Revision as of 05:14, 26 February 2003

One of Avendar's three most powerful deities, Ashur often appears as an immensely powerful dragon, or an immensely powerful templar. Little is known of the worship of Ashur, other than the fact that he is presently not accepting followers.

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The subject of Tzet-Askhari's motivations could be the subject of volumes of philosophical treatises.

Without a doubt, his intellect is the most alien and enigmatic of the Three, and he seems to have the least connection of any of the leading deities directly with the mortals of Avendar.

It is known that He (for lack of a better term) existed at Avendar's creation, but was mildly disturbed by Iandir's creation of the inorganic matter of Avendar, and livid at the creation of living things.

The presumption is that Ashur felt that organic life, or even matter, was an unsightly mar on a perfect, void creation, empty of all save the Thought of the divine. It is also possible that Ashur had a completely different version of the prime material in mind, and is dissatisfied with Iandir and Jolinn's creation of a (possibly imperfect) reality. As a refinement of this idea, it is also possible that Ashur views *Himself* as the ultimate standard of perfection, and wishes that the entire multiverse should exist only as a reflection of his own mind. That it *does not* might be the ultimate sort of aesthetic tragedy to Ashur.

Iandir and Jolinn would argue, of course, that no version of a material universe would ever be perfect, and there effort is the 'best possible' to them. Or, perhaps they acted out of a fear that if the Prime were left vacant and unfilled, the forces of mindless chaos would have brought matter into existence spontaneously, free of any rational moral or physical law, destroying the canvas on which they hoped to create.

Regardless of their reasons (legitimate or otherwise), Ashur's reaction was to take up residence in the abstract elemental plane most like his own primordial universe, and make it his own. Of particular note were the demonic life forms, which Ashur created very near the dawn of time (even so close as an eyeblink following the true creation in the Prime). While it is a popular conception that the demons exist in mockery of true life, this is not precisely the case. It is more correct to say that Ashur created them as an answer to the aesthetic plague that is mortal life. Whether or not they are 'more' perfect in his mind (or absolutely) perfect is something that only Ashur knows. It is telling, however, that the more mortalkind who turn to dark, evil ways in Avendar, the more souls, on average, which gravitate to resonance with the Void. (Souls destined for more chaotic planes are destroyed, or useless to Ashur anyway!) One might even view the Void as a great mechanism, for turning the essential 'wrongness' of the Prime (which is the fact it is suffused with life, and more importantly, spirit) into a more manageable, and tractable form. Souls or mortals who come to the Void are made more demonic, or used up in demonic pursuits. Demonkind who come to Avendar tend to strive to make it more like the Void -- more in keeping with the world that Ashur wishes.

It is particularly chilling that for all their power, the demons are bound by laws, rules, and rituals even more exacting than the normal physical and magical laws of the multiverse. Ashur's mind is one which resonates with order and control, and his creation mirrors this. That he is so certain of his success that limitations exist is the ultimate statement to Ashur's own certainty (or arrogance).

Today, we know that Ashur does desire a sort of 'inverse transcendence' for the multiverse: Every place like the Void, every place a reflection of His mind. He might wish to make the universe like the Void as a sort of transitional state towards creating a better, more perfect (qua his own metrics, of course) multiverse, or he might view the Void as the proper (and most perfect, of all possible) of all final states for our universe. Eventually, he might despair of this attempt, and realize that total unmaking is the only remaining solution, and act accordingly.

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• Ashur is most often depicted as a black dragon of the Void.
• Some humans have depicted him as a dark lord, terrible and clad in black iron. It is doubtful he would appear in so humanoid a form, but, as most imaginings of the gods, this one no doubt reflects the mortals doing the imagining.
• It is likely he was more closely linked to the alatharya than other mortal races. He no doubt relished the Sundering, since it was ultimately a statement about the failure of the experiment that is mortal life.
• During the War of Night, he poured many resources into the demonic resources available to the shuddeni. It is known that he was completely remorseless in destroying, dessicating, and draining those Outer Planes which were not already aligned with the Avendarian pantheon. One of these was the home plane of the ch'taren, Rystaia, and Vaialos

See also: Shunned