The Purple Empress, God of Decay
Butterflies, decay, rot, fermentation, wine.
Sasakia is most associated with death rites that follow a more natural course and returning the dead to the earth. She also is commonly involved in the pantheons of cooks, farmers, and upper class liquor producers as a god of nourishment and vitality. Many also interpret her as a god of beauty, notably being more popular among older women than other gods such as
Yung Pagoni, God of Peacocks.
Lilac Empress' Wine is a special brand of sake that is aged for at least 30 years, and only produced by her cult in extremely limited quantities. This wine is said to be brewed within her temple itself by her own hand, with each batch altered slightly from brewing to brewing. These highly prized wines are unique in flavor and extremely sweet and dry, used as political gifts and symbols of allegiance. Although Sasakia herself says that there is no value in the sake itself but the act of receiving it, a single bottle of the wine sold for nearly 4.8 billion dollars in a record auction, recovered from an abandoned temple.
Beer, sake, kimchi, wine, jerky, and lilacs are all common offerings associated with her and generally decorate her shrines. Among her devouts, jewelry adorned with a bone butterfly bead is the most common symbol of her worship. Her cult also produces tea pets to be 'fed' as a part of their culture, though these are also often sold to tourists and outsiders of the cult.
All Cook's Day and the
Dead of Winter Feast are more closely associated with Sasakia than other gods are in Japan, Korea, and nearby Pacific islands. Rather than typical celebration norms, in regions under her influence the holidays are celebrated with traditional Japanese tea ceremony, fine sakes, light meals, and the release of paper lanterns over bodies of water at dusk.
Sasakia's goals are kept close to her chest, even from her closest allies. She works heavily in tandem with Shia's cult to change the perception around death, in her own way pushing the image of death as returning to the world and giving back to the living with all you have left. Rot, decay, and decomposition are heavily pushed as simple natural processes rather than something dirty or unclean that must be prevented. Paired with her extreme pressure to spread influence of her cult through trade, food, and lack of conflicts with the rest of the pantheon, it is strongly assumed that Sasakia is a pacifist and may be working to reduce conflicts and deaths within the pantheon itself.
Physical Description
Sasakia appears as a middle aged Japanese vampire with long black hair that is often partially braided. She generally wears long gowns, dresses, and jackets in modern styles in purples, blacks, and lavender, though will sometimes break from her usual color choices if representing a particular species of butterfly. She is never seen without her lipstick, which is always black with a purple sheen.
Her fan, often tucked into her belt or in hand, was a gift from Yung Pagoni as a symbol of their favorable relationship and shared associations. She is rarely seen without some form of jewelry, which is often decorated in the style of flowers, flower petals, or carved butterflies made from bone.
Mental characteristics
Social
A well known follower of
Shia, the God of Death herself, Sasakia is a popular god in the pantheons of Shia's devouts. Typically she is associated with a gentle death and the passage of time. Her lack of association with violence and bloodshed makes her rather popular among the minor gods and there are no recorded instances of her having gone to war with other gods, although her dislike for some such as
Soliairs Taeyang and
Ludovic is rather well known.
Due to their close proximity, Sasakia is a well known ally of
Hikaru Vulapin, God of Foxes and rare instance of two similar gods with similar followings that get along quite well.
Although they both share an association as gods of beauty, Yung and Sasakia also get along rather well and their temples support one another, with Yung's cult providing hers with silks and clothing, and Sasakia's in turn giving Yung's cult access to high quality wines not often found in Greece. It is thought that much of their good relationship stems from that Yung and Sasakia have different niches as beauty gods, Yung being supported primarily by younger people and many more men, while Sasakia is primarily worshipped by older women.
Sasakia is quite private, and next to nothing is known about her personal life. She has extremely firm boundaries that even her most devout followers, outside of her harem, are not allowed in her personal chambers under any circumstances, and that if these boundaries are not respected, she will cease all contact with the individual. This also applies to her fellow gods, including the Major Gods, which is almost unheard of.
