Ihyll

Ihyll's Grey Lady Form

***“**A Hyllidan mage faces me bravely, at peace with her life. A Human candle maker cowers in front of me, begging for mercy. A Qu'Zell warrior does not understand, and I try to soften the transition. A young Faerian prince gives a convincing argument on why he needs more time, yet there is no going back. In their final moments with me, they show me their soul. They share anecdotes, experiences, memories, regrets, and incomplete goals, and I listen. Young and old, good and evil, I remember each one and try to preserve their memories. Death is an end, but also a new beginning.**”***
— Ihyll

**Ihyll**, refered to by mortals as the **Soulkeeper**, is the Goddess of Death. She is considered one of the Five Gods. Ihyll lords over the Spirit Realm and all its subrealms, but plays a significant role within Enselonde, overseeing both Clan Shadow-Guard while also influencing the world of the living through her own means.

She's at the head of Ihyll's Blade, the most elite and dangerous assassin group in the history of Enselonde. Occasionally, she also influences the world through her Plagues of Ihyll, extremely deadly diseases that have brought empires to their knees in the past.

Ihyll did not take part in the Withdrawal after the Divine War, yet has spent most of her time isolated in the afterlife. However, due to the recent Great War, she has once again positioned herself amongst the living, being at the head of the opposition against the mad God of Storms, Syarus.

## Forms

*Main Article: Divine Forms*

Ihyll is one of the few Divines who's never been shy about revealing her true form to the mortals of Enselonde. Her true form is a large shade, some sixteen meters tall, varying in form depending on the onlooker. Some see a humanoid figure, whereas others see a monster. This form, however, can cause severe mental trauma in many mortals, so she often appears as another, more common, form.

The "Grey Lady" is the Divine Form most commonly associated with Ihyll. She takes on the shape of an otherwise regular dark-haired Human female, yet with grey skin and piercing vermilion eyes which she uses to gaze into the souls of the recently deceased. She is often seen wearing a dress and a cloak. While this visage has still been described as terrifying or, at the very least, eerie, it prevents the shock to mortals upon witnessing the true form of the Goddess of Death.

Like many other Divines, Ihyll can also appear as an animal, most commonly a raven or crow, though at times as a wolf, dog or Aroka.

## Biography

### Appearance

Ihyll, while a major Divine, appeared relatively late into the creation of Enselonde, only appearing during the early Age of Freeholds. With Ihyll's appearance came death, as Faerians, Naerisi and Hyllidans – who had up to that point been immortal – began to die. This made the mortals of Enselonde loathe Ihyll almost immediately, as she was viewed as an evil entity, even going as far as begging the other Divines to destroy her.

However, the ability to die also gave the ability to kill. Before long, the Freeholds were far too busy fighting the War for Enselonde to worry about Ihyll. During the war, Ihyll cemented her position, becoming the official Goddess of Death. The only opposition she really faced was the Goddess of Heatlh, Kymelia, who set out to save as many lives as possible and thwart Ihyll at every opportunity.

### Human Rebellions and the Divine War

Ihyll was one of the first Divines who showed sympathy for the enslaved Human's plight in the Age of Rebellion. Ultimately, when the First Human Rebellion broke out and overthrew the Freehold of Jaeria, Ihyll remained idle, not intervening in the war. When the Rebellion ended in two years, Ihyll was the only Divine who spoke out against the continued mistreatment of Humans.

During the Second Human Rebellion, Ihyll began indirectly involving herself with the fight with the creation of the First Plague of Ihyll. The First Plague was a disease that controversially only affected Faerians and had a mortality rate of up to 95%. The unlucky few who survived the Plague would turn into horrifying creatures known as the Plagued, a fate worse than death in most cases. The First Plague completely isolated Ihyll from the non-Human mortals, as her worship became banned in most Freeholds. However, her influence didn't go unnoticed by the Human Freemen, and Ihyll swiftly became one of the Humans' most worshipped Divines.

Once the Third Human Rebellion broke out, Ihyll openly supported them, directly joining the side of the Kingdom of Humanity and unleashing the Second Plague of Ihyll on the North, a disease that affected all races. The Goddess of Death created an elite group of Human assassins that would directly tap into her powers, laying the foundation for Ihyll's Blades. The Blades were a force to be reckoned with, assassinating generals and rulers in the hundreds across the North.

As the Third Human Rebellion escalated into the Divine War after the death of Zaoru at the hands of Anbu the Godslayer, Ihyll was one of the more reserved Divines, rarely deploying her own Divine Offspring or Undergods into battle and mainly fighting from the backlines. However, this did not stop her from unleashing new plagues, as the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Plagues of Ihyll all rapidly burned through the North. Further damage was caused by Onir, the God of Chaos, who wield frequently teleport plague victims into non-affected city to wage some form of biological warfare against both sides of the conflict.

