Ghaotz

Ghaotz was the first being in the Everian Creation Myth. No one knows where she came from, but one day she created three others: Xilios, Vumir, and Dophine.

Ghaotz represents a power-hungry villain, bent on razing the world to the ground and starting again in her own image. So she was dragged from her home and center of power at Mt. Udis, and locked beneath the Mountain in the center of the Living Lands. She has remained there for the last five hundred years, waiting to be freed and to regain her power from her thieving children.

by sunnybirdboi via MidJourney

All things go to her in death, but it is not enough to fuel her escape. She managed to get a Message to a devotee a few decades ago, and her power has been slowly building again ever since. All her followers know is that something will happen on the five hundredth anniversary of the Sealing.

Depictions

Ghaotz is taught as a goddess of destruction and death. She wishes to bring the world to an end, and wants to use an army of undead to instate chaos. While the Everian Council and country portrays her as a dark goddess, clawed and fanged, followers paint her as an icon of justice, with scales often featured. Blacks, deep greens, and deep reds are all common colors for her worship, and both life and death play equal parts in her worship.

Temples & Followers

There have been small cults since the Sealing, but they started to grow serious around the time of the Rising's birth, in the early 470s - on the Everian Calendar. When the Message was heard in 476 P.C., the cult became a religion again, gathering followers from the high and low ranks of society. Most of the remaining Ghaotz worship comes from within the traditions of the old families.

There’s also rumors of an old temple of Ghaotz being rebuilt at Mt. Udis, but nothing confirmed. Other than that, all temples of Ghaotz were destroyed after she was chained. There have been a few instances over the last twenty years of people trying to rebuild or create new temples, but they always seem to end up destroyed right as they get close to finishing it.

Holidays

Those who follow Ghaotz celebrate the last three days of Stelors not as Ghaotz’s loss, but as her promised return. They also celebrate All Hallow’s on Uxam 1st as a day to celebrate those who have achieved true balance in having both lived and died, and Gixiius 28th, the last day of the year, not as Bond’s Day with Vumir, but as the day of Year’s Death and rebirth.

MAIN TEACHINGS

• Chaos is the true state of being, and achievement leads to enlightenment.
• Death is a natural progression, and should never be avoided.
• Destruction must come from creation.
• Chaos is natural, order is personal weakness.

by sunnybirdboi via MidJourney

This painting can be found on the cave wall inside the Temple at Mount Udis. Created centuries ago when the Temple was still active, the paint is now cracked and peeling, adding to the destructive image of the Goddess of Death.