Melchis

The god of magic, Melchis was responsible for the management of magical forces across the planes of existence and for sharing the secrets of the arcane, well those that were deemed safe by him to share, with the races of the planes.

Divine Domains

• Magic

Common Worshipers

The most common worshippers of Melchis are those who can themselves wield the arcane, or who seek arcane knowledge. This automatically means that the percentage of those who worship him is very low, especially when compared to the other deities.
However, most Dragonborn, though they do not worship Melchis as their sole deity, will periodically pay their respects to Melchis and dedicate offerings to him, but they do this to honour the god as the founder of their race, rather than through a desire to receive gains from his divine domain.

Priesthood

Officially, there has never been a priesthood of Melchis, primarily because the god themselves never saw a need to have one. Instead, an unofficial priesthood emerged amongst people who were able to wield the arcane arts, who mingled religion with their practices, but they rarely fulfilled the functions that the clerics of other deities perform.
The exception to this rule, is the city of Pamorran, which has a dedicated, established priesthood to Melchis. However, because their deity is deceased, they do not wield magical power as other clerics do and many of them cannot weird the arcane at all, but instead act as caretakers for the temples established in Melchis’ honour.

Temples

Temples specifically dedicated to Melchis are few and far between, primarily because he does not have a large enough base of dedicants in most places to warrant one being built. Generally it is the case that individuals, primarily those who can wield the arcane themselves, or who have some heavy involvement in things related to the arcane, will have alters set up in their homes, or places of work dedicated to Melchis.
The exception to this rule is the city of Pamorran and its surrounding islands, in the far south east of the Material Plane, who whose inhabitants worship Melchis as their prime deity, and have therefore built several grand temples in his honour, which are daily frequented by large numbers of worshipers.

Activities in the Divine War

Melchis is the only deity, so far, to have been killed in the Divine War, see below. This has has left his divine domain without a caretaker and many fear that this could have dire repercussions for the world in the long run.

Death

To this day, Melchis is the only one of the Divines to have perished in the Divine War. He was slain by the hand of Astartes himself in the year 107DW, following an epic duel, said to have lasted nearly two years, which devastated the landscape of the material plane where the battle took place, which is known to this day as the Desolation of Melchis.
Despite being the weaker and younger of the two combatants, Melchis was sure that his magic would prevail over the physical might of Astartes, but he was eventually overpowered and beheaded by the god of war, who cast his body down, where it formed a massive crater that can still be seen today. Melchis’ head was carried off as a trophy, and for a time it decorated the war hall of Astartes, before being stolen, by whom, none can tell, and subsequently lost.
Melchis’ death has proved to be somewhat problematic for all of the planes of existence, as there is now no governing force over the arcane. Not only does this mean that more humanoids who are sensitive to and able to wield the arcane are being born, it also means that in areas where powerful spells or powerful arcane presences have been, random things can magic into existence, some benign, some rather dangerous. This phenomena is particularly common in the Desolation of Melchis, where all manner of strange abominations and aberrations pop into existence and portals to other planes of existence and other domains altogether randomly appear into existence, sometimes for less than a few seconds, sometimes permanently.

Family Tree of the Divines

Family Tree of the Divines

Open full size

Divine Classification

God

Species

Divines

Age

Unknown

Date of Death

34 Jantal 107DW

Circumstances of Birth

As recounted in The Origin of the Divines.

Circumstances of Death

Killed in combat with the Divine Astartes

Place of Death

Desolation of Melchis

Gender

Male

Aligned Organization

The Polephemites‌

Related Historical Events

• 105 DW
  The Death of Melchis and the Creation of the Desolation of Melchis

Divine Sigils and Symbols

Melchis is represented by the symbol of a dragon. He is also represented by the symbol of a fiery orb.

Divine Links and Progeny

He was the son of Kroni and Sagosa
He was the brother of Az, Ipsidies, Thanata and Inthanata.
He fought for the divine alliance The Polephemites in the Divine War.

Mortal Creations

Melchis is responsible for the creation of Dragons and Dragonborn. The creation of Dragons is said to be Melchis' proudest achievement, but it is said that even he was surprised by the way in which his first creation was able to draw on his divine gifts with ease, even though he had never intended for dragons to be inherently magical. 
Having taught representatives of many other races how to wield the arcane, he wondered what the result would be if he created a race from scratch, with the specific intention of making them more naturally sensitive to and capable of wielding magic. Using Dragons as his base, he created the humanoid Dragonborn from them. However, his efforts to create a race with a more superior sense of magical sensitivity did not produce the exact results that he had hoped for, as, whilst there is a slightly higher percentage of Dragonborn who can wield the arcane compared to other races, it is a marginal increase.