Stryxis

The Goddess of Death

I am life without fear, I am death without regret, and the promise made that can never be broken

— Stryxis, the Goddess of Death

Tairos is a place ignorant of much of its history. The longest of lived can only remember back so far, the oldest of books will eventually crumbled, and even truths written in stone are destined for dust. Thus, it should come as no surprise that the age before nations, before even Skyrir, has faded into a mystery that few alive care to ponder. These ancient times had their own golden ages, their own tragedies, and their own heroes and villains all of whom would leave their mark upon future even if their names are forgotten.

Advent of Shadow

Dragons were Tairos' first gods. They walk the earth, swam the waters, and danced through sky, holding dominion over all they touched. The tribal species that existed at the time bent their knees to these implacable beings. These dragons amassed so much power that many became indistinguishable to divinity. These living gods held sway over entire tribes, becoming patrons in some cases, tyrants in others. One of the greatest of these dragons was known as Stryxis, but to the people of Tairos she was the Goddess of Death.
Where exactly the dragons came from is an enigma yet to be solved. Stryxis, like the rest of her kind, is said to have come from beyond the shores. She came to Tairos already hard of scale and sharp in tooth. Her wyrmling years were spent elsewhere; amongst deep still waters, so it is said. Physically, she was weaker than many of her other kind but Stryxis made up for it with her labyrinthian mind, withering bite, and a mastery over a type of magic Tairos hadn't yet seen. Necromancy.
Some would believe she's the inventor of necromancy itself but this is far from the truth; death magic is as old as creation itself. She is however; likely the source for its introduction to Tairos. In whatever deathly-still depths Stryxis originally hatched from, she was born with an innate connection to negative energy, shadow energy as some would call it, the very material that necromantic magic is woven from. She didn't require spells to harness this power, she did so with thought and will alone. All dragons seemed able to wield magic this way and she was among the most adept.
Steeped in shadow energy, Stryxis' first action upon arriving in Tairos was to find some deep and quiet place to make her lair and continue her meditations. That place would at the bottom of Lake Tairos, just northeast of what would one day be Muldrak. It's said her presence stilled the choppy waters to a graveyard whisper. And if the stories are true, she willed the dead to march below the water and build her a palace. It's here her meditations on shadow energy resumed. Her control over this power grew into something precise, intricate even. She could weave new beings into existence from the whole-cloth of stolen souls. She learned to slither through the veil between the world of the living and the dead, vanishing from one place and seemingly reappearing in another instantly. She even mastered the art of warding off entropy so that she could preserve some of her favorite living playthings for longer. The more her mastery over shadows grew, the more hollow the waters around her became. It's said the tribes of old referred to this place as The Sunken Temple. They'd venture out to these unnaturally still waters to offer sacrifice to the temple's Sunken Goddess in exchange for healing magics or a few fleeting moments with a lost loved one. Even in modern times the last few remaining Dwarves in Muldrak called that area the Cemetery Waters and did all they could to avoid them.

Shadows Cast

It is true that all dragons crave their hoard, drawing strength of the amassing of treasures. For some that hoard may riches and they grow strong from avarice and greed. Others may hoard precious stones, fueling their power with the timelessness and beauty held captive in each gem. Others hoarded slaves or followers, enriching themselves with the adoration (or fear) of lesser beings. For Stryxis none of these would do. Her hoard was the souls she could harvest. With her studies taught her to form extra-dimensional pockets, realms unto themselves that only she could access, places of shadow and decay. Her wing membranes could become the very gateway to this place, and her power a vacuum that could rip the living soul from its body. Once stolen, the soul was destined to be fed upon slowly, becoming the catalyst for her ever-growing power.
Ancient stone tablets found what would one day Gnome nation of Carda reveal a feline species that once called the aboral region home. The carvings of these cat people speak of a "yellow serpent from the grave waters" that brought doom to their land, killing them to the last and stealing their souls from the cycle of life. She slithered into the high peaks of the land and torn the souls from the mountain born, the human like kin of Giants, till none remained. Tribes of men, Elves , and dwarves were taken too, their souls dragged into her Dead Vault , as many came to call it, forever separated from the eternity they were due. Many chose to appease her, sate her cravings with regular sacrifice and worship, rather than risk being taken too. Temples were dedicated to names like the Yellow Angel, the Soul Shrike, The Drowned Maiden, and simple the Goddess of Death. Scores of living sacrifices marched to their end at these blasphemous sites and sometimes their goddess would grant a small morsel of power in return, sometimes her only gift was to spared the same fate as those made into offerings.
These predations of hers soon put her into conflict with others of dragonkind. For a time she would yield to them, not strongest enough to fight them physically. She would have to make her own offerings to these greater dragons - riches, territory, or the birthing of scions all being traditional tithes among these grand creatures. Demeaning as it was, it granted her the time she needed to further meditate upon the shadow energy and reach her apex. Unfortunately, the souls within her Dead Vault could only push her so high, she needed more. She needed dragons. And so, one by one, she would creep into the dens of lesser dragons. Snatching eggs at first and then wyrmlings, each soul granting her enough might to feed on greater prey next. Soon it was she receiving deference from other dragons, taking slaves or eggs as tribute. She avoided the ire of the greatest of her kind while preying entirely upon the meek. An annoyance to the great old wyrms to be sure but this was the way of their kind, strength above all else. This attitude would shift when she claimed one among their number as well.
A monumental effort on Stryxis' part, involving the coordination of many of mortal supplicants and dominated lesser dragons. They would succeed in subduing a great brass wyrm, exhausting it and staking it to the earth so that their goddess could tear the old beast's soul free. This new source of energy within her Dead Vault would artificially evolve her, propelling Stryxis to great wyrm status herself. Soon, the landscape of Tairos was overtaken by conflict. The mortal races had never witnessed the death of great wyrm before and legend quickly spread of a topaz-scaled savior who would unshackle them from dragon dominion. Many would pledge to serve her and fight against those that would defend the oppressor dragons. The carnage these battles left behind served the goddess well, for blood-soaked battlefields were the perfect place to refill her Dead Vault.
Her only mistake in this campaign of terror was allowing her ambition to exceed her grasp. She should never have looked to the south with hungry eyes.

