[ok, so i literally just got finished writing this after about 4 straight hours. Part of me knows i should probably save this somewhere else, spell check tomorrow, and then submit it after it's been cleaned up. But i have the feeling that if i do that it will end up being one of those things i keep putting off and just end up never submitting, so here it is, and i apologize in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes that might be present.]
Name: Ixis (though she has gone by many over the centuries and has forgotten her original birthname)
Age: several thousand years old
Gender: Female
Race: Ixian Spawn (human by all appearances though, as she is a talented shapeshifter)
Personality: Ixis is a devoted follower of Ix and takes great pleasure in serving her master. Corrupted by the dark lord's influence, all traces of decency and morality have been wiped from her soul. She lies, manipulates, betrays and corrupts without any remorse, all in the name of Ix and his greatness. She fears no death, and has several times sacrificed herself for the glory of her master, trusting without doubt that she woul once again emerge from his coils the next time she was needed. On a more personal level Ixis, while capable of playing whatever part she needs externally, is quite the sadist herself. As she is a servant of the dark lord, she revels in spreading his influence, causing misery, despair, fear, loathing and all manner of horrendous emotions to take root within the hearts of mortals. she cares nothing for the flesh, but rather sees it as a useful tool to reach the heart, as a result will only ever participate in actual torture when it is conductive to spreading darkness in the hearts of her victims (she is much more likely to torture the loved ones of her targets, rather than the targets themselves). She is also, to some degree, a rather spoiled girl. She is used to being able to manipulate others very easily, and as a result gets incredibly frustrated when she repeatedly fails to push darkness within the hearts of specific targets. Naturally, she violently despises those blessed by Am and plots to have them destroyed whenever she comes across them. Needless to say, she despises the sun and standing directly within its rays is a source of great discomfort to her as it prevents her from using the majority of her powers.
History: Ixis was originally a woman of a race resembling humans who were amongst the first sentient beings to walk the earth. She has forgotten (or rather, thrown away) her original name, but she knows that she was a servant in the palace of Am, the white goddess who shone over the world and sought to guide all life to prosperity. Ixis' people were glad servants of the First Children, those like Am who were born of the gods that created the very universe upon which their kingdom sat. They humbled themselves before the gods of light, life, and prosperity, offering to them complete devotion and loyalty in return for their blessings, and bowed their heads in fear and respect before the lords of darkness, death, and chaos fearing their heavenly wrath.
Women of exceptional beauty from Ixis' race were said to be blessed by Am, the white bird goddess of light, and were sent to serve her within her palace if they reached a certain age without finding a man to marry. There they offered their bodies and souls to the illumination of the world around them, not only by tending to the physical, everlasting flames within the palace, but also by offering clarity and wisdom to pilgrim who came to pray at the temple. Of course Am herself never blessed the temple with her presence, as she was forever aloft her golden egg (the sun), circling the great vastness of creation, and blessing it with her light so that mortals may walk the world safe from the dangers of darkness (this act, as a side effect, granted mortals with knowledge of time as they could now distinguish between night and day). However, within the great and vast halls of the palace did reside Am's 4 sons. There was Hol, god of victory, born of her right eye and elder twin of Rah, the god of courage, born of Am's left eye. Also was there the son of Am and Vis (the green stag god of Life): Sil, fair-faced god of kindness and compassion. Finally there was the youngest son, born of Am and Fus (the cerulean tortoise god of prosperity): Ur, the god of knowledge and language. These four sons did live within the palace of Am and were waited on by the servants of the palace as the gods they were.
Now, while the palace was populated exclusively by women of beauty, it is important to note that, even amongst them, Ixis stood apart as a woman of flawless appearance who was said to be Am's very favoured amongst mortals. Within the palace it was considered a great honour to be chosen as a personal consort of even one of the sons, but Ixis was desired and shared by all four and when her duties did permit her to offer audience to the pilgrims visiting the temple, she was treated almost as a demi-goddess herself for the favour placed upon her by the gods.
Meanwhile, The black serpent Ix looked to her as a golden opportunity. Ix, counterpart to Am, had long been jealous of the worship lavished onto his sister by the mortals. They flocked to her in droves and built great monuments to her, while they fled his presence in fear and lit fires wherever they may be so as to escape his embrace. The serpent had long sought a way to rob Am of her hold on the hearts and minds of the mortal peoples, and saw in her greatest priestess the perfect chance to do so.
