Phiatris
Goddess of Darkness
Overview
She vanished after the last believer of the old belief died. Her temples barren, her deeds forgotten, her wish and will unfullfilled.
But then the people returned to Hulwar, finding her temple, reading her scripts, gathering the first believers. And then she returned and she was beautiful in all her glory.
I am darkness. I am where no light is shining. Where all hope is lost. Where you are naked even fully clothed. I can see you. I know you. I am your goddess and you are my servant, my blade in the darkness.
History
Phiatris was believed into existence long before the founding of the Dragon Sun Empire by one of the founding clans. She survived the crucible, the heat of the molding process to get the clans to form a nation. Her clan did not. Partly because they were arseholes, partly because she was doing what a Goddess of Darkness should do: she had them killed, at least a few key figures.
She got established as the Goddess of Darkness, as the Goddess of Knives, of Daggers, of Poison and Arrows. Her call pulled a lot of strange figures into the Dragon Sun Empire. Those figures evolved into assassins, into the knives in the dark, her loyal (sometimes brainless) servants. She let her followers pull in new recruits and let them grow on their own. They made no distinction between the species, everyone with a wish, darkness in their heart, and a knife were welcome.
Over time they grew to a few hundreds followers and as much knives as followers. They were all priests, because everyone who spread the darkness was a priest or priestess or holy person in her book. Which is a small book, bound in black leather with black pages. A priest is only allowed to write in it with white, silver or gold ink. No black, no blue, green, yellow, copper, or whatever other colour, just gold, white and silver.
They set out to find a suitable place for her temple and found it in Megrohm. Well, they founded the settlement first, but you know how it is. They found a small lake in the forest in the east and decided to build Phiatris' temple there. People should venture, they should undertake a pilgrimage to her, to be exhausted and to show her love and dedication towards Phiatris.
Due to their believes the assassins and followers of Phiatris filled the (non-existent) vault with Aureli and other currencies. Be it bounties, be it thievery, be it just hard, honest work. With this financial possibilities they built Phiatris her first and only temple, a narrow thing out of black marble, accompanied by Onyx and Obsidian. The temple was designed to go into the earth and be overgrown with grass and other plants, while the halls and rooms and altar were way underground, illuminated by torches, crystal lamps, and white shimmering moss. The huge nave sat right in the middle where they preached and held their rituals. A statue of Phiatris looks over the entire nave, shrouded by her hood, holy smoke and divine energies.
Over time the temple area grew. There were backeries, craftsman, merchants, small houses for the priests and guests, even a small inn for the rare guests. No post office though, but that was not necessary. They also established training grounds around the area and a defence, just in case.
Phiatris was pleased. She established rules, two rituals for her enjoyment, nailed down the rules in her black book and really digged the entire situation, being worshipped and loved, even when the loving person was brainwashed. It was during this time that she established her divine weapons, being shortswords, knives, dagger, and arrow tips. She got scolded by her fellow gods, and a thumbs-up from Idur. Which made her followers even more deadly, because those weapons, even when they didn't hit lethal at first, they established a condition which has the same name as the spell: Creeping Darkness.
This spell and the condition instilled fear in the heart of healers, alchemists, and enemies of Hulwar alike. They thought Phiatris was working only for Hulwar, but that was not the case. Phiatris was only working for Phiatris and so were her followers.
Your life is mine. My will is your will. We do not want to rule the world, no. We want to plunge it into darkness, to pull the hearts to our side with the promise of a gentle, cold embrace, but I am fear, I am the darkness inside the void. You serve me. Your life is mine and so is your death.
Then the Golden Sun Bloodline decayed and so did the belief. Not as fast, but they couldn't grow anymore. Followers died of old age, of disease, of other assassins, of enemies and neglect. The divine weapons were lost, stored and locked away, sometimes destroyed. High-Elven specialists were sent out to anihilate the enemies of the Eternal Life, because without light there was no darkness.
It was a slow, agonising death. Phiatris tried her best to corrupt every heart she could find, but it was to no avail. One follower after another got struck down, her village killed, left to rot. The last priest was executed and with the last believer dead, Phiatris sighed and vanished into oblivion. There was no one left to believe in her and the rest of the people - like the High-Elven assassins - who knew of her, tried to ignore her and forget her entirely.
