Irashi, also known as the God of Wheels, is a major god in Hazeron. Her domains are industry, strength, love, and hate. Her symbol is often depicted as a wheel with either a heart or a skull at the center.
Description
Appearance
Irashi generally takes the form of a tall, powerful woman dressed in resplendent red and white robes, usually with a giant, slowly turning wheel affixed to her back. Sometimes, she takes his form with a large skull for a head. Irashi has taken multiple forms in the past in order to entice others.
Personality
Irashi is adamant, selfish, and authoritative. She believes that she is the supreme being that should be worshiped by all. She is also known to be a ceaseless romantic, courting mortals she finds intriguing, and unleashing her fury on those that scorn her. Irashi's hatred never fades once earned.
Influence
Irashi is a goddess that forces entire kingdoms to kneel before her, wishing to convert the world into one nation forged under unending adoration. Irashi believes this to be her right to do so. However, her power is highly dependent on those that are loyal to her; if at any given time there are few people under influence, her power will greatly diminish.
Other than the worship of herself, Irashi teaches her followers to exert their full effort in all aspects of their lives, doing their part to turn the Wheel. She adores those with burning passion, and often seeks to adopt those with strong hearts and minds into her fold, sending her followers out to twist their minds and turn their adoration.
Divine Relationships
Irashi is generally known to be antagonistic towards the other gods, as the beliefs she enforces onto her followers leave no room for the worship of other gods. Irashi herself does not believe that the other gods are in fact gods, just obstacles preventing her from claiming what she believes to be rightfully hers.
Even still, her romantic nature has led her to take other god-like beings a partners from time to time; notably, she once courted the god Durzick, and their brief and passionate affair resulted in a massive war that wiped out a number of civilizations. Irashi will often send her followers to harass and defile temples and shrines to Durzick across the world. She also houses a particular disdain for Fectovarano, believing him to be delusional about his own hubris. The two have engaged in multiple wars throughout their times as gods.
The most hated by Irashi, however, is Yerakessh. Yerakessh represents the spirit of rebellion and freedom, and has ruined Irashi's plans on multiple occasions.
Belief and Systems
Irashi is a lawful evil god. She does not pity the weak, and believes that they must be culled in order to form greater and stronger worlds. She believes in the power of industry and the importance of creation and progress, as well as the ability of mortals to achieve great things under her rule. Irashi wishes to unite the world in worship of her, eventually leading to a great age of unparalleled growth and power.
Irashi teaches to love intensely and hate intensely. All your emotion should be poured into your work. All peoples are part of a beautiful wheel, and with each rotation you move closer to enlightenment. Rotten wood and rusty spokes must be replaced for the wheel to function at full capacity, moving forward into the future of humanity.
In a more whimsical nature, Irashi loves to play matchmaker with her preferred mortals, and has been known to meddle in the relationships of people, setting individuals together that might bear strong offspring, or driving apart those that she deems unfit for each other. Those that pray to Irashi with extreme devotion and passion may find their pleas for love answered by the goddess, though the nature of how such prayers are answered can be unpredictable.
Pacts
Irashi can offer blessings of magic, but many receive boons of strength and power, augmenting what they already possess. Irashi prefers those who are unyieldingly devoted to her, those who possess incredible strength, and the passionate. Her special magic can create connections between people, augmenting their power through their bonds.
Devotees
To worship Irashi is to accept absolute rigidity in life, and resolve to give every effort of your strength. Those who worship Irashi believe that working to exhaustion brings them closer to their goddess. Irashi is generally worshiped by communities or entire kingdoms, rather than specific types of people.
Worship of Irashi spreads like a virus. Those who become devoted to her usually experience an overwhelming urge to introduce her worship to others, often aided by magical scripture that can alter the thought process, making people susceptible to suggestion. From small communities, the "plague" will spread to towns, cities, and whole nations if it isn't stopped at an early stage. The nation of Betaria, once a free land, was converted into a ruthless dictatorship at the hands of the devotees of Irashi.
In particularly advanced stages, Irashi herself may manifest in an avatar of war, leading her people into battle against those that defy her.
Commandments
- Irashi is the sole subject of all worship, and the only god. Anything else is blasphemy.
- All practices should be carried out with overwhelming passion and absolute power. The world has no need of the weak and weary.
- Rest does not move the wheel forward. You must improve, adapt, and conquer.
Legends
Turning Prayer
Devotees will often recite this prayer while pursuing their work:
May the goddess protect me from the illness of weakness
So that I may be the oil on the spoke of the Great Wheel
Let not the temptations of rest and play invade my mind
As I form my body into a palace for my devotion
For these demons are a rust and rot upon the Great Wheel
And I would die before I burden her grand designs
A version of this prayer is often recited as a joke by those mocking the goddess and her devotees, as follows:
May the goddess protect me from the illness of weakness
So that I may oil myself as I dream of her "Great Wheel"
Let not the temptations of rest and play invade my mind
As I devote myself to contemplating her body and form
For I wish to "rust" and "rot" on her "Great Wheel"
And I will likely die soon anyways