Ustav
The God of Spring Ustav Devazin
Ustav is the greatest Ederstone Sorcerer in history and one of the chief deities of Uvara. He is technically still present as an Ederstone-warped Ghost infused with the land. Ustav rarely acts to change the world around him, and those who do talk to him often find him incomprehensible. The only entity to ever actually seem to understand him is Ruko the Dragon-Turtle.
Ustav is difficult to come by- he is everywhere and nowhere, stretched across the landscape and intertwined with the trees and stones. Attempts to file his ghost paperwork have failed time and time again- Exorcists that attempt it are often attacked by Uvaran worshipers and stopped by the leaders of the Guild as it is said that Ruko will simply dive underwater when the paperwork is about to be filed.
In ancient days, cultists and druids in nature would speak to Ustav. That hasn't been true in a long time; now he watches silently, possibly tweaking the landscape just enough to make Stildane just that much more habitable. His level of power is unknown, if he even has any. Occasionally some speculate that he might be doing harm in his own way, as he seemed particularly visible during the Mageplague years. But at this point, he may as well be a memory of what Stildane was and could have been, burnt faintly into the landscape.
Divine Domains
Ustav is often viewed as the God of Spring, Life, Prosperity, Luck, and Magic. He is the patron of druids, tricksters, and farmers. He is associated with ash trees and the spring equinox.
In mainstream Uvara, Ustav is not really defined by his domains. His role as the Holy Trickster and the Great Magician are still present in Uvaran sacred stories, but he also represents a kind of united Divine will - as the Chief God, he acts as the avatar of divine good. His role as the Irunek - the one who will be reborn as the Savior who shall end mortal suffering - and as the ultimate martyr make him the ultimate symbol of Divine Benevolence in Uvara.
To peasants, Ustav is also involved in their day-to-day as the Lifegiver; Ustav turns the wheel of life to make the seeds into plants. Ustav oversees changes in life: conception of children, birth, coming of age, marriage, retirement, and graceful death. There are other Gods who play roles in these - Rugon also is the God of Seeds and Conception, and Varsha is also the God of Childrearing and Marriage - but Ustav connects them all together. He is at the heart of the Great Wheel, turning it with his death and rebirth.
Holy Books & Codes
Ustav is often credited with the "original" Sovikov, or the Book of Hope. The Sovikov's original heart is one hundred stories or parables explaining the world and guiding morality, passed along by oral tradition. The mythology of Ustav stealing the sun from the Gods of Chaos and Order and the prophecy declaring he will one day return in mortal form as the Irunek are both included there.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Ustav's symbols include:
- A leafless tree with wings or a crown
- A flower in a sun
- A phoenix bird
Holidays
Ustav's primary holiday is the Frelden Festival, celebrated every Spring Equinox.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Ustav was born in to the Azgita tribe from what is now modern-day Genorta, on the North bank of the great lake in 199. Times were bad, as the Cursed Storms had begun: massive blizzards from the Northeast that carried Ederstone-tainted snows. The weather itself squirmed and writhed in the sky, and when it came down it was like a horrible living poison. The cold wind that carried it was no more kind, as the plants withered and the animals fled. When Ustav was 14, he and his friend Keten were sent by their parents Southward to seek aid and refuge. Members of the Azgita tribe had for many decades sent members Southward to the more population-dense subtropical regions to work as mercenaries, merchants, and couriers. Now that the winters were becoming dangerous, it was less about opportunity and more about survival.
The stress of traveling alone quickly unlocked Ustav's natural sorcerous abilities, and he became a teen prodigy through necessity. At 15, he became a mercenary, sometimes a merchant, sometimes a bandit. Whatever fed him and Keten, he did. But as he grew in power, he was able to leave much of that behind. The cursed storms were growing worse, and the land was dying- money was becoming meaningless, and chaos ruled the land. Ustav worked as a community organizer and defender, helping villages in exchange for food and a place to sleep.
In these early days, one merchant he saved had something that changed his life: holy incense and a scroll of the divine contact. The merchant insisted he take these and contact the Gods for aid- and one of the first he talked to was Hiku, who recognized him as a person of interest. Hiku gave him a full rundown of the land, the crisis, the major players, the biggest monsters. She and him would continue talking semi-regularly over the years- some say it is what made him great, some say it is what led to his downfall.
