Ikigai
I met Ikigai as all did: by their own destiny.
Once, when traveling in the north of Ezo, I came upon a small mountain town plagued by some foul illness. As a druid and a healer, I took it as my calling to aid these people from whatever ailed them. I soon discovered an old shrine to my gods on the hillside. After some investigation, I found a concern: the water that formed a stream from the mountains to the village was poisoned by a foul, arcane stone.
I sought to remove the cruel relic and purify the water source. But destiny befell me. The moment I touched it, it began killing me. I begged and pleaded with the gods for safety. And so they came to meet me.
I was given a vision. The shrine where I stood decayed to nothing but dust, until nothing was left but the pure stream, the hills, and a much larger, bustling town below. Then time reverted, and the shrine was no longer a ruin, but extravagantly built, with a festival and happy children, the largest shrine in the land. Time passed further in the past, before the shrine existed, merely a mountainside with deer lazing under the trees.
That's when I understood: time was a continuum, and I was part of it. I was destined to be here, to save that village, to restore it. But it came at a price: for saving this village, I would die one day. No matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, I would die. But by being graced by this god, allowing it to curse me, I altered that town's destiny. I was meant to be there, and that village was meant to thrive. It only costs a price.
That is the life of Ikigai, a God of Destiny, and one I will serve unto my dying day. I love them. They give me serenity, wherein I know my place in the world. I know we are all meant for something, no matter what that something is. And so long as Ikigai guides us, there will be a greater tomorrow.
-Notes from Master of the Shrine, Chisato Dærina, 1750 6e.
Divine Domains
Destiny
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Ikigai was the God of Destiny, and part of The Vestiges. They were slain by Hazard and The Patron around the beginning of the War in Heaven.
Ikigai is worshiped in small circles related to the Masters of the Shrines, but has faded from relevancy in their death.
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