Istus

(Eh-Stus)

# **Summary**

The Primordial Serpent of Fire, Istus is the youngest of all primordials. She is characterized by extreme anger, impulse, and destruction of everything in sight. Sometimes she is called “The Fire Serpent'', but she is mostly referred to by her name. She is one of the 4 most powerful primordials, the paragon of her element. Instead of growing more powerful as she ages, she gets weaker as time goes on unless she consumes fuel or other fire elementals, as well as all other fire elementals. It is sometimes questioned if Istus is the strongest or weakest of all primordials due to this factor. Istus is well known for her constant battles against Edite and Nuvta, Edite out of a power struggle for land, and Nuvta due to natural disagreements of how the world should function.

### **Description**

Istus is often depicted in 2 separate ways, either as a colossal snake made of pure fire or as a woman of similar ilk. In the form depicted as a large serpent, she is seen as being the size of continents in length, with a thickness equal to that of the crust of molten earth. The exact frame of the snake is not consistent, as some draw her as a cobra while  others depict her as a viper. Istus is sometimes drawn as small or her flames not bright, signaling when she goes into a hunger and begins to consume fuel.

When drawn as a woman, she is drawn as a human form, typically anywhere from 5-6 feet in height, with very slim features, the entire body is more formed or cooled down, resembling that of a more masculine female. All except for the head and face, which is instead seen as open flames hovering over obsidian or ash as a frame. This obsidian/ash extends all throughout her body, to give it a shape.

Istus’ symbol is that of a snake with an open mouth, flames all across its body and fangs as it looks prepared to strike. Istus is also associated with snakes and amber. While plants do not thrive in Istus’ presence, she is still often associated with common sage, due to it thriving in wood ash.

### **Personality**

Istus has an extremely headstrong nature. In many legends that involve her, she is often seen as running headfirst into situations, never planning things and being punished by the gods due to her inability to cooperate with rules. In addition to this rebellious headstrong behavior, she is also well known to be a very humorous being, making jokes that involve her own or other’s ideals. Istus is shown to be one of the most human-like divine beings, her affinity to fire being associated with early civilizations, with many creatures adopting some form of her as a worship due to the gift of fire.

Istus is seen to dislike the gods, but not to hatred. She disagrees with how they have their world, an equal balance of earth, water, air, and energy/fire. Instead, in her mind, there should only be fire, earth, and air, saying that water does nothing but allow for weaker creatures to have a point of retreat and travel, and that a harsh land of flames would give other creatures opportunities to grow stronger as time goes on.

### **Powers**

Istus is a creature of both energy and fire, and being a primordial she has the ability to create infinite amounts of both. In her realm of The Plane of Fire, Istus is seen as a giant serpent who constantly leaks flames into her sea of magma, creating more and more volume to her oceans of fire. Light, Fire, and Heat are the most common forms of energy that Istus secretes, in some legends it is said that Istus created the star that orbits the planet, and twice per year she goes back to the sun to refuel it, which is when the sun is blocked out by the moon.

This constant creation of energy would normally inflate the universe with too much energy, as energy constantly doesn't dissipate on it’s own, as energy will constantly change forms. But, due to Uthugil (not) existing, the energy eventually finds its way to his vault, which constantly gets sucked into his void and destroyed.

### **Realm**

Istus lives in The Elemental Plane of Fire, a section directly outside of the Material Plane where Istus retreated after The Primordial Wars came to a stalemate, the land is made of large seas of fire and liquid flames. The plane is also found to have large amounts of radiant energy; several stars exist in The Plane of Fire, above, below, or on the “Ground”. Large amounts of Brimstone exist in this plane, creating islands in the many seas of fire. Istus lives in a palace that exists in the core of a red supergiant star, near the center of the plane, known as “The Amber Palace”. The giant star holds enough room to hold as many as 3 million of the Material Plane, where Istus creates more and more energy that gets sucked into the star before being expelled throughout the plane.

