The people of Peshaa supposedly worshipped an eyeless, bestial 'dragon' that lived in the nearby caves. The Lacertans, of course, derided this primitive behaviour and - once they had annexed the vales - set about hunting the monster down for capture and study.
Despite the fact that it could only ever have been a mute animal, they never found it. Peshaans continued to claim that, when their children were born eyeless and silent, they were 'chosen by the dragon'; parents did not mourn when such children wandered into the caves, never to be seen again.
Also I'm a bit curious about the "avatars" you mentioned. If you want to lore dump I'd love to hear it
For context, this is referring this ask game!
23. Are they loyal? Do their superiors trust them to go off on their own and come back, or are they kept on a tight leash?
There's technically two different, opposite answers for this question. It depends on when in his life I'm answering for Abdiel, with his answer completely flipping on its head with a certain incident...
However, I'll go with the version of his character that is my favorite, and that takes up a majority of his life!
AND OH, BUDDY, IS THAT A RESOUNDING:
“NO!”
Though there's major nuance to the whole situation, but I'll get into that shortly, haha.
I'll go more in-depth at the end of the post, but for now I'll give a quick explanation: avatars are the agents of gods. As far as the public is concerned, they're “physical representations of the gods”, but they're still individuals with their own thoughts and feelings. They just carry out the will(s) of the god(s) they work for, and thus personally carry the same authority as the god themself would.
... so you'd better do exactly as the avatar says, or risk pissing off their master.
Abdiel is an avatar of the Existential of Order—the very existence of Order given consciousness. She's been given many names and had many interpretations throughout history, but her most well-known is Veritheya: the Savior Goddess.
In the early years of the Reborn World (*cough cough* FAERIE'S DAWN *cough cough*), she helped human civilizations survive the brutal conditions of the Faewildes and eventually worked with another Existential to begin healing the world.
So, of course, the Existential of Order is seen as a benevolent, loving, and kind woman who does all she can to aid humanity.
Abdiel knows of her as a bitch he would do anything to escape.
In Abdiel's early years, he saw Order as someone deserving of respect, worship, and love. He saw her as his mother.
Because she was.
But Abdiel was turned into a weapon to fight other avatars for territory and privileges within the Existential War.
Due to the fact that Order, his handler and god, was literally a goddess who existed just about everywhere, always, it's literally impossible for Abdiel to truly escape her. No matter what he does, she will always be able to find him... eventually.
But the Existentials have rules in how they play their game, the Existential War. They cannot teleport their avatars in or out of other gods' territories without the reigning god's permission, for one. So he can run into and hide out in another's territory for a time... until she's gotten impatient enough to send someone after, or wager with the local god to retrieve him.
But he knows better than to push her that far.
They cannot hurt or harm an avatar that does not “belong” to them, for another. And an avatar can be bought, sold, or hand themselves over to another god... so he could trade himself to another god to escape her.
Except, then he's still enslaved an avatar. While Order was one of the top Existentials. She was petty, and, of all people, Abdiel knew how long she could hold a grudge.
If he left her, she'd pit her avatars after him until he'd killed them all, he died, or...
... he found himself face-to-face with ones he could not fight.
His family.
Her family.
Order's other avatars.
Order has dozens of avatars, and half of them are his full siblings. Another fourth of them were at least half siblings, nephlings, or descendants of them. There were far too many of them for anyone to be able to take them all in. Not without owing Order a high price. One nobody would want to pay.
But Abdiel would never abandon his family.
So he can never truly escape.
Except... he doesn't need to escape to ruin her plans.
He doesn't need to escape to sabotage her, pretend he's unable to do what she asks, or refuse to humor her entirely.
Abdiel is kept on a tight leash for his rebellious nature, his hatred for Order, his hatred for the Existential War in general, and his overall obvious desire to find any and all ways to mitigate Order's control on his family.
Order keeps a close eye on him for signs of rebellion, and if he acts too out-of-pocket for her liking...
Well...
He knows what she'll do to him.
NOW THAT I'VE GOTTEN ALL THAT OUT OF THE WAY— ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
As I mentioned earlier, avatars are the agents of gods.
Or... that's how they're portrayed to the general public.
In reality, avatars are essentially slaves. Most are born to the god they are indebted to, trained and conditioned to need them, and quickly trapped into a life under their thumb... with no real way to escape their control.
They're gods, after all.
Even if they die, the gods themselves have a way to bring them back.
Although, there's a rule against that...
... so long as they die in the Existential War.
So the only way to escape is to die within it.
And, well... the only ones willing to do that have already done it.
So those remaining... well...
They're stuck.
AND THAT'S A GOOD AMOUNT OF CONTEXT FOR THE AVATARS RUNNING AROUND IN THE BACKGROUND OF MY STORIES!!! :DDD
I've been having crazy art block right now so I'm really slow to draw stuff right now.
This is a winter snow whatever god in one of my world building stories & I really don't like how the armor turned out on them, I think they could look much better in digital.
Their name is Nieves, they're 13"8 ft tall, she's gender fluid - any pronouns, and he just has a general hatred for humanity for humanity just like the rest of her Pantheon.
