Shadowent
Shadowent, Goddess of Dreams – and Darkness. She is both the fearful dream and the shifting, deceitful shadows that mortals wake up in. She is the daughter of Dieterra and Hevren, born after Abrastis went mad. She is also the sometime lover of Hevren, and was the lover of Vaskull, creating Iliaern. In her youthful days, she was one of the Dethroned, leaving the influence of her mother, and even her father, becoming the lover and wife of Vaskull.
The two of them made a powerful duo, Vaskull with his control over fear, and Shadowent with her power over dreams bringing centuries of nightmares made flesh to Torthe. Both, it is said, had a very real love for each other, finding it intolerable to live up to the strict edicts of the Golden Throne.
Shadowent was always a cruel goddess, and enjoyed the slow madness created by her dreams and Vaskull’s despair. She would delight in finding paragons of virtue, and either twisting them to her service by offering them their greatest delight, or, if that failed, driving them to madness alongside her lover. She tended to work largely in Kharasaki, and she adopted the customs of some tribes, and even to this date, she most often appears in a full body niquab, showing her face only when she appears in dreams, or when she speaks with her equals – the other gods. In her youth, the niquab was studded in gems that sparkled with fragments of mortal dreams, and the cloth was a blazing white, with echoes of human souls, who had died in their sleep. The niquab does cling to her face, almost indistinguishable from a skin of cloth.
In this time, she created the night hags to serve her in all things, and to aid in the capture of mortal souls as they slept.
She gave birth to Iliaern, who was to be the cruel melding of her and Vaskull – dreams and despair giving birth to meaningless, empty sacrifice. Yet the moment he was born, Dieterra, Asaldine – and Nefferlasta, who has always seen Shadowent as a threat – stole him away.
Asaldine healed a sickly boy, and the ailing mother, and then used her power to keep Vaskull at bay. Dieterra used her stars to guide her servants away from danger, and when they were almost caught by a vengeful Vaskull, Nefferlasta bore Iliaern away to safety in a crustaecean shell, floating on the waves. Nefferlasta intended to take Iliaern herself, but moments before he reached her domain, the reason for Dieterra’s distance became clear, and she used her powers to deceive her sister, who took the shell, only to find it empty and the boy safely within Dieterra’s starlit palace.
The tale of how Shadowent turned, not to light, but to her place amongst the Wanderers, is one steeped in mystery. However, the myths speak of Vaskull seeking to become King of the Gods, with his wife as Queen beside him. To do so, he wanted to bring to Torthe the distant, clutching, twisted beings who sheltered in the void. The Gods, and Titans, had always been afraid of them – indeed, they had fled from them when their world was destroyed. Unleashing them would bring god’s fears to life, and the power of that fear and despair would give Vaskull incredible power.
Shadowent, for all her darkness and rage – her sense of being second-best, the distant contempt that her mother had held her in, and many other slights some real and many imagined – still cared for the world that she was born upon. And so she came in secret to Dieterra, and warned her of her half-brother’s plans. At the final moment, when Vaskull almost had the gates opened, Shadowent betrayed him, cutting his throat behind him, and pushing him into the void between the stars.
The void stole away the once beautiful visage of Vaskull, leaving behind only an icy, smooth of feature alien creature, half-god, half-other. Since that moment, Vaskull and Shadowent have been bitter enemies, clashing over ownership of nightmares and their creations. In very real sadness and grief at having lost her love, and the purge she needed to complete of her own church, Shadowent’s niquab forever turned to the black of mourning. The gems became agate, black opals, obsidian, and the souls that once screamed within the shifting fabric were released, with only tiny hints of their suffering now remaining, which she carries upon her as a penance. As she arrives anywhere, the whispering madness and grieving choir of countless souls appear with her, taunting her for all her failures and the sins she committed.
Tenets of Faith
- Hold your guilt close, it is the only true recollection of our misdeeds;
- All can be redeemed, but not all can be redeemed in life;
- Dreams, and nightmares, are sacred, for each holds a truth;
- Guard your apprentice with your life, that is your highest duty;
- The dreams of a spinning wife, are more glorious than a high priestess;
- The nightmares of a spinning wife are nothing compared to a queen’s;
- Children are sacred, and their dreams pure, their nightmares rich;
- Seek out outworld others from the void, and purge and cleanse;
- Watch the skeins of fate that are dropped by Hevren or Dieterra, because in their insignificant leavings, other truths are held;
- Watch Vaskull and his servants, and strike only when sure of victory – but then strike hard and ensure none remain alive.
- Hates, and loves, Dieterra, for all their shared history.
- Hates Abrastis and would see him imprisoned for an eternity if she could.
- Loves Vaskull still, but hates him for what he would do to Torthe.
- Loves Hevren as both father and lover.
- Dislikes Asaldine, but sees her as important.
- Cares for Iliaern, and is proud he has not fallen to darkness – yet.
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