Aurak

**Aurak**, also known as Ashtad (his humanoid persona) is a lesser god of The Lost Pantheon, one representing the Fear of the Unknown. He was born, like the rest of them, on Bron. While originally known as a balance-obsessed warlord with a rigid and ruthless sense of order, he has come to be known now as a kind, compassionate and peaceful leader. He began focusing on the true meaning of justice and adopted an idea of flexibility and of fairness and equality. He is consistently mistaken for a/the God of Death, partially due to his dark past history but also in part for his strange, gothic appearance.

## Origin

### The Lost

As a lesser god of The Lost, Aurak was born hundreds of years after the main pantheon, along with 7 others - each representations of main aspects of sentient life. He was closest to his sibling Massah of Temptation and, to a lesser extent, Obelix of Conflict. The other siblings were Irfaan of Wisdom, Matthan of Hope, Archisa of Compassion, Zeki of Prodigy and Suchin of Wisdom. See the main The Lost article for further descriptions and gods. He rarely associates with most of them anymore as they have gone their separate ways, but he still refers to them as 'his family', and is particularly favored by the old ones for having one of the only living children in the Pantheon. Aurak and Massah, however, have a long and violent history of constant fighting, especially after Aurak's outlook on order changed. While Massah insists on luring mortals and causing suffering as well as considering himself superior to them, Aurak deems them equals in the eyes of justice.

### Empires and Law

By all admissions, Aurak considered himself to be argumentative and stubborn, deciding that his ways were clearly the best. He says he was influenced to the idea of justice and fairness early by the anarjians but considerably warped the concept to fit a much more rigid set of values based in order. Quickly settling and growing his old empire, he was notorious for his policy of mandatory death sentences when one is found guilty of any level of crime, from petty theft to first degree murder. His obsession with order, despite being well intentioned, was mistaken often for the actions of a vicious megalomaniac and he found himself with a lot of enemies, including a young Din, then a known hero. Nonetheless, he rules over his empires for hundreds of years and was well respected and feared. Many later legal systems based themselves around his, and it was considered to be one of the first complex legal systems in history.

### Death Lords

The first major threat to Aurak's empire came during the rise of the Himoth (known generally as The Death Lords), lead by their queen, Lirim. While they hostilely took over most of the known Universe, he was given an ultimatum by the Queen herself: Come willingly and maintain rulership over his own people, or stand against them and be destroyed. He has been condemned time and time again for his decision, but ultimately thought it wiser to join in order to preserve his people and empire. As time went on, she placed a great deal of trust in Aurak, admiring his power, and put him in charge of many planets and empires they came across. He took this opportunity to save as many as he could, specifically those with unique technologies, cultures etc. in hopes that they might be preserved if and when Lirim and the Death Lords were destroyed. He took his chance when there was a vicious coup - the Death Lords rose up and murdered Lirim, in response to her increasing displeasure with them. During the chaos that ensued, most Death Lords were hunted and murdered, thus rendering them almost extinct. Aurak freed as many planets as he could and went into hiding shortly after, considered a traitor by both supporters and opponents of Lirim. He insists that this experience changed his severe outlook on order, and here he began to embrace "true justice", peace and compromise.

### The Ebony Legion

After his long period of hiding, Aurak formed a small network of friends, acquaintances and others to create The Ebony Legion, a group of powerful people dedicated to using their talents to "police" any other "super powers" who were getting out of hand. He specifically chose people of different backgrounds in an attempt to make the legion a fair and balanced assembly. They adhered to a simple credo, only getting involved when the conflicts of Gods begin to affect innocent civilians, and ensuring that those conflicts do as little damage as possible to those who aren't involved.

## Persona

While it is not well known that he has a human persona, he claims it was adopted for "love", purportedly for the only person he's ever loved. In his human form, he called himself Ashtad (a semi-popular name at the time of adoption), and appears as a very tall (6'8"), fit and slender Persian man with long dark hair, often tied. During his courtship of The Dark Paladin he made a name for himself as a warrior and magician who seemingly "came out of nowhere" and was suspected of being a necromancer and a black mage. As Ashtad, he was wanted widely, not just in connection to his apparent partnership with The Dark Paladin, but personally as well by various authorities. He rarely uses his persona now, in part to avoid conflict with those authorities that still exist.

## The Dark Paladin

### Meeting

Aurak was on patrol with two members of the Ebony Legion on a recently abandoned battlefield, where Din's army had conflicted with remaining Death Lords. While surveying the damage to the surrounding village, he spotted a young woman among the ruins of a church and quietly watched as she destroyed symbols and statues dedicated to Din himself.