Ai'Gae

Brother Wind Ai'Gae (a.k.a. Eagle)

As Rreix'Naev so famously said, "Ai'Gae is no saint. He's a wily opportunist who has more secrets than feathers"
Ai'Gae is a Divinum, like a spirit or a tribal god, but far greater. He is one of the Four Elements, powerful siblings who play with the world as if it were a game of chess. He is Father Wind in his truest form, although his persona dwells much more actively in the form of Humans and Creatures.
He is known to N'Vaej'Dta as Eagle, and he is according to legend the Eagle with whose tailfeather the first symbols of Xzou were written. He guided Dta'Gai on his transformation into the Eagle Brother, and aided the rebels time and again. He was an ally and a friend. Without Ai'Gae, they could not have won the war, or made the impact that they did. And yet, his name leaves a sour taste in the mouth of many.
He told them when he first came to them, that he had come to join their fight against the Eagle Empire in order to clear his name, that he might restore honor to the name of the Eagle People. And he did.
It was not Eagle, but rather Ai'Gae himself who later offended them with his apparent betrayal.
N'Vaej'Dta are yet to find out (sshhh, don't tell them), but there is an epic betrayal by Ai'Gae, when he works in the capital to inspire Eagle Empire's Master General to defy King Oo'Lai and lead a raiding party to the Northern Forests, leading to the destruction of many forests and the loss of many lives.
What N'Vaej'Dta cannot understand is why Ai'Gae helped orchestrate both sides of the battle. He would say that he wanted the revolution to be pushed forward - Oo'Lai had made Eagle Empire too weak militarily for N'Vaej'Dta to ever succeed as a world-changing culture. The revolution needed an atrocity to kick them into action.
He will still defend himself to this day, and there are those who praise him for his deeds and bring him precious offerings daily. But to the few who know what he had done, they will never trust him again, and they will only ever partially forgive him.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Badass, reddish-brown Eagle

Mental characteristics

Personal history

This guy has pretty much been on earth since we got an atmosphere. You know how when you get an onyx lamp, you pretty much get the genie that comes with it? Well, the world got an atmosphere, and Ai'Gae to boot. He's the wind. The air we breathe; the nestling blanket of the biosphere. Pretty important, this guy. But he doesn't exactly want to be here. He's kinda trapped here as part of a deal he made with Swath'Aeha of the Stone and Soil.
As part of that same deal, he got stuck wearing the bodies of mortals until he can work out how to free himself of the bargain. Thus, he appears in the stories primarily as Red Eagle, a stern and calculated bird of prey who is the god of Eagle Empire, and yet also joined forces with N'Vaej'Dta in their revolution against the Empire.
In the Liberation of the Guardians text which was discovered on an old stone tablet wrapped in a cloth in a cave, an ascetic monk of the distant past prophesied. The inscription was sealed with bone wax, ensuring that none but a mortal magician could break the seal and read the text. Excerpts are as follows:
"each guardian has a different path towards liberation. these must always be kept secret so that the guardians cannot discover their path until they are ready. only when they find their own path to resolve the lingering attachments which have bound them to the earth through the ages, may they be set free from eternal incarnation."
The text continues to list some suggestions as to what these thing might be for each Celestial. For Ai'Gae, the following is written:
"Ai'Gae must learn to view himself as an equal among all of earth's creatures. He must learn to humble himself to the status of any of the beasts of the field, to reason with the minds of humans, to love a mortal with full acceptance, and to respect the lives of others and 'to love his neighbor as himself'.
In his eventual path to liberation, he will be required to give his life for a mortal. If he succeeds in this task, he will pass through the gates and will be taken up again to live only in the wind, and leave behind the troubles of the world of flesh and bone."