Diassei, Great Deity of Wealth

Diassei is a symbol for those who live off of what the land gives them - but also for the wealthy. This makes worship of her confusing, as her word is taken in many different tones and measures that change her meaning. In Dirys, this confused worship of the deity has contributed to the large class divide. Whatever the clarity of her words, however, there are some who believe they are not Diassei’s words at all… Those people seem to believe that Diassei has been silenced by the other deities, but most do not believe such a thing.

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Following the birth of Fiorre and Paiia’s relegation to “watcher-of-mists”, Paiia was angry. She had been angry many times before, but this was a completely new anger. It had no output. All of the war that had once decorated the planet was wiped out by the era of peace that Fiorre and Veira had created. There was an imbalance in the world, a lack of evil, and Paiia would fill it.

She determined that if Veira was strong enough to create a new deity, she would be as well. The two were equal, born to the same mothers at the same time, born to keep one another in check. Fayana and Moann had forgotten the importance of balance, but Paiia would ensure they would remember it when she was through.

And so, Paiia began work on her own child. This child would be a creature of greed, wealth, and political power. It would ask for people to always wish to be better than their neighbor, even if it meant they would not be as well otherwise. It would ask for jealousy to be inherent in mortals - it would ask for all to desire riches even when there were not enough to share.

The being that she created was Diassei. Diassei was a rough-shod deity, rushed and made with hands that lacked the care the other Mothers had. Paiia only wished for an end to a means, not a child. This made Diassei ugly, by the standards of deities. But she was everything Paiia wished. Shallow, envious, greedy, selfish - and with a desire to make those around her feel the same. While Miynie’s birth stopped Paiia from finishing Diassei completely, it was good enough, Diassei lived.

After Miynie had been dealt with, Diassei began her reign over mortals. Suddenly, the scales were tipped back into balance. Two deities of peace, wisdom, and charity; two deities of power, selfishness, and greed. The wars began anew, and the world of peace was now finished. Diassei, much like her mother, could not settle for equal, however. Not when she saw how every other deity was so beautiful, and she was so rough, her face like a stone. She was jealous - as she had been made - and felt powerless among every older deity.

She examined each of them, learning how they had gotten to the power they had. She realized one integral thing about the strongest among them: They were the progenitors of a mortal race who worshipped them as their creator. Diassei wanted to be a creator, but there wasn’t much to create. She had filled mountains with glorious ores to inflict greed upon mortals, but every mountain, river, forest, and valley was already there. Even the land that Paiia had gifted to her was complete. She felt purposeless - and so she created the Shardmind.

Just as Paiia had rushed the creation of Diassei, so did Diassei rush the creation of the Shardmind. They were beings born out of the ore she had filled the rocks with, and looked as such. They had no way to speak, and had very little brains. They looked like humanoid, walking gemstones. She watched them for many years, expecting them to learn, grow, and evolve - but instead they mostly sat, unable to do anything but protect themselves. She hadn’t given them a need to eat, sleep, or breed. They were immortal creatures of rock.

Bored of her people, and frustrated at her failings, Diassei went to Paiia for advice. She asked what she could do to create something, and Paiia scolded her:

“You are my child. I did not make you to create. I made you to control mortals as I do. You are to inflict war, to show the weakness of mortals. Stop with this nonsense and do the work I have sent you to do.”

Unhappy with this response, Diassei allowed herself to fall from grace and joined her shardmind people. She was angry now, and her wrath knew no limits. She decided that if her creatures could not think by themselves, she would think for them. She touched them, and infused in them her own mind, allowing her to control each and every one of them: and she formed an army.

“If it is war my mother wishes of me, then it is war that I shall reign.”

This army of shardmind easily took over Dirys, which had begun to be organized and populated by a wide range of races. The shardmind killed and enslaved all who faced them, and became the new rulers. Then, they began to move into Muerte, and Liesdro. Soon they were on the seas, and by this time - the deities took notice.

Veira immediately blamed Paiia, who had certainly enticed these creatures to kill. She questioned Paiia why she had created creatures who could resist magic, and weapons, and who could not be reasoned with. Paiia wanted to argue with Veira, wanted to tell her sister that she reveled in mortal’s submitting to her willingly, but she stayed silent. She knew exactly the cause of this war - and it was indeed Paiia’s fault.

Paiia flew down to the mortal world, desperately looking for Diassei. She looked, and looked, and while it took her many months, she finally found her child holed up in a mountain, served by shardmind, and controlling each one of them. Paiia was taken aback at how mindless the creatures were, and was even more surprised when Diassei had them seize her. She attempted to fight them off, but the creatures easily resisted the tests of her fire, and Diassei’s own power managed to keep Paiia under some control. Diassei approached her mother and placed a collar around her neck - and suddenly, Paiia was subservient.

“Dear mother, you are now mine… We have a war to win.”

Now the shardmind had taken to the seas, with Diassei and Paiia at the helm of them. With another deity’s power, the forces of the shardmind grew in size, and they quickly overtook the northern kingdoms. There, beneath the coldest caves, Diassei found the sleeping form of Fiorre, and placed a collar on her, as well. The girl awoke for the first time in centuries, and followed Diassei.

Using Paiia’s powers, Diassei harnessed the strength of the volcanoes, and the draconic beasts that made their homes there. Using Fiorre’s, she summoned the wild icy storms of the North, and the freezing furred beasts that lived there as well.

Now, Diassei would take her fight to the heavens.

