J'vala

Before the gods brought order, there was only hunger. Only transformation. Only the eternal burning that reduces all things to their truest form: ash and potential."

— Fragment recovered from pre-divine era ruins

Nature

J'vala is not a god, but a primordial elemental force - one of the ancient powers that shaped the raw material plane before the divine era. Where deities embody concepts and grant blessings to mortals, primordials are their element in its purest, most absolute form. J'vala is fire unbound: not the warmth of a hearth or the hope of dawn, but the all-consuming inferno that cares nothing for creation, only transformation through destruction.
  J'vala has no gender, no true form, no mercy. It exists as pure elemental will - an eternal hunger to burn, to consume, to reduce everything to primordial essence. To stand before J'vala's full manifestation would be to witness a living maelstrom of flame that speaks in the language of burning cities and melting mountains.
 

Imprisonment

When the gods clashed against the primordials during the Age of Divines, they discovered they could not destroy the primordials - such beings cannot truly die. Instead, the primordials were bound within artifacts of immense power known as the Primordial Shards; crystalline prisons that held each primordial in stasis, their essences compressed into gemstones of impossible beauty and terrible danger.
  J'vala was sealed within what would become known as the Dawnshard, a gem that burns with inner fire yet never grows hot to the touch. For over a thousand years, the Shard has held, but now cracks are beginning to form - not in the physical crystal, but in the magical bonds that keep J'vala contained.
  As the Dawnshard weakens, J'vala's consciousness bleeds through. It whispers and dreams. It hungers for power.
 

Domains and Aspects

Primal Domains:

Fire (consuming, purifying, transforming)

Entropy (the return of all things to base elements)

Truth (burning away lies and illusion)

Hunger (the eternal need to consume and transform)

Philosophical Concepts:

Purification through Destruction

The Cleansing Fire

Reduction to Essence

Transformation Beyond Control

Manifestations and Signs

When J'vala's influence grows strong, certain phenomena occur:

Fires that burn without fuel or reason

Dreams of immolation that feel more real than memory

A growing conviction that the only path forward requires burning the past completely

Prophetic visions that blur the line between divine inspiration and elemental compulsion

Heat that radiates from within, as if the body itself has become a furnace

An inability to feel cold, followed by an inability to feel anything but burning

Worship and Following

J'vala has no church, no priests, no organized worship - and yet its influence spreads like wildfire through dry timber. Those touched by the Infinite Flame don't see themselves as cultists or priests. They see themselves as awakened, as having perceived a fundamental truth that others are too comfortable to accept.
 

Common Beliefs Among the Influenced:

"The corrupt cannot be reformed, only burned away"
"True renewal requires complete destruction"
"The old world must end in fire for the new to begin"
"Pain is the price of transformation"
 

The Prophecy of Ash

Fragments of an ancient text, recovered from ruins predating the divine era, speak of J'vala's nature:

"In the end, all returns to fire. Not the warm fire of the hearth, Not the guiding fire of the torch, But the first fire, the infinite fire, That knew only hunger and knew it perfectly. It does not hate. It does not love. It transforms. It consumes. It reveals. What remains after the burning is truth: Ash, and the potential for something new. Beware the one who speaks of cleansing. Beware the prophet who dreams in flame. For when the Infinite Fire whispers, Even the faithful may learn to burn."