Achenar
is a lion-headed god with silver fur, cerulean eyes, and a roar like peals of
thunder. He was once a wild storm god of fire and the forge. He was a
weaponsmith to the other gods. He could pull lightning from thin air and shape
it with his hammer. The thunderous roar of his hammer reverberates across the
land, lightning singing from the beaten steel, water from his quenching drum
raining down.
He
was perfectly happy being a weaponsmith until his contention with another god
turned to his heart towards war and vengeance. He fell in love with a a
half-human demigoddess named Evani. They eloped against the wishes of her
divine father, a lunar god of fertility and agriculture named Ketsukon. Evani
was Ketsukon's only child. She was his heart, and he didn't want to lose his
only child to an Elder God. And when Evani died giving birth, Ketsukon blamed
Achenar for her death.
Wanting
Achenar to feel his pain, Ketsukon condemned Endellion to die screaming in
childbirth like her mother. Achenar dismissed the Ascendant God's threats as
the empty words of a grieving father. Surely, Ketsukon wouldn't curse his own
grandchild.
But
as Endellion grew, so did Achenar's worry. Which each passing year, Ketsukon
grew more and more bitter. He became a dark and demanding god. He punished
those who didn't worship him to his satisfaction by rendering them infertile or
plaguing their crops.
When
Endellion eventually married and grew heavy with a child of her own, Achenar
begged Ketsukon to spare her, offering his life to Ketsukon in her place.
Ketsukon laughed and declined. He plunged a dagger into Achenar's outstretched
hand and left his granddaughter to her fate. After Endellion died in blood and
pain while giving birth to a stillborn child, the weaponsmith went to war.
Achenar's
first sentinels were called Tempests. They were playful and mercurial, roaming
the skies and bringing lightning and fallen metal to their god's forge. But
when Achenar hardened his heart and steeled himself for battle, he made new
sentinels. He wanted soldiers, warriors. He wanted Furies. Forged from cold
fire and tempered steel to be the instruments of his vengeance.
Achenar
sent his Furies to tear their way through Ketsukon's own army of sentinels. The
Furies were wild and violent, possessing a ferocity that surprised even
Achenar. They weren't particularly obedient, but they threw themselves at their
god's enemies with abandon. Their battles shook the netherworld. The heavens raged
and rained blood as Achenar's Furies slashed and scorched their way through
Ketsukon's own sentinel army, without restraint and regardless of their own
safety. Their battle-fueled rage literally set their blood on fire, producing
cerulean flames that burned cold. It was uncontrollable, cremating anything
organic in its path and leaving the rest untouched.
With
the path clear, Achenar faced Ketsukon alone. Even if he hadn't been fueled by
rage, Ketsukon was no match for an Elder God. Although Achenar was victorious,
he felt no satisfaction. Even as he lay dying, Ketsukon crowed, his eyes
shining with a feverish madness. He bragged that the dagger he used on
Achenar's hand was coated with the blood of a Royal Demon. How Ketsukon got his
hands on the blood from a Royal Demon, no one knows, but it explained why the
wound in Achenar's hand wouldn't heal, and why his blood had turned orange,
like that of demon spawns, the mixed-breed offspring of demons and mortals.
(Full blooded demons have toxic yellow blood.)
And
then to add insult to injury, Ketsukon cursed Achenar's bloodline with his
final breath. Every woman with even a drop of Achenar's blood in their veins
would meet the same fate as Ketsukon's daughter, Evani. (Although he no doubt
meant to target only Achenar's offspring and direct descendants, the curse also
affects Achenar's sentinels.)
Between
Ketsukon's Curse and the potent demon blood flowing through his veins,
Achenar's bloodline was thoroughly tainted. The demon blood in his system also explain
why his Furies were so different from his Tempests. But Achenar's Furies were
never normal, not from the moment he quickened them to life with his mutated
blood. Normally, gods know exactly where their sentinels are, as aware of their
sentinels as they are of their own limbs. His Furies were independent, even
defiant. And as time went on, it became harder and harder for him to sense
them. Eventually, as the demon blood in his own system continued to change him,
he couldn't sense them at all.
He
suspected his Furies were abnormal from the start, but they were also
unbelievably effective warriors. They were cunning and unyielding, and they
reveled in battle. Achenar was too focused on his rage at Ketsukon to question
their existence. Until Ketsukon's final declaration, that is. Afraid he had
created abomination when he unknowingly infused divine sentinels with
demon-tainted blood, Achenar destroyed every one of his remaining sentinels he
could find. When he realized the Furies had orange blood too, he was convinced
he was taking the right course. Not even his uncontaminated Tempests were
spared. He wanted to wipe away any trace of himself.
However,
unbeknownst to Achenar, a few of his Furies managed to escape his wrath.
Without the ability to sense his own sentinels, he could only only track them,
like any other quarry. Not that many of them were particularly hard to find,
anyway. The Furies had scattered after the war with Ketsukon, bored with their
god. But after Achenar slaughtered the first few, the others came looking for
him, only happy for a challenge. Although their ferocity presented a challenge
for even Achenar, they were still not equal to the task.
A
wise handful decided to stay out of the fight altogether. They traveled through
the Veil into the mortal realm, deciding to following their own paths. No other
sentinels before or since were able to abandon their god without Falling. They
were careful not to draw too much attention to themselves, though, unwilling
take the risk an Elder God couldn't breach the Veil should he learn there were
survivors.
Once
he thought he had exterminated the last of his sentinels, Achenar banished
himself to the twelves hells. He turned his back on the rest of the
netherworld, a self-imposed exile to punish himself the sin of failing to
protect his family. Although the moniker is wildly naccurate, he became known
as the Demon God. Some call him the Bleeding God, which is much more accurate
since the wound on his hand never did heal, still oozing orange blood to this
day. There is something about the once light-hearted god that discomforts
demons and other gods alike, something unnatural and predatory. Staring into
his eyes is like staring into the Abyss, it makes anyone feel incredibly small.
1 comment:
Interesting thoughtts
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