Shadows Fall

South of the Balmoran Plains Stryxis would find something irresistible to her, a gathering of mortal tribes that outnumbered anything she'd ever seen. The rest of the continent was dotted with small pockets of civilization spread thin across its vastness but here, in the south, they gathered together in fledgling cities. These mortals all shared a faith, the belief in a lord of light known most commonly as the Golden God. Stryxis herself looked upon this work and saw it for what she thought it was, the vanity project of another great wyrm, Azuras.
Much like Stryxis meditated upon darkness to find her power, Azuras spent time contemplating the stars. Unfortunately she was ignorant to her new enemy's study. Where she managed to find a shortcut to the apotheosis into great wyrm, Azuras found ascension into something beyond dragon.
The accounts of what followed do not exist north of the Balmoran Plains. None were left to write them. What remains are pieces of early history, written by The Empire of Skyrir. Their foundation is built upon these early purges and pogroms. There is a chapter within surviving copies of the Golden God's holy book that seems to speak of Stryxis' end rather clearly:

Azhiryak watched as the Sun descended upon the kingdom of darkness, boiling away that which it touched. He watched as Night thrashed and raged, unable to comprehend how her shadows so deep and eternal were as nothing but wisps vanishing in dawn's light. He bore witness as the Sun grasped the Night by its throat and shared with it the revelation of gold. Darkness, in the face of dawn can do nothing but melt before it.

— Except from the Golden Path, holy book of Skyrir

The exact truth of her undoing will likely never be know. Her tribes were wiped clean from the continent and their settlements erased. Her dragons were slain or exiled from Tairos' shores like the rest of their kind. What seems to be clear though, by all accounts, is that it was easy.
However; much like the metaphor in The Golden Path, no matter how easy it is to dispel darkness, it always finds purchase in the places light cannot shine. Stryxis' essence could not be scattered or moved on like the souls of others. Instead, it would gather bit by bit like condensation on a window pane, coalescing on the other side of the veil between life and death. Without and body and thus severed from her connection to the Dead Vault, she slumbered, haunting the realm of the dead while dreaming of Tairos.

