The Great Saint Xelex, The Horror Xelex (Zel-lez)

Shadow Balance (a.k.a. The Gardener of Knowledge, Seeker of the Unknown, The Eyes that Watch)

Holy Books & Codes

Xelex is a god of balance, moving power, energy, life and death where it concentrates to spread all out in a calm and silent sea. Striving to make all fair, all just, and to make all equal. Where he sees power, he wishes to take and give to those who have none. Where he sees storms, he sees fit to make the skies calm. Where he sees destruction he wishes to see growth.

However being a god of balance. Where he sees growth, so must there be regression. Where he sees life, he needs death. Where he sees light, so must there be shadow. Where there is opulence there must be deprivation. He seeks to make the ever changing actions of life to cease, to make his perfect kingdom. He does not wish death on his worshippers or his creations, only to see that life reaches its plateau. For all to be in balance.

He has instigated devastating wars between prosperous kingdoms that have grown fat with excess and decadent delights, and humbles them. To cure great plaques seeing the lost of life too extreme. He has pitted beasts against one another to deal with territorial disputes if one has growth too large. He has gifted starving tribes with great bounties and opportunities to alleviate their suffering. He has also been known to free mortal races from beneath the boots of cruel gods. For he sees this as the greatest affront of all, for what kind of disparity is there as the creators having power over their creations.

He has been in a long on going conflict with many different gods, and all see him has a great threat. A threat, but one of great respite as well, for he will also aid other gods in their struggles as well, as long as he sees some kind of disparity needing equalizing. For the sea of creation to be still, and silent, for all to be equal.

Like a voice from the deep, a whisper in the dark, a second look and there would be nothing. Was it nothing? Was it?

Tenets of Faith

All who deal with Xelex must be acutely aware of one thing, he is intervening in something, something you may wish to have no part of, or one you may give all to help in. For dealing with Xelex is a game of great risk. He is one of the beings that is entropy incarnate.

He is widely worshipped in the City of Huron and Glaion for is belief that all should be in balance. Both Cities have a culture based around problems being left at the door or right at the Pomerium surrounding each city. Both cities have Cathedrals built to the god. Most of their faith revolves around creating balance in anyway they see fit. The devotees of Xelex engage in everything they see to make right. This often entails helping the poor out of poverty, or giving alms to all who ask. This also extends out further, they also take into their hands, the law, when the keepers of peace become corrupt. They even go so far as to have this belief of balance bleed into the political sphere, They push their governing bodies to seek solutions that are a net benefit to all, though they will also push these same entities to knock down the powerful and influential.

Most of their ceremonies are ostentatious affairs. They usually hold a form of gatherings to preach the teaching of the Great Saint, these are long winded sermons to most listeners however. They usually engage in some great presentation involving lit candles and extinguishing various candles that are growing to wild to demonstrate Xelex' will to keep it balanced. Though some branches of the faith do this by trying to keep a basin of water calm and still on roads with heavy traffic.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

"We have not the capabilities. We cannot do what they did. Those Songs, now held by us, they are a poison to us. They all are. All those Children, they could never be ours. This is nothing but a grand theater and we are not the heros! This sick carnival that we have made, we are but circus masters laughing at the fires burn!
While you jester preach, while you sinners dole out forgiveness, we are the force behind the hand. The strings are pulled, and we are the puppets and the puppeteers. The closer we grow toward these things we have built, the more reality breaks. A house divided never learns to stand! So my siblings! Your prayers ring cold and hollow.
We're all to blame, shortsighted and foolish. Just like her, we let our rage burn unchecked. We are left with nothing but ash as the circus we cajole falls on our shoulders. Divided, we fall."

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

My claws caught on the hem of her proverbial dress, that power in her hands, that secret in her eyes. Nearly in my own, she screamed, no. No scream could have done that, reality shattering, that hatred in her eyes that I had so longed to see. Pale green, burning with a light that... annoyed me. The world around us was failing, breaking.

While the Ill tempered fool burned his lips on the chalice of divine blood, while the lustful harlot gorged herself in the thighs of the dead, the others fought amongst themselves to claim the remains of our victory.

But, her. The others had fought. The others died to our poisons, our machinations, our change. Yet, she ran. Why? I ripped away that power from her as she shattered it all again, flinging me away from her, ripping a hole in... something... to disappear. Never having taken her eyes away from me, my, how that passion, that fury enthralled me.

That force in my claws subsumed me, filling eyes with fire. An understanding, a delicate balance, a fundamental wrongness to the self. The earth cracked below as my body landed from the heavens, a fear having taken root. We needed them, we could not control this. We could not maintain this, we needed them as they needed our shared birth. I saw now, the truth.

And that fear turned to horror. The truth, what they built. My eyes growing heavy as they burned, burning my flesh. That galaxy held within the tendrils of my hands, that awful feeling. That knowledge of what I held in my hands. My mind, my mind, couldn't handle it. Her song ripped apart everything I was, disintegrating everything, only to reform again, and again, and again, and again...

Truly, under the shadow of an endless grace. These three primordial chords filled my mind, infinite. I knew, I alone could not handle them, so too I made those with the most to lose suffer with me. Bhal, you fool. Your wrath destroyed the source of the power we needed, you vengeance wrought, bought you only pain. Azu, you harlot, your desire bought you only suffering for object of your affection. So, hold the fruits of your labor and join me in stitching back together our "prize".

