Skolm

Skolm is the God of Memories and books. With a harsh opinion of mortals he once helped, interacting with him can often resemble that of a scornful professor or parent.

Artifacts

Skolm still holds onto the first book ever written, as an emotional keepsake. The words inside were nonsense, nonexistent words of no meaning or value.
He has created a number of powerful and important texts, including The Immaculate Instruction. Skolm would use this to create a work of his own, the Annotated Alphabet, which would categorize all alphabets and uses of every language ever devised by mortals.

Holy Books & Codes

Skolm has a copy of every religious text and every word ever written by or on behalf of another god. Imbued with their divinity, they will be maintained in The Scholars Repose, even if any and all mortal copies are destroyed.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

When interacting with mortals, Skolm has a habit of presenting to them as someone from their memories. Typically, of someone more distant, often leading many to wonder whether they were in fact interacting with the God at all. When he is interacting with other Gods, he will usually present as a male dwarf with a graying and loosely maintained beard.

Apparel & Accessories

Skolm has been known to manifest with a book, scroll, or a quill in his hand.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Ironically, Skolm's exact creation of the concept of memory is not exactly known, and whether he or Darnahl had the ultimate creation is hotly contested between them. What is known is that from the moment that Varissa had created the first of the Elves, that they were able to function on a higher level than that of the base creatures before them, that acted solely on instinct. A more cerebral and deep knowledge, one of memory, was present immediately.

His other aspect, that of books, was created at the request of the mortals. Elves had sought a means by which they could preserve and communicate their memories and their ideas to others in a physical form. Beginning with a rudimentary alphabet and a means to create the process, he would show the first book to them. Finding it to their liking, he would turn to Varissa, the Goddess of Learning, to teach them how to read and write.

Sexuality

Skolm's sexual nature is complicated. Governing all books, he is intimately familiar with every word of imaginative text used to describe physical intimacy, no matter how bawdry, implausible, or terribly written the prose may be. Like the scholars that try to emulate his perspective and morality, Skolm finds them contemptible and unworthy of any consideration, yet his self appointed task demands he care as much for them as any other.
He also has the memories of every sexual encounter experienced by any soul currently alive, as they remembered the event. This can leave things muddled, as even events that were purely consensual can have very different memories, and very different emotions tied to them.
The memories of rape and nonconsensual sex are especially hard for Skolm to work through, to the point that he finds most forms of touch and intimacy repulsive. There have been times where he has been attracted to mortals, to those of especially high intellect or gifted authors, both male and female.

Education

By nature of his aspects, Skolm is one of the most educated beings in existence. Even still, mortals often give him too much credit. Like Darnahl with dreams, many believe that Skolm governs and knows all memories. Rather, he only has power over the memories of the living, or any text that still exists. Memories are lost in death, just as words are lost when burned.

He also has perfect memory of all that he has seen transpire since the moment he and the other gods were created by Veserae. While this still does not mean that he has the all-encompassing knowledge one might hope for, it does make him one of the preeminent authorities on the Lost Age; a fact that mortals of the present age are increasingly less interested in.

Failures & Embarrassments

That memories are not a perfect creation is a huge failure. He could not have anticipated the degree to which they would be important to Mortal lives. The Six Sisters' creations were fallible, possibly even by design, meaning that there was nothing Skolm could do to overcome this.

Mental Trauma

Skolm has the memories of every violent crime, every cruel sight, every forcible rape that any living soul has survived or inflicted upon another. While he has every positive memory as well, the experiences overall have left him jaded with mortal life.

Morality & Philosophy

Skolm is a firm advocate of temperance, and anything that helps one live in the present moment. Inhibitions of the mind affect how well one can create a memory. Being overly focused on either the past or the future can also be a distraction from the present, and likewise impair accurate memories. They also make for poor decision making.

Personality Characteristics

Vices & Personality flaws

Skolm is a short tempered individual, regardless of whom he is speaking with. Even though he often speaks of living in the moment, his propensity for remembering everything, through the eyes and lives of others, has often made him a tempermental, vindictive God

Social

Contacts & Relations

Where the God of Secrets has a contested relationship with Dineth The Destroyer, the God of Death, Skolm is resigned to the god's eventual control over the memories and souls of the dead. They agree that nothing is meant to last forever. Zrajil, the Goddes of song, also has a strong relationship with Skolm, as it is through text that song and poetry is able to conveyed to each other.

Skolm continues to have a fued with Darnahl, god of Dreams. Each contests the other stole their idea, and both have equal credibility, given the similarities in how dreams and memories behave in the mind and soul of a person.
Varissa and Hjanda are the only members of The Six Sisters that Skolm has a routine relationship. As goddess of learning, Varissa is a staunch ally, as the capacity to learn would be greatly reduced without the written word. Hjanda worked with Skolm to create The Immaculate Instruction, to perfectly document how every tool in the world was created.

Speech

Skolm has a very exacting manner of speech, often using verbose vocabulary that a learned person would be familiar with but are often beyond the ken of plebians and commoners.

Religions

• Pantheon of Performers

Realm

The Scholars Repose

Aligned Organization

Pantheon of Performers