Avatar

An **avatar** was a divinely-powered individual said to be the reincarnation of one of deities in the Regent Court. Famous avatars include Auci Eightborn (an avatar of The Dame), who led the elves to Cannor, as well as Corin, an avatar of the disgraced god of war Agrados.

Since Corin there have been no other confirmed avatars, which helped spark the rise of the religious conflicts in Cannor during the 17th century.

## List of Avatars

*Jay's Note: needs to be organized better*

### Rejected Avatars

Far from every attempt to decalre someone an avatar is successful. Throughout history, there have been many supposed avatars whose claims to divinity were denied by the Pantheonic Councils.

* Castan Beastbane’s extraordinary success in hunting down the various Spawns of Agrados made many see him as an instrument of Falah’s will, and even as an avatar of Falah herself. This notion was however ultimately rejected at the Pantheonic Councils by the conservative Falah priesthood, who saw the palatial lifestyle of an emperor as incompatible with the simple life that Falah prescribed.
* As the originator of the Adenic faith in Lencenor, some later Lencori rulers would push to have Crovan Spearsworn recognized as an avatar of Adean, out of a mix of genuine reverence and desire to glorify their own history. The actual deeds of his life were however seen as lacking to the rest of Cannor for a supposed avatar of war. His petition struggled to gain majority acceptance even among the Lencori clergy, and was summarily rejected.
* Alaria Lifehand’s miraculous powers of healing was unlike anything the Cannorians had ever seen, to the point where only a divine explanation seemed feasible. During the Seventh Pantheonic Council there were many who appealed for her to be declared an avatar of Esmaryal, or even to declare her a newly risen god alongside Munas. Unlike Munas, however, Alaria had refused to worship any of the Cannorian gods, insisting that The Ruin proved that no gods were deserving of praise. And while the council was fine with proclaiming an elf as a brand new deity, many still had reservations with a traditionally human deity having an elven avatar. The council ended up deciding that, if Alaria had indeed been an avatar, she must have been an avatar of a god outside the Court.
* After Aldresia’s heroic leadership in the White Pestilence, many would talk of her as an avatar, with the clergies of Nerat and Adean both claiming her for their respective deity. Unfortunately, this mutual claim would be what ultimately killed Aldresias canonization at the Seventh Pantheonic Council, as the council never could decide which deity she was supposed to be an avatar of.
* In preparation for the Tenth Pantheonic Council, the priesthoods of Castellos and Adean scrambled to find an avatar of their god among the Marcher Lords, as they didn’t want their deities to seem passive in the face of Escann’s destruction. The Castellosian priests singled out Carleon Blacktower as the preserver of Castellyr and embodiment of Castellos’ leadership. There were however serious doubts regarding the promise of Castellos appearing specifically in the form of the Silver Dragon. Even accounting for the original Silver Dragon’s death in the Dragonwake, Carleon seemed like a poor substitute. It's said even Carleon himself jokingly wondered when his claws and tail would grow out. There were also concerns regarding Carleon’s relatively low birth, and especially regarding the supposed avatar of Castellos taking orders from the avatar of a lesser deity. The Adenic clergy set their eyes on Gryf the Young, who had become the most renowned knight of the Greentide, and even fought alongside Corin in the Battle of Castonath. However, Gryf’s defiance of his father and king seemed distinctly un-Adenic. Furthermore, his vocal support of Corin taking Adean’s portfolio of warfare drastically soured the Adenic priesthood’s opinion of him. Other notable Greentide knights had similar issues, like Galinda síl na Eán's defection from the Orda Aldresia and Dustin Smallknight's support of the Viswall Rebellion. More spurious attempts to find avatars included the elevation of minor adventurers based on local hearsay and their own tall tales, supposed Silver Dragon sightings with no physical traces and suspiciously few witnesses, and some desperate priests even arguing for Corin as an avatar of Castellos or Adean against the testimony of her own companions. It's believed that the failure to find a suitable avatar of Castellos or Adean to share in Corin’s glory would contribute to the former two deities falling out of favor in Escann, eventually contributing to the Corinite Schism.

### Alleged Avatars

In addition to avatars that have officially been confirmed or rejected as such by the Regent Court, there are several people and entities that have been claimed to be avatars of Regent Court deities, without any official ruling on the matter.

* Among the Corinites, some heads of state seen as paragons of Corin's will were considered avatars of Corin by the common folk.
* Some humans in the Effelai region of Aelantir believe that the jungle is an avatar of Halanna.
* The famous adventurer Sybille Lánchs was already a famous adventurer when she amassed the called the Istralorian Crusade, but as the zeal of the crusaders grew, they started to see her as more than that. The crusader’s fight against the supposed spawn of Malliath in Aelantir felt too similar to the Marcher Lords’ struggle against the Dookanson, and Sybille’s striking red hair looked too much like the idols of Corin. It wasn’t long until the crusaders declared her Corin’s avatar, with her closest companions and subordinates forming a new Circle around her. Her cult was viewed with skepticism among the wider Corinite temples, and with Sybille’s death and the Istralorian Crusade’s failure, her followers scattered and her claim to avatarhood was dismissed.
* The Freemarcher Falah priestess Muroga the Huntress was declared an avatar of Falah after supposedly coming back from the dead and holding off the Cursed Ones for almost a decade. Due to the remoteness of the Freemarches and the lack of Pantheonic Councils since the Corinite Schism, this claim has largely gone ignored by the rest of the Regent Court world.

### Avatars in other religions

The concept of avatars has also sometimes been applied to religions outside of Regent Court.

* The orcs of Ozgarom worship Bramash the Liberator as an avatar of Great Dookan, having deified him as the god of liberty, unyielding will and resistance to oppression.
* Following the discovery of the Precursor Elf Ducaniel having been responsible for the creation of orcs, some orcs have argued that Ducaniel was actually an avatar of Great Dookan.
* Several goblins adhering to the Avatar Cult have been attested to have claimed themselves to be the chosen avatar of a native goblin god. Some goblin shamans are even recorded to have claimed that the deities of the Regent Court are actually avatars of goblin deities.
* Jaddar has sometimes been described as an avatar of Surael by the Jaddari.