Runai

## [source]

**Runai** is the Goddess of Time of Faelor. She had participated in the war with the astral beasts as the God of Day as a lesser deity. After the death of Goddess of Night, Runai tried to take over her domain, but was not fully successful in the last millenia.

## Description

The Goddess of Time herself was walking in the centre, golden sceptre in hand while she was covered in divine armour she hadn’t used for centuries. The figure that originally stood hundreds of metres tall was now shrunk down to thirty, no taller than the two servitors flanking her. Countless golden runes danced around her body, a physical manifestation of her laws that gave rise to golden stairs under her that led directly to the battlefield.

She appeared to be around a teenager to a middle-aged woman most of the time, predominantly wearing green clothes.

## Plot

When the Lady of the Night was grievously wounded, her divinity and power were absorbed by her. This allowed Runai to jump from a lesser deity to an intermediate one, and at the same time he changed his name. She is now known as the Goddes of Time, Runai. At that point, she was almost a greater god, and she needed the remaining divinity from the Lady of the Night to become a true greater god.

Having tried to usurp the laws of night and thus form the laws of time, Runai was trying to cut off any chances for the Lady of the Night to return. However, even if she had combined the laws of day and night, it was barely passable laws of time against even Richard's rudimentary understanding of timeforce.

### **Mortal Vs Divine**

Back in her shrine, Runai’s eyes widened in fear for the first time. This was the first time a mortal had stepped into her divine kingdom in centuries, but she could feel his power of time was far beyond her own. This was the law she had once chased after, but she had soon realised that it was beyond the scope of Faelor even with both the domains of day and night under her control. In the end, she was only a false deity of time. The laws she desired so much were in the hands of a mere mortal!

With so many legends appearing in Dragon Valley alongside the frighteningly powerful Sharon and Ruben, and the person who had warped the very laws of the plane currently present within the valley as well, all of the gods had gone quiet. No one responded to her requests for assistance, not even when she started cursing them. Her lone voice echoed in the skies like she was the only god left in Faelor.

### **Last Stand**

Having gone into the depths of the barbarian plains, the Highland Wargod had recovered from the brink of death and miraculously recovered his divinity, even growing steadily in power. If not for Richard coming out of nowhere, he might even have had an opportunity to become a greater deity. There was definitely some kind of secret hidden within those highlands that had allowed him to recover so quickly, and as someone who was about to lose her divine kingdom Runai knew that this was her last shot at survival.

The invaders would have to leave eventually. As an immortal being whose life was tied to that of the very plane, Runai could take her time returning to power. She quickly made the decision, having her last avatar hidden in the mortal realm head towards the ancient highlands to explore its secrets. Now feeling more at ease, she returned her attention to the battlefield.

### **Battle**

“The mortal is humbled by the divine, the divine is humbled by the law,” Richard replied, a popular saying amongst powerhouses in Norland. He added on a moment later, “Any law can be controlled by mortals, so there’s no need for humility. Our pursuit of strength has no end, yours does. It’s deities who need to be humble.”

He had paraphrased this from one of Theodore’s works, a quote that was a motto for many legendary beings. Runai was shocked by his words, never having heard of such an argument or even thought of its implied meaning. She knew that divinity had a limit, but to her that limit was the limit of all power. If Richard’s words were true, then that would shatter everything she had ever believed.

She rushed forward, entering the battlefield without hesitation and leaving behind the protection of her divine kingdom. The servitors blocked by the army of feeding worms and the soldiers of the three goddesses, she had nobody protecting her sides. Fought with Richard but lost.

### **Genesis**

Amongst the many gods of Faelor, Runai was the first that Richard had invaded. Even Neian was spared for a time. At that point, Richard had swiftly decimated Runai's forces both on the ground and in her divine kingdom. What should have reached centuries to be finished happened in only a couple of months. With the fall of her divine kingdom, she had enlisted the help of a greater demon who also helped the Highland Wargod regain his godhood. The former goddess of time seemed to abandon all of her class after her fall, using the same vulgarities most deities looked down upon.

