Astus

(Ay-Stus)

## **Summary**

Astus is the Fey god of Winter and Fall. He is frequently known as *The King of The Feywild*, *The Ice King*, *Betrayer King*, and *The Pale Knight*. Before his ascension to godhood, usurping The Queen of the Earth, Astus was the 2nd General to Aerdrie, being his older brother and helping him through the elven revolution that was going on at the time. But, once the queen had died, he quickly took her place in a power grab, and betrayed Aerdrie. Astus is commonly seen as the reason why The Feywild and The Material Plane has seasons, being the opposite of The Queen of Summer and Spring, he takes turns with her to rule whenever she gets tired. He is seen as a god of rest, and his sprites are quick to invoke rest or calmness throughout his dominion. However, he is also viewed by many as an uncaring dictator, stronghanding his rule and ignoring the will and wants of the people.

## **Description**

Astus is often depicted as an extremely tall Eladrin with pale blue skin and pure white silky hair that extends down past his shoulders. Often in these depictions, his hair is braided downwards and he wears royal light blue and white robes, with silk wrappings around his hips and wrists to keep the clothes from inhibiting movement, or with form fitting dressware, still with the silk wrappings to keep his dressware form fitting. In all iterations of his depiction, he is shown to wear a pure white cloak that goes down to ankle height, with both his clasp and the cloak bearing his Holy Symbol, that of a diamond with a swordspear piercing through the center.

Astus is also often shown with plants, Purple Saxifrage, which are shown to be the holy plant of Astus. This plant is often grown in all churches, temples, or holy sites of Astus, and cultivated religiously. In some stories and myths, it is said that this plant is often associated with Astus because it was the plant that he used to propose to his wife, The Summer Queen. Other myths say that she weaves them into his hair and clothes for royal arrangements or before war, as a form of calming him down.

## **Personality**

Astus is a compulsive liar, often stressed out with the duties of a god and a ruler of an entire plane of existence, it is often rumored that the reason winter comes sooner than usual is because of Astus’ need for rest and calmness. Typically, when winter comes sooner it means that it will end sooner, which is said to be Astus’ getting too stressed out with all duties and removing himself from the throne. During many wars or rebellions, Winter is often short, and during times of peace, winter is long. When depicted as a ruler, he is shown to be uncaring and cold, but this is simply due to a lack of mental capacity to deal with all divine and royal duties. When shown in myths away from ruling, war, or strain; he is shown with his wife as a form of calming experience.

## **Powers**

During the elf revolution in The Feywild, Astus wielded a sword-spear named “Snowstorm”, in legends and myths it was shown to have the power of controlling all weather in a 300 mile radius, cooling down the temperature and summoning snow storms. His avatar was depicted as cleric and paladin, skilled in combat magic and sword skills.

After the revolution and when he took his place as king of the Feywild, his powers where dimmed, as a show of his betrayal of Aerdrie he snapped his sword-spear in two. It is said that this extreme change in lifestyle and complete betrayal of his only living brother caused his mental strain, forcing him to be unable to concentrate on war or training, he simply deployed Eladrin Knights who trained under his fighting style by tutors to deal with revolts.

## **Realm**

Astus resides in The Feywild, sharing a palace known as “The Grand Palace of Seasons” with his wife. This palace is said to reside in the very center of The Feywild, the most war torn area of the entire realm. It is said that his royal architects where not allowed to move the palace in any way, despite his hundreds of requests and contracts of building a new one. It is said that the royal architects purposefully deny these requests as during they still hold a grudge against Astus for rebelling during the elven revolution, and keep the palace in the center of the feywild knowing that it is the seeds of trauma in their king.

## **Relationships**

Astus is the husband to Eheia, both of them in a relationship that has lasted ever since The Material Plane had come into existence. These two gods are perfect representations of 2 halves making a whole, whilst Astus is depicted as cold, uncaring, or stressed; Eheia is shown to be joyous, happy, and patient. These two gods compliment each other, allowing Astus to show joy and happiness when around his wife, and allowing Eheia to be cold or deny certain requests that she normally would be too kind to deny.

Astus is the brother of Aerdrie, both born by The Queen of The Earth. Astus is not against Aerdrie and his revolution, however. When he had come into power, usurping his mother, he had offered for Aerdrie and his elves to live peacefully in a sovereign nation in the feywild, allowing trade and communication between the two. However, Aerdrie decided to instead fight Astus to attempt to disestablish the monarchy, with promises of beheading Astus. In response to this, instead of destroying the revolution, he banished Aerdrie and his followers to the material plane,

## **Shrines**

Astus does not declare that specific offerings or worship is required to be of his domain. He allows for all races and people to join his order, known as “Winter’s Palm”. Despite this ir-requirement, some larger orders of the Winters Palm still make shrines to Astus, growing Purple Saxifrage across the entire shrine. They are typically made of marble or some other white stone, carved to either be a bowl for offerings, or a small statue of Astus or his holy symbol.

## **History**

Before the 1st age, The Queen of the Earth was the ruler of The Feywild, birthing both Aerdrie and Astus, in addition to 8 other siblings that died during infancy. Astus is the eldest brother, and Aerdrie is the youngest of the 10 birthed. During their childhood, Astus and Aerdrie where both extremely close friends as well as brothers. They were shown to always be within another’s sight, Astus being shown to take a protective role over Aerdrie after their mother began to ignore them.

Quickly after their adulthood, Aerdrie carried heavy resentment for their mother, having been ignored by his entire life due to her constant attention to royal duties. Aerdrie, calling himself “The Spear” started a revolt against the royalties, which Astus quickly joined in support of his brother. This revolution was to completely disassemble the monarchy and replace it with a smaller governing body, so that decisions would be made by people rather than by a large institution.

During this revolutions beginning, Astus met his current wife, Eheia. The two Eladrin were not of equal birth, Eheia coming from an apiarist peasant, whilst Astus coming from high royal blood. The two of them quickly grew attached to each other, though, quickly moving to caring for each other and moving in together, during the middle of the revolution, both Eheia and Astus were wed by Aerdrie.

This revolt lasted for over 600 years, before The Queen of the Earth died due to complications of age. In this, Astus had grown bitter for the 600 years of fighting, and Aerdrie not having a clear plan of what to establish after destroying the monarchy. Over the coarse of a year of idealoigcal fighting, Astus and Aerdrie decided what to do with the throne and title. In the end, Astus declared himself as The King of The Feywild, of which provoked Aerdrie and almost started a fight to the death. But, not wanting to harm his brother, Astus snapped his weapon in two to both signify his betrayal and to force Aerdrie to discontinue his fighting. After this betrayal, Aerdrie left in a rage, vowing to have the head of Astus.

This shattered Astus’ heart, being shut out by 1 of 2 of his loved ones. In his last attempt to stop the constant fight, Astus banished Aerdrie and all of his followers to the Material Plane, asking his wife to create a land of large trees and few predators. These Eladrin, now calling themselves “Elves” were then banished to Farris, and quickly began to spread throughout the Mateiral Plane.

However, after this mass banishment, Astus lost a large chunk of his power, his artifact being tossed away after it was shattered began the quick descend into a stress filled abyss, Astus unable to feel safe anywhere besides that of in the presence of his wife. His own home, completely foreign to him, was the site of a large battlefield that he participated in, where he watched his brother lose his eye and hundreds of his fellow elite soldiers slaughtered by The Queen of the Earth.

From this point, Astus swore to help in any way he can, allowing his wife to take a break for half a year from ruling so that he could take the mantle and stress from her shoulders. Several more revolutions began and never went anywhere, as they were always calmed down by the winter’s cold.