Istus is the only Primordial who did not originate from The Material Plane, as she was created as a consequence of Baator’s creation, which summoned her primordial form into The Astral Plane. Istus then glided over to The Material Plane, during the War, and joined Vesterin’s side against Edite and Nuvta. It is often disputed if Istus is the sister to Edite, or if they are unrelated.

### **Relationships**

Istus generally dislikes most Gods. She considers them weak compared to her primordial power, with lesser fire gods only being able to mimic a fraction of her power. Because of this higher thought, most gods of flame dislike Istus as well, seeing her as a cocky elitist. However, some gods of Volcanoes or Elements see Istus as an idol, something to strive to be.

Istus is closely allied with Vesterin, the Crystal Rhino, due to their alliance of thought during The War of The Primordials and well after. Both Primordials believe the world should be nothing but magma and land, with the strongest and most endurent to be allowed to live. Because of this alliance with Vesterin, she is put at odds with Edite, who directly opposes Vesterin’s way of thought.

In addition to this, Istus has a dire hatred towards Nuvta, due to their radically different world views. Nuvta believes that the world should be a large ocean with an airy top, where only the quickest and largest survive.

### **The Amber Palace**

A large star that sits in the center of the Plane of Fire, a red supergiant known as The Amber Palace exists. This large star is the home of Istus, where she creates all of her energy and releases it into the star. The palace rests in the center of the sea of lava, with the gravitational pull of the star pushing everything downwards, instead of pulling everything into and around it. The star itself is actually colder than the body of Istus, being only 7640 degrees, whilst Istus is around 3,775,000 degrees.

The palace itself is 11,876,400,000 miles in diameter, hosting tens of thousands of rooms of varying sizes, it serves to house Istus and all of her most zealous and powerful servants. The palace also serves as a compass point, the star exerting an extremely powerful magnetic force allows for any creature with a compass or lodestone to be able to find where in the plane they are.

### **History**

At the very start of the universe’s birth, before and during Uthugil’s Reign, the first 3 of the primordials were created. Edite was born from the air and absent space, Vesterin was born of the rocky surface of those made in the astral plane, and Nuvta was born of the elements and cold energy radiating from the primordial world. These 3 primordials quickly began to create their own worlds away from Uthugil’s sight, but as their individual worlds started to leak into each other, they began to fight. This fighting was immense, and unending, with the crashing of waves, hurricanes being formed, and mountains being risen to declare territory and be used as weapons.

When the Gods had almost defeated Uthugil, they created 3 planes of existence to try and contain him and his spawn. Hades was made to contain him, but failed and instead captured Reout, who looked like Uthugil. They created Carceri to try and imprison him, but it was far too small of a plane to hold Uthugil, despite it’s security. When they finally got to their second to last plan, Baator, the huge shock of energy that came from creating heat forced Istus into existence. Which means that Istus is both technically a fiend and a primordial.

After Istus was born, she went to The Primordial Battlefield to join Vesterin in support of his ideals. Strength and Ideals going hand in hand, both of them went together to fight Nuvta and Edite individually. However, before Vesterin and Istus won their war, Nuvta and Edite also came together to fight back against the duo. However, this coalition was more of an alliance due to a mutual need for safety, rather than shared ideals.

After this alliance, both sides of the war gradually died down more and more, retreating away from the material plane slowly to recharge their powers, all 4 of the primordials made their own planes of existence near the Material Plane, where they would recharge for another fight that may or may not ever come.

Istus, while waiting for Vesterin to call her, normally spends her time in a humanoid form inside of the palace. As during her time watching the humanoid creatures slowly develop more and more, she would sometimes come to the material plane to give certain creatures energy or flame. She took a particular liking to the early humans, coming to them as a patron goddess or appearing as a snake, she would show the humans the secrets of fire to allow them to prosper. As time went on, Istus showed up less and less to teach them new things about energy, but in many early stories of humans, fire-gifting reptiles or wise women teaching other’s still draw from the early events of Istus coming to the humanoids.