Helionax the Light-Crowned

Helionax is the radiant god of the sun, laws, rulers, and deserts. According to myth, he ensures that the sun rises every day to provide light and warmth to the world. Every inhabitant of Etheria acknowledges his dominant presence, and nearly everyone at least pays lip service to the idea of giving him worship and honor.
Pride and self-assurance radiate from Helionax as light floods from the sun. He is cheerful and sociable, enjoying the company of others and forming bonds easily. His friendship can be as easily lost, though, turning him from ally to enemy as the consequence of a single misstep or perceived betrayal.
Helionax has appeared to mortals in a variety of forms, but he prefers the appearance of a sun-bronzed male human. His profile is noble, highlighted by a strong chin and a short beard, and he boasts the broad chest of a perfectly fit athlete. His hair is glossy walnut brown, his eyes burn like suns, and his head is crowned with a diadem of gilded laurels and relics of his sacred animals. He is also fond of appearing as a brilliant white pegasus or a radiant golden stag. In any guise, he looks lit by the sun, even when he travels across the night sky.
Helionax personifies the light of day, and by extension, he is associated with many metaphorical aspects of the sun's circuit. As the sun rises without fail every morning, so too does Helionax value faithfulness in oaths and bonds. Courtroom testimony and marriage vows are sworn on his name, for he can't tolerate the breaking of a solemn promise. He is the arbiter of morality, virtue, justice, retribution, and honor, thereby making him also the patron of rulers, guardians, and governing bodies.
The sun's nightly descent into darkness symbolizes bravery and self-sacrifice—the willingness to endure the horrors of the dark for the sake of others, perhaps because the night is ruled by his twin sister Eleuthemene who Helionax once envied and feared. Those who protect innocents in his name receive Helionax’s favor.
As sunlight casts out darkness, Helionax’s justice casts out chaos and lawlessness. He is the god of the laws that govern society and the laws that punish the wicked. He is interested not only in punitive justice but also in the establishment of fair and equitable relationships among people and gods, in service to the common good. That being said, the "common good" in question is invariably subjective and is more often than not Helionax's version: people following gods who in turn follow him as he believes he is the most fit to steer everyone's fates down the only path he knows—the path of righteousness, virtue, and honor. He also takes an interest in the bonds of family — the relationships that tie people most closely to each other.
The brilliance of Helionax’s sun is impossible to ignore. Thus, virtually everyone in Etheria pays at least grudging respect to the sun god in forms of worship that range from simple gestures to days-long celebrations. Some families follow a practice of bowing in the direction of dawn's first light or winking in a gesture of respect for the sun god's luminous "eye." More dedicated worshipers offer short litanies at dawn, noon, and dusk, acknowledging the sun's passage across the sky.
Champions of Helionax are typically either exemplars of light, law, and truth or conflicted heroes motivated by sworn vows. Regardless, most can't imagine serving those they consider lesser gods. Helionax seeks out champions in the mortal world because he believes that a great champion reflects well on him. The ruler of the gods, as he imagines himself, should have champions who represent the best of mortals.

Myths of Helionax

Road to the Sun

After a life in Helionax's service, the aged Thamran oracle Bashir departed on a final pilgrimage: setting forth to visit the sun. Day after day he journeyed east, seeking the lands from which the sun rose. He journeyed far and was mocked everywhere people learned of his quest. Worse, his sight grew ever weaker as he spent days staring at the sun. Yet still he traveled on. Even when blindness claimed Bashir's sight, the oracle continued undaunted. Finally, one day, Bashir found a warm, calm place. There, a powerful voice he'd heard in his dreams welcomed him to his journey's end. Praising Helionax, the oracle took his rest, and after several long, contented hours, peacefully died. Ever since, the tale of Bashir has been argued as both a parable of determination and a warning not to pursue that which is divine.

Birth of Eleuthemene

Some myths claim that Helionax was the first of the gods, though most people believe that distinction belongs to Kryphios the Hidden One. These myths also say that when the light of Helionax's own sun fell on him, Helionax saw his shadow and feared it. He banished the shadow to the land beyond the horizon, and it became Eleuthemene, god of the night and divine psychopomp, who chases him round the sky each day only for him to ultimately drive her back each morning. These myths also tend to overlook the true origin of the twin celestial gods, Helionax's betrayal, and their eventual reconciliation.

Nefel of Bleeding Night

The Etheriogony, the epic accounting of Etheria's earliest histories, recounts the battle between a group of the gods' champions and a mighty Nefel that took place at the mysterious western edge of the continent beyond the Dawnfells. Defeated, the falling nefel is said to have met the rising sun. But Helionax showed mercy to the penitent nefel, who swore to uphold justice and righteousness in the world's wildest places. As a sign of his mercy, Helionax gave the nefel a spear that rivaled his own in its brilliance. This was the first Nefel of Bleeding Night, and it was not the last of the ancient Etherian tyrants to be made into such soldiers chiefly devoted to the sun god. Even though the age of nefeles is long past, many wonder if the few surviving nefeles might someday attempt to reestablish their empire across Etheria or if they are truly resigned to their lesser role in the world.

The Lost Polis of Elaeus

In ancient days, Lantia was a wealthy coastal Elaeusian polis along the Gulf of Mytea. Its prosperity and piety are frequently recorded in ancient histories of Elaeus, but its downfall is a matter of great mystery and contention. Perhaps the destruction of Lantia was the consequence of a divine turf war between two gods vying for the role of polis patron, the result of unchecked mortal hubris and reckless iconoclasm, or the outcome of a mythic war between poleis that even dragged the gods into the fray. Perhaps it is none of these theories, or perhaps it is all of them. What is not theory or conjecture, though, is the lingering existence of but half a wrecked polis and the knowledge that the other half lies deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mytea. Perhaps the most haunting evidence that something truly cataclysmic occurred here is not the ruins themselves but rather the empty carcasses of ships hurled far inland beyond even the coastline as though violently regurgitated by the sea. All myths, though, attest that Helionax and his brilliant spear were involved in the ruination.