After the downfall of the Dragon Sun Empire her village and her temple laid barren. There were only echos of days long past, skeletons remained in the dark halls, remnants of a massacre. But then the people returned, founded Hulwar and reclaimed old settlements, roads, and temples. So they found her village and her temple again. People read from the walls and her book of darkness. One really young, really curious - and maybe a bit horny - student started to believe and so he brought Phiatris back into existence. With her being, her will to plunge the world into darkness, her silver eyes, and her memories. It took her only a few moments, the student followed her on the spot. By night the entire research group was hit by the Creeping Darkness spell - the student was very eager - and fell down to their knees. Phiatris was back in the game, so to say.
Her followers repaired her small temple, outfitted it with new materials, renewed the writings on the wall and the paintings. They found new divine weapons and utilised them to spread the words of Phiatris. Over time Phiatris gained traction and somehow the Esatini started to believe in her. It was a good agreement, since Phiatris was the goddess of darkness, of assassins, of knives in the dark, and the Esatini were an ethnicity of warriors and assassins.
And now, sixty years after the Spiral incident, she sits in a good amount of belief, followers, gold, and fear of her enemies. She loves every second of it.
Workings, Goals & Promises
Phiatris works - surprise! - in the darkness. In the small hours before the sun vanquishes the shadows, during the nightmares of Alicia, during the depressions and the anxiety, in the horny moments of teenagers, in the minds of people who are drawn to dark thoughts. Sometimes she works together with Idur to get people over the edge, to plunge them into rage, darkness, bloodlust. Then they take turns and revel in their workings.
The structure of her belief system is really narrow. There is the book priest with their apprentice(s), the only priest allowed to write into her book. Then she has the temple priests who are tasked with taking care of the village and the temple, and then there is the rest of the priests. Every follower is a priest, and every priest is a follower. That is the reason every one of them has a divine weapon with them, even when it is a corrupted needle (which is a very handy way of poking people into the Creeping Darkness if they do not follow voluntarily).
Phiatris' goal - her main goal, so to say - is to plunge the world into darkness. Not get rid of all life, because that would kill her (again), but to instill fear, doubt, loneliness, war. Zumyar sometimes helps her with that, because he is the God of War and Disease, but it is not his main goal. She "just" wants to create a world, shrouded by fog, embraced by cold arms, without the warmth of hope, only fueled by desire, necessity, and the will to do what has to be done.
With the spell - or the condition - Creeping Darkness she strips her followers of their own free will, of their ambitions and dreams and hopes. She instills her own wishes, her own goals - as described above - into their hearts and minds. That does not mean that Phiatris' followers don't think. They do, but their own ambitions are overwritten by the desire to keep their goddess happy, to fulfill her needs, her goals, her wishes. It is their fuel and everything her followers do, will ultimately lead to Phiatris, even when they just change their clothes.
Phiatris promises not much. She promises her followers a place by her side, a place inside her bed, hear heart, at her bosom, in her eternal darkness, be it in this life or the next one.
In her followership Phiatris welcomes everyone. Human, Dwarf, Dragonborn, Garladan, Underlings, you name it. If your heart is fueled by desire and the capacity for darkness, be it in thought or in action, you are welcome.
Spoilers for what comes after death
Because Phiatris is a goddess she has the power to create an afterlife. Or better, her followers give her the power. Her afterlife, their paradise, is a world shrouded by fog, without the turmoil of life, an eternal gentle embrace where they can follow their desires. Every desire, without asking, with being reckless, careless, only to do what they want. Not that the Eternal Death is appeased by that, but eh, afterlife is afterlife and if they want it that way...and sometimes they also have "Phiatris" by their side, in their bed, beneath or on top of them. It is just a copy, generated by the afterlife, but that they don't know and Phiatris couldn't care less. They are dead, aren't they?
Rituals & Companionship
There are only two rituals, both established by Phiatris herself. The first one is the ascending ritual, which is the way of her embracing her new follower(s). In the nave of her temple she steps down from the Altar - the shrouded statue is her home most of the time - and shows the soon-to-be priests whats awaits them. That means she embraces them and presents her "naked" body while hugging, which is normally enough to pull them over completely. Normally Phiatris does not have a humanoid body, at least she doesn't shows it that way. She is just smoke and fog, desire and will. But nobody cares when a nice bosom hugs one, right?
The second ritual is always the same and is usually held at nightfall. It is just a long prayer, shared with dark wine or water or whatever drink one wants, a silent moment and thats it. The darkness does not need an extensive ritual, the night belongs to her and Phiatris is the night.
In terms of companionship Phiatris does not need anyone and does not want one. She has her needs - thanks to her followers - but even when she is in her bodily form - and quite beautiful - she does not seek out long-lasting relationships. Sometimes she fetches a priest, priestess, or a group of those for a few hours or nights. Sometimes she has the company of Idur, but she does not want to commit to a divine relationship. Technically she could get pregnant by him, but she doesn't want to. Nobody is really sure if it was stated in the belief of her followers, but that is a different topic. And demigods are right out, she had a demigod once and it was a nightmare. Literally, she got scolded and screamed at by Alicia who had to deal with that.
