Ishtorah

**Ishtorah** is a fusion deity or daemon made up of the god's Ishjar and Ashtorah. They are called the Lord of Man and Lady of Ladies, a hermaphroditic deity. Ishtorah is sometimes called the Muse of Medicine in the North, though this practice has fallen out of favor recently. The sigil of Ishtorah is used as the universal sign of medicine.

## History

Ishtorah's first mention is not known, though several early legends deal with the "dual-faced man-woman who walks the heavens" within ancient Ishja-Kuddian societies. These legends usually tell of a being who came without a clear sex and a monstrous two-faced form which was able to cure ailments with its words. Later myths would retell these ancient stories in new contexts, but with the same ideas in mind of physical health through dictation. The first mention of Ishtorah by name and as a fusion deity comes from Bailet c. 1800 AE.

The Bailet myths tell of a time when Ishjar and her husband Ashtorah came together over a great empty field to do battle. The people of a nearby village watched in awe as Ishjar fought with her thousand arms to wrestle her husband to the ground as Ashtorah bit and clawed at her wings. Finally, Ashtorah threw her to the ground and mounted her and the two suddenly became one being and the people watched in awe at it, for it was larger than anything they had ever seen. It then looked upon them and spoke, saying: "I am Ishtorah, Lord of Man, Lady of Ladies. Fear not my form, but envy it. Make like it yourselves and raise a great temple upon this ground." Then the form disappeared and the people did as they were told making a large temple to the god Ishtorah there where today they are still worshiped. The temple mentioned within the story is most likely Abarshapal-Nirgal, which was destroyed in 390 AE by an earthquake.

Sometime during the reign of the Asinum-Bail dynasty, the normalization of Ishtorah's worship began. Ishtorah became a staple of the secondary pantheon, called the Heavenly Hosts. Their worship began as a means of giving work to eunuchs unfit to serve in the temple, eventually morphing into a strange sect of gender nonconforming priestiks. The people of Kudd began to use Ishtorah's temple as a means to get rid of gay sons, lesbian daughters, and malformed youths. The temple accepted these people with open arms, though the process of becoming a Priestik was complex, painful, and ended in sterilization. Critiques of the temple call into question the true purpose of forcing conformative non-conformity onto people. Still, the worship of Ishtorah is more popular than ever.

Temples to Ishtorah focus on providing healing through medicine and spiritual ritual. Throughout Kudd and some parts of Ihjarga, temples offer services in exchange for donations. In the north, Ishtorah is recognized as either a daemon or a heavenly spirit, though the prior is the mainstream consensus.

## Appearance

Ishtorah is a massive creature with an animal body like a hippogryph with the head of a human woman shrouded in a golden mane. Above the female head is the head of a beastly man crowned in a burning flower of resplendent radiant colors. Its wings are also like rainbows. Sometimes upon its back is a man with six legs and three faces blowing a trumpet with each face but not always is he there. Their tail is like a fox's tail but iridescent and shimmering. Between its hind legs is a vulva and penis like a horse's genitals and from its belly hang a hundred breasts, those these are not always apparent. Ishtorah has clawed bird's talons for hands and feet.

The being is quadrupedal, though some stories mention it walking on its hind legs, though this is hard to imagine. It carries a stick or rod, called the Crux of the Almighty, said to be able to cure the ailment of any who are touched by it. This Crux is the modern symbol of medicine. It appears as a cross with two bars, the top being smaller than the bottom, and an arm going through between them. The arm goes up on the left side and down on the right.

## As Muse of Medicine

Northern Modern Medicine chose Ishtorah as its patron, a move which was retroactively covered up, replacing any mention of Ishtorah with Saint Vasily. Interestingly, Saint Vasily also carries a Crux of the Almighty, in Justainian called the Rod of God. Northern Modern Medicine began with much more esoteric roots which were slowly forgotten or intentionally removed as time went on and the discipline became mainstream. Still, semi-mystical elements remain, such as subtle references to Ishtorah. For example, the Petrikov Sanitarium for the Rehabilitation of the Insane and Malformed contains several abstract depictions of Ishtorah amongst the architecture of its main building.

The Muse of Medicine was the name given to Ishtorah in the north, an idea brought into the norm by late Ancient Era spiritualists who learned of the deity in Kudd. Popularized by later medicinal movements, the idea of Ishtorah as Muse still persists despite Justainian attempts to silence it.