Ustav then headed to the coast of Kasteny, where a large number of survivors were gathering in the Western isles. Ustav arrived to negotiate peace between the refugees and the original inhabitants, and began training and organizing the sorcerers there in defense of the settlement. He was one of the founding fathers of Selvergen, and the great sorcerous educational tradition there is descended from his teaching program. Ustav was also one of those guided by the Lunar Pantheon to reach out to the Aquatic Races near Selvergen- despite the lack of Voiceboxes, Ustav was able to make contact with the bickering tribes of Octopeople and Squiddles and invited them into the growing alliance. Ustav nominated his Squiddle friend Memdrig to work as the local envoy.
Ustav eventually got restless. Selvergen was good, but it was difficult to reach and ultimately abandoned many interior tribespeople. Ustav began travelling again in his 30's, founding new sanctuaries and slaying dangerous monsters. Much good was done, but it often felt futile. So many sanctuaries simply perished after he left. The storms simply would not stop. So Ustav decided that the storms must be stopped- and journeyed East to find the cure. He heard of a magical crystal that contained the heart and knowledge of the Gods and could give magical powers to those who were worthy, deep within the Asira mountains. And so he climbed and journeyed and toiled. Eventually he reached Mavara, who welcomed him and gave him many blessings. She did not know the cure, but wanted his updates on the storms, which she suspected were the work of a great cosmic evil- and so she taught him to read and asked him to send her regular updates.
And so the grueling work of community building continued. Ustav never stopped looking for the "cure", the secret silver bullet to fix the problem in an instant. In his late 40s, he returned to his homeland and began trying to build a permanent base where he could research the cursed storms from and protect his original tribe. It was from this base that his greatest adventures were undertaken:
One year, a great monster of monsters, fused together over and over and carried by the storms descended from the far North. Some called it the Storm Dragon, though its form was more fluid than not. Ustav won great acclaim for slaying it with his companions- though he lost four fingers from its bite, which became magical artifacts. A Kobold who later styled themselves as Zerdrig the All Powerful plucked the fingerbones from the corpse and used them to become an infamous charlatan later in life- and they remain great artifacts of Uvara to this day.
Another year, a great swarm of ghosts were fleeing from a spectre cloud: a mass of ederstone-warped ghosts that seemed to corrupt other ghosts they touched. No matter how many times Ustav destroyed them, they returned the next week- until Ustav finally figured out how to teleport to Ruko, the dragon turtle. Their friendship began then, and Ustav was able to file the correct paperwork to destroy the swarm.
Ultimately Ustav became more and more detached from reality, and more worshiped. The Cult that grew around him fed his endless desire to find that "silver bullet" solution. Even worse, they brought him Ederstone to study- his body and mind became less and less like they were. Hiku and the cultists just kept pushing though, to see what he could do- and he began to believe he could decipher "a purpose" in ederstone that would "solve" Stildane. One night, he took his best friend Keten with him to walk and discuss his findings: he believed he could, if exposed the right way to Ederstone, "make contact" with it and "understand what it wants" and "become something more". Keten grew fearful, as she saw in Ustav the potential to become a monster far worse than even the storms. She knew she could not kill him but knew she owed it to him to try. As he knelt over the icy water of the lake, she began to strangle him and tried to drown him. He did not resist. He was so tired, felt so pressured to save the world, felt so alone. But the Gods were cruel and he awoke as a Ghost. Unable to rest in death, he resigned to his "destiny". He drifted from Keten's arms back to the settlement, to become whatever the Ederstone wished him to be. His followers rejoiced when he became a spirit of great twisted power; Keten wept and left in the night, to cherish the memory of who he used to be.
Ustav's home-tribe settlement became a great temple-city, his divine palace from 260 to 485. His last vestiges of attachment to the world faded and his followers began revering him as the God-Savior of the Earth. In 485, the Kivish assaulted the city and he was unable or unwilling to face them; they destroyed his temple, looted his artifacts, and all who did not flee were slaughtered or mutated. He drifted from the wreckage and fused with the land- and has not visibly manifested since. Some say they can see him briefly form, to watch people play in his woods or celebrate festivals; but just as soon as they see him, he is gone.
Divine Classification
God/Land Spirit
Religions
Alignment
Neutral Good
Current Location
Species
Church/Cult
Life
199 ME
258 ME
59 years old
Circumstances of Death
Tragic betrayal
Birthplace
Modern-day Genorta
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Pale blue
Hair
Grey-blonde from birth, with bone spikes protruding
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Like white ash bark
Height
5'11"
Weight
110 lbs
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