Athelios

The Aspect of Ymir's duality, Athelios is credited to govern either conflicting or complementary domains. Light and shadow, the sun and the moon, law and crime, justice and mercy. Depictions of his mythos may vary, those foreign or even contemptuous of his worship believe his history is a sordid and deceptive one, yet the main branches of Athelios worship view him as a benevolent redeemer and the one guiding light to true cosmic balance. Some that remain in the middle believe the cloaked god masked in black and white to be a mix of the two, after all he's often portrayed bearing two separate personalities that shift with the setting and rising of the sun.

Of Ymir’s ten Aspects, Athelios took to a different crowd than most in his presence on Meranthe. Though most of his siblings would bless and guide those that already sought to fit their image of perfect followers, Athelios looked beyond those already on his desired path. He took to criminals and outcasts, finding the morality of man fascinating with the complexity of a person's psyche. In doing so, he'd learned more of their capabilities and talents, using them to convert more and more. Humanity’s capability to sin was a part of them. Those who fall into the shadows turned out to be the most suited to bringing about change in favor of the light.

Warden of Helheim

When it became time to leave Meranthe and govern the spirit world, Athelios sought the most challenging role of his siblings. He became Helheim's warden, shouldering the responsibility of the darker spirits and souls his siblings would rather not deal with. Helheim called to the souls of strife, the ones with darkness in their hearts and proclivity for sin from their previous life. Athelios attempted that which he always had, providing stronger organisation and order to those weary souls, working to cleanse and repurpose some of that darkness for their rebirth.

All who would die with tainted souls would find their way to Athelios, some seemingly too far gone for redemption. Helheim itself drew them there, as it was intended to, but it had also begun working against Athelios in that same vein. A realm meant to house and attract all the world’s evils could no longer stand for its ruler’s attempts at expunging it.

The Marquis of Helheim formed, summoned by a malignant force that pervaded all corners of the realm. Athelios sought to staunch the spread of chaos that worked to usurp his appointed position, but there were few allies on his side and an ever growing force in opposition.

The defeat and betrayal struck at Athelios to his core, depictions of how he handled the encroaching conflict within his realm vary. Some say his failure was due to his strict adherence to his ethics when his enemies were the lack of which personified. Some say this is where Athelios’ second personality began to form, adopting the cruelty of his enemies in a desperate bid to push them back, some go as far as to say he even resorted to forming and relying on his own Nethradin, but stories that go to these extremes are often disputed by worshippers.

Regardless, Athelios’ delve and development of a more sinister personality that had been forming since his time exploring the darkness of the world is generally believed to culminate to its most extreme point in this conflict. Athelios could not fully abandon his beliefs and personage, instead shifting towards that festering cruelty within the night as he returned to his senses during the day. Some claim the shifting of personality has none to do with the time of day though, believing the persona to sometimes pretend to be the merciful for an edge.

The Citadel Upon the Edge

Athelios' devoted believe him to have retreated to a castle that orbits upon Helheim's edge, between the remaining light of existence and the absolute limit of the dark lord's reach. It is said that within this realm in between, he mounts the gathering of humanity's most capable, from the noble to the redeemed, to eventually rid Helheim of the encroaching culmination of humanity's sins beyond redemption. Learning that his mistakes have escaped into the land he once called home, beckoned and summoned by witches and riftmancers that further violate the cosmic order of the cycle he hoped to perfect, Athelios created his race of devotees, the Faceless.

The Faceless represented his accumulated guile and knowledge of organization and secrecy. Crafted meticulously to be the epitome in espionage and subterfuge, acting as effective spies and deadly assassins, the Faceless were tasked with ridding the world of the vile filth that the stolen Helheim spewed, as well as growing and strengthening the Athelios faith on Meranthe to further strengthen the deity for an eventual taming of Hel, leading to an operation which lead to the founding of the kingdom of Aphros, still lead by an Oracle of Athelios since its formation.

Their ability change appearance and identity was not only incorporated to mimic the deity or for its practical use, however. They, and all of his followers were tasked not only with cleansing, but learning.

He'd learned that there existed evil that rendered some like the takers of Helheim beyond his redemption, yet it brought about conflict within Athelios. When was a soul beyond that teaching he sought to share? When does one escape that cycle of betterment, where they've fallen so far that they could only fall further? Athelios held the perspective of a god, he could not make this assertion on his own with a perspective that differed from theirs. If he was to judge when those gifted with mortality have completely absconded that cycle, it could not be done without the input of those very same mortals.

So Athelios beseeched his progeny, his followers, his faithful and devoted, the faceless and all other mortals. To not only cleanse their lands of the invaders he could not hold, but to learn from them and from one another. To look into the many lives of their fellow mortals, to see the light and shadow within their souls, to discover where that line was and to share their answers with him.

He beseeched them to join them after death in the Citadel Upon the Edge, as warriors, as members of the court that would judge the souls they'd sent to him. To see whether they could be redeemed, or whether they deserved that redemption. Whether they too would join the Citadel's ranks in the battle for Helheim, or if their souls too had belonged there all along.