Ithreos

Ithreos is the essence of the sun and he represents natural phenomenons in the world: light, darkness, and the movement of celestial bodies. Known as a peaceful and caring god, Ithreos sees a healthy amount of worship worldwide, with the most intense pockets being located in Im’Shayif and the Unidon Republics. Those who worship him are typically desert wanderers, travelers, seers, or courtesans. His is a gentle touch, and his pleasant attitude draws many worshippers into his embrace. Similarly to Nïo (and perhaps even all the gods), gendering Ithreos is a slightly complicated process. There is evidence to suggest that manifestations of Ithreos in the past were women (or at least presented as women), but the majority of the current manifestations are male (save for the Lady). As such, many will refer to Ithreos using he/him pronouns, even if doing so is not entirely accurate.

### The Father of Light

Ithreos’ first manifestation is the Father of Light. The Father of Light appears as a human man, whose skin is made entirely of solid light, except for his eyes, which radiate an ebony darkness. This manifestation holds dominion over the aspects of light, dawn, and the sun. In this form, Ithreos is said to embody the light of the sun itself, and farmers give hopeful reverence to the Father during times of a drought. The Father is actively worshiped by the Church of Light, based out of Morin, in The Morinfrüe Dominion and his clergy there act as enlighteners and exterminators of creatures vile. The Church of Light are the most zealous when it comes to the extermination of fiends, and they attempt to waylay their efforts wherever they can find them.

### The Weaver

Second is the Weaver, an incredibly important and influential deity in the nation of Im’Shayif, in Ayisa. The Weaver is represented as a human man, with green skin and a golden crown, and a pouch of sand at his side. This manifestation holds dominion over sand, reflections, and wisdom. The official deity of Im’Shayif, the Weaver is said to embody the entire desert, and many priests will interpret his will from the movement of individual grains. Im’Shayif has no church to speak of, in the organizational sense. Many might imply that the nation itself is the church, for the Mharaj, Im’Shayif’s leader, is said to be embodied by the Weaver himself. The mortal made god is a gold-scaled N’gati, and his people worship him as if he were the Weaver, thinking him capable of incredible feats. Whether this is fact or fiction has never been proven either way.

### The Lord of Stars

The third manifestation is perhaps the least famous of the bunch: the Lord of Stars, an entity which rules over the aspects of darkness, dusk, and the stars. Opposite in tone to the Father of Light, the Lord of Stars represents itself as a shimmering field of multicolored lights. There are few who give reverence to this manifestation, aside from the ilits, who were once nocturnal creatures, and so live in the dark. Others, however, have a difficult time relating to an entity made of darkness, which is typically associated with evil things, and so otherwise ignore this manifestation. The entity, however, retains much of its counterparts’ gentleness: it represents a kindly sort of darkness, that which hides away the things one wishes not to see.

### The Lady of the Night

Finally, there is the Lady of the Night, one of Ithreos’ oldest manifestations. The Lady holds dominion over the aspects of love, sex, beauty, and gender, and there is some evidence to suggest it existed before Ithreos ever mantled the aspects of light and darkness. The Lady of the Night is the patron saint to all sex workers, and is the only manifestation of Ithreos that retains his female form, which might have once been so common to him. The Lady teaches respect and care, and unleashes terrible curses upon those that hurt her worshippers. Her clergy demonstrates piety through acts of intimacy, be they sexual and emotional, and they encourage others to pursue intimacy in all of its forms. The Lady of the Night is very strongly worshiped amongst two distinct communities: the pirates of the Enad Archipelago, and the noble houses of the Morinfrue Dominion. The nobles see the expression of intimacy as a design of discipline, which is to say that intimacy is monogamous and controlled. Many find this view of sex and romance to be somewhat stilted, but the Lady’s tenets have always argued that if it works for someone, than so be it. The pirates, however, are quite peculiar. Contrary to popular beliefs, pirates have a deep respect for courtesans. Amongst piratical communities, the disrespect and/or assault of a sex worker is one of the most terrible crimes. The exact origins of such a cultural ideal is unclear, but it is pervasive enough that even pirate strongholds far from the archipelagos respect this unifying law.

As is likely abundantly clear, Ithreos is a deity with a great many functions and identities, perhaps even equaling Alreida’s edicts of diversity. This, in conjunction with the deity’s warm and kindly nature, means that Ithreos is worshiped often and with great reverence.