Issvenkásht

Issvenkásht was a boy of the Eshárenja tribe who was born during the exodus that followed the demise of the that people. He is credited as being the founder of Varvardnársh, the capital city of the Vht'shjenjé, as well as being one of the most important Ancestor-Saints of the second generation.
==Background==
Issvenkásht was born with the name Kijerán, and was only a few years old when the Eshárenja civilisation was annihilated by its treacherous neighbours and the ancestors of the Mósharenja. His mother was the daughter of a shaman, and she had a lowly status due to the recent hatred against the shamans, whom the people blamed for their misfortunes. He and the few remaning Eshárenja had reached the northern tip of the Mír river valley when insects attacked their camp; what they did not know was that the cave where their descendants would build the city of Varvardnársh was an enormous colony of insects, larger than any human city ever built, and most of the surviving children were either torn to pieces and consumed on the spot or disappeared when the insect sallied out to attack the intruders. Kijerán was one of their victims.
He was gone for thirty-three days, and everybody presumed him dead. Then one day, he came back, changed. Nobody recognised him.
He had been brought to a cavern near the slopes, where a large insect with mandibles and a wasp's waist had assaulted him, tearing off one of his arms and one of his feet, leaving him scarred and maimed. But then, he had grabbed a piece of stone, cutting his own remaining hand in the process, and eviscerated the insect queen, cutting into two. The blood of the insect had sprinkled upon his skin, burning his wounds with an enormous pain and turning parts of his skin grey and lichenous.
He ate the insect that had mutilated  him. Then he crawled up, finding a root to move on before trekking down. And he noticed that the insects avoided him. For twelve days, he had limped through the area, before hunger had made him fall down before the sun. And none of the animals touched him. All the insects avoided him at night, and lizards or vultures at day. He crawled into small holes, finding mushrooms and roots to chew on, and he lost all hope of ever finding his tribe.
Then he felt a light above him, one hot day when he was overcome by fever. He could see before him, all over the golden red sky of morning, a large being of light, not in the shape of a spira. And it said to him: "Kijerán. Rise up."
Ki'jeran asked, a mere whisper which only occurred in his aching head. "Who... are you?"
"I am you, Kijerán. I am your mother. I am your father. I took your arm. I took your foot. I am dead but I will never die. I am."
The boy felt how he was filled with warm light, and filled with a sense of transcendence. All the pain and sense of loss dissipated, and he felt as if he was whole again. His irises also changed, into the colour of the glowing sun itself. He grabbed a stone with determination and dragged himself up from the pit. And lo and behold, he found a source of fresh water, which he drank himself content on. Then he could see the smoke of a campfire, and jumped through the rocks until he found his family and his tribe, telling them his story and what the great being had told him. The warriors of the tribe wanted to slay him and grant relief to his horribly mutilated body but he convinced them that he was the only hope of the Eshárenja and that if they killed him, they would all die.
It was a time where hope was scarce so they believed him, and carried him on a stretcher to the great cave where the Mír river emerges from the underground. There, he instructed the Eshárenja to make a pyre and leave him.
It is said then that he lured the insects out to capture him again, then set himself on fire and that the great trail of flames transferred from insect to insect until the whole colony was set ablaze and the giant queen of the colony herself was burnt to death. The tormented Kijerán was burnt to ash but he had saved his entire people from extinction through his own sacrifice.
==Legacy==
Kijerán was posthumously renamed Issvenkásht, meaning "tormented" and was honoured as a hero of his people. Later, as the Ancestral Veneration cult grew within the Vht'shjenjé community, he was honoured as one of the most important Ancestor-saints. The Vht'shjenjé still maintain funerary ashes as a sacramental relic in honour of his martyrdom, and he is accredited as being the founder of Varvardnársh, as the cave was liberated from the insect clutches to make a new home for his decimated and weary people.
He is also venerated by people with disabilities, especially disfiguring or painful ones, a reminder that although he was horribly disfigured and tormented beyond belief he never gave up. Those who have been maimed in battle or struck with debilitating diseases all visit his ancestral shrines to give offerings. The hospital in Shtvakhír has a large shrine dedicated solely to the veneration of St. Issvenkásht, where braziers burn incense and herbal medicines day and night.
Category:Vht'shjenjé people
Category:Heroes
Category:Ancestor-saints
Category:Prophets
Category:Scorched people