Ina'ut (een-aut)
The Uncaring King of the Sunken Expanse
Author's Note: Ina'ut's history is generally divided into three major chapters, of which this is the central article.
- For his first chapter as an extraplanar warlord, Lichlord and colonial demigod, see the full article on his mortal identity: Inum'indiron'aravaut.
- For his third and modern chapter as the monstrous 'god in hiding' of the Sunken Expanse, see the full article on Ina'ut-in-Mourning.
What happens if he stumbles?
Ina'ut is the Material demigod of oceans, water, darkness, depths, stasis, insanity and secrets long buried. Once a more active god in Material affairs, the being is now a frightening and distant creature residing in the darkest depths of the Sunken Expanse.
He is a mysterious god who seemingly vanished after the Deluge, causing massive upheaval in his church. Worshippers of Ina'ut who were spared drowning by the Deluge nonetheless drowned in madness. Most simply expired in fits of screaming and cardiac arrest. His more powerful clerics and empyreal sorcerers survived, but descended into madness-prophecy, eventually fleeing society in all directions. These adherents insist Ina'ut is still there, albeit now a being that is deeper, darker and more powerful. They whisper of things no surface race has any right knowing.
In his current, solitary, bestial state, he is sometimes referred to as Ina'ut-in-Mourning. This is generally regarded to be the third of three historical "chapters" of his godhood, the second being his role as the mainstream, planar god of oceans and the first as a Colonial Lichlord. Ina'ut's name is a shortening of his full, mortal name: Inum'indiron'aravaut.
Ina'ut's name is the root of the word 'nautical'.
Ina'ut's current alignment is True Neutral. His alignment as a First Age Lichlord was likely Lawful Evil.Appearance & Heraldry
See also: Ina'ut, Ishka'ri and Tsuna'am Image Gallery (External)Worship
Only a few worshippers of Ina'ut remain, and all are mad prophets living in hiding. They enjoy silence most of all, as the mad god's ramblings are already too much to bear. As the Godhead of the Kelpeater Empire, Ina'ut ran a thriving church-empire in the First Age. Lower-ranking clerics were called Favoured, the mid-ranking called Hierophants and high priests called Apostles. His mortal swords were known as the Ishka'ri of the God-Emperor, and his empyreal sorcerers were known as Tsuna'ams.Domains
Inau't's primary domain is Water. His secondary domains are Knowledge, Secrecy, Might, Sorrow, Darkness and Void.Favoured Weapon
Ina'ut's favoured weapon is the great halberd. His Relic halberd is called Verethra'agna.History
Antiquity
"Ina'ut" is actually a shortening of Inum'indiron'aravaut, a combination of name and title. He was once a Lichlord originally from the plane of Lorgain. Even before learning the secrets of Voidwalking and leaving his home plane, Lichlord Ina'ut was a cunning, ruthless and extremely powerful shaman, arcanist and corsair, especially adept in the arts of hydromancy due to his nomadic-oceanic upbringing among the Ula'thau'la or "Kelpeater" Peoples of the Gyre Islands. In this role he was often called the Šar'šara'ani ("Lord of Lords") or the Reiver King.
Under Inum'indiron'aravaut's rule, the Kelpeater Empire became a feared player in the Egwithian power balance. They were fierce and skilled nautical reivers, combining their emperor's cleverness as a warlord with exceptional shipcraft and a natural hardiness innate in Ula'thau'la. However the subtleties of diplomacy and politics evaded the Reiver King, and eventually too many other players united against him. With his entire nation facing genocide or assimilation, Ina'ut did something drastic.
Void Travel
Having learned the secrets of planar travel from the imprisoned ghost of a dead archmage, the God-Emperor of the Kelpeaters made a startling declaration: the nation would emigrate to a new plane. Those who joined him would risk peril to find paradise. Those who remained to beg for mercy would be remembered as cowards and traitors in the new era.
Most chose to stay on Lorgain. Nonetheless, tens of thousands remained with their emperor, and the resulting diaspora pillaged their way across the multiverse until eventually arriving at the verdant plane of Waking Materia. The Lichlord's arrival would mark Year Zero of the First Age, by the reckoning of modern Material Yasnan Calendar.The First Age
The Lichlord's new kingdom, which he dubbed Alanthan'aravaut (lit: "Promise Upheld" in the Kelpeater tongue), thrived. He ruled unquestioned from his unfathomably large ziggurat-palace for over three hundred years, worshipped as the Material demigod of oceans, water, provision, authority and might.
But Ina'ut could not escape his past as easily as the Author can summarize it, and the peace Alanthan'aravaut experienced was not to last. In building his previous empire on Lorgain, the Reiver King made many enemies. Some were political rivals, mainly other Lorganite Lichlords who outmaneuvered him politically. But for every political rival, Ina'ut's empire had created tens of thousands of displaced and brutalized citizens, and some were bent on revenge. The most storied of these heroes were the weapon master Emeliat Reis and the arch-illusionist Merlinkainen, famed adventurers on Egwain and eventually founding members of the Insurgent Gods of Early Materia. They discovered the secrets to Voidwalking in a dream-memory of Ina'ut's library, and after some interplanar stumbling, met and befriended other planar travelers who would join their cause.
The First Age of Materia is generally defined by the wars between the Insurgent Gods and the Colonial Gods, including Ina'ut and the the Kelpeater Empire. The arrival of the Kelpeaters marks Year Zero of the First or Intra-Meranthic Age (0 I.M. on Materia's Yasnan Calendar), with the Insurgent Gods arriving about 40 I.M..
The arrival of the Second, New Rozsan Empire, to whom the Kelpeaters were generally hostile, would mark the beginning Middle First Age, generally thought to be about 600 I.M..The Šaru'um
By this time, Ina'ut was the Šar'šara'ani ("Lord of Lords") over a group of lesser Lichlords known as Šaru'um (Great Lords). For more on the Šaru'um, see the full article on the Lichlords.First Apotheosis
Inum'indiron'aravaut would grow even more powerful but politically distant as centuries passed, eventually becoming worshipped as the Material God of oceans and water, Ina'ut. This transformation, from an involved God-Emperor to a more distant, apolitical diety, is sometimes called his "First Apotheosis". Due to the the Deluge's mass destruction of books, artifacts and other relics of the First Age, few modern Materians are aware of the water god's origins as an ancient lich-king.
Second Apotheosis
Ina'ut's Second Apotheosis would transform him into the monstrous, lurking thing known as Ina'ut-in-Mourning. Though there is no confirmed connection to the Deluge, both events appear to have happened more or less simultaneously, based on the violent losses of sanity amongst his clergy during the catastrophe. Though it may seem obvious to blame the God of Oceans for the Deluge, his followers may simply have felt the event more intensely than other surfacers. If his oracles know the answer, they are too insane to reveal it coherently.
INA'UT
Godhood
Ascendant Lichlord (First Age)
Planar deity of the oceans (Second-Modern Age) Alignment
TN Domains
Water, Knowledge, Secrecy, Might, Sorrow, Darkness, Void Favoured Weapon
Great Halberd Relic Weapon
Verethra'agna
Illus. Yoshitaka Amano
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