion “an affront to everything good and righteous” and swore, “Without honor and justice, there is nothing.”