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Deities

The Rise of Ahandora

After creation, but before memory there was a time when races roamed the realm whose like have never been seen again. The young gods still walked the land and their whims guided destiny. In this unformed era lived a race of intelligent beings known as the Icarii who built cities of legend and flew on gossamer wings.

It is said that the Icarii were more spiritual in nature than any other beings, not completely residing in the physical world. A benevolent people, they traveled the realm seeking and spreading knowledge, helping where they could and avoiding where they could not. They were the pinnacle of civilization, but have faded to a shadow of the faintest glimmer of myth.

Born unto this fabled race of winged people was a girl named Ahandora, "Graceful Night" in the tongue of the Icarii. It was not long before Ahandora was noticed to be different from the rest of her people. She began seeking knowledge in more than the accepted places of her race, she began looking in those places the rest of the Icarii avoided because they were beyond help.

Thus, Ahandora became enchanted with the art of the silent kill. It intrigued her, it was a testament to the grace and subtlety of the Icarii, it empowered her. She became death itself, on gossamer wings. She became legend within her own time among the races of men. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, all of the other races of the land dubbed her the Raveness, who brought death in the night, and shuddered at her name.

The rest of the Icarii were enraged by what she had become. Ahandora had gone where the rest had shunned and mastered what the rest had refused to admit existed. They cast her from their society and disavowed her existence, rendering her life over in the eyes of her mother race. Ahandora was utterly alone and sought more knowledge to fill the void.

She explored the extent of knowledge in the realm, including those areas the Icarii avoided. Ahandora then turned to studying the spiritual, with which all Icarii were already so well connected. Her reputation and power continued to grow. She was now the Mother Raven, having been outcast from her mother race and making herself the replacement.

Even the battling gods took notice of Ahandora. Asha'Ra took her in and used her as a tool in his never-ceasing struggle against the forces of good. During this time, Ahandora had the revelation she had been seeking since she began studying the spiritual and its components. The gods only resided partially in the physical world, gaining their strength from the spiritual world. The rest of the races resided entirely in the physical world, yet the Icarii did not. All but the Icarii could only come close to grasping the spiritual in dreams.

Ahandora's help had tipped the scales in favor of evil in the wars of the gods. Asha'Ra and his avatar, Belial, were gaining the upper hand which forced Osiris to step in on the side of 'Ra and Lutyre. Good and neutral conspired and let loose a plan that resulted in Ahandora's capture. At the point of death, with the deathblow leaking blood from her veins, Ahandora smiled. . Only the brink of death could weaken the barrier between the spiritual and the physical enough for her to pass through. Ahandora smiled, and ascended to godhood.

Tale submitted by Kaid Evershade