Dark Tales WOOHOO!
"That does not look good.""No, it looks the way it should look.""Wait, what did you do?""She is my dear friend. We swore an oath back in the day, that we would be girlfriends forever. So I poked her with the dagger. The darkness begins to fill her, now she is succumbing to Phiatris and thus we will be forever. Can't wait to see her naked.""...You know that you are strange, right?"
"Nothing better than to see people getting pulled to her side. To see their bodies change, their minds falling into the dark, cold embrace of Phiatris, my lady. The only better thing is to see an entire powerful family turned to Phiatris, one by one, men, women, children... all of them, screaming, squeaming, in fear and doubt and anger and then... loyal nothingness."
"These weapons are mine." Phiatris touched the sharp blade with one finger, smokey grey mist engulfed the weapon. "These weapons are I. I am these weapons. They have my power, my might, my being. With them I give you the might to turn people to me. With them you can spread the word. Go, take them, feel them, embrace them and then leave. Hurt, scream, torture, I do not care, but bring back new souls."
"Why do you feel your darkness is superior to my blood?""It is not. It is just different." Phiatris moving her hand, small flickers of smoke following her fingers. "It is lasting. Blood is the essence of life, but people do not tend to notice it until it leaves their bodies or the bodies of friends, lovers, or foes. But the lack of light, the presence of the dark? Noticable. Even when it is just in their mind due to depression.""So you say it is a way of torture?""No, dear, Idur. It is a way of being. A way of the mind, even when there is blinding light involved.""Like what?""See, if you let the blood of your followers boil, they fuck and kill and are violent until it stops, right?" She saw the masked man nodding. "But if I cloud their minds, plunge them into darkness, then I can stand in front of them, naked, with a body of their dreams, engulfed by rays of sunshine, it would still feel like it was cloudy, dark, and about to rain."Idur seemed to think, then he nodded acknowleding. "Fair, a torture of the mind. But what if they are a woman?"Phiatris groaned, then smiled and the God of Blood felt a rare shiver. "They don't have a choice."
Rules
- I am not your wife. Not your queen, not your friend. I am your goddess and you treat me as such.
- My followers are your allies. Do with them what you want after your hearts desire, but do not hinder them in their task and don't harm them.
- Treat non-believer as enemies, approach them as friends and make them one of your own.
- Do not speak of me or the darkness in vain or without reason.
- Do not put me, your fellow followers, or the temple into danger.
- I am your first thought in the morning. I am your last thought before you sleep. I am Phiatris, and I am your life. Even in your dreams, whatever they are.
- Give everything for the gentle, cold, and dark new world. Give your heart, your soul, your fertility, your dreams, your body to me and our shared dream.
-silver shining eyes
-normally slender figure (depending on the opposite person)
-pale grey skin
-dark grey markings on her skin, clustered around her neck, bosom and belly (for whatever reason)
-fucking black intricatly designed robe
-apparently wears no shoes, but has elegant feet
-emits constantly darkness, fog, smoke, the feeling of coldness
-wears an ancient silver ring
-wears a silver pendant of unknown origin
- cute nose and lips
Children
You know how much I love the way you write and this article hits the spot again. I only have one question left. She wants to spread the darkness. So do her followers. And as it seems so easy to pull others into the darkness, how come not everyone has been yet?
Thank you, it is always enjoyable to hear such nice things ^-^
It is a good question with a short answer: other beliefs, other gods, other domains. There are still people pressing against the creeping darkness (the condition and Phiatris herself) like contracted Sword Maiden, the mentioned High Elves and so on. To fully gain control over nations/lands (in this case Hulwar), you need to go to war with your fellow gods. Which can be done through an (Un)Holy Crusade or a direct attack. This would probably cause a lot of destruction, death and other, nasty things and it hasn't happen until now and it is the one thing the gods try to avoid. So they spread their influence through the slow, agonising painful and loooong way.
BUT: if it only needs one prick with a needle, are the other gods then actively hindering her followers from doing that?
Really depends on the god, but right now I say yes, through their own followers. It is not uncommon that an enemy follower oversleeps because Alicia send them a sweet dream or get ill/die because Zumyar had his hand in this... or entirely different gods like the Mother of Ravens from Vraitha, where she sends one of her ravens and the follower trips or just gets distracted.
Good, good, good. Thanks for clarifying!