Waukeen

Waukeen
Aliases	The Coinmaiden, the Golden Lady, Liberty's Maiden, Merchant's Friend, Our Lady of Gold
Alignment	True Neutral
Divine Rank	Lesser Deity
Pantheon	Faerûn
Portfolio	Trade, money, wealth
Domains	3E: Balance, Knowledge, Protection, Travel, Trade 4E: Civilization, Knowledge 5E: Knowledge, Trickery
Home Plane	Great Wheel: Marketplace Eternal (Outlands) World Tree: Marketplace Eternal (Brightwater) World Axis: Marketplace Eternal (Eternal Sun)
Worshippers	Traders, merchants, moneylenders, smugglers, rogues
Favoured Weapon	Cloud of coins (Nunchaku)

Waukeen is the goddess of commerce and trade in the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons fame. She would have been good friend with the money lending Philistines of biblical times.

History

Waukeen was among the many gods who made their influence on Toril made after the Fall of Netheril, her faith spreading with the expansion of trade and the thriving merchant class. But she became one of the casualties of 2e metaplotting, much like Orcus. Also as with Orcus the late-1990s designers had second-thoughts about demoting this deity so wrote a module for some high-level party to bring her back: here, For Duty & Deity. There we learn she's about the dumbest entity ever to have a priest simp for her.

During the Time of Troubles Waukeen had got stuck in her avatar mortal form in Faerûn. Like most other deities, she wished to return to her realm and take advantage of the situation as soon as possible. She eventually met with Lliira, and two started to make their way to the "celestial stairway" (i.e. Infinite Staircase), with Waukeen planning on bribing Helm to get back to her realm. The plan failed, with Waukeen eventually realizing there was nothing she could entice the Lawful Stupid god with.

After that, the two goddesses retreated to form a new plan. Waukeen eventually concocted a scheme to smuggle herself back her realm through the Astral Plane and the Lower Planes, by dealing with their denizens, calling in favors, and bribery. Through a long and twisted chain of contacts, the Oeridian god Celestian promised to help the goddess in exchange for paying off the debt he owed, but was unwilling to help Lliira, in fear of the added risk. Ao had anticipated of the gods attempting to something like this, however, and bound them to Toril itself. Waukeen, believing it was her divinity that was binding her to Toril, eventually asked for Lliira to take her divinity until she had returned to her realm.

After transport to the Astral plane, she began her long trek through the Lower Planes like a fucking moron. Once she reached the Abyss, the minions of Graz'zt abducted her, with the Demon Lord seeking to transfer her portfolio to his daughter Thraxxia.

Meanwhile Waukeenar's priests were distraught that they were unable to gain proper access to their powers, or speak to their goddess. Lliira eventually sent a prophet to the many temples of Waukeen, telling them of what happened to the goddess. Eventually Waukeen was located by a priest of hers - and that's when the module happens.

Happened past-tense, for those of us who didn't want to play the module and are living over two decades later. With Waukeen's return to her realm in the Outlands, Lliira gave her portfolio back to her as promised, and Waukeen began the work on recovering her church.

She also has a more-than-congenial relationship with Mammon, the Archduke of Greed, although neither one is ready to commit to more than flirting.

Heresy

The Harlot's Coin Heresy is an evil splinter-sect of Waukeen's worship that has originated due to cross-pollination with Graz'zt-worshipping demon cultists, and her dissappearance. In a nutshell, the members of this heretical sect believe that Waukeen was imprisoned by Graz'zt due to failing to pay back debts she owed him, and ultimately was only freed from his layer of the Abyss by selling off her divine portfolios (and her sexual favors), making Graz'zt the true god of commerce and trade.

• 
  The Coinmaiden, living to her title.