Rioris is the source of tomorrow and yesterday, and even the source of right now. He is the reason that the days happen as they happen, that minutes make up hours and that effect follows cause. He is the intangible force which nonetheless has the strongest effect on all things. There is nothing upon any plane which is not affected in some way, shape or form by the passage of time. Even those things which may live forever are still touched by time itself. Rioris’ creation is subtly connected to that of Seram and Xistan, for life and death have no meaning without time in which for them to happen. It may be coincidence that the simple hourglass-like symbol which belongs to Rioris is made up of the symbols of Life and Death combined. It may be, but many believe this is not the case, for was it not Rioris who went to comfort Seram after the creation of B’erram?

Rioris is not often mentioned in many stories and those he is mentioned often in portray him in a similar mysterious light as Navendia is shown. In many of the oldest murals and tapestries Rioris is barely more than a shrouded figure bearing an hourglass. The newer tapestries, those showing a more preferred form that Rioris seems to have settled on, are based off an old legend told by halflings. Those who have seen him often find that he simultaneously stands out from those around him and blends in with the crowds. Rioris will most often manifest as a tiefling with skin the darkest black, a soft subtle sheen to it. His horns are thick and a dark, dark purple curling only slightly back over his head at an angle the brings their tips close to touching towards the back of his head. His tail ends in a tuft of fur a lighter shade of dark purple. His hair is kept short and has a slight curl to it, a soft white color like untouched sand on a tropical beach. His hair is, however, darkened at the temples and his eyes like all tieflings are without pupil or iris are a soft tan color.

There are times when Rioris will clothe himself in whatever is suitable for the place and time which he is visiting, to better blend in with his surroundings. This may put him in the guise of a soldier, of a merchant, or a noble, or perhaps a warrior or even a beggar. Should he be too busy to worry about such a thing he will often merely appear in fine pants, a slightly long jacket, and a vest all of dark blue accented with golden embroidery in the shape of small stars. His shirt beneath this an off-white color the collar of it held closed with a bolo style tie made of silver rope with a golden clasp in the shape of a knot of thread. A golden chain is attached to his vest, the other end attached to something he keeps in his vest pocket. The final thing of note, mentioned in several stories about him, is that no matter where or when he shows up, no one can physically interact with Rioris. He exists wherever he is for all intents and purposes except for the physical.

Out of all the Elder Gods, Rioris is perhaps the most forgotten about. This is not to say that no one worships him, it is more that he has always done his work behind the scenes. There is little if any flashy grand events where Rioris’ hand is evident, unlike other Elder Gods. Rioris does not seek out attention or praise, he simply does the job that needs doing and moves on to the next. Rioris is a man truly always and forever apart from all his friends and family. But he would not wish it otherwise, for it is his duty to ensure that time continues to flow the way it should. Without his steady hand upon the tiller there would be catastrophe on the horizon. There is perhaps some mild frustration that exists within him since the Breaking, for his job has not gotten easier since then. The aftermath of that great calamity caused problems even within his domain, problems he is still working to fix and repair. He does not ask for help from the others because not only could they not help him, save for perhaps one or two of the group, he also does not wish to distract them from their own duties. If there is one thing he has ample of, it is time, and this concept will be discussed further a little below.

Rioris is not a man given over to extreme emotions, he will never raise his voice or lash out at anyone. His voice is always calm and measured, on those instances when he does speak, though he will not usually initiate a conversation. Despite this he will never fail to respond whenever someone does speak to him. He doesn’t like to draw attention to himself, so he almost never introduces himself as who he is, unless one directly asks who he is. He would rather see whatever problem with time gets fixed quickly and quietly so he can go on his way to the next one. His willingness to speak with mortals and answer questions freely is born of a genuine empathy, and perhaps guilt, for them and their plight of having to deal with a world that the Gods brought about. Knowing what you face will banish the fear of the unknown, at least in his mind it should.

Rioris is obviously a caring god in his own ways. He comforted Seram in her time of need, sought out Arcana for to help Xistan’s only daughter, and even found, some stories say, love within the arms of Navendia. Each of these events bringing about one of the Younger Gods, and each of his children bringing about pride and delight in their presence. His empathy covers not only the divine, but also the mortal lands as well, for it was his gift to them all of the Rioran Calendar that allowed them to have an objective measure of time, to know how much longer the Age of Chaos would last.

