Asala (Az-uh-luh)
Asala is the ancient patron Goddess of the city of Asalay, and the Azalen people who predated and built that city. She was the spirit who protected warriors who entered The Underworld and all those who passed away.
Traditionally, Asala was said to be a woman with silver hair and silver eyes. She possesses a moonlike glow and often wears a subtle smile. Traditionally, she wore the garments of an ancient Dungeon-Warrior (bark cords tied to shark-leather and bronze plates) and carried a kris - a shortsword with a wavy blade. She is often depicted as breathing a frightful white wind from her mouth.
Asala may not be worshipped as directly as she once was, but she remains present in the theology and worship of the Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon. She is now Asala-Yakara, the Divine Dragon, soul and progenitor of the Prophet Ishkibal and savior of all demon-born souls.
It is well-recorded that Ishkibal has repeatedly stated that Asala is a real entity in the world, even if the Great Sage has had different opinions on her divinity over time. Many in the arcane world have begun to suspect that Asala is not only a real physical presence in The Underworld but that she is a material influence beyond it.
Those scientific theorists at The Darzan University have their own theory: that Asala is an ancient name for a truly ancient shapeshifting Silver Dragon underneath Asalay that has protected the city and given council to its leaders at pivotal moments. It is said that Asala now takes the shape of the Sage Ishkibal to appear to the leaders of the Temple of Ishkibal the Dragon.
Such theories are unpopular among the faithful, as they reduce a great divinity to another dungeon monster. But even if it was true, many more questions remain. Who is this dragon? What are their goals? Why are they the sole monster to do this? And is Asala their truest form, or is it simply an older goddess that the Dragon used as an alias in older times?
The Old Legend
This is the story of Asala in ancient Asalay, before she was assimilated into Ishkibism:
It is said that when the first moon gave birth to the Second Moon, that it actually gave birth to twins. It loved them both dearly and wished for them to live in the sky with it, but it owed a terrible debt to the Earth. The earth had waged war against the sky once, and as part of the peace the sky and the earth had promised each other the first children born to each as hostages. And so, the Earth God Lupathi emerged in a great thunderous eruption and stole one of the twins away. Lupathi accidentally suffocated the child, killing her. Terrified, she resurrected the child with part of herself - the child was now also her own. When the other spirits of the Deep met together and agreed to place the hostage child in a great vault for all of eternity, Lupathi felt great sorrow for this child was now bonded to her, was now a person to her. And so Lupathi crafted the child a mortal body and placed her in a great temple beneath the Earth. The local villagers heard a great rumbling and visited the temple, finding the child and adopting her. She was named Asala, and grew up to be a great hero and magician.
Asala performed many great tasks and trounced many monsters, but one foe forever eluded her: death itself, which stole her loved ones and foiled her greatest schemes. Eventually, she had enough, and decided to storm the Underworld itself to steal back the souls of her loved ones and acquire the secret fruit of immortality. She returned to the place of her birth, and tricked her way past Lupathi into the land of the dead. But just as she was about to escape with all she loved and desired, the Earthen Gods recognized her and surrounded her. Lupathi interceded, demanding she be allowed to defend herself in a trial. She laid out her many good deeds and had her identity as moon-and-earth revealed; but it was not enough to entirely purchase her freedom. She was imprisoned in the Underworld in a gilded garden, but Lupathi left open the path she had made. When the villagers went to find Asala, they found the passage to the Underworld, full of monsters and riches, still open. And when both the moons were full, they heard Asala sing to them of her trials and fate, and how she would one day escape.
The Silver Dragon?
Religions
Children
Comments