Amprein the Thunderbird
In the early ages of the world, after the Elemental Four had covered the world in life for the second time, but before the sapient races were created, it occurred to Dalensh that he’d like to create something he could have a more direct connection with. He had enjoyed his time with the creatures who would come to be the demons of the modern day, despite their faults, and while he and his kin were fond of watching the multitude of creatures they had peppered the planet with, none could stimulate him mentally. So soon after the demons, he didn’t dare upset the other gods by attempting to create sapient mortals again, so he chose the only logical option.
He created a sapient immortal.
Laeera the Rain Bird was by all accounts Dalensh’s first and most beloved child. Inspired by a panoply of sea creatures - though borrowing her physiology more heavily from Vespis’ beloved avians - Laeera was equally at home in both air and sea, soaring across the planet with total freedom, often accompanying her creator as he surveyed what he and his siblings had made. She was not a goddess in her own right, but that didn’t mean that Dalensh had not granted her a significant amount of power. Water was her domain by birthright, and it bent to her every whim. As her title implies, she would often surround herself in spiraling curtains of fresh water before taking to the skies, depositing life-giving water where she deemed it more needed and creating fabulous rainbows where the sun struck her offerings.
The other Elementals were wary of Dalensh’s creation at first, though they could not deny its beauty, nor the aid it provided him. Vespis was the first among the remaining three to follow in her brother’s footsteps, creating the tempestuous Thunderbird, Amprein. Volatile and unpredictable as its mother was carefree, the steely-winged creature was not evil, but he found himself perpetually agitated by an infinite well of energy within his body. In order to even be able to stand still for a moment, he needed to vent for a time, unleashing devastating lightning strikes and thunderclaps with little to no warning. Vespis quickly taught him to try and relegate these strikes to barren areas or over seas, but still the outbursts brought him terrible shame. Wandering the world on his own as his creator flitted from place to place with no thought of his woes, he felt abandoned. This feeling would only grow worse in the far future, after the fall of Malephesh, when his mother would retreat even further from the world.
This depression turned steadily into spite, and Amprein’s random outbursts began to transform into targeted attacks on anything and everything that seemed to live a happier life than himself. As these attacks grew more frequent and more devastating over time and Vespis did nothing to curb them, Laeera herself stepped in to help. Though her father was more doting and attentive than Amprein’s mother, she had spent a great deal of time (by non-divine standards) as the only one of her kind. At times when Dalensh’s attentions were required somewhere across the globe, she had experienced similar feelings of loneliness and abandonment to those the poor Thunderbird suffered at all times. The two grew close as Amprein’s rage was tempered by Laeera’s empathy. Though he still required time to unleash excess power from time to time, the outbursts returned to the deserts and mountains and oceans where they could do no harm. And when the two birds flew together, Laeera would cloak her dear friend in clouds and rain, disguising his unfortunate malady as natural - if particularly brutal - thunderstorms.
The story of these two immortal friends has inspired many a romantic heart, and in many regions powerful thunderstorms are still referred to as 'the Simurgh's embrace'. This interpretation of the two beings as lovers is not entirely without merit, though of course there's very little evidence available to the mortals that their theory holds water. That is, except for the Vaporavem; large elementals of steam and wind, born from the union of the so-called 'divine lovebirds'.
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