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, and their union was the first of its kind; it was their bond that perhaps founded marriage as a concept, one mortals quickly became endeared to. 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 eradication 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 of 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 creations. 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, only that it is in danger of consuming the mortal realms.

Depiction

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Domains

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Influence

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Dogma

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Notable Religious Factions

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The Umber Wilds

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Demigods

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