Finally understanding what in the world was happening in Fortuna, Veira gathered the other deities. Herself, Moann, Sriae, Khades, Fayana, and Temos, all descended from the heavens to meet with Diassei, and they warred endlessly.

The beasts of the north were the first to fall, but their frozen breaths were enough to subdue Fayana and Moann, whose waters froze and leaves went dry. Next the dragons were defeated, but they had already done enough to deal with the weak powers of Temos, Khades, and Sriae.

Veira fought powerfully against the three other deities, but could not bare to strike her own daughter. Her love for Fiorre was far too strong, so while she was able to subdue Paiia, Fiorre froze Veira’s winds to the bone and she fell with the others.

Diassei commanded Fiorre to take the six fallen deities to a place she had crafted deep in the mountains connecting Dirys and Muerte, a place she called “The Forge”. The location was build solely to contain deities against their will, a place where their powers would be numbed and they would be treated as mortals in every sense of the word. Diassei left Fiorre to watch over The Forge as she went to search for the other deities.

Ayniea was still in the form of a tree and completely harmless to Diassei, so she left her alone. Miynie was hiding somewhere among mortals, as she often did. Streike, on the other hand - was easy to find. Diassei placed her final weapon on her hand - The God Killer - and prepared to enter the Underworld. The God Killer was a gauntlet, with claws of a celestial metal only Diassei could have invented - and it was made specifically to steal immortality away from the immortal. Diassei descended into the Underworld alone, prepared to bring her own judgment down upon the being of judgment.

The defenses of the underworld sprang into action, but as swiftly and easily as one might sweep aside a piece of parchment from a desk, so were the forces pushed away by the God Killer, weapon of weapons. Into the heart of two of the judges went the gauntlet, pulling the life from within them. They were the first and only judges to have been killed in the history of the underworld. This was what began the legacy of the God-Killer. The ending of the life of the decision makers of death.

Streike, who had a separate set of plans of her own, was so deep in her alchemic studies that she had remained unaware of the break-in for a very long time. Not until Diassei came into her own personal chambers, the jaws of God Killer open, thirsty for the blood of a god. Streike was not pleased.

A short conversation took place between the two, and was chronicled by Streike in the Book of the Dead.

“Cousin Diassei, I have done nothing to you. I have not created in the way you have not created. I have not been worshipped in the way you have not been worshipped. You see yourself as a failure, and as ugly, yet you look upon me with eyes that I do not have, for mine are unable to see all but your actions. Why do you seek my blood?”

Diassei's mind had been so corrupted by her anger and hate she now only thought in absolutes, her own sense of right and wrong having long since evaporated. Streike was not her enemy, but she refused to allow herself see that.

“You are one of them.”

Diassei reached for the heart of Streike, but the goddess of death displayed a skill unseen in the other deities, a skill that could only have been mastered by someone dealing with the evil of all mortals. The God Killer connected with the chest of the goddess, moved in, and pulled out her living heart. But that was not the goddess. It was the duplicate that Miynie had created, and it’s death only served to fuel the already negative feelings Streike had for one so undisciplined and full of anger as Diassei.

Acting quickly, the webs of the dark powers of the underworld loosed God Killer from the hand of Diassei, leaving the now panicked and essentially helpless goddess attempting to escape. Without the God Killer in this place, she would surely die. Even had she been at her full power.

She was taken by Streike and the judges to a new home made for her and her alone, a place known as Ilias Morgul. Here, Diassei would remain imprisoned for all time, chained to the wall by a collar similar to that which she made, forgotten by time.

Meanwhile, Miynie had ensured that the other goddesses were released, and the control Diassei had on them removed. The deities all turned on Paiia, who was responsible for Diassei’s creation, but Veira stopped them all. Diassei’s actions were the responsibility of her alone. Paiia acting rashly in her creation, but Diassei had free will, just as any of them had.

In order to restore balance to the world, Veira and Miynie went to work. Veira touched the Shardmind, granting them wisdom and telepathy to allow them to think their own thoughts, and communicate with others despite not having mouths. Miynie on the other hand, created a massive illusion across the entire globe. The memory of all mortals of this war, and everything related to it, were covered in a thick fog. This period became know as “The Great Unknown”, and only the strongest diviners are said to be capable of seeing portions of this missing time…

In the dark caverns of Ilias Morgul, Diassei still remains. She is chained to the walls so tightly she may not even tilt her head forward. These chains, forged from the demon-fire of the underworld, have made it impossible for her to do anything but blink. The chains wrap around her body, her legs, her arms, her neck, even her forehead. Here she has been for centuries, and she is intended to remain for centuries more.

Once a year, with permission from Streike, Paiia is allowed to come into the underworld and cut Diassei. This single drop of her blood is poured into the earth, revitalizing it's minerals and giving the mortal beings on the surface the materials they need to advance themselves, and provide for their families. This provision continues the worship of Diassei - but as a goddess of wealth, and not a goddess who would kill her family.

Illias Morgul is a pitch black place, with not a shred of light. However, any denizen of the underworld who were to garther enough light to take with them into this room, and were to look into the eyes of Diassei would come across an interesting, yet frightening sight.

In her eyes, they would see the burning determination the goddess has to escape and take her vengeance. The hatred that has twisted her mind to the point of no recovery. And they will forever quake in thought of the day that Diassei will be free once more. For when that day comes, even the celestial beings will run and hide, for Diassei's eyes see no difference between enemies, and friends.