Ix did shed his skin and took the form of a wretched, ugly, pygmy, fashioning himself a cloak from his moult, and making his way to the palace under guise of being a pilgrim. Within darkness, of course, holds uncertainty, and within uncertainty is fear, and so Ix was lord almighty of fear, and all who gazed upon him, even in his mortal form, felt nothing but repulsion and fear. He pleaded sanctuary within the palace, poor and wretched as he was, claiming to be a lost soul who foolishly gazed upon the black serpent of darkness, and for it was marked with his curse. But of all the servant priestesses within the palace, none could bear to gaze upon him, and none could grant him peace and clarity. Save, of course, for the 'demi-goddess' herself.
Filled with pity for the furtive pygmy, Ixis (and one should remember that this was not yet her name at he time) did hold audience with him and did her best to impart on him the gifts she had herself received from the gods. She sought to give him the strength of Hol, fill him with the courage of Rah, show him the kindness of Sil, and teach him the knowledge of Ur and, through these gifts, lift the darkness of Ix from his heart and replace it with the light of Am. This was, of course, futile, but Ix was the father of lies, as they were a form of spoken darkness that obstructed the light of truth. As such, it was a simple matter to convince her that her efforts were availing slow, steady progress in lifting his curse. This filled her with a false hope, that drover her to redouble her efforts and spend additional time with the pygmy during his stay in the place.
As a result of the increased time Ixis spent with the pygmy, she was less capable of giving herself to the four gods as a personal consort, which made them curious as to the nature of her mentoring sessions with the pygmy. The four brothers then did agree to spectate upon the mentoring sessions, where they quickly came to love the pygmy for his sweet praises and many displays of humility before not only them but also before their favoured consort. It was during one such session where all the gods were present that Ix did decide to sew the seeds of discord within the family. Amidst his praise of the priestess and the gods, he did pose the question of whether or not the gods thought their favoured to be worthy of being wed to any one of them, as he imagined, in his humble opinion, that if any mortal woman should receive the honour of marrying a god, she would be the one.
The gods did not disagree with this assessment, though of course the issue was that she was one woman. To share a consort was one matter, but for a god to share his wife was entirely out of the question. The conversation then of course came to which of the four she would marry should such a thing ever come to pass. Hol, of course,stated that he was the strongest, and always victorious in his ventures, so he was clearly most deserving of whomever's hand in marriage he chose. Rah, then contested that he was only slightly second in strength to his brother, and that he would valiantly defend a woman's honour everyday without fail, and thus he was most fitting to marry. Sil, of course, was of the opinion that more than strength mattered in the makings of a good husband. Any god would be sufficiently strong enough to protect a human woman, but that a kind-hearted and compassionate lover would make her happiest. Even Ur, who had boundless knowledge, but not the wisdom to see past the pygmy's tricks, stated that he thought himself to be a better candidate than his elders, stating that mortals craved to be understood as well as loved, and that a god of knowledge would best know how to care for a wife.
The pygmy, ever wise in his deceit and false humility, agreed with the points of each god, without presenting himself so presumptuous as to have a personal opinion of which god would be better suited to marry the servant priestess.
What was first perceived as simple discussion sowed the seeds of rivalry between the brothers. Each had grown fond of their favoured consort during her time in the palace, and when the idea of marriage was brought to their minds, they all felt that they were the most deserving of the woman, and more over feared losing her services, should another brother demand her hand in marriage. Discussions on the topic were the held more and more frequently, and eventually the brothers began competing with one another frequently at a variety of events, both in order to show themselves off to Ixis, and in order to show their superiority to their brothers.
The pygmy, who gradually changed his shape into being less and less twisted, soon became unofficial arbiter of these friendly competitions, and the gods began to rely on him as a adviser more frequently, as he was perceived to be a neutral third party. Soon his original role as a pilgrim was all but forgotten, and he became a figure that was almost expected to be seen within the halls of the palace, considered a close friend of both the gods and the servants. Without anyone noticing, the snake had sunk his fangs into each god and put the beginnings of darkness within the hearts of Light's own children, but not only they.
Ix had also begun to fill the favoured consort's ears with his sweet poison, breeding arrogance within the woman's heart, slowly convincing her that she was above the other servants of the palace in stature, that she was without a doubt favoured by Am herself and destined to e the woman who would marry one of the goddess' sons. Slowly the serpent tightened his coils around his prey, for he was in no hurry. Darkness knows no limits, nor does it know time. Darkness will wait for eternity if it needs, because no flame can burn forever, and eventually darkness will consume all.