My mind ached and swelled with what I took from her, black cloak to hide the expansion of the darkness inside. Mask to hide from these children the eyes burned through my skull. I understand, I see the balance you so carefully made, and us children so carelessly toying with forces we knew naught.

Social

Social Aptitude

Where Charisma and Suave walks the forefront, he mocks their gate. He is Ego, he is confidence without fear. Having no issues with calling the other gods fools and challenging them and their ideas. A penchant for degrading the strong and mighty. A greater penchant for lifting the ignorant to heights they'd never thought possible. Incredibly intelligent and arrogant enough to let you believe that he isn't.

Mannerisms

A truly condescending force. Everything before him, all the things he has made, all the works and deeds of those who walk beside him. They are pale imitations to the real thing in his mind. Don't throw stones when you live that way. He is well aware of far more than any mortal mind could know, the arrogance of the idea of might only makes him laugh. The concept of authority is nothing fit except for ridicule. Those that have true authority, they are no longer here. Nothing is sacred, nothing is above criticism, nothing is as it seems.

Relationships

The Great Saint Xelex, The Horror Xelex

Teacher (Vital)

Towards Ilgor of the Skullbrood Clan

5

-5

Honest

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Ilgor of the Skullbrood Clan

Student (Important)

Towards The Great Saint Xelex, The Horror Xelex

5

-5

Frank

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History

Ilgor stopped her former raiding crew from attacking a suspicious target, she was ensnared by Xelex masquerading as The Sorcerer. Though, Xelex noticing quite a few extremely familiar things about her as well as sensing (albeit being unable to confirm until much later on) Vilorlith Tethering herself to Ilgor, he took an immense interest in the Priestess. Seeing a chance to fulfil a goal he had set about trying to remedy Eons ago when The Quartet fell.
He saw that she was going to become something greater, a true Child of the Great Mother after generations of subjugation under the rule of Bhal. He took a chance, hid his involvement with reawakening her abilities as a Brownie. Hid even more that he was the one to teach her much of her magic, as well as her political savviness. A condecending and concieted attitude he needed to affect to keep her off his own trail as well. The less things that knew what he was doing, the better as he began moving the other Shadows into positions that would elevate Ilgor further.
He was the masked teacher to her mastery. He was the one to lay the foundations of her healing abilities and her peerless ability to command Tonal Magics. Entirely without anyone noticing until it was far too late for anyone to stop the gears he had set into motion.

The Great Saint Xelex, The Horror Xelex

Admirer (Vital)

Towards Queen of the Fae

5

-5

Honest

---

Queen of the Fae

Unwilling Ally (Vital)

Towards The Great Saint Xelex, The Horror Xelex

-5

0

Honest

---

History

While Alnya fled the reality that the Quartet had built, after Vilorlith fell, after Kyln fell, after Syn fell; she grabbed as many of the uninfected children as she possibly could, gathering as much material and energy as she could, she shattered their world. Leaving the Shadows to fend for themselves in the ruined world they had made of it. In her mind they deserved it, they were the monsters they fought so hard to defend themselves against, ultimately to loose to.
As she fled, Xelex had tried to follow her to take her power for himself. Only succeeding in injuring her as he took two vital components to her divinity. He had unintentionally grabbed three of the primordial Songs of the four she had. She was the sole possessor of her siblings diving power, their own Songs of creations, entrusted to her in their dying breaths. As well a fragment of her own understanding, being a goddess of true logic and balance, she understood the mechanics of the world to a better degree than their own creators. Xelex had stolen both of these.
His mind had filled and cracked, his form changing into the eldritch abomination it takes now. Understanding the gravity of what he had done, what he and the rest of the Shadows had done, he suddenly hated their actions. Seeing everything they had done in the name of vengeance and retribution to be imbalanced for the price paid. This began his relentless search to the doors of The Elsewhere, in hopes of aiding the Queen, in hopes of redeeming himself to the children he and the others had scarred.
He would eventually get his wish, as Ilgor grew more powerful. Breaching the space between The Elsewhere and the Great Tree, he was able to meet with Alnya once more and return the prizes he had taken. Though, not with great consequence. The Shadows were unaware he was a traitor, until Xelex the Architect had finally brought balance to his mind.

I came across this recently, and it just really fits Xelex's character. Made me want to update his information.

Unknown to the Public

Xelex for all he is worth, is the Chief Architect for the current Pantheon that exists in the modern era. He was the one to spread the apocrypha of the religions of the world, see the need to hide the true nature of the Shadows from the world they had made. They would be eternally at war with the survivors of the Children if they continued with their true natures. As such he made new faces and legends for the world to follow, convinced the Shadows to accept this need, A Grand Theatre, as he called it. All faiths can owe their belief to the lies Xelex sowed for the sake of stability.

Divine Classification

False god/ Eldritch

Alignment

Lawful Other

Current Location

The Azure Coast

Age

???

Spouses

Siblings

Presentation

Androgenous

Quotes & Catchphrases

"I miss the way the world felt alive... now I am the machine that gives it 'life'. It's not the same..."

Belief/Deity

Self believing

Aligned Organization

The Shadows

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The sorcerer