The Exile of the Unmaker

Celestial / Cosmic

The day innocence died and humanity took its first breath.

Though Nimagos had hoped his terrible actions would go unnoticed by the rest of the gods for long enough to let him escape, his own despised pupil was the one who immediately sensed the violence his mentor had wrought. Thus, it was Síorladh who raised the alarm among Ahten and his siblings that something terrible had happened.

As the Adelphas and the Dhaphén left at Síorladh's behest, Ardün went to find Mora, his favorite little sister and the one he knew would be most impacted by the events that had unfolded. When Mora heard the news, she was filled with a seething rage that drove her to task her brother with hunting down their fallen kin. Ardün accepted her blessing gladly and departed for the hunt while Mora went to see the truth with her own eyes.

When she arrived upon the scene with her siblings, they found the unmarked, hollow body of Ellastrophel and more than a dozen strange creatures sleeping peacefully nearby. At the sight of her only confidant’s empty body on the ground, Mora was overcome with grief, screaming at Síorladh that he was not allowed to reap her soul, that he could take anyone or anything but her. It was at that moment that Síorladh verbalized what he had sensed the moment he arrived: there was no soul to reap.

Unable to consider the idea that her beloved mentor might truly be gone, Mora fled the darkened cave alone.

Undeterred, the rest of the deities pressed Síorladh for more information. Where was Ellastrophel’s soul if it could not be reaped and returned to the Mother of All? It was in them, he explained, pointing to the sleeping humans laying nearby. As the gods began to investigate the area more thoroughly, Ahten discovered the iron dagger that had been used to carve Ellastrophel's soul into pieces. Though disgusted by the violence of their origins, the Adelphas and the Dhaphén reasoned that while these humans were a product of Nimagos's own hand, they carried within them the authentic spark of Ellastrophel, and thus they were spared.

But the Unmaker was still unfound.

As the Dhaphén began to deliberate amongst themselves how to capture the renegade deity, Ahten and his sisters joined their power to mark the shards of iron that had mutilated their sister's soul so that the substance would become pain itself for their brother unto eternity. The gods then departed to grieve in their own ways.

Months passed as Ardün hunted fruitlessly for Nimagos. Meanwhile, Síorladh became consumed with understanding what had befallen Ellastrophel's soul and working to prevent future souls from being scattered to the void. To this end, he began working tirelessly to calm the astral void that had been opened by Ellastrophel's sudden and violent destruction while communing with Ynara to construct a Dead Highway that would guide souls to her care. As the months stretched on, the Dhaphén began to discuss amongst each other a way to bring their traitorous kin to justice.

It would be Terenor, first of the Dhaphén, who would sketch the vision of their plan. He reasoned that Nimagos had been impossible to hunt down, but that it might be possible to draw him out of hiding if he thought his work was unfinished. Therefore, he suggested that they tether the cosmic void left by Ellastrophel's absence to her physical form and animate her corpse to bait her murderer into showing himself. When Nimagos would surely come to investigate, his presence would trigger an opening in the void he had created and pull him inside. Once contained within, Terenor would seal the body in a sheath of iron to ensure their prisoner's confinement. Though wary of the consequences of their vengeful plan, the other Gods agreed, and the project began.

Over the following months, the God Eodan led the designing of a magic that would sufficiently animate the corpse of Ellastrophel as well as the schematics for a trigger that would activate at the appropriate time. Given their dedication to and interest in the law, justice, and wisdom, Terenor and his sisters, Skollur and Kiemra, were especially helpful in the latter project. After months of tireless work, the trap was set and the bait offered.

True to form, when Nimagos discovered that Ellastrophel had evidently risen again, he came immediately to discover the truth of the matter. As he once again entered the cave where Ellastrophel's body had been placed, his very proximity triggered the opening of the void as it recognized the presence of the one who had carved it from the cosmos. Taken by surprise, the Unmaker was nearly swallowed by the raging vacuum that lurked within the corpse, yet Nimagos was not so easily disposed of. He began to pull away from the void, almost recognizing within it an essence not unlike his own, or so he felt. With each moment tearing at his very psyche, the dark god inched further and further from his intended prison even as the astral wind howled around him.

It was in this moment, when it seemed as if the Betrayer would once again escape his just reward, that Ardün, tired and sore from his long hunt, at last caught up with his prey.

Hardly stopping to take in his surroundings and thinking only that he had finally found his mark, Ardün threw himself at Nimagos...and sent them both tumbling into the astral sea raging with the body of Ellastrophel.

At once, Terenor sealed the Cage behind them with the molten bones of the fallen star once cradled in Ellastrophel's arms, but before the Dhaphén could even think what to do about Ardün, Ahten came down on the heads of his children with rage unequalled. He told them that such power as the Curse of Iron could not be invoked with flippant disregard or to support an authority they did not wield. Instead, the Hand of Creation deemed that his children should know the weight of the yoke they had sought to place on their own family and so extended the Curse of Iron upon all of his children, including Ardün who was now sealed within the Cage along with Nimagos. With that, Ahten departed his children, leaving them to their guilt and Ardün to his fate.

A fate that only Mora would strive to challenge.