Ruins And Royalty

Elarus, The God of Daylight - Chp 9 Part 2

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. A blazing sphere, life-giver and eternal sentinel, held as if in the careful grasp of a deity. From dawn to dusk, he carries its light across the world, and as the sun surrenders to the moon, so too does he vanish beneath the horizon.

Elarus, God of Daylight, stood supreme among the divine, the first born of his kind, commanding both reverence and awe among his siblings. He reigned alongside his eldest sister, Edria, Goddess of Atlas, and the pantheon of other celestial siblings.

He held dominion over the sun’s cycle, coaxing it from slumber as the moon retreated beneath the crust of the earth, breathing life into each new day with the freshness of morning air.

The radiance that surrounded him rivaled the brilliance of his long, golden hair, the honeyed depths of his eyes, and the sun-kissed perfection of his features. Bow-shaped lips, a jawline sharp enough to cleave diamonds. A crown of radiant sunbeams hovered above his flowing tresses, casting halos of light.

In his hand, he carried a staff, its ends curling and spinning around a miniature sun, a symbol of his control over the celestial fire. Draped across his sculpted frame was a himation of pearl-white silk, embroidered with a geometric pattern of gold along the edges. The cloth swept over his left shoulder, tracing the contours of his torso before cascading just above his knee, while the opposite end draped from his back across his forearm, hanging elegantly as he moved.

Elarus possessed a power unlike any other among the gods: he could breathe life back into a mortal body. When a human died, their soul was claimed by the God of Death, a deity of darkness and night. Yet if a death occurred during the day, the soul remained trapped, wandering the earth until nightfall, when the God of Death could finally collect it. It was then that Elarus could intervene, swallowing the wandering specter and returning it to its original body. If, and only if, that body remained intact and capable of functioning. Missing organs, or a severed head, rendered the body uninhabitable, forcing the soul to linger until a proper vessel could be found.

But this gift came at a perilous cost. Any soul restored owed its existence to Elarus, creating a tenuous and dangerous tension with the God of Death himself.

His eyes mirrored the sun’s own fury, irises bursting with fiery light, like solar flares captured in human form. To meet them was to court annihilation; any mortal foolhardy enough to stare into his gaze would have their eyes scorched, melting away from their skulls in agony. After countless tragic accidents, Elarus withdrew from the world, veiling himself from visitors and hanging silken drapes to shield others from the lethal brilliance of his sight.

Yet, beneath this fearsome exterior, Elarus was tender-hearted and compassionate. Loved by both mortals and deities alike, he offered guidance and solace to those in need. Still, his kindness came paired with lethal consequence: a glance too bold could mean certain death.

The weight of lives lost, innocents and the unwary alike, gnawed at him, until one day he sought the counsel of a trusted friend: the Goddess of Night. Trembling, he asked her to gouge his own eyes, declaring he would rather live blind than continue bearing the responsibility for the deaths of mortals and gods alike.

Azure was the only deity capable of meeting his gaze, for she ruled over darkness itself. Yet even she could not endure the searing brilliance of his eyes; as her fingers drew near, they blistered and smoked from the intensity. Seeing the danger, she gifted him a silken veil of night to wear as a blindfold, shielding the world, and himself, from the lethal radiance that poured from his eyes.

Elarus, grateful, returned the favor, offering her a fragment of his light from his staff. With it, she shaped the first moon and stars, casting them into the heavens to adorn the night. At last, he could mingle safely among others, though he longed to witness the splendor of the mortal world, the forests, valleys, mountains, flowers, and people that teemed with life.

One day, wandering through a mortal forest, he was captivated by the singing of the Goddess Namalne and the melodies of the birds. Tempted beyond reason, he removed his blindfold for but a fleeting glance. The consequences were immediate and catastrophic: rays of unbridled light ignited the forest, sending flames roaring through the trees. The destruction was immense, leaving both mortals and gods aghast.

The deities of Atlas were far from impressed, especially his sister, Edria, the Goddess of Atlas. Though Elarus was beloved among the pantheon, the punishment was severe. In a single moment, he had razed a forest and, unwittingly, introduced fire to humankind. A gift that would carry both awe and terror for generations to come.

As punishment, his sister Edria banished him to the highest floating rock, a solitary perch far removed from all life. There, he was forbidden to leave his domain, cut off from both mortals and gods alike. Yet his duties as a supreme deity remained: he was still expected to attend conferences and councils, to lend his voice to the deliberations concerning Atlas and the mortal realm.

Though many deities were initially furious with him, not all agreed on the severity of the sentence. His three closest allies; Azure, Namalne, and Orbus, God of the Changing Seasons and Weather, pleaded for mercy, urging Edria to temper her judgment. In time, she relented, allowing him to leave his temple only when accompanied by another high-ranking god or goddess, though all visitors were strictly forbidden to prevent further catastrophes.

Even with this reprieve, Elarus chose isolation, weighed down by guilt for the lives lost and the destruction he had caused. It was during this time that a lesser god, Yvion, the Watcher, God of Sight, bestowed upon him an amulet. With it, Elarus could behold any scene he wished simply by speaking the name of its location, granting him a glimpse of the world he longed for, without endangering it, or himself.

The God of Daylight requested but a single favor from his sister, Edria: that he be allowed one visitor, and that visitor was to be Yvion, with whom he had grown particularly close. Edria consented, but on one strict condition; Yvion was to take full responsibility for his own life. Should he perish under the brilliance of Elarus’ solar-flare eyes, no blame could fall upon any god but himself.

The other deities accepted this arrangement, granting Yvion unrestricted access to the temple of the God of Daylight. He could come and go as he pleased. Over time, Elarus grew more comfortable leaving the temple occasionally, often accompanied by Azure, his high-ranking friend and Goddess of Night, or visiting other trusted allies. Yet he never set foot in the mortal realm again. As the years passed, he relied less on the amulet, content with the presence of Yvion and the occasional sanctioned outing.

In an act of trust, he later passed the amulet to Namalne, Goddess of Creativity and Song, during her imprisonment by Edria for defying the prohibition on visiting the mortal world.

Though Elarus bore few enemies, he remained at odds with his long-reigning sister, Edria, Goddess of all Atlas. Quietly, he began to conspire with other gods and goddesses, sowing the seeds of plans that might one day challenge her rule.