Vektiss

Vektiss is the Eternal Child God, the god of saplings and children. He was born when Triodar formed, when the three gods joined, and his tree, a tiny sapling, absorbed discharged energy. He looked around at the world with a joyful abandon, not knowing that he was looking at a scarred and dark realm. He was a true innocent, wandering the groves of Arden and exploring, playing with the animals and the nature spirits, who each swore to protect him with their lives. In his mind, even then, there were stirrings of old memories, of Greenfingered Kimil, flicker to the surface. Some say he is the last remaining vestige of her power. Indeed, in Arden there are still gardens that Vektiss planted as a child that still flower, leading some to see him as a descendant or vessel for the now lost goddess of agriculture.
The tales of Vektiss are often told in light-hearted ways. He is the child that will inadvertently foil the plans of great and terrible forces without even realising it, or end their tyranny through childish tricks and plans that should never work, but always seem to success. The favourite tale told of Vektiss is the Ballad of the Void Dragon, Geskith, who forced its way through the Otherworld Gates and made its domain in Arden Forest. The tale is often told in thirteen parts, and is a favourite of the bards and singers of the North.
Geskith was seeking to control the forest, to use its mystical pathways to extend its control over multiple planes, even multiple times, surrounding Torthe. For this, it needed a black gem, which could summon an army of aberrations. Alas, Vektiss had found it, and was using it to play football with a colony of fauns. Geskith unfurled his wings, took to the skies, and landed in the glade where the match was taking place. The dragon roared, blasting some of the fauns to obliteration, and commanding the child god to release the gem. With a shrug, Vektiss did, and the dragon, satisfied he had intimidated the young thing, seized it in his mouth and flew back to his hidden lair.
With a shrug, Vektiss pulled out the real black gem, and began to play football again. In his lair, Geskith bellowed in rage, as a hollow acorn filled with nettles and briar exploded in his mouth. Even to this day, the Void Dragon has ulcers and sores in his mouth.
Thirty years, Geskith tried to bring Vektiss to some form of end. And yet it never worked. Always Vektiss, innocent and almost bemused, would find some way to avoid a terrible fate. His adventures are often included on woodcuttings and given to children.
Yet Vektiss also felt lonely, and once Geskith had been banished (Vektiss having convinced him that the secret to ultimate power lay in an incantation the young god found in a shadowed vault, only to be a banishing spell that the child had grown and harvested over years). Seeing what the child had done, even as a child, Triodar came to adopt the wayward sapling.
Unlike any of the other gods, Vektiss has never grown up, preferring the warmth and love given by the nature Goddess. Yet sometimes, as the world sinks ever closer to shadow, people speak of stranger words spoken by the Child God, with knowledge once only held by Greenfingered Kimil, and with a sadness in his eyes. Each day, as more saplings spring to soft earth on Torthe, some chroniclers write, he turns to Triodar, with tears in his eyes: “Do I grow up today, Mother?”
The answer, so far, has been a comforting embrace: “Not today, child. Stay innocent one day more.”

Tenets of Faith

• Treat evil lightly in your heart, and laugh loud at its terror;
• Evil hates being seen as a fool, so trick it and trick it again;
• Love your inner child, even as you age, because that is your soul;
• Be kind to yourself, and when you turn against yourself, remember that there is a child there who wishes to be seen, heard, and listened to;
• Play early, play often, play tricks, play games, play music, play anything and everything, because life must be enjoyed;
• Your place of safety must be open to those who need a warm embrace, a cup of hot cocoa, and freshly baked cakes;
• People will look down on you, and see you as worthless. When they do, kick them in the shin.

Relationships with other deities:

• Vektiss dislikes the Dethroned, particularly Calculix and the Blight.
• Vektiss loves Triodar as a child does.
• Vektiss finds most other gods pompous, but he has a close friendship with Cutalazz, keeps trying to make Ulantarr chuckle, and finds Gardaran amusing, often following him on his hunts.

Divine Classification

God

Religions

• Faith of Vektiss

Church/Cult

Faith of Vektiss

Parents (Adopting)

Triodar