Y'shendra

Introduction

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History

Among all the Corrupted Gods, Y'shendra is the most reviled. The people of Atharen regard her with a primitive disdain, casting her off as a blight upon the world, a rot even within a sea of it: too mangled even for Bel. Many believe this is the result of a feeling of pain, even betrayal - a rage born of tragedy at what the Goddess used to be. Most hated now, but formerly, most loved.

Y'shendra was previously the Goddess of Life, Fertility and Faith. She was viewed as the mother of all life, and all races, and the scion of the Path, or the church of the Living Gods. She was the wife of Malek, their union endearing the concept of lifelong partnership to mortals. This balance between life and death, made by love rather than some antagonistic duality, offered an optimistic view of what life and death were: intricately entangled, cycles meant to be explored together, rather than feared.

Y'shendra was, also, the mother of the Elven race. She created the first Hyr'norai, modeling them after Venadak, who she viewed as a brother of hers and something to aspire to.

These accomplishments, only a few among many, were her legacy. Yet, to most, they are too far away; they exist outside of the realm of memory, overshadowed easily by what seems like nothing but untold cruelty by the Y'shendra of today.

The Days After

The Sundering confined Y'shendra to Bel, as with all of the Corrupted Gods. This, perhaps more than the physical corruption of her form, slowly drove her mad. For a creature defined by what she perceived as her motherhood to be only capable of observing the eradication of hundreds of millions of her children, the near-total annihilation of the Elves and the downfall of the peace and civilization once thought attained, her pain became melded with an overbearing chorus of self-doubt. Y'shendra believed the Sundering to be her fault. Worst of all, many of the mortals who once adored her seemed to concur, spiting her and her kin for creating the Sundering; for showing themselves fallible, without the expected foresight of the Gods.

In her mind, these critiques were right. Y'shendra, always kind and congenial, thought to harden herself from within her prison of rot. She believed that had she been harsher and more decisive, she could have stopped the Clockwork Draedan from revolting in the first place. Who were her children if not the very literal children of the Gods, the ones who conspired against them and sundered Venadak to begin with? First, she realized, she had failed them. Then, by extension, the world.

These thoughts were made with an addled mind. The influence of Bel's corruption drove her thoughts darker - a desire to become fiercer and more resolute turned into a disciplinary creed; her self-image, that of a benevolent matron, altered over time. She began to view punishment as the correct path forward, lashings for the disobedient, atonement and desperate forgiveness. She found the tortured souls of the Draedan who had caused the Sundering, who all lied still within Bel, and did not allow them to rest. Instead - as their 'mother' - she committed them to a sort of purgatory, an eternity in her service. From these trials of manipulating the mortal and immortal soul, Y'shendra learned how to twist life into undeath. The taboo Malek had always despised, that of infinitely prolonging the soul's ability to sustain the body, no longer interfered with her thoughts. Y'shendra knew why Malek had confined mortals to a limited life: so that he, and the other Gods, could consume their souls as batteries from within Muid.

She decided she would deprive them of that, for the Living Gods had failed to do anything at all; they were the cowardly who did not stand for Venadak, who were content to allow their brother and leader to die. Instead, Y'shendra would gain power through souls in a different way: by condemning them to her service for as long as their bodies could still dare to move.

Her first terrifying creations, the Night Wraiths - or the undead Draedan who once conspired against the Gods - became the first of many nightmarish births. Y'shendra learned to master undeath, a concept originally touched by ancient Necromancy, yet without going far enough. She found a way to manipulate the soul with a disease made for it. She practiced on mortals in the form of the Kohrun, then Dragons, then all other life. By the end of the Fifth Age, in the continent of Icheron, Y'shendra built a horde; an army unlike any ever seen.

Unlike the other Gods, Y'shendra moved forward from the Sundering with no desire for minimal interference. Wherever she could, she staked her claws into the world and expanded her influence. She sought new children, more obedient, and fashioned herself a crown of bones. It is not purely understood by the people of Atharen just how foul and wide-spread her influence has become, ignorant of the affairs of the eastern continent, which has gone wholly dark.

The few aware of Y'shendra's games, however, know of the depth of her threat: one in danger of consuming the mortal realms.

Depiction

Y'shendra's symbol was - before her corruption - a tree with a golden sphere within its core, surrounded by thick branches. The tree and sphere represented all three of her domains: life, fertility, and faith, the orb's nature that of a soul, both the nexus of mortal life and the clearest binding tying the mortal races to the Living Gods. Since then, her symbol has not changed considerably, merely being given a shift in tone. The golden sphere now exists within a complex, darkly colored bramble, stretching outward in all directions from the interlocked core. This icon is known as the Umbral Heart, a fascinating emblem given its direct significance to her physical form.

Y'shendra has always held this glowing, golden orb within her own body. Those who have seen her - both fellow Adac and mortal men - have spoken of its brilliance, the way it pulses within her as if a font of life. Even now, fully corrupted, it maintains its brilliance, perhaps an anchor to the hopeful ideals she once held. The remainder of her form has not been spared by corruption, and by her foray into undeath. Her skin has turned grey, corpse-like and shriven. Her features remain beautiful if somewhat sagged, her eyes perpetually displaying a deep, drooping frankness. Y'shendra is said to be as tall as a tree, surrounded by thick, darkly-colored branches, rotting at the edges of her form. Her legs appear to be wooden themselves, shaped like mortal appendages but covered in thick black bark. Overall, her visage is one said to be both awe-inspiring, and one that invokes a true, deep terror.

In statues and other depictions, Y'shendra's old appearance often remains: that of a gilded matron, often surrounded by young, both animals and mortal-kind. She wears long, flowing robes, and carries a single baby in her arms. Depictions of her created in the present day are typically outlawed, but tend towards sinister themes; a mother butchering her child, branches impaling the glowing, Umbral Heart, the Goddess' face appearing to contort with a strange, reluctant ecstasy.

Domains

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Influence

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Dogma

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Notable Religious Factions

The Blacksworn

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The Umber Wilds

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Demigods

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Silas

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