Ahlecto

God of Secrets and Control

A mysterious being from ancient times, Ahlecto was the God of Secrets and Control and, according to the legends, was murdered just before the second God Wars started, shortly after the murder of the Goddess Synia. Because there are no priests or clerics of Ahlecto anymore many presume his death completely annihilated him, preventing any divine powers to be passed on to followers. Additionally, the lack of written sources that mention Ahlecto has led to him becoming increasingly obscure. In the current world only a few religious experts know anything about him, and because there are so few people aware that Ahlecto ever even existed now he is often dubbed “The Forgotten Lord”.

The Forgotten Lord
Despite being all but forgotten, the ancient texts that do mention Ahlecto describe him as one of the most powerful Gods of that time, holding the largest region out of the entire pantheon (often called “Descoiya”), and allegedly being able to easily overpower other Gods. This is why experts that research Ahlecto consider him a “Transcendent God”, a being more powerful than even the High Gods who shape the bulk of the current Pantheon. If this is true there is of course a big question. If Ahlecto was as powerful as the ancient texts describe him to be, how come he was murdered? Only a few ancient texts actually mention Ahlecto, and the texts that do mention him offer very little concrete information. Most of the information about the now forgotten lord comes from books describing the first God War. According to those stories Ahlecto’s region was often the target of the many different factions of Gods. None of the texts mention that Ahlecto sides with a certain faction, so it is often presumed he stood alone. Nevertheless all texts describe that none of the attacks were ever successful.

Beliefs and purpose
Depending on the source of the ancient texts Ahlecto is described as a cunning manipulator seeking to undermine the other Gods through subterfuge , or a power hungry control freak that openly tried to dominate everything. While no 2 texts seem to agree on what kind of God Ahlecto exactly was, curiously enough texts from both good and evil aligned sources describe him as a God that was hated by all factions. Some claim that this means Ahlecto was a God so warped no other God, whether good, evil, or neutral, wanted anything to do with him. Others however dispute this theory, and use the argument that history is written by the victors. They say that with both the God and his followers gone he can easily be demonized and portrayed as the antithesis of their own beliefs to justify their actions.

Lack of information
No texts of Ahlecto or his followers have ever been found. Only 1 ruin has ever been discovered that some claim belongs to him, and that one is located deep within the Peninsula of Rifts region on ‘The Tear’ continent. None of the explorers that went to investigate it have returned. The combination of few written texts about Ahlecto and the lack of physical evidence that he existed has led to 3 different theories.

• The first theory says that the other Gods destroyed all remains of Ahlecto, and by consequence removed any evidence of his existence.

• The second theory claims that the reason no physical evidence of Ahlecto has been found, is because we haven’t looked in the right place yet. It is still out there, somewhere.

• The last theory, and the most daring of all 3, claims that Ahlecto never existed. Instead, he is a creation of either the Gods or ancient writers meant to personify something like a great fear they had or strange event that was going on during that time.

Followers

While Ahlecto is an interesting subject for religious experts to discuss, there are no actual followers of Ahlecto. There exist no priests, clerics or Paladins of Ahlecto, and despite his obscureness the worshipping of Ahlecto is forbidden in many nations. Even the more religious tolerant nations would frown upon people that worship the God of Secrets and Control. This is hardly an issue however, because as the name suggests, not many even know about “The Forgotten Lord” his existence.

Divine Domains

Secrets and Control (Arcana, Knowledge, Order, Trickery)

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Puppet master hand

Divine Classification

Transcendent God

Alignment

Unknown