Bayashima

## Story

Bayashima is one of the eight divinities of Ximizhlum and arguably the strongest of them, a position she is in

constant competition with Danebran for.

She is a very temperamental goddess, often losing her cool when faced with obstacles. However, she will not stop until she surpass and destroys them. That is not to say that she is a fool, however, as Bayashima is a warrior with a great many years of experience.

As the other goddesses, Bayashima was born on a far away world where the the differences and xenophobia between races and even genders became so great that all its inhabitants ended up dividing into small tight knit groups. Bayashima belonged to one such group.

No longer wanting to merely survive on their dying world, Bayashima convinced her group to take on an exodus across the seas of the Cosmos. And so Bayashima, Lyublya, Uvu, Matane, and Helgya sailed out to space.

For an eternity they traveled the stars, seemingly without purpose, with nothing but their trust and hope in Bayashima guiding them forwards. There was no denying that even Bayashima became worried that she had made a mistake, but she’d never admit defeat so easily. And, just as she was on the brink of despair, she felt a tingling. Bayashima’s motivation was renewed. At last, they had found the perfect world to settle down at.

When they arrived within the star system, Bayashima noticed the world she had longed for was not quite as flawless as she had anticipated. Its weather was terribly broken. During the day, the heat of the twinsun would bombard the surface. During the night, the surface was extremely cold, the skies were covered in a constant fog that would hide the stars and, without a presence of any moon, it was as dark as the depths of the cosmic seas.

The team of divines agreed that something had to be done, and they’d start with the two suns that the world orbited. The suns were highly unstable, sucking up power from one another and their power level swinging like a pendulum.

As the goddesses approached the volatile twinsun, a supermassive creature emerged from within. It was far, far larger than all the divines combined and emitted a great, yet subtle light. It stood upright on six “legs”, its body covered in hundreds of eyes and mouths. The creature seemed to be made of liquid, but not quite. Indeed, it didn’t seem to fit any of the known categories.

Startled by its emergence, Bayashima and Uvu were quick to draw blade and prepare for the fight of a lifetime, however,  Helgya suggested trying to communicate with it first. Matane and Lyublya both agreed with Helgya, leaving the other two with little choice but to agree lest they divide and become even weaker against the cosmic monstrosity.

To all their surprise, the being didn’t seem interested in fight. More like curious to see what woke it up.

The goddesses proceed to try and communicate with it, and after a long period of time, the two managed to reach an agreement. Or, as Bayashima would put it, they “subdued” Antretsnyan.

Antretsnyan had no idea what its inaction did to the surrounding worlds. Once convinced, the avatar of the twinsun redirected the power of one of the suns into the other, which would then eject the extra energy into space, facing away from Ximizhlum.

The goddesses’ part of the deal was to drag Ximizhlum closer to the twinsun to ensure a more stable weather. Bayashima dragged the world across the cosmic sea herself.

And thus the world’s weather was stabilized. It was still a cold world with longer winters than summers, but it was far better off than before divine interference.

Some time passed and, out of nowhere, two moons appeared above Ximizhlum. These moons were actually vessels used by the gods Danebran and Kolyat to travel across the stars in a similiar exodus to the goddesses’.

It wasn’t long before tensions arose between the two pantheons, especially between Bayashima and Danebran who were around the same power levels and had similiar volatile personalities. To make matters worse, the two newcomers were males, something that the extremely segregated homeworld of the goddesses saw as an enemy.

A great war erupted between the two sides, wreaking great havoc upon Ximizhlum. The world below would suffer tremendously, sending it nearly back to its pre-interference days of being a dead wasteland. This war would be known as the First Divine War.

As the war raged on, Kolyat and Matane, each of the opposite’s pantheon, became close. They didn’t share the same viewpoint as the others of exterminating the other pantheon and eventually fell in love with one another. In time, Matane ended up pregnant.

The affair of the two divines was not known to the others until Matane gave birth to Ximizhle, upon which the fighting reached the peak as such a union was heresy beyond heresy. Bayashima and Danebran nearly killed each other until they were interrupt by the screams of Matane. They both looked over at what made her release such a banshee’s wail of a scream, when they noticed Kolyat close to her. He was holding something in his hand. It was a dagger.

Completely broken from the constant fighting, the young Kolyat resorted to a drastic action to end the war once and for all. Wanting to show them the futility and the consequences of their squabbling, he drove the knife right through his heart, instantly killing him. His idea was that actually losing someone and tipping the balance in the pantheon would force the others to give up and seek peace, a naive thought.

Danebran, seeing his beloved younger brother commit suicide, rushed over to his body, then focused his eyes over at Matane. Feeling nothing but hatred towards her and blaming her for bewitching Kolyat, Danebran grabbed Matane by the throat, and with the last of his remaining powers he threw her from the surface of the moon Mimimum down onto Ximizhlum. The amazing power of the throw created a large mountain around the point of impact. While it was later learned that Matane survived, though forever crippled and forced to die slowly and painfully across centuries, in the moment of the throw, it was believed she had died.

