Arneth

Southern Polar Desert  

"In the beginning, I was frost and fury, time's guardian in realms of endless white. Now I am heat and hunger, keeper of the burning wastes. Both extremes teach the same truth - survival demands strength." - Arneth's Meditation on Transformation

 

Arneth: From Ice Lord to Desert King

  Among the original Eeirendel, Arneth emerged as master of the frozen southern reaches, where his breath froze oceans and his footsteps crackled across endless sheets of ice. His early reign was marked by an almost scholarly obsession with preservation - for in the perfect stasis of ice, he saw a mirror of divine permanence.  

"The ice remembers. Every snowflake holds a story, every glacier guards an age. In my realm, nothing is truly lost - only waiting to be found." - Early teachings of Arneth

  The Southern Pole under his dominion became a realm of crystalline beauty and deadly precision. Arneth crafted great halls of perpetual ice, their spires reaching toward auroral skies that danced with his power. His first followers were the hardy folk who dared to dwell in these extreme reaches - hunters, explorers, and those seeking wisdom in isolation.   Among his earliest creations were the Frost Giants of the Southern Reaches, beings of living ice who served as his hands and voice in the mortal realm. These creatures still roam the polar wastes, though their numbers have dwindled since their creator's transformation.  

The First Change

  During the Age of Foundation, Arneth's duties brought him into frequent contact with Thoman, God of the Northern Pole. Their relationship was one of respectful rivalry, each striving to create more magnificent frozen wonders than the other. This competition drove both gods to greater heights of creativity in their frozen domains.  

"My brother of the North builds with ice and snow. I sculpt with time and temperature, freezing the very moments between heartbeats." - Arneth to Thoman, before the Change

  The first signs of Arneth's transformation began subtly. His interest in preservation through cold began to shift toward an fascination with preservation through desiccation. The god found himself drawn to the places where extreme cold created patches of desert - the dry valleys where snow never fell.   In these frozen deserts, Arneth discovered a different kind of preservation. Bodies preserved not in ice but in the complete absence of moisture became objects of his study and contemplation. This marked the beginning of his gradual transformation from a god of ice to one of aridity.   The First Black Fire War accelerated this change. As battles raged across the realms, the heat of conflict began to alter Arneth's fundamental nature. Each engagement with forces of fire left lasting changes in his divine essence.  

"With each battle, I felt the ice within me crack and reform. Not into water, but into something else - something harder, more enduring. The desert called, and I began to answer." - Arneth's War Chronicles

  A pivotal moment came during a confrontation with a legion of fire elementals. Rather than fighting with his traditional ice powers, Arneth instinctively responded by pulling all moisture from the air, creating a zone of absolute dryness that proved more effective than any ice shield.  

The Great Migration

  Following this revelation, Arneth began a centuries-long migration from the Southern Pole toward the great deserts of Zerthia. His journey transformed the landscapes he passed through, leaving behind bands of arid territory that persist to this day.   His arrival in the deserts marked a complete metamorphosis. The god who had once commanded ice and snow now held dominion over sand and sun-baked stone. His ancient frost giants either crumbled to dust or evolved into mighty desert spirits.  

"The desert preserves as surely as ice, but it teaches different lessons. Ice traps and holds; the desert strips away until only essence remains." - Arneth's Desert Meditations

  The beings who had once been his frozen servants transformed alongside him. The Frost Giants who chose to follow their changing lord became the fearsome Dust Giants, while those who remained true to their frozen nature retreated to the poles, becoming wild and untamed.   In his new domain, Arneth discovered powers he had never known in his frozen realm. He learned to command sandstorms with the same precision he had once wielded blizzards, and found that the searing heat of day and bitter cold of desert nights suited his dual nature perfectly.  

The Desert Years

  Arneth's transformation brought new worshippers to his feet. The nomadic tribes of the deep deserts found in him a god who understood their harsh existence. He taught them secrets of survival that he had learned from both his ice realm and his new desert domain.  

"In ice or sand, the strong endure. The weak fade like mirages in the noonday sun." - Desert Tribal Saying attributed to Arneth

  His temples became places of contradiction - structures that were simultaneously freezing cold and burning hot, where worshippers would undergo trials in both extremes to prove their worth.   The cultures that developed around his worship merged aspects of both his old and new natures. His priests wore robes that seemed made of frozen sand, and his rituals involved both burning heat and bitter cold.   As the Ages turned, Arneth's mastery over his desert realm grew to match and eventually exceed his former powers over ice. He learned to shape the very essence of desolation, crafting landscapes that challenged and transformed all who dared to cross them.  

Final Days

  When the Second Black Fire War erupted, Arneth stood ready. His desert realm became a deadly trap for invading forces, its searing days and freezing nights enhanced by his divine power to create conditions that even demons found harsh.  

"Let them come. My sands will drink their blood, my winds will scatter their ashes, and my nights will freeze what remains." - Arneth's final recorded words

  Though Arneth survived both Black Fire Wars, these conflicts marked him deeply, completing his transformation from ice lord to desert king. Today, his influence can still be felt in both the frozen wastes of the South and the burning deserts of Zerthia - a legacy of survival in the most extreme conditions Aina has to offer.  

Legacy

  Those who worship Arneth today often speak of him as a god of extremes, teaching that the greatest wisdom comes from understanding both the preserving cold of ice and the purifying heat of the desert. His dual nature makes him unique among the gods, a bridge between two seemingly opposite forces that are, in truth, merely different expressions of the same divine principle.