Sargonnas

### The Father of Flame

The god of honor, duty, justice, broken oaths, and vengeance. Sargonnas is the patron of the wronged and the wretched. He empowers those who have been harmed to take vengeance, and seeks to bring low those who gain power through trickery and deception. Those who follow him seek to find the ones who wronged them and bring them to justice--or have their revenge.

### Domains

Sargonnas has three domains.

**Life** promotes vitality and health through healing the sick and wounded, caring for those in need, and driving away the forces of death and undeath.

**Protection** is the domain based in the duty for his faithful to shield the weak from the strong.

**War** is that of powerful warriors for justice, and Sargonnas rewarding them for their great deeds.

### Origin

Created like the rest of the Old Gods by the Fate of Knowledge, Sargonnas worked along with Silvanus to populate the elemental planes of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Together, they created creatures of pure elemental power. When Sargonnas finished his work of creating these creatures, he left to see what his fellow gods had made... and was horrified. In the elemental planes, each creature was part of the fabric of their planes, never dying or suffering so much as changing form. Outside them, Sargonnas saw his fellow gods had given sentience to their creations. Sentience, something only the fates and the gods had ever had, given to creatures who could be wounded, wither, *die*.

It is said that when Sargonnas discovered these creations, he flew into a fury. He accused the other gods of sadism and cruelty. No one was spared his rage, and from that great argument, some say, the afterlife was created. A place of eternity for the mortals to luxuriate in. A penance from their gods for giving them a limited life.

Others claim that the gods were never so cruel as to let the souls of their creations dissipate on their death, and reject the idea that the god of vengeance bullied the others to this compassionate act.

The one thing that is agreed is that, when Sargonnas saw the pain and frailty of these mortals, he was moved by compassion and anger. These feelings transformed him into the god of vengeance, and he forever dedicated himself to putting his power in the hands of the powerless.

### Iconography

Sargonnas's symbol is the phoenix, to represent rebirth from prior trauma. His colors are anything with a warm hue, though gold is commonly used in motifs with the Father of Flame.

In Sargonnas' faith, ash, flame, and light hold special significance. Many adherents of the Father of Flame take to heart the cycles that Sargonnas created in the elemental plane, and they apply those cycles to their own lives. Just as the flame flickers and goes out, so will phases in their lives. However, just as the tide ebbs, it flows as well.

Many of Sargonnas' adherents preach of continuance, of hope for the next year, the next day, the next moment. The knowledge that continuing is not only possible, but right.

But, as much as followers of Sargonnas' faith preach of rebirth, reinvention, and reincarnation, most all of them know the value of revenge and justice. While all lives might be in cycle, it is possible for one's just cycle to be disrupted and destroyed. For those victims of fate, Sargonnas has only empathy, and his favor, if they wish it.

These chosen of Sargonnas are known by his followers as the Ashen, so named for the moment in a phoenix's life before it is reborn once more. They are seen as holy figures, with their quests being valued similarly to pilgrimages, and it is considered taboo to try and learn the origin of an Ashen's quest.