Fe'ris

The symbol of Fe'ris, meant to represent a grasping hand.

## Summary

Fe'ris is Galbar's god of ambition. He is the hunger for power, prestige, wealth, and more, that drives every mortal. He prefers to work from the background, encouraging his worshipers to cultivate their own strengths, rather than expecting the divines to do everything for them.

## Domain over Blood

Fe’ris is formed from the blood within living beings, and the bonds that they form. When a human, animal, or other creature forms an emotional connection with anyone or anything else, Fe’ris is there, sustained by positive and negative bonds alike. He is the unshakable familial bond between brothers, or the potent arch-rivalry between two duelists. He takes no sides, and thus takes all sides, being willing to bless both the despot trying to keep power and the rebels trying to overthrow their tyrant.

Fe'ris' powers allow him warp the wants and desires of others, increasing or decreasing their yearning. He can also physically control the movements of mortals by redirecting the blood inside their bodies.

## Arkhos of Ambition

Everybody wants something. The lowly ant wants to provide for its queen and fellow workers. The shambling corpse wants to return to a peaceful slumber. Man wants what he doesn’t have, or to keep what is his away from those who would steal it. And when someone gets a lot more than they bargained for, Fe’ris is there, a ghostly smile on his face.
Fe’ris is worshiped by the ambitious, good and evil alike. He is often interpreted as the god of greed, but Fe’ris is far more concerned with spiritual and emotional connections, rather than material gain. To him, desire is the base of all human emotions, and thus the most important. He can manipulate how much people want something, and can induce a devastating stupor into those he loathes, essentially forcing them into a coma. He can also heighten existing emotions, but cannot spawn new ones. He can heighten the tension between foes, or strengthen the bond between friends and family. He occasionally manipulates the blood of mortals to control their actions, though this works best with the recently deceased, and he cannot manipulate blood or bodies for a prolonged period of time. Ultimately, Fe’ris is not the one you would pray to for a good harvest or a calm winter— but he is who you’d pray to for hardworking sons to tend the fields.

 Realm

## Persona

Fe’ris is a True Neutral, with no hard opinions about almost anything. He has been criticized for being amoral (and also spooky) due to his unwillingness to choose either good or evil. He is mostly silent, but if present during a heated debate, he tends to take on the emotions of the people around him, often shouting and crying with no facial expressions whatsoever. The only things he truly hates are laziness and betraying one’s family. If he catches wind of a village or population of people who profit off the hard work of others, or refuse to lift a finger to help themselves, he will curse them to the best of his creativity… and Fe’ris can get very creative. He particularly enjoys pitting people against one another and observing the outcome. While he doesn’t advocate warfare and bloodshed, he doesn’t condemn it, either. His motives and wants are mysterious, but it is thought that he wishes to expand his own power. He is a more subtle god, and not much for direct confrontation, preferring to be the angel or devil on someone’s shoulder.

## Appearance

### Base Form:

Fe’ris has a neat, short beard and thick russet hair and mutton chops, with his eyes bearing deep purple irises and black sclera. Around his neck is a spiky necklace made from solely canine teeth, and his ears are pierced— he wears dangly earrings that resemble alchemical symbols. His hands and feet are long, birdlike talons with shiny black claws and scaly, reptilian mottling up his arms and legs. His body is completely covered in animated silver and black tattoos that are always changing. He wears a white silk tunic with gray cotton breeches, and a long black cloak bearing a crushed velvet red interior. The coat has silver buttons, since silver is kinda his thing.
By and large, he resembles Dracula from Castlevania, but less “sexy vampire” and more “reptilian demon.”

### Domain Form:

His general shape is that of a strange amalgam of bat and dragon, with no forelegs and keratinous spines running down his back and tail. He’s about 700 feet long from head to tail, with a 1400 foot long wingspan. His lips are perpetually cracked and bleeding, covered in a rabies-like froth. Spectral attendants that take the shapes of humans and winged animals soar back and forth beneath his mouth, collecting the saliva that is said to cure any blood-borne illness.

## Worship and Influence

Fe'ris does not have a Holy Order or anything of the sort, but he has had an encounter with the Alminaki before, so they are the mortals that most know of him. As the Lifeblood, he was responsible for the creation of snow, caverns, the Torchless Wood, and the Stryija.

## Relationship with Other Deities

* Gibbou: Gibbou accidentally created Fe'ris as the first bat, which was also the first bat to die. He has a great fondness for her and only her, but his willingness to appeal to both the good and the bad is off-putting to her.
* Iternis: Iternis and Fe'ris were birthed from the Lifeblood at the same time, and consider themselves brothers, though Fe'ris is reluctant. Fe'ris is the no-nonsense, sensible one of the duo, while Iternis is more flighty and irritating.
* Tekret: He respects Tekret, but is disappointed that their ties to chaos and order keep them from being closer.

## Creations

* Avatars:
	+ Himself. In his own realm, Fe'ris can appear as clouds of blood-sucking insects, vampire bats, small wyverns, or an elk with purple eyes and silver antlers. But on Galbar, he is far more limited, and must create a projection and extension of his spirit as a mortal man. When operating under the guise of a mortal, Fe’ris has been known to take the form of a George Clooney-esque “silver fox” kind of man who appears to be in his 40s or 50s yet retains a youthful vigor and handsomeness. His physical appearance is tied to how the people around him most want him to look, and his features will slightly shift to reflect their desires. As his Avatar is but a small snippet of his soul and his power, he still goes by Fe’ris in this form. However, his avatar is more subject to mortal vices, and can behave in ways that the god would never behave in his base form, such as giving in to bribery or flattery. This avatar also has a weakness for pretty things, and often wears a long red cape and silver bracelets in addition to his traveling clothes.
* Ecosystems:
	+ The Hadal Caves. These caves stretch far and wide beneath the surface of Galbar, and are inhospitable to life not designed to live within.
	+ The Torchless Woods. This massive temperate rainforest sports sequoias and redwoods of all kinds. Every organism within it is designed to be fire-resistant.
	+ The North and South Poles . Fe'ris made the very first poles, to serve as a basis for The Cold to build off of.
	+ The Kubrazjar Outback. Fe'ris made this to spice up the boring stretches of Kubrazjar.
* Artifacts/Holy Sites:
	+ The Band of Want
	+ The Shifting Font
	+ The Red Spring
* Creatures:
	+ The Stryija.
	+ The Lapites