Rioris’ powers lay within the progression of time itself, the untouchable yet steady current in that great river which flows from the past towards the future without pause or delay. At least for most people this is the case, but Rioris is the God of Time. To him Time is a single point, a space where all things happen at once and he can choose to be at any moment in the past or the future or the present day. These terms only having referential meaning to him as they relate to the people he is talking to or interacting with. As with so much of his existence, to what others perceive as Time, a constant moment moving forwards, he perceives as all these moments all at once, happening simultaneously. He can distinguish these moments in time and find the barriers between each one; there are no secrets to him when it comes to events. It goes without saying that Rioris can bring others through time as well, and while he does not like to do this in case of problems and changes to the history of the world, sometimes it has proven to be the lesser of two evils. Rioris has complete control over how mortals, and even other gods experience time itself, though messing with that causes more problems that he would have to fix.

While it is not considered a magical artifact even by the wizards who keep it safe, The Principal Menology was a gift to the Academia Arcanum on the condition that the wizards see its information freely spread to the rest of the world. This mechanical time keeping device has never needed repair nor winding, it is somehow powered from within. It is the source of what is known as the Rioran Calendar, for it provides not only time but also date and year as well. The more potent magical artifact that is known to belong to Rioris is The Horologe. It resembles a large locket the size of his palm made of gold and silver and platinum. It is about an inch and a half thick and is kept attached to a chain which the other end is attached to his clothing. Those who have seen him using it have never seen precisely what is kept within, only that when it is open a greenish-blue light emanates from within and lines of the same light draw and form shapes and symbols in the air above it. Rioris is often seen using or consulting The Horologe when he has arrived to deal with a problem. Lastly there is the simple fact that Rioris has the ability to not just move through time and affect time, but it is known he can create time and move it around as his needs require. There have been days which have lasted weeks and months which have passed in the blink of an eye. Years have been lost forever and needed to be replaced entirely. He does no like to do this but where necessary, but the power is his to command. If he needs the time to review a problem, to properly correct it, then he will give himself that time. One way or the other.

Rioris, at one time before the Breaking, held no mortals among his followings. None worshipped him, nor did he call upon any to serve him. After the Breaking, however, all that changed. There was simply too much to do and even having abundant time to accomplish to it, Rioris was still falling behind. It was not a matter of simply cleaning up the mess, it was a matter of preventing more mess from happening to add to the workload. It was because of this that Rioris sought out men and women who needed to be saved from a problem with time itself. He saved them regardless and assured them they would not be beholden to him, should they not wish to. He did ask them, however, to help him for he needed them to shoulder a burden. It was from these men and women who agreed and became the first Disciples of Eternity.

The Disciples have grown in number since those early days, having sought out and slowly inducted more members into their ranks as time has passed. They have grown to hold two-hundred and thirty-eight members, and this is the limit of them. Rioris has said no more and no less can be allowed. He is there when one of them passes on to take the gift he has given them away and is there with a new member to give that gift at the exact moment. As such a new Disciple is both a cause of celebration and mourning. The Disciples spend much of their time traveling the world, observing, and chronicling events as they happen. Not all events will catch their eye or draw their attention, but those that do are written down by them with the utmost of care. They have recorded great wars, fierce and heated political debates, broad reaching mercantile decisions and terrible tragedies. They have also immortalized for all time the birth of a single cow, a long-awaited reunion of three friends, a disastrous attempt at romance, a night of pleasure between two lovers, a quiet afternoon in a small-town square, and many others of seemingly insignificant importance.

While their presence has been noted and recorded across the centuries, they remain secretive to the purpose behind their chronicling, only that it must be done and that they will not interfere in events, they will only observe and record what happens. While it is rare that they will travel in numbers, for certain events they will show up in a pair, or perhaps a trio or maybe even five at once. It is not known where they meet, but it is known that they will all gather in one place in a regular interval. What this span of time is or how it is determined is unknown except to them. What is also known is that despite not having their God’s ability to control time, they do have an ability to bend it a little, to slip between moments, to move outside of time briefly to remove themselves from danger. Where the Disciples of Eternity show up, something important is going to happen, at least from their perspective.