Bayashima wanted to finish him right there and then, but had no real power left to fight. And the remaining goddesses - Uvu, Lyublya, Helgya - could not bring themselves to do it either. The pantheon had already lost two gods within one moment of existence. To lose even more would be for Ximizhlum like tearing out the organs from a wounded animal.

A peace treaty was signed.

Not wanting anything to do with Ximizhle, Bayashima proposed to have her sent down onto Ximizhlum and fend for her own. The others agreed.

From there, Bayashima’s involvement in the events of the world ceased for some time until one of Ximizhle’s firstborns, Takeda, made a pact with the goddess Uvu to change human society to worship her solely. In turn, Uvu would protect humanity and guide them. This lead to all the other divines losing tons of power and Uvu becoming too strong for them to challenge.

During this time, the pantheon tried their best to lessen Uvu’s power, but it didn’t do much.

Some humans became so complacent and heretical against the gods that they would spend their days laughing away and mocking them, knowing well that Uvu would protect them from punishment. That’s what they thought, at least.

One specific region, known as Homunomark, the second largest region, was filled with heretic. Day and night, they’d revel and disgrace old monuments to the other gods. Bayashima would not stand this behaviour.

Even though she was in one of her weakest points then, Bayashima grabbed her spear, Okshana, and hurled it from the skies upon Homunopol, the main hub city of Homunomark, and destroyed the entirety of the land, killing around 400 000 people in one hit.

Thus the region of Homunomark became known as the Shattered Isles and would never again come even close to its original population number.

Naturally, the other divines were outraged at her, and none more than Uvu, but nothing came of it. Bayashima had shown the mortals that, even when weak, she was not to be trifled with, a lesson that would stay with humanity forevermore.

Some time later, the civil war known as Bjorn’s Campaign happened, and Bayashima, as well as the other divines (save for Helgya who remained neutral), threw her lot in with the rebels in order to help them overthrow the Takedan regime and Uvu.

It was Bayashima who personally entered the battleground in the final push against the Capital, where she in an instant demolished every single wall and tower around and in the city, letting Bjorn’s forces easily capture and take down the old power.

Once Bjorn’s Campaign was over and a new world order was established, Bayashima once again returned to a more passive role in the heavens alongside the other divines. Having worked together with Danebran against Uvu brought the two closer together and they were no longer as hostile to one another as before.

Afterwards, the pantheon was unified into one, no more segregation between the males and female, or Uvu and others, and the divines, including Uvu, vowed to involve themselves more with Ximizhlum so as to prevent a scenario like the Takedan regime from repeating itself.

Bayashima and Danebran once again started competing for the first spot of the strongest divine, though less destructively, and all was well.

Bayashima isn’t exactly a benevolent goddess, but neither is she straight out malevolent. She will most likely respond to a summon if the sacrifice is great enough. At rare occasions, she will even gift some of her power or one of her artifacts to someone. Crossing her is not only suicide in life; she will punish your very soul for your arrogance. If you are good to her, however, she will gladly reward you.

She has many artifacts, but none are greater than her spear, Okshana, which is her weapon of choice. One of the greatest weapons of Ximizhlum, Okshana is a very sought after spear that Bayashima will gift to only the most devout of her champions. The head on the spear is from a powerful dragon whom Bayashima decapitated and is forcing to be forever alive, though it is not sentient. Remember, Bayashima sees whatever Okshana sees, so do not cross her.

Being one of the strongest divines, Bayashima commands many beings that serve the pantheon, such as the ever obedient winged Valkiryari.

The gemstone most associated with Bayashima is the emerald.

## Design

The following text is taken directly from the official note for Bayashima. It hasn't been changed. Bewareeeee!

   Bayashima has black curly hair which reaches slightly below her chin. Her eyebrows are equally fluffy. Her eyes are emerald green, with her pupils being slit with four extra marking coming out from them.

She has two large wings protruding upwards from her back, golden in colour. From the outside, the wings have an aura of magical fire of red and blue colours. From the inside, she has seven large eyes on each wing. These eyes usually face forward and downwards, in front of her, though they are able to move in whichever direction she wishes.

She wears a large golden collar around her neck and shoulders, studded with dozens of gems. Whereas someone like Ximizhle would prefer wearing a dress, Bayashima prefers wearing armour. Hers is lamellar of dark blue and dark red colours. Her shoulderpads are also lamellar, though they are also studded with gems.

She wears a large golden belt around her waist and stomach, with the letter “B”, standing for Bayashima, in the middle of it. This B is a placeholder and will be replaced with Bayashima’s official symbol, once I get around to making symbols for the divines.

She also wears bracers that cover her first to her elbow, though the rest, including the hand, are not covered. She wears heavy plate boots.

Now, Okshana, the spear. The spear itself is longer than Bayashima with a general gold-brown colour scheme. At the top is a dragon head, which used to belong to a real dragon. This head is kept forever alive, though it has no mind of its own. Anything the spear sees, Bayashima sees as well. The blade of the spear is made to look like fire being breathed out of the dragon’s mouth. Connecting from the top of the spear to the bottom are two helix ribbonlinethings. These are completely ethereal and thus do not get in the way of handling of the spear. They are bluegreen in colour and glow.