Thralzedar

**Thralzedar** is the Aran'khutu of intelligence, logic, and academia. He is the son of Klakelaya, the twin brother of Motu'o after splitting from Mozudar, the half-brother of To'hkadma and Mo'thagrah, and the biological father of Jolakiet. Though his academic intelligence is high, his emotional awareness is low, which causes its own share of issues within his life.

## Personality

Being the logical half of Mozudar, Thralzedar is very serious and pragmatic. He rarely lets his emotions get the better of him and never deviates from plans. Though he may come off as cold and strict, he actually cares deeply for the intellectual advancement of both humanity and the rest of the Aran'khutu. He pays especially close attention to those lacking in their education, helping them to unlock their full potential. As he already wields an arsenal of all academic knowledge from every part of history as well as a very logical thinking pattern, he is widely considered a skilled educator.

Though maintaining control of one's emotions is an asset, Thralzedar takes it even further and regards most emotions as unnecessary or too illogical to warrant his attention. This contributes to his cold reputation, as he often fails to acknowledge others' emotions regardless of their role in a situation. He falsely believes any emotion can be overcome with a logical enough brain. This belief also results in his own emotions being bottled up, as he will ignore them until a family member forces him to confront them.

## Myths

### The Birth of Creativity and Logic

Thralzedar was not created as himself at first; he was one half of Mozudar, a genderless god representing divine innovation. Klakelaya created this god out of an undersea rock and a daylily, sending them to land to educate the humans. While this plan went well for the first few nights, Mozudar's logical and creative sides soon fell into conflict with one another. During a session with the humans, they split apart into two gods. One of these gods was Thralzedar, the male god representing Mozudar's logical side, retaining the rigid constitution of the undersea rock. As he looked upon Mozudar's other half, the creative female goddess Motu'o created from the daylily, he realized what had happened to their original form.

Confused by this sudden change, the newly formed twins resolved to continue the teaching session as normal. However, they quickly found it hard to agree on which of their attributes was more important to teach the humans. It was much easier to treat both equally when they were one person, but things were different when they became two separate minds. They soon started arguing, confusing the humans and waking up Mazakyel. Now awake and mildly crabby, Mazakyel realized Klakelaya had sent two gods to influence the humans without the former's consent. She sent them both back to the ocean for Klakelaya to deal with.

After realizing what happened to her new child, Klakelaya calmed the twins. She reminded them that they got along just fine for a while as one mind, so they could surely find a way to teach the humans as two separate people. Thralzedar and Motu'o reluctantly agreed to try. After a brief negotiation session with Mazakyel the next morning, the twins were allowed to teach the humans. However, to avoid further conflict and teach the humans more efficiently, they each focused their attention on the humans that were more interested in their respective attributes. For Thralzedar, this meant gathering the more academically inclined humans and teaching them how to use their more logical brains to everyone's benefit. It is believed that this is how different humans came to have different individual skillsets.

### The Ascension of Jolakiet

Thralzedar plays a key role in the conflict of this myth. Motu'o approached him one day asking him for a favor. Two of her most devout followers wanted a child, but they were unable to create one themselves. She asked her brother to father the child himself. Thralzedar agreed on the condition that he did not have to raise the child himself. His reason for this was not merely because he thought he was incapable of raising a child; he simply did not want to deal with a loud, rowdy child for twenty years. Motu'o reluctantly agreed to the condition, and Thralzedar helped one of the human women conceive; carefully, of course, so as not to make her immortal on accident.

Thralzedar lived through the next two decades as if his biological daughter didn't exist. She didn't live in his patron region, after all, so it'd be very inconvenient to travel just to check up on her. And besides, her mothers seemed to be doing just fine without him according to Motu'o's updates. As such, he never acted upon the fact that the young girl skipped several years of school due to her alarmingly quick learning speed. He did nothing when she reportedly had trouble making friends with her peers. He didn't even blink when Motu'o claimed the girl was starting to resent him for his years of absence. According to his sister, if Thralzedar won't accept her as a daughter, he should at least acknowledge her as an erudite young woman who would make great academic strides in Kentotra. Even so, Thralzedar did nothing to even acknowledge her existence. To him, his condition to not raise the child extended to ignoring her existence entirely, which infuriated Motu'o.

One day, Thralzedar heard a flurry of insults coming from his temple. He arrived to see a young woman standing and ranting at his altar. He didn't realize who it was until she berated him for being an absent father. Oh, *this* was the girl he fathered! Apparently her name was Jolakiet, and she'd traveled a long way to give Thralzedar a piece of her mind. He'd never even seen her before, but now looking at her hair color and skinny build, he saw their resemblance. Still, this did not mean he had to become a parent all of a sudden. The prior agreement aside, she was an adult now; what other guidance could she possibly need? In fact... why not test her now? Just to see if she was worth his time at all.

Thralzedar gave her a series of questions and riddles that only his closest priests and philosophers could answer. To his surprise, she could answer them all with little to no hesitation. Though he was annoyed that he couldn't get rid of her so easily, he couldn't help but be impressed by her expansive knowledge. Maybe Motu'o was right about Jolakiet's academic prowess. But he wasn't done with her just yet; there was one more question he had left, one that stumped even his smartest followers. With a smirk, he asked:

*As strong as a love but more deadly than daggers, I come quick and stay and my strength seldom staggers. What am I?*

For the first time that day, Jolakiet had to stop and think. Thralzedar watched her struggle, confident he had finally bested her. Without knowing about Motu'o's secret observance of the incident, he believed Jolakiet would give up soon and leave him in peace. Finally, his hands could be clean of the whole matter after all this time!

TBC

## Trivia

* Though Thralzedar and Motu'o are chronologically younger than To'hkadma and Mo'thagrah, they were created with the physical and mental maturity of adults, making them biologically older. Despite this contradiction, they are still recognized as the younger siblings and refer to themselves as such in the mythos.