There are no great temples to Rioris, perhaps the Disciples of Eternity know of a place blessed by Rioris but it is not a place where the public is welcome. There are no houses of worship dedicated to him and shrines to him are few. The only instances of any note are those shrines included in a few places of worship which hold shrines to all the Gods. One such place is in the city of Wildriver within the Free Lands of Muria, but there are others here and there. Now and then, one may come across an old shrine dedicated to Rioris in the middle of some wilderness or tucked away in an ancient ruin or carved out of a cave wall somewhere. As such there are no real services that the Disciples offer, their service is to Rioris and no other.

Despite having ensured a proper calendar for the mortals of the world to use, Rioris’ name is not used for any of the days within each fortnight, nor is it used in any of the names of the months. When asked about it the wizards of the Arcanum said that Rioris did not want to be paid that sort of gratitude, that it was fine for the others but for him all he wished was that the people used his gift to them. Perhaps because of this fading into the background, Rioris has almost no holidays associated with him. Ordina refuses to venerate him, perhaps because of his part in fathering N’avrio. The Arcanum hold him in high esteem but has chosen to adhere to his wishes, perhaps a little too much at times. Muria and Merjoux and even Azura have other Gods and Goddesses they hold up more than Rioris. Isenfeur and Sera are much the same and while the Batan people include Rioris whenever they pray to the Gods, he is not given special place among them.

It is interesting then that Cendaq, of all places, has a holiday associated with him. Saeat Alsifr is a day which takes place on the 27th of Runas every year. Those who wish to compete put forth their name and a time. When the sun rises on that day, each competitor must remain uncaught for the length of time specified. There are no rules for either the competitors or those who are trying to catch them, which is usually everyone else in the city. Should those competing not be brought into the circle at the center of the city before the sand runs out on their hourglass for the last turn then they will win all the money that anyone bet against them. Many say that this is not a true worship of Rioris, but the Cendaqi people disagree. What is more worshipful to the God of Time than a contest revolving entirely around the concept itself.

The widest known story of Rioris is that of his creation by The Weaver following the creation of Seram and Xistan. According to the legend The Weaver drew out of herself breath after breath and turned this intangible into thread which she then wove into the God of Time, Rioris. The world having so recently been given Life and Death, now also received the gift of Time and all things did begin to age. Because of this closeness to Seram and Xistan, Rioris has often been portrayed in stories as looking upon Xistan as a close friend and companion and Seram as a deep friend and even lover in some of the tales. It is true and known that after Berana’s dark actions towards Seram and the resulting Younger God, that Rioris did go to Seram and comfort her and remain with her to help her work through what had happened. They grew closer during this time and in this closeness came to the same realization, that their beliefs as to what should happen to Berana were in fact identical. From their power combined came S’erris, the Goddess of Justice. This was to be only the first of Rioris’ three children.

The second came about when Xistan asked Rioris to help him guide his only daughter, for shortly after the creation of S’erris, X’isdia, the Goddess of Vengeance came to be and Xistan worried that she would put herself in harm’s way. Rioris consulted with Arcana, the Goddess of Magic, who was one of the few of the Elder Gods who had not yet created a child. At this point even Karashiel and Estarn had a son. Arcana was envious of the opportunities the others had been given to analyze and examine such a union. She convinced Rioris with her impeccable logic that what X’isdia needed was a friend and a companion who could guide her and help her to make the right decisions at the right time. Their union gave rise to A’naris, the Goddess of Wisdom.

It is perhaps the last child of Rioris, and the final of the Younger Gods, who is the most well known and most hated of all the Gods. Navendia, The Goddess of Fate, came to Rioris and seduced him. She seemed to know all the right things to say and do, the perfect way to look at him, to touch his cheek with her hand. This is not to said that Rioris had no agency in this, for he had long admired Navendia for her confidence and her ability to stand up to even Yshirea and Berana. It was enough to make him choose to be with her and from their union came N’avrio, The God of Change. The one who would free Berana from his prison and cause the world to be Broken.