Astor

Cult
 Location

Astor is the God of Secrets and ruler of the Vault. His portfolio includes hidden places and things, acts done in secret, forgotten lore, espionage, traitors, thieves, and hoarders. He is the eternal foe of Vrovona, and sometimes acts as an informant to Rammat. Astor is at once one of the weakest and most powerful of the deities - his powers are limited, and he rules no territory in A'therys. His true strength lies in his influence: his cult operates in every nation, court, and plane of existence, as a network of spies, agents, and informants. Through them, Astor has collected vast and terrifying quantities of lore, dark secrets, hidden tools, and even a few of the words of creation. Gods and mortals alike fear what might happen should he put his vast knowledge to use.

## History

Since the beginning of Time, Astor was ridiculed as the "runt" god. His portfolio contained little evident power, particularly when compared to a god like Vrovona, and his chosen physical manifestation usually typified this meekness. But Astor was very good at one particular aspect of his portfolio, which was the stealing of secret knowledge. By the time the Winnowing had ended, he had even managed to complete his most ambitious goal: stealing undetected the Secrets of Creation from Yeor. In secret, he left A'therys to a faraway location within the Cosmic Mesh and succeeded in creating his own pocket of existence, now referred to as the Vault.

Unfortunately for Astor, this was all his meager powers could help him successfully do. He attempted to make soil to grow things, as A'therys had; a strange pale stone was all he could muster. He tried trees, such as Cevolo was capable of, but that too turned rocky and hard, black as obsidian. He even tried to make something like people, which only Yeor had been allowed to create, to keep him company in his world. It was in this way that his servants, the Endermen, came into being. Frustrated, Astor decided that the solution was to accrue more knowledge, ad infinitum, until he was certain he could do it right and retreat to his perfect realm forever. Astor is not benevolent, but he is certainly not evil either, caring only for the accrual of knowledge at any cost to his mortal followers. He is arguably a pitiable figure, mocked endlessly by the other gods during their tenure, but content he is in the knowledge that he outlasted them all.

## Appearance

There are few alive today who know the shape of the God of Secrets, especially considering the current state of his cult. Most stories describe him as a figure cloaked in shadows, usually only taking a fully physical form to interact with the world itself. That form is supposedly similar in stature to an average human, appearing to have all the typical limbs of a mortal frame. His body is gray and featureless - accounts tell that the shape is difficult to focus on, and nearly impossible to recall. Regardless of the form taken, he is always described as appearing with his mask - a pale, expressionless visage with three exaggerated eyes arranged vertically from which a deep purple glow emanates. It is possible that he keeps this form to better blend with his Endermen, raising the idea that the deity still walks A'therys some nights, unknown in his secretive dealings.

## Knowledge

Astor has a hand in absolutely everything, and is at the same time almost completely unknown in his dealings. He somehow knew of the creation of the Intertwined, he knows precisely what caused the eruption of the Cosmic Mesh that hollowed out the mortal plane, and he knows the secrets of creation that only Yeor once understood. It was for this frightening collection of knowledge, as well as the seemingly limitless amount stored within his Vault, that the other gods came to fear the weakest among them. He was eventually left alone, to continue his machinations as he saw fit. Even Llyrrh did not force him to retreat back into the Cosmic Mesh at the time of the Second Calling, deeming his existence to be separate enough from A'therys to not destroy the careful balance there.

*Originally written by OccidentalAnvil for the more official A'therys wiki*