Aria

True beauty is learned, not simply pointed to and observed. One cannot truly appreciate the glorious universe if one has not taken the time to examine, dissect, predict it.

— Aria

Aria is a Enlightened God and leading figure of the Arids. They have made many influential contributions to the fields of mathematics, philosophy, disability rights, and Arid theology, focusing mostly on the intersection of their own blindness with these topics. The Arids regard Aria as a prophet, and renamed themselves in their honour. Upon their death they were placed in the Inverted Tower by Taiga, to be resurrected by the Arids over 1500 years later. This process of revival enabled them to become a god. After, they helped the Arids reclaim their ancestral homeland, and became known worldwide for acting like Taiga's parent.

Biography

Early life

Aria was born (name) in ME 421 to orchardist parents in the (arid/bird collective name) village of (name). They were born without eyes.
Their parents tried to give Aria a full life but the village was ignorant about the condition. They were not given navigation aids such as canes or guides; they were barred from school; none of the other kids would play with them because they couldn't see the sportsballs and board games. Most did not consider that they could find alternate ways of doing activities, or even that there were other, more accessible similarly enriching activities. Many believed Aria was also intellectually disabled simply because they could not see; it didn't help that nobody wanted to explain intellectual concepts to them because they couldn't use visual aids. So Aria spent their childhood picking fruits from the orchard, a straightforward, repetitive task; and meditating.
Of course, Aria knew they were capable of far more than their community made them out to be. They had taught themself much of the world over their childhood. They had learned how to pinpoint more precise locations by sounds, vibrations, and smells, and took special care to memorise the village’s layout, so that one day, they could leave on their own. And they did.
They made their way through the forest outside the village, finding food and shelter like anyone else would. Eventually, they emerged in (bird capital).
In (capital) Aria became a minor celebrity for their story, and befriended important figures who sympathised with and admired them. The Birds named them Aria, which meant air and music in their language, and Aria decided to keep it, because they would rather be named by people who respected and believed in them than people who continually shut them down and boxed them in.
Here, they could learn anything they wanted. People were willing to help when they needed it, and would lay off when they didn’t. Aria committed to learning as much as they could about practical skills and the world: geography, biology, literature, science, maths. They were fascinated by the nature of the universeand enjoyed synthesising their studies to create their own theories about its creation, the gods, etc.
One year Taiga visited (bird capital) to lecture about some particularly advanced mathematics, which was so complex the Birds and Lizards considered it a certain kind of magic. A large portion of the city attended, though most just wanted to see the god, knowing they would not understand what he was lecturing about. Aria, however, was there to learn. They previously hadn’t been able to grasp many maths concepts because everything was explained using graphs, and despite the Birds’ efforts to accommodate them, Aria just couldn’t quite understand it. Aria felt if there were some better way to explain it to a blind person, the god of physics would know, and so they asked him. Indeed, there were many ways; Taiga happily provided well-thought-out tactile models and auditory examples of the principles in action. (He had obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this and had them ready to whip out of his back pocket.)
These more advanced mathematics opened a whole new world of understanding for Aria. Now they could learn physics calculations and geometric formulas, prime number patterns and how to correct intuition with statistics, and much more. Now they saw there were rigid patterns and rules to everything, beyond the little things they had observed in their everyday life. Every aspect of the universe could be represented in a formula or illustration (or seemed that it could, even if nobody had found it yet). They felt they could finally understand the universe. It was ordered, methodical, intentional. The (b/l collective) religion taught there were three gods, but Aria saw now that there was another, even higher power. Physics -- Time -- itself.

Reign

Eventually. Aria returned to their home village, now with more confidence and wisdom, and a much more accommodating setup. The village recognised them because of their lack of eyes, and were shocked: they were convinced Aria had died in the woods; they didn’t believe they could have survived on their own. Aria explained what had happened, what they learned, what they were capable of.
They became an instant celebrity here as well. Despite not being able to visualise concepts, they were now much more learned than anyone else in town. Despite not seeing their surroundings, they walked with more grace and purpose than even the town’s leaders and nobles. They spoke with great eloquence and wisdom, and people from many neighboring villages were drawn to hear their philosophical and religious talks. Quickly they became an influential political and intellectual figure to the Lizards.

by me

Aria was also very well connected to the Birds, and had a personal relationship with Taiga. Thus they were a valuable diplomatic asset. Additionally, though Aria’s life story had not yet been blown out of proportion by distorted storytelling as it would after their death, the idea that they had a strong spirit or were connected more deeply to the Gods still became a somewhat common one after they’d been in the public consciousness for a while.
Soon the Lizards realised that for all these reasons -- wisdom, intellect, connections, percieved spiritual importance -- Aria was the best person to represent and lead them. So Aria became Chief of the Lizards.
(reign info)

Second life

Upon Aria’s death in ME 488, Taiga placed them in a preservation chamber deep in the Inverted Tower. Here they would stay for 1500 years. I’m unclear exactly what Taiga’s intentions here were: he wanted Aria to be someday resurrected, but when and by whom I don’t really understand/know. In any case, eventually the Arids, on a mission to find their way out of the desert, chanced upon the tower and managed to resurrect them. (More detail on this encounter will be in the Arids article. And I want to make some canon prose on it too. but I am getting ahead of myself.)
Aria would then follow the Arids out of the desert and help them settle back in the Taiga River Valley.
(more biography)

Philosophy and works

Worship as saint

After Aria’s death their story became increasingly distorted and exaggerated, until many were convinced Aria had a strong spirit, and some thought they were a prophet or even the next coming of (talx’s anticipation). After the (bird genocide), the Lizards who now inhabited the Great Desert took to calling themselves the Arids after Aria, who they looked up to as an example of someone who persevered through an oppressive environment.
The Religion section of the Arids article will have more information (when I get around to writing it).

Species

Lizard

Other Ethnicities/Cultures

• Arids

Date of Birth

first: ME 421 | second: ME 1998

Date of Death

first: ME 488 (67) | second:

Birthplace

Taiga River Valley

Sex

Hermaphrodite

Eyes

gone! nonexistent! zero!

Belief/Deity

some esoteric combination of bird dualism and pythagoreanism

Other Affiliations

• God