Golgorai-Asthas

Cult

Golgorai-Asthas was the god of rust and cruelty, and once ruled the Daggerlands. His domains included machinery, neglect, industry, furnaces, tyrants, despoilers, and torturers. He was also known as the Tyrant-God or Asthas-Lord. He was slain by the Mortal Heroes in the events which led to the Second Calling, making him arguably one of the most important historical figures in the last thousand years.

## History

Golgorai was a peerless mechanic and artificer, but he also commanded the forces of decay and exhaustion. Among the first to descend to the mortal plane, the Asthas-Lord promptly claimed the pristine lands to the east for his forges. The Daggerlands, once beautiful and green, fell to his resource-gathering and pollution. During the Winnowing, Golgorai constructed vast machines of war to do his fighting for him, and armies of misshapen beings to help create them. Creatures with a single arm, designed to swing a hammer or fasten a rivet; behemoths designed to carry loads and mine ores; all specializations were considered and implemented by the God of Rust without a care to wanton creation. When the First Calling came, these abominations were among the first to be banished by Llyrrh, their recreation outlawed as part of her decree.

Unable to continue to use his "perfect" tools, Golgorai was forced to use the humans that now populated A'therys. He enslaved them, made them work until they could no longer suit his needs, and then had them cast into his furnaces. These great chambers used an arcane process known only to the Tyrant-God to rend flesh from life's essence, burning away the souls of those who stoked the flames. They had been constructed during the Winnowing as a way to produce power from the armies of his rival deities, but now they were turned on his own population. Golgorai, ever at work within his infernal forge, used this power to create great machines to do his bidding before summarily leaving them to decay in the Daggerlands. The furnaces of Monas Roth were never at rest, and the cycle did not end until the day the Mortal Heroes marched into the city and destroyed him.

Golgorai-Asthas did not leave much in the way of wisdom for for his people when he was forcibly removed from A'therys. However, his workshops contain many blueprints and designs of a complexity far beyond the understanding of men. Only a single holy book has been discovered in the remains of Golgorai's temple: The Book of Careful Practice. Inscribed on great iron sheets hung on the forge walls, the few pieces that were not destroyed during the aftermath of the Second Calling provide a grim reminder of the former master of the Daggerlands. They paint a picture of horrible machinery, meticulously planned by the God of Rust for a future that never came.

## Appearance

As one might expect, Golgorai felt little need to emulate the features of humanity in his physical form. He chose to do so merely because it was efficient for his needs. He towered over any mortal man, a great figure over five meters in height. His skin was ash-gray, the color of his domain, and covered in scars and burns from his forge. He wore thick gloves to protect his hands and forearms, and a simple belt on which to hang his bizarre tools. Golgorai had a full collection of these, many used but a single time and left to rust on their shelf, and nearly none had any apparent use a mortal might be familiar with. His mask was a frightening affair, wrought from rusting iron, with rotting leather straps hanging useless at its sides. Behind the mask was a great mane of rust-red hair and beard, embers frequently glowing within. The God of Rust was a terrifying entity, with an appearance fitting of his tyranny.

*Originally written by OccidentalAnvil for the more official A'therys wiki*