First god to be killed by Richard. Killed in Genesis.

## Abilities

Runai doesn’t have the power to control time. She can only warp its flow, but she proudly proclaims that she is the Goddess of Time.

Runai greatly exaggerated her divine domain by calling herself the Goddess of Time, but she could still influence the flow of time to a certain degree. However, Richard had made countless offerings to the Eternal Dragon in his life, and every instance was an opportunity to come into contact with the laws of time. Although he couldn’t yet analyse such laws, his personal comprehension dwarfed even the pope’s.

### **Wither**

An enormous hourglass formed behind Runai and the sands of time within started burning up, turning it into a torch as her power suddenly spiked. For a moment, it was like her voice was the only one in the world. As she waved her sceptre, divine power flooded forward. Decades of time being compressed into an instant was even more effective than direct attacks, especially because it was difficult to ward off. Even most legendary beings were unlikely to be able to sustain such an attack. As the golden divine force poured down, all life nearby began to age rapidly.

Richard himself remained upright and looked just as imposing as his opponent, an hourglass of his own revolving atop his head to block the rain of power. This was the power of his own laws of time; even though he was inferior to Runai in terms of overall might, the laws he was trying to control were at least the true fundamental laws of time instead of her approximation. Even with his limited comprehension, he managed to last quite a while.

## Locations

### **Grand Cathedral of Time**

The Divine Fort was true to its name, a city that existed solely to protect the Church of Runai. Most of the hundreds of thousands of residents served the Goddess of Time, a good number of them even being an official part of the clergy. The cathedral had more than 2,000 members, but that didn’t include their 3,000 paladins. About 300 clergymen were capable of useful levels of divine magic, with that number having doubled as Runai constantly transferred priests from other churches in the last few months.

There were currently 50,000 trained soldiers and 10,000 mercenaries protecting the Divine Fort, and the captured paladins revealed that there were at least two avatars and several demigods aiding the defence. Runai was clearly planning to use this as her last bastion in the mortal world. The central church was the primary source of a deity’s connection to their worshippers, and its fall would reduce their ability to replenish their divine force greatly.

In terms of power in the mortal realm, Runai couldn’t begin to compare to Richard’s army. She had initially formed an alliance with many other gods just to have an even battle, but with the appearance of Sharon and the Celestial Sage, they had all changed their stance last minute. Some even pretended to be mute and deaf, like they had fallen into a deep sleep.

There was no statue on the altar, only an enormous hourglass that represented time which slowly flipped over under the power of divinity. Every complete turn signified a day had past. The hourglass was black on one end and white on the other, signifying the cycle of day and night. This symbol was Richard’s excuse for starting this war.

This area was still close to the northern wastes, with freezing winters and rainy summers that were not comfortable in the slightest. It was also surrounded by hundreds of kilometres of barren land, requiring food to be hauled from more than 200 kilometres away. This was enormous pressure on a city that had hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed.

## Trivia

* Runai’s divine insignia was an hourglass as well.
* She had been the cause of Perrin's aging curse. When he loudly proclaimed the endless possibilities of planar geometry and travel, he was quickly stompped by the curse. Forcing Bevry to hide him within the ancestral mountains of his people.
* A rune with Runai’s laws would be able to create a slowing domain around the user, drastically crippling everything within. Since this slowing came from a change to the passage of time itself, normal spells could not combat it. In fact, only beings that could make themselves immune to timeforce would be able to escape. Such a rune would be powerful enough to warrant four to five top-tier offerings at worst. The godsblood could also replace any non-critical material on Midren; two drops would be enough for him to be able to finish his construction right now. He could also think of a dozen other uses purely in terms of runes, and that was only in his field.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Book 8, Chapter 25
2. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 17
3. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 21
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Book 8, Chapter 26
5. ↑ Book 7, Chapter 168