Elys Allardyne is the Chosen of Mishrak the Dragon God. Join in her fantastic adventures: travel to wondrous places, battle against demons and monsters, defy the darkness and bring hope to the despairing. She is the heroine the world needs!
In AHMIY, there was a long debate about the meaning of justice. Several times, it was described as 'the law of the harvest'. Basically, you reap what you sow. I was inspired to write the full story of what Nyssa did to the Kingdom of Urosh after that. She is the harvest goddess after all. Does that mean what she did to them was justice?
And, back when she was a grubby little orphan girl, Lissa led a revolution that toppled the mighty Betrurian Empire. There's a reason why, in some parts of the world, Lissa and Nyssa are known as the Flame and Fury of the Equinox.
They may have both ended mighty empires, but there's a huge difference between leading a revolution, and mind-raping an entire country's population into killing their own families. And that's, like, even before taking into account that it's supposed to be "you reap what you sow", not "you reap what someone else sowed".
Anyway, this is completely off topic to the current situation, but I made Hero Forge portraits of some of the major gods in this setting. For ones with multiple shown forms, I tried to make composite forms incorporating traits from a few at once. Which were chosen was based on a combination of how important they are to the stories, how much their appearance was described, and how well or how interestingly I think they could be conveyed in Hero Forge (which does not have options for making characters that look like floating shrubberies). Spoilered for size:
Inspired by the story of Nyssa's ascension. @Chandagnac, here's a little omake for you! I didn't think I'd actually get around to doing it, but this didn't require too much research. If there's any bits I could make more canon-compliant, I appreciate the feedback.
"Bolvariag was not a good king. He was a cruel tyrant who exploited his people ruthlessly. When he heard of a beautiful sorceress who had turned her home village into a virtual paradise, he became enamoured of her. He wanted to marry her, but he was married already, so he had his wife put to death. Frightened of what would happen if she continued to refuse him, the sorceress agreed to marry him, on the condition that her beloved hometown would remain intact and its people would be protected. One of the king's enemies saw this as an opportunity: he sent his private army to raze the village to ashes and slaughter everyone who lived there. Enraged by this, the sorceress cast off her mortal flesh and ascended as the goddess Nyssa, the Autumn Mother, Queen of the Harvest, the Equinox Flame, and so on. She laid a terrible curse upon the Kingdom of Urosh, so that whenever its people saw each other they were filled with rage and compelled to fight.
"And so, brother fought brother, sister fought sister, mothers and fathers slew their children and were compelled to slay each other in turn. It was a time of hunger and cold and anger, of treachery and murder, of people who preyed on each other and became less than wild beasts. And then, when civilisation had collapsed, when the last remnants of the Uroshi people had fled into the wilds and were living like animals, Nyssa was satisfied that her revenge was complete. At last, she lifted the curse.
A Treatise on Lissan & Nyssan, Astranic & Strashanic Theology
Four Metaphysical Dialogues
[...Two Avanni devotees ponder autumn, as they return to the explication of cause and effect, action and reaction, occurrence and consequence.]
LASYA: What is the law of the harvest?
ZVEHA: The law is thus: you reap what you sow.
LASYA: If Anyssar is the Harvest Goddess, why then is she not the goddess of justice?
ZVEHA: When she cursed the Uroshi, was that justice?
LASYA: Perhaps. I dare not judge.
ZVEHA: Why so?
LASYA: For it is merely a story we have to judge from.
ZVEHA: You are wise if that is your reason. But if it's full and true?
LASYA: My answer is the same. Perhaps. Perhaps not.
ZVEHA: Even though she set lover against lover, parent against child?
LASYA: When a gambler dies, her daughter takes on her debt, her enemies, and her collectors. It may be right, it may be wrong; nevertheless, it is what happens. If not her, her relatives. If not her relatives, her pashijahnate, and thus, her fellow citizens. So it was with Urosh. The king's evil incited further evil from his enemies, with the whole land suffering for it.
ZVEHA: There is your answer. From seeds, a blade of grass may spring forth. From seeds, so too the mightiest trees.
LASYA: Now I see what you mean. The planters may never see the fruits; the harvesters may steal another's toil. What happened to the Uroshi was a harvest, certainly, of all that came before.
ZVEHA: As you admitted earlier, to call it justice is less certain. What happens in the world is not according to a system of reward or punishment. Where there is fairness, it is made.
LASYA: If this is so, teacher, you wrongly worded the law of the harvest.
ZVEHA: Ah! My clever pupil. Very well, ask me once more.
LASYA: What is the law of the harvest?
ZVEHA: The law is thus: what is sown, is reaped.
[The text continues in this manner, before going on to discuss the particularities of gendered devotion to Nyssa outside of her seasonal aspect. Of note is the discussion on who men pray to about their children, and the inclusiveness of the concept of motherhood...]
Adding to the Hero Forge pictures I made before, here's one possible interpretation of Melphior:
I'm under the impression that while the generalities of his body are fairly consistent, the specifics are a bit different every time you see him, and sometimes doesn't even quite make sense to waking logic.
Also gathered around his feet is a small horde of nightmare demons.