Near the end of the Divine War, Ihyll was one of the Divines who was targeted by the Starslaughter. Yet, none of Cossyxia's Offspring could come even close to defeating the Goddess of Death. Ultimately, she didn't agree to fully Withdraw, but distance herself from mortal matters, founding Clan Shadow-Guard as her protectors on Enselonde. This was ceremonial at best, as she would still directly influence the politics of the world through her Blades, which have remained active since the Divine War and continue to serve to this day, all while still walking Enselonde with no regard for the idealistic peace vision of Cossyxia.

### The Sixth Plague and War with Kymelia

After the Divine War ended, Ihyll would spend most of her time outside of Enselonde, mostly convining herself to the Spirit Realm. However, she would frequently return, giving new assassination orders to her Blades every so often. Yet, not much else happened for the Goddess of Death, as she entered a certain rhythm to her actions.

In 140 AW, Ihyll unleashed the Sixth Plague upon the recently Golden Empire of Toscov, the first Human state to be targeted by a Plague. The Sixth Plague would transform Humans into the Krighal Taresh, monsters of fur, claws, and teeth. The Krighal Taresh would rampage through Toscov as their military began to fail. Before long, the Sixth Plague would also hit the Kymelian Kingdom, the Goddess of Medicine's own state in the Eastland.

Kymelia set out to cure the Sixth Plague, managing to find a way to "tame" the Krighal Taresh in 142 AW. Her findings were passed along to a Toscovish priest, Mikhail Ivolanov, who would implement the same strategies in his native Kinzova. Mikhail would succeed in restoring the humanity in some of the Krighal Taresh, creating the Krighal Vitna, the beasts with Human brains. Mikhail spread his methods throughout the Empire with the aid of Kymelia, until his sudden death in 144 AW.

Upon further investigation, it was revealed that Mikhail had been assassinated by Ihyll's Blades. The outraged Kymelia soon began her personal vendetta against the Goddess of Death. She gathered a standing army, mostly consisting of mercenaries, and attacked Clan Shadow-Guard in 145 AW, sparking the War of Life and Death. Ultimately, Kymelia would infiltrate Onvion, the largest of the Spirit Realms, and tear a massive hole into the fabric of the Realm itself, creating the so-called Kymelian Breach. The Kymelian Breach would allow tens of thousands of Phantoms to escape from Onvion into the lands of Clan Shadow-Guard, taking the endless mist with them, shrouding the territory of the Clan until this day in a thick fog.

Kymelia would not stop there, creating bodies for the Phantoms to possess, effectively curing death itself. These Phantoms, given a second chance at live, quickly lost most of their pent-up regrets and hatred. Instead, they became Kymelia's own undead army. Together, Kymelia and the Phantoms conquered a large amount of land east of Clan Shadow-Guard, forming their own clans. Effectively, Kymelia had laid the foundation for the First Union of Clans.

Ultimately, Kymelia retreated from the area, returning to the Eastland and ending the War between the two Divines. However, both Ihyll and Nyara were outraged at the reviving of Phantoms. Ultimately, Ihyll was tied down to the territory of her own Clan, as it was now surrounded by enemies on all sides. Furthermore, Phantoms kept pouring out of the Kymelian Breach, which shrunk but never closed. It would take over three centuries of constant warfare between Clan Shadow-Guard and the First Union before the First Union would finally collapse to the Ihyll-worshipping Five Clans of Gurtrenn.

Utterly exhausted from the conflict and humiliated, Ihyll retreated to the Spirit Realm, not stepping foot outside it for some centuries. She would make a brief reappearance in the late 8th century AW, choosing a Phantom called "Innocent" as her champion. While Innocent would wreak havoc for a short while specifically directed at House von Kalzberg, Ihyll was not involved, returning to the Spirit Realm once more.

### War against Syarus

Ihyll had planned to live out her days in the Spirit Realm and had increasingly distanced herself from the matters of the living in Enselonde. That was, however, until Syarus broke his Withdrawal in 1199 AW. This drew her interest, and she fully manifested herself in Enselonde for the first time in a period of absence. It didn't take long for her to notice that Syarus began covertly influencing Fühlgartian politics, yet the reasons as to why remained a mystery to her.

In 1203 AW, the Fühlgartian Civil War broke out between the ruling Monarchists and the Syarus-backed Republicans. His support for the Republicans became open, and he and his Champion began appearing on the battlefield. With a Divine on their side, the civil war was won relatively easily, yet Syarus' motivations were still unclear. Ihyll consulted other Divines, from the wise Giraldir to the thrifty Hallione and weird-yet-connected Eitrius, none had a clue.

In 1208 AW, Syarus got Jan Luftschwert to repay the favour. A massive fleet of Fühlgartians appeared off the shore of Gemstone Islands, heralding the start of the Gemstone Wars. While no justification was driven, and on the surface the conflict was little more than a massive raiding spree, as cities were plundered and burned, in the background of the conflict, Syarus collected the pieces of the Godslayer's Blade. Capture from Anbu the Godslayer during the closing stages of the Divine War, the Ildiusite weapon was indestructible, yet Lyxis the Blind was able to shatter it into five pieces. Ultimately, she hid them in (at the time) one of the most isolated places in Enselonde: the Gemstone Islands. Now, the five fragments had been recovered and reforged. Syarus wielded the deadliest weapon ever made.