Even among those she personally dislikes, Sasakia is known for being incredibly polite, well mannered, and surprisingly social at gatherings given her private nature.
Ally (Important)
Towards Sasakia, God of Butterflies
Ally (Important)
Towards Chevalier, God of Crickets
Relationship Reasoning
He enjoys drinking their wine and loves her sense of beauty. While Chevalier has been involved in wars he has only participated in those wars at the behest or for the sake of others and he is a very peaceful god that almost never starts conflicts. Both gods enjoy peace, and Chevalier appreciates her polite and refined nature.
Ally / Enemy (Important)
Towards Sasakia, God of Butterflies
Enemy (Trivial)
Towards Ana, God of Spiders
Relationship Reasoning
Oddly, John seems to be one of her few genuine friends. However, many suspect the validity of their relationship as JL is a notorious trickster god while Ana and Nancy are infamous manipulators, leading some to conclude that the spiders have managed to trick John or John is trying to trick the spider. Some even think they are both trying to trick each other. JL claims he can tell whenever the spider gods tell a lie but there is no concrete information proving this is true or false. Others think that at some point JL simply saw what the spider gods saw within the branching roots of fate or that they wanted to take advantage of his large cult and influence and the fact that fireflies have a more favorable reputation than spiders. Either way, Ana and Nancy helped him in the past when he was mortal and he seems to trust them to some degree, it is at the very least in their best interest to keep him alive and popular for now. Joining the Cult of Spiders also comes with the benefit of the gods promising that they can change your fate or rewrite one’s destiny as needed instead of just being a slave to it like others outside their cult.
Ally / Enemy (Important)
Towards Sasakia, God of Butterflies
Enemy (Important)
Towards Nancy, Goddess of Spiders
Relationship Reasoning
While Sasakia is incredibly polite and well-mannered to the gods on the rare occasions she meets them in person(which is something that Ana and Nancy tend to find humorous as putting up a front or lying to them is usually seen as a futile effort to them) she has a well-known dislike of Ana and Nancy and has cut off all contact with them and refuses to listen to any messages, emails, visits, or the like from them. While some mortal believe this to be caused from arachnophobia or the fact that spiders feed on insects like butterflies when one considers the connection the spider gods have to information, surveillance, and manipulation it is easy to assume that they saw or know about something they shouldn’t and crossed a line that should not have been crossed. Since the gods have little care about privacy if they need to get something done. Spiders are not allowed in the temple of the butterfly god as some can act as extensions of Ana and Nancy’s will.
Rival (Important)
Towards Sasakia, God of Butterflies
Rival (Important)
Towards Nergalzeb, God of Flies
Relationship Reasoning
Nergalzeb sees Sasakia as a kindred spirit as they are both gods that watch over decay and rot as well as death rites having to do with the cycle of nature and returning to the earth. To the god of flies Sasakia is one who understands the true beauty and peaceful bliss that comes with rot and death. They get along surprisingly well despite their overlap in domains and nature. However, conflicts have been known to break out between them over territory or whether the death rites of particular individuals should fall to Nergalzeb or Sasakia. Not to mention that while Nergalzeb is a follower of Shia she is in equal parts a follower of Mora which can sometimes put her in conflict with the god of butterflies. While Sasakia understands the truth of death Nergalzeb believes she often lacks the full picture of life and death and the fact that Mora and Shia are two sides of the same coin. This has caused some debates between the followers of the gods. Sasakia also sees the state of Nergalzeb and some of her infected followers as disgusting abominations. However, Sasakia still maintains an air of politeness towards Nergalzeb. The way Nergalzeb sees it Sasakia often teaches an incorrect or incomplete picture about the nature of rot, making her some flavor of ignorant.
Sasakia is one of the most outwardly wealthy gods, her temple being a reconstruction of Kyoto's ancient castle, its construction entirely funded from her own personal reserves. She also owns a great many sake breweries across Japan, as well as other breweries around the world that are often hosted in the territories of gods she is close to.
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