Ashem

After the Azlan were banished to the Abyss at the end of Age Zero, they looked around for leaders. One of these prophets was Ashem, who led the Voij from the Abyss. She brought her people back to the World Above, to Helia, and undertook its shaping. She defeated Ur-Sagru, the fire troll that dwelt in Smoking Mountain, and so it became Slave Mountain. She used Ur-Sagru’s fire to fuel her golem forges, and as the Gardener she planted the Wormwood to protect the purity of the People. Ashem selected three of the greatest Voij as her disciples, and gave each a part of her teaching. 
Ashem chose three brothers, who each excelled at one art. The youngest brother, Akkad, was the impatient warrior. He founded the Firewalkers, the holy warriors who are comprised of the red mantles and the golden sons. The middle brother was Oreb. He was quiet and thoughtful, preferring solitude where he could study the workings of the world. His followers are the Black Mechanics, the holy artificers of the Ashemi. Finally, the oldest brother was Narasin. Wise and experienced, he always sought to dissuade his youngest brother from conflict. Narasin’s followers are the Ash Priests, who devote themselves to austerity and the teaching and preaching of the Obsidian Path of Ashem. The brothers had a sister, Jahar. Called the False Sister, she begged Ashem to teach her as well, and was offered the Fourth Book of Wisdom, but Jahar craved all of her tutor’s arts and powers. She slew Ashem and took control of the great golem, Numantius the Qadmon, with which she intended to conquer Helia and become its god. The Brother Saints united against their sister and defeated her. Unable to command Numantius themselves, they could only send it to sleep and bury it in the vaults beneath Ur-Sagru, where it might await Ashem’s return. Each of the brothers founded a sect, but these sects soon began to squabble. The ash priests, to end the disunity, banished all the nobles and their households from Atum, and made them take up residence in the mountains that ring Helia. The great grass plains that separate the mountains from the Rift Sea became the home of dissidents, heretics and bandits, who prey on the pilgrims and traders heading to Atum and the Weeping Road that is the Ashemi’s greatest holy site. The Weeping Road is a path of jagged obsidian that leads to the peak of Slave Mountain. Voij walk the road barefoot and pour their blood into the volcano’s smoking maw to add their strength to the wards binding Ur-Sagru in place. This is considered the greatest offering and all pious voij attempt a pilgrimage to Slave Mountain once in their lives. 
Not all Voij followed the Brothers. Some believed that Jahar was tricked and framed, and that the Brothers were the betrayers of Ashem, not Jahar, who was the Gardener's most devoted disciple. These 'Jaharists' fought a long, vicious war with the orthodox Ashemi, and were finally driven from Helia to scatter through Erebus. There the Jaharists remain, locked in ceaseless war with the Ashemi, though in truth the Jaharists also honor Ashem, they simply believe that Jahar was her successor, not the 'False Brothers,' whose teachings have ensnared Helia. Jaharist cities form a loose confederation below the earth, though they are apt to skirmish with each other as often as the 'traitors' seeking to covert or destroy them. 
The Voij believe that Ashem wrote a Fifth Book of Wisdom, which she hid for the coming of the Zero Saint, the Last Disciple and completion of Ashem’s teachings. The Zero Saint will reawaken Numantius and use it to unite and purify the Voij, who will then depart on a great crusade to conquer and redeem first Altea and then the world. Once this is done, the Voij will shed their bodies and join their souls within Numantius, who will take to the stars and begin the long voyage back to Paradise. On arriving, the purified Voij oversoul will join with suffering Bhelor, restoring and invigorating her, and from her new light will be born a young and healed Asur, who will become the New Sun of Paradise, and restore harmony to Creation. The Voij, their task at last complete, will begin a new existence as angels of Anratha, immortal and perfect as they were in the beginning.   
Though Ashem was slain, her spirit endures. She is prophetess and guide to the Voij, gardener of their souls, the red flame that dances in the jewel on Bhelor's brow. She will be reborn into the Zero Saint, who will become the guiding will of Numantius. Until that time, the Voij endure, and they burn.
Category:Religion
Category:Heroes