Goddess of Death, Stillness and Romantic Love
  Beauty, Death, Good, Healing, Night, Succor. The Scythe. Keen Weapons.
  As the goddess of death and emotional closure, Mara is responsible for maintaining the Twilight Realm and ushering souls of the dead to the afterlife. Mara teaches that life exists so that we may care about those around us, develop attachments, undertake quests and experience joy; ultimately, however, unending life has no meaning without death. Every goal must eventually be reached or failed, every relationship must come to an end and every life must pass on to make room for the new. It is crucial that one's goals and emotional affairs be resolved peaceably by the time of death; to die unfulfilled is a great tragedy. A compassionate soul will therefore help others accept their feelings, achieve their goals and go into the next cycle peacefully. It is not immoral acts that bind one's soul to the hells as much as bitterness and unfinished affairs. War and violence end many lives before they have the chance to fulfill themselves; therefore these things are great horrors and a good being will strive for the peace that allows people to reach spiritual and emotional resolution. To fear death is to expend energy against yourself, preventing closure; treasure life but understand that death is the natural peace and relaxation that is just reward - and it is a reward - for a life well lived.
  Along with death, Mara has been given dominion over romantic love. Her ethos inclines her to the rituals and ceremonies of romance more than the more carnal or familial aspects -- many epic paeans have been written of comparatively chaste lovers making tremendous sacrifices in each other's names. Mara treasures all things of beauty, though as a death-goddess her beauty is a pale and wan image of the world rather than the more vibrant tones of her sister Essiah. Clerics of Mara often nurse great, unrequited crushes on others that are never so much as vocalized; indeed, Mara teaches, unconsummated love can be the purest form, longing and loyalty untainted by the banalities of a real relationship. Unsurprisingly, critics accuse the faith of fetishizing the idea of love until it is out of touch with the real human condition -- often, clerics of Mara claim as their lover a figure who was dead centuries before they were born, or even an abstract ideal that does not exist in the corporeal world. Yet, the central point is that they accept perfect romance, just like immortality, as being unattainable, and are at peace with striving for the sake of striving.
  Mara's clerics are not all the black-shrouded mourners that stereotype paints them - they treasure life and enjoy revelry and gaiety as much as anyone around them, despite their serene anticipation of their own end. They serve as diplomats, counsellors, confessors and advisors to nobles and commoners alike, striving to teach people the acceptance that will allow them to find closure by the time they die. Her clerics intentionally expose themselves, and any others who are willing, to the physical aspects of death - not to shock or disturb, but in the hopes that by acclimating others to death they will learn not to fear it and even to welcome it when its time has come. Because of this practice, many of her clergy earn wages as gravediggers, embalmers, plague healers and vivisectionists. Finally, clerics of Mara bring peaceful, painless death to those who have resolved all of their ties to life - in the case of good-aligned members of her clergy, this is always done with the subject's consent; with others, it depends on the priest in question.
  Mara is Lawful Good, and her clerics may be of any non-evil alignment. Her holy symbol is a tiny bag of dust worn around one's neck, drawn from the powdered bones of an ancestor; her chosen weapon is the scythe. She grants her clerics access to the Domains of Beauty, Death, Good, Healing, Night, and Succor.
   Worship: Mara would never stain her altars with the blood of creatures killed by her clergy, but if an adventuring follower should discover the corpse of an innocent creature killed in a desolate locale far from its home (such as a dungeon), this corpse might be offered on one of her altars so that she might give it a proper burial in her Celestial Graveyard and escort the soul on to its proper afterlife, as is Her metaphysical duty. Respecting the dead in this manner pleases Mara greatly.
   Mara is deeply offended by her clerics killing any friendly creatures or desecrating corpses; however, she is pleased when her clerics put to rest the tormented souls of inherently evil undead (and gravely displeased if her clerics create such beings, though she has no objection to undead in general). Evil acts in general also offend Mara, while good acts grant favour with her. Leading incorporeal undead to peaceful rest pleases Mara; this can be achieved by slaying them in a graveyard area, or by using special Marite training and the Diplomacy skill to Quell them. She likes her followers to be able to understand the natures of other thinking beings, but does not want them to cause fear, either mundanely or with magic.
   Mara is a very exacting and unforgiving god -- she knows that the powers of death and necromancy can easily lead to tragedy, and as a result she sets an unwaveringly high moral standard for her followers to adhere to. Only the most responsible and ethical beings can be allowed to handle the powers of her domain.
   Blessings: Mara will heal any follower or transport them to safety, and will resurrect, grant mental clarity to or lift curses on the behalf of followers with even minimal favour. For more favoured followers, she will remove fatigue and restore the spirit, or even purify the body. Of all the gods in Incursion, Mara is the freest in resurrecting her followers (followed by Aiswin), as her entire ethos revolves around the opportunity to resolve issues left unresolved at one's time of death.
   Her more permanent blessings include resistance to fear, the ability to understand other thinking creatures, resistance to necromantic and death magics, increased potency when using necromancy effects and the ability to calm others' feelings and animate the dead. Her greatest champions are said to be able to befriend the dead, and to call upon the aid of powerful, intelligent undead called Mourners.

Domains: Beauty, Death, Good, Healing (Domain), Night, Succor