Cephiran



Name: Cephiran, the Inevitable Reaper, Keeper of Souls, Guardian of the Dead.

Pantheon: The Solar Pantheon

Domains: Fate (Death), Law (Inevitability)

Cephiran is the God of Inevitability and Death. It is he who created the Axiomatic Reapers, who guide souls from the world of the living to the afterlife. Cephiran's domain is called the Elysian Plains, a bleak landscape bordered by impossibly tall mountains. Above the Elysian Plains floats a gigantic city, known as the Shimmering City. It is here that the Court of Bones resides, in the center of the Shimmering City.

Cephiran has met one god whom he cannot stand, The Neverborn. The Neverborn was... is a diety, who shouldn't be alive, but is. Neither dead nor living, Cephiran is uneasy about his existance, as such a thing defies the law he was created to enforce. Because of this, Cephiran has decreed that his reapers shall hunt and destroy any creatures that Cephiran classes as "Unliving", or "Undying". Such beings currently include: Ghosts.

The Elysian Plains are in a state of perpetual twilight, and the sun never shines, nor does the sky darken. It is this way because of a jealous god's curse upon his Reapers, when the light of day touches them, they are powerless.

Cephiran was created by Etu-Achak, the God of the Sun. His purpose was to safeguard the law of reality, that death comes to all. To perform his duty, Cephiran created the Elysian Plains, and the Axiomatic Reapers. As soon as he had begun, he unwittingly offended several other gods by taking the souls of their creations and placing them in his afterlife. Chiefly, two gods were offended most, Nomnipitus, and Skizziks, the Rat Queen. In a vicious attack on the Elysian Plains, Skizziks sent her exarch, known as Skizzik's Mate, to the Elysian Plains, where he rallied the ratfolk souls, and mutated many of them into fiendish monstrousities known as Kolftar. The Kolftar soared to the Shimmering City on tattered wings, and scythed down many of the souls that had been placed there. Only the intervention of Cephiran himself stopped the invasion, though many Axiomatic Reapers and souls were lost to the attack.

Cephiran at the same time, made a pact with the Coatls, giving them a lenient judgement, allowing their race into the Shimmering City nearly unconditionally. In exchange, the Coatls would serve the Pantheon of the First King, and fight to protect the laws of reality.

The Coatls struck out at the Ratfolk before Cephiran had time to negotiate with the Rat Queen. In doing so, they roused the ghosts of the dead Ratfolk who escaped Cephiran, and these drew the attention of the Axiomatic Reapers. The Reapers descended upon the city of Skizzblight like locusts, hunting down and scything through ghosts as they could. Cronos, the Avatar of Cephiran, was sent in, with an offering of peace to the Rat Queen. In exchange for peace, Cephiran would relinquish all Ratfolk souls he held sway over.