Shadows Loom

Something would stir this phantom from its restless sleep though, a sudden flood of cancerous mana thanks to The Queen's Rebuke. These entropic energies were almost identical to the shadow power she was born with and for the first time in untold centuries stirred awake. Stryxis found the veil thin and the realm of the dead flush with lost souls struggling to move into the afterlife. They were like water begging to seep through a clogged pipe and she slaked her thirst hungrily upon them. From each soul plucked she learned more about what had happened to Tairos while she slept. Most importantly, she learned how fragile it had become and how its Leylines teetered on the edge of total collapse. With the right nudging they could be made to burst and drown the living world in death energy.
If only she had her body again and its means of harvesting Tairos' passing.
It took her centuries to gather her strength, feeding upon souls in the realm of the dead one at a time, before she was able to cross into the living world once more. She was ghost now, unseen, hollow, and hungry. Yet even in this ephemeral state she was able to access her greatest weapon, her mind. While much of Tairos had changed mortals remained the same fearful and weak things she was used to manipulating. The right promises, the right offerings of power and gifts, even the right soothing words, was all it took to begin her cult anew. These new zealots had to be believe they were more than supplicants though. Since her time the only thing that had changed with mortals is the appetite their egos had. They were not content to be the servant of deity, no, they needed to be told they were saviors and members of valued court. While the notion sickened her non-existent stomach it was the price she had to pay.
She became the patron savior to the Faceless Court, her most precious disciples. She taught them to abandoned their former selves in favor of total devotion to a cause, to bringing back a god to a godless world. One who could shield them from all the death and hopelessness they were surrounded by every day. One that could connect them to the loved ones they had lost. One that could bring purpose and order to a life of such constant chaos. The con was the same as it always was, one she was an expert at running, but the only difference here is the rubes needed to feel special. Disgusting as the idea was to her, she would carve off pieces of her power and invent them into key mortals. They saw miracles similar to what was written of in the holy books of the dead gods and this was proof of their new goddess' promise.
Now, she uses her sycophantic court of mortals to gather her bones together. Dragon bones are notoriously difficult to destroy, even by magic or the march of time. They roam the land seeking out each and every fragment of her remains, piecing them back together one by one, and preparing for the ritual to breath life into them once more. They call this effort the New Day, a turn of phrase that Stryxis finds rather revolting, and their work is nearing completion. Much of her skeleton has been reassembled, only a few vital pieces remain unaccounted for. Once gathered and with the proper bloody ritual she can live again and restore her connection to the Dead Vault. Should that come to pass Tairos will once again be home to a great wyrm and no single power left in the land can compete with such a being. She would be free to wrench open the damaged leylines and drown the lands in death. While the consumption of such a vast amount of mortal life would serve her well the true prize is the soul of an entire living world. With it she believes she could transcended dragonkind entirely and become a grim mirror to the sun who cast her down... the evening star.

Stryxis' Phantasmal Form

Topaz Ghost by Steven Bellshaw

Holy Books & Codes

Stryxis doesn't care if her underlings create religious texts about her but she has no interest in writing them herself or formalizing a religion around their use

Divine Symbols & Sigils

In ancient times her follows carried banners with a yellow skull encircled by a boney tail. Today, she tries to keep her presence in Tairos a secret and avoids the use of symbols entirely

Divine Goals & Aspirations

Her followers believe it is the culmination of the New Day and freeing them from all the death they're surrounded by. Her true goal is just to eat them all and them consume Tairos so that it may fuel her own ascension

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

In life Stryxis was generally smaller than dragons of a similar age category. Once she forced herself into great wyrm status her size quickly grew to reflect that, making her larger than almost all other dragons save for other great wyrms whom she was still smaller than.

Special abilities

Like most of her kind in life she possessed numerous awe-inspiring abilities. One notable power not seen among others though is her ability to slip in and out of the realm of the dead, allowing her instant transmission from one point to another. This has aided her greatly in combats with her kind that she'd of otherwise lost.
Additionally, Stryxis has an unusually long tail that ends she's rather adept at wielding, especially when exiting her jump through the realm of the dead.
Finally, unlike most dragons, she has a venomous bite. It can cause a debilitating injury that is very resistant to healing. This withering effect quickly worsens and upon death the victim rises as undead, specifically one infected with Stryxian Undeath

Mental characteristics

Education

Stryxis' education comes primarily from her innate connection to shadow energy. This force seems capable of sharing its secrets with her if she probes its depths hard enough

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Return to life, choke the living energy from Tairos and devour it, then ascend to a higher form

Savvies & Ineptitudes

Stryxis is particularly good at appealing to the needs of those who are hurting. She understands their hunger for retribution or the hollowness left inside them by the loss of a loved one.

Likes & Dislikes

She has always preferred sunken places and the depths of watery places, seeking them out when possible. Operating in daylight has never been her ideal, the brightness strains her sensitive eyes

Vices & Personality flaws

Stryxis' greatest flaw was being blinded by success. It remains unknown if she has learned any lessons from her previous downfall or not

Social

Religious Views

From what Stryxis knows of the gods she finds them weak, bound by rules she sees as chains of their own making. She also finds their reliance on the worship of lesser beings to be repugnant, trading adoration for guardianship. Mortals are to be used and consumed, not treated with.

Hobbies & Pets

She sees many forms of undead as playthings, entertainment, and as pets.

Speech

The voice her words take when appearing in the minds of others is feminine in tone, usually sounding soft whispery, and with a small amount of fry. Most would describe it as inviting and even seductive.

Divine Classification

Near-God/Patron

Alignment

Neutral Evil

Current Status

A phantom that, with considerable effort, can briefly manifest

Species

Dragons

Conditions

• Stryxian Undeath

Church/Cult

The Faceless Court

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Goddess of Death, the Yellow Angel, the Soul Shrike, the Evening Star

Circumstances of Death

Killed by Azuras

Sex

Female

Eyes

Orange, usually fuming with green energy as well

Hair

None tough topaz crystals dance along her spine

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Topaz

Height

114 Feet Long

Weight

450,000

Aligned Organization

The Faceless Court

Known Languages

Like all her kind, her words are able to enter the minds of those around her and be understood.