It took ten years. Ten years of lies, ten years of false humility, ten years of competition and rivalry, ten years of breeding arrogance and malcontent. ten years, before the brothers lost patience with one another and erupted into all-out feud. Each had decided they were to marry the consort, and none were willing to give her up to their brothers. They confronted the consort herself and all demanded her hand in marriage, leaving it to her to decide which she desired to be with. However, the woman could choose none, for she wanted none. Over the years the brothers had become so obsessed over their competition that they'd started failing to give her the attention she felt she deserved. The only who was devoted to her in the way she felt was appropriate was the pygmy, who in those ten years had become not wretched and ugly, but handsome and fair, and was constantly by her side.
After claiming that she needed time to think over the proposals, the consort retreated to her chambers that night and confided in her trusted pygmy of the feelings she had on the matter, confessing that she wished he were a god himself so he would be worthy of her hand. However, Hol had grown frustrated that he was not immediately granted victory over his brothers when each demanded her hand in marriage, and had come to her room to further press the issue. He heard the entire confession, and flew into a divine fury, crashing down the door to her chambers and declaring the pygmy a traitor for stealing the woman's heart, striking him down.
Drawn to the commotion, the other brothers arrived on the scene and were horrified by Hol's murder, not only because he had killed someone that they all considered a close friend, but because he had even dared to spill the pygmy's blood within the sacred halls of their mother's palace. This, of course, resulted in a fierce argument between the four, in particular Hol and Rah, who eventually drew their blades on each other.
Ever the kind hearted, even in spite of Ix's influence, Sil attempted to intervene between the two, and cease their fighting, but unfortunately fell victim to one of Rah's thrusts that had been dodged by Hol, marking the second murder (albeit an accidental one) committed within the halls.
Feeling the loss of one of her sons, Am immediately appeared above her palace and summoned all her sons, as well as the favoured consort, to stand before her. The sons were all too consumed by shame and sorrow at their brother's loss to look upon their mother, so it fell to the consort to retell the story.
Am was infuriated by what had transpired, but most of all she was disgusted with the callousness with which the consort retold the story, the woman barely even showing remorse over Sil's death and speaking as if it were natural for gods to shed even kindred blood for her sake. Am was stupefied that someone so arrogant and self-centred had even allowed to remain within her palace for so long, and once the retelling was done Am wasted no time in smiting the consort. Then, as punishment for becoming so obsessed in their rivalry, Am banished her sons from her palace and decreed hat hey were to never again speak a word to each other. and since they had been so obsessed with marriage, they would each be given a wife to ear them children. Hol a woman who was inept, Rah a woman who was a coward, and Ur a woman who was a fool, and none of he three woman knew anything of kindness, so that the gods were never to forget how they had lost Sil and his gentle heart that night.
Am then took Sil's corpse within the folds of her wings and carried him up within her golden egg, so that he may rain his kindness onto those she illumined even in death.
Ix, of course, was incredibly pleased with himself, all had gone exactly according to plan. he was one of the First Children, so death could not touch him, being struck down as the pygmy was no more lethal to him than shedding skin. He watched as the news of the terrible incident spread amongst the mortals, and one by one they began to lose faith in the inherent goodness of Am and her children while they mourned the god of kindness' passing. Doubt and sorrow had been sown even in the hears of Am's most faithful believers, and from those seeds of darkness Ix would spread his influence over he land.
This would not be all of the consort, however. Ix had taken a great interest in the woman he had spent such time corrupting. Through her, he had managed to instill darkness even in the palace of light, she had proved to be a useful tool and Ix saw fit to reward her. Visiting his sister Mu (the gray rat queen of death) Ix traded one of his scales for the soul of the woman, and took her within his coils, corrupting her with his essence, turning her into a vessel for his power, and named her Ixis: she who is [born] of Ix, branding her as his first daughter. He then returned her to he land or mortals, and commanded her to spread his influence, and to turn he hearts of mortals to darkness.
Ixis has since lived a thousand lives and used the same tricks that Ix originally used on her to tear apart families, raise unholy cults, spread fear across the land, topple kingdoms, and recruit more and more each time to become loyal children of darkness just as herself if they proved worthy. She has died as many times as she has lived, and happily returns to the embrace of her lord and father each time.
Now, she stands in a role much similar to her original one, and serves as a concubine to he pharaoh. She feeds his lust for power every day, and soon there will erupt a great war as the people revolt against him, and the land will be plunged into beautiful, eternal, absolute darkness.
