Helix, God of Order

Created by Dmitri T. (discord: bugsby)

General Description

Helix is the god of order, brother of the god of chaos, Eida, and father of the demigod of morality, Turl. His domains include Light, Peace, and Order. His holy symbol is a spiral, most often depicted as the Golden Spiral/Fibonacci spiral. He is the patron god of Djartha.

Personality & Appearance

Helix is essentially a manifestation of the (non-magical) rules that undergird the universe (ex. mathematics, physics, atomics, etc.). Though he tends to be elusive and hard to pin down in personality, he tends to like things ordered, scheduled, structured, and will sometimes overstep boundaries to try to bring about clear-cut organization, though he generally knows when to step back and let things be chaotic. He’s learned this skill after eons of dealing with his sister, Eida, god of chaos. He knows when the best order is none at all, but prefers that to be a last resort.
Helix resides in his most concentrated divine form underneath Barrabar, the central mesa of Djartha. He is a burst of golden light, a collection of fractals organized in an interconnecting series of geometric patterns. This light is all contained in an ornate box, obsidian black with dark blue and bright gold decorative patterns carved into its surface. This box sits within the back room of the Temple of Helix underneath Barrabar, and only priests, rulers, and high clergy are allowed into the space. Those who gaze upon Helix’s true form do not leave his presence unchanged; bright golden lines will permanently be traced in their skin in the patterns of spirals, bands, and vectors.
Despite this strange incorporeal body, he will occasionally present himself in a form more easily comprehended. This form is humanoid, but mostly in general shape only; his skin is traced with spirals, face featureless except for an always-open left eye, horns curling from his temples, and an almost crownlike halo arcing from the top of his head. See image. He wears a white thawb in this form.

Common Practices

Oftentimes, clerics or worshippers of Helix will use natural objects with the Golden Spiral as their holy symbol (ex. seashells), but many also make symbols out of gold or stone or jewels.
Many worshippers of Helix wear all sorts of different types of turbans to mimic the spiral-like appearance of Helix’s humanoid form.
Church services to Helix are often held midday, mid-week, every week, announced by loud bells. In Djartha, many worshippers also pray midday every day wherever they are, taking a moment of silence and meditation. Helix does not demand these prayers or services, but his worshippers conduct them and participate in them nonetheless.

Lore

Helix is the father of two demigods, Turl and Galanthe. To see more info on both of them individually, see The Demigods of Edari TLDR
Helix is the sole parent of Turl, the demigod of morality. Some statues and depictions of Helix show him in his humanoid form holding the baby Turl, or parenting/teaching a younger Turl. Generally, Helix views Turl’s quest to define everything on the axes of good/evil and lawful/chaotic as a futile fool’s errand, but will let him pursue what he desires to.
Helix feels similarly about Galanthe, demigod of civilization/collaboration/all things in between. Helix was convinced to assist in the creation of Galanthe by a clever trickster who convinced him a demigod of this domain would help bring all sentient races together under a banner of peace, though it turns out Galanthe's gift of civilization is just as divisive as it is unifying.

Helix as rendered by Sir Deepak Ushani, a tiefling priest who sketched this after an encounter with the god. (After this encounter, Sir Ushani found he was no longer physically able to speak and served the rest of his life in the Great Temple of Helix in Barrabar as a silent monk.)