The Betrayed Outsider

"Wolf-friend, swift-footed, exulting with wild cries, O you who love hot blood, hear us."

A god much like Tittivilla and a patron of hunters, the wilds, and the beast and beastfolk that lived within it, this was the profile of Cerlaghnan. He was the one you prayed to in order to have safe travels in the woods and prayed to his wife should your prayers go unnoticed by him and you found yourself on the wrong side of an animal attack. Due to the vast nature of Vorovia him and Tittivilla were very popular. Too popular. Vorn was displeased at this popularity, yet could not risk attacking and attempting to kill the god himself, as he would never be able to disguise himself to avoid Cerlaghnan's perception and detection. So to ensure he was the only one in charge of the many cycles of Vorovia, he plotted and schemed. His wife the Lady of Rains whispered in the ears of Cerlaghnan and her words sweet like honey convinced him where to stage a demonstration of power against Vorn. Who knows better how to undermine her despotic husband than an unpleased queen? Then Vorn had sent his child, a child that had remained secret to the world up until now, the Traitor-god Falstaer, to take the blade of Imberius hidden beneath his cloak and stab Cerlaghnan through the moss-covered and woodbound heart. So it was done, the light of the full moon the only witness to his crime. As Falstaer regret what he had done, slaying a majestic beast and feral intelligence, he returned to his father to continue the cycle and plunge the blade through his heart. What Falstaer could not have anticipated, was how difficult it truly was to kill a god, especially one that was not used to being mere prey. Cerlaghnan felt his life fading and leaving his frame, the burning metal of Imberius scarring him. His muscles and sinew deteroriating. As he lay dying, with the last vestiges of strength he saw the moon. A thief. A parasite. Stealing the sun's light as its own. So he too would thieve.

From the moon he stole its light and magic, allowing him to steal back the life that he had been so robbed of, preserving him in this state of decay and undeath. This ritual gave him strength, the metal Vorn had used to attempt and slay him could no longer hurt him. So he laughed. A burning rasping, bellow that all beasts feared. The forest had grown quiet. The animals knew their lord had died. Cerlaghnan was no more, and a new being was born on that night, Ixthagepis, Lord of Unlife and Unjust slayings. He sought to usurp the cycles that had led to his demise. An anarchist. He was obligated to be so, a paradox, obligated to break rules and rituals. Tittivilla took the role of her fallen husband, not being able to consider Ixthagepis her husband, as he was not the same being. He had been irrevocably changed. Some say the lycanthropes of Vorovia were born from the beasts that drunk the silvered blood of Ixthagepis on that night, spreading their curse to be a plague on hunters who wished to kill them. Ixthagepis is associated with the undead and is reviled in polite society for bringing the improperly buried back to life. He is also associated with Lycanthropes and the oppressed beastfolk, viewed as further breakings of the cycles of nature. Ixthagepis has a multitude of forms. The large bestial deer thing that howls to let the gods and mortals know where they dare not tread. The shadowy figure on the edge of the firelight that you swear was just there before turning to view it is also Ixthagepis, watching for those who stray too far from the guiding light to steal them, or their children. Ixthagepis is viewed as both CE and LE. His symbol is a deer skull with one broken antler. He has no dedicated clergy in Vornheim, as such would be anathema to Vorn.