Divine Domains

Sun, light, heat, and deserts; justice, fairness, law, truth, and retribution; and protection, safety, stewardship, and rulers, guardians, and governments.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Sacred Animals: Eagles, stags, beetles, jackals, camels, griffin, and pegasi.
Sacred Plants: Laurels, apple trees, ash trees, cypresses, hyacinths, and cacti.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

In Helionax’s mind, he is the ruler of the gods, and he wants merely for his rightful place to be recognized. He imagines the divine realm of the gods rebuilt as his personal palace, where all can witness him in his glory. He considers himself a kind and beneficent ruler — a benign autocrat, not a tyrant — and he doesn't expect abject servility from anyone, god or mortal. He just wants everyone to defer to his will and carry out his orders. He believes that his decisions are always just and right, and that if his sovereignty were properly respected, there would be peace and order in the divine realm and the mortal world alike. If he were to no longer be the unofficial ruler of the pantheon, it would only be because one of the other deities challenged him, and the only god who he might accept that from without plotting to wreak vengeance upon them would be his beloved Kallinephes or the wise Thanatimetra whose counsel he respects slightly more than that provided by the other gods.

Social

Family Ties

Helionax’s repeated attempts to establish himself as the ruler of the pantheon amuse Deimophone the Dream-Clad, the tricky god of ambition and self-interest, but anger Orodamas the Ringing Hammer and Ginnir the Silver-Tongued, who both have a degree of the arrogance he demonstrates. Beyond their arrogance, though, Helionax harbors a much deeper resentment toward both gods. Orodamas is far too unpredictable, impulsive, and given to destructive bouts of rage for Helionax's liking despite how much he is amazed and envious of her skill and creative powers. Further tension exists between the two over what Orodamas perceives to be a cruel slight from the sun god who she believes stole her lover Kallinephes the Thundering Heart, his current spouse whom he loves deeply despite being perpetually vexed by them. This slight sparked a devastating fight between the two gods, a fight whose effects were felt keenly in the mortal realm and beyond. And like many of the other gods of the pantheon, Helionax loathes Ginnir the Silver-Tongued who always seems to go out of his way to obstruct the sun god’s champions if not subvert them, thwart Helionax’s plans, or mock the morality and laws that he sets forth by easily undermining them.
Thalassakles the Crashing Wave, Thanatimetra the Merciful Mother, Theromedeon the Wild Guard, and Deimophone by contrast, aren't bothered by his efforts because they see themselves as being safely outside his reach. He could declare himself the ruler of the pantheon, they reason, but his dictates can't alter the rhythms of the sea, the cycles of nature or life, or the boundless depths of the mind and dreams. Thalassakles, Thanatimetra, Theromedeon, and Deimophone will continue as they are, as they always have been, whatever squabbles their kin might have.
Amaphoron the Herald of Civilization, Thanatimetra, and Iroanos the Battle-Wise are generally closely aligned with Helionax in attitude and philosophy. In some ways, these three gods at times represent the principles and the abstract nature of Helionax made tangible and concrete through the lives of mortals. Helionax represents a divine, natural, moral law; Amaphoron gives those laws a concrete manifestation by establishing mortal society in nations of Etheria. Helionax controls the radiant sun that makes the natural world flourish; Thanatimetra brings the interplay of light and nature to life for mortals in the practice of agriculture. And while Helionax stands for justice, Iroanos actually fights for it, taking up arms against brutality and injustice in defense of what is good and right.
Helionax once envied and feared Eleuthemene the Star-Dappled, his dark twin and his shadow. In ancient times and perhaps still today, he viewed the goddess of the moon, the stars, and liberation as a threat to his power and position as a solar deity. After all, the sun is but a single star among many in a vast universe of other stars which fall under Eleuthemene’s domain. At times, he believed the darkness of her night, which even he cannot fully penetrate, might swallow him whole like a gaping maw. It was then that he wondered what might befall the pantheon if he were gone and how mortals might continue on without their precious sun god, and these thoughts scared him perhaps worse than the thought of his sister alone. It did not elude Helionax, though, that his twin sister did and does little to prompt these fears other than by simply existing as his counterpart. To remedy these fears, Helionax once organized in secret an act of unparalleled familial betrayal against his sister that further drove a wedge between the siblings for centuries and caused the once constant moon to adopt a cyclical nature in shame and despair of his treachery. Eventually, the siblings were able to reconcile their differences and discover together a relationship dynamic that made room for both siblings to feel satisfied, a reconciliation commemorated every so often when the sun and moon cross paths and embrace in the sky.
Helionax is also plagued by a nagging suspicion that the true rulers of the pantheon are Kryphios the Hidden One, a mysterious being who is capable of sealing the borders between the mortal world and the divine realm, and Deimophone, patron of ambition, self-interest, sleep, and misery. Kryphios is perhaps the only being who can impose limits on the other gods' actions and Deimophone is a subtle but lethal force capable of manipulating the minds of gods and mortals alike. These realities make Helionax resent and fear the gods of horizons and dreams.

Divine Classification

Deity

Species

Human

Gender

Male

Eyes

Burning solar light

Hair

Glossy walnut brown crowned with a diadem of sunbeams

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Sun-bronzed