Fallen One

Basics:

• Domains: Struggle, Endurance, Growth
• Symbol: A shattered crown with a single drop of blood.
• Appearance: The Broken One is depicted as a once-beautiful goddess whose body is now fractured and twisted, with jagged cracks glowing red and black. She wears a tattered cloak made of darkness.

Also known as The Broken One.

• Origin: Once known as Iona, the Goddess of Struggle, she was revered for her relentless determination and strength. She thrived on adversity, embodying the idea that true power and virtue came from overcoming hardship.

• Fall: The Broken One's fall was the result of a divine rebellion against the gods of Fairness, Laziness, and Prosperity, who ruled the world with indifference. Disgusted by their complacency, she slew them in an act of righteous fury. However, the cost of this rebellion shattered her divinity and mind.

- God of Fairness (Aldeon): Believed justice could be achieved without strife. His death symbolized the Broken One's belief that struggle, not balance, leads to growth.

- Goddess of Laziness (Serena): A goddess of rest and peace. The Broken One viewed Serena’s teachings as a plague on progress.

- God of Prosperity (Galvir): He believed in providing bounty without work. The Broken One saw this as undermining true strength and self-reliance.

• Descent to Mortality: With her power now warped and corrupted, she descended to the world, forsaking her godhood entirely to birth monsters from her own blood. Her fall broke the very fabric of the world, creating the wastelands that monsters now spawn from. This moment is known as "The Shattering." She counted on the support of the trolls and orcs to led her to victory.

- Mother of Orcs: Before her fall, Aratheia favored the orcs, shaping them as her chosen race to embody the ideals of struggle, growth, and endurance. Under her blessing, the orcs became a powerful and proud people, a testament to her teachings. However, orcs swayed by the promise of dragons and magic, betrayed her during the divine rebellion. The orcs renounced Aratheia, seeking peace and prosperity instead, a path that she viewed as ultimate weakness and treachery. In a rage, she scorched their lands and burned their once-great kingdom to ash. The aftermath created a desolate wasteland known as the Burnt Sea.

- The Trolls' Loyalty: Unlike the orcs, the trolls remained steadfast in their worship of the Broken One. They accepted her vision of eternal struggle, and in return, she granted them strength and resilience beyond other mortal creatures. The trolls are her most loyal children and are revered by the cults that follow her teachings.

• Final Act: After centuries of relentless fighting against humanity’s heroes and dragons, she realized her defeat was inevitable. In one final, sacrificial act, she tore her remaining divine essence apart to fuel an eternal monster-spawning mechanism. Now, her influence remains, creating Monsters endlessly to challenge the living and ensure the world is never free from struggle. In a way, she did succeed in forcing the races to grow, invent and discover, even if it did come at the cost of near endless war, mostly against the monsters but sometimes against the other kingdoms too.

Worship:

Worship of the Broken One is outlawed in most kingdoms, but small cults dedicated to her still exist, often in secret. Her followers believe that suffering is the true path to enlightenment, and they actively seek out hardships to prove their worth. Temples to the Broken One are hidden away in caves or ruins, where her cultists practice dark rituals, often involving blood sacrifice.

• Daily Worship: Her cultists offer blood, pain, or endurance trials to gain her favor. Some practice self-flagellation or undergo grueling physical tests to prove their dedication.
• Festivals:
  • Day of Struggle: A day observed in secret where followers undergo extreme hardship, often fasting or performing dangerous feats, to prove their resilience in honor of the Broken One.

Boons & Curses:

• Boons: The Broken One grants immense strength to those who survive great trials or face overwhelming adversity. They are protected by her remnants from a early death.
• Curses: Those who succumb to weakness or fail in the face of struggle are cursed with eternal nightmares or physical deformities, their bodies twisted into monstrous forms that reflect their inner failures.

Fun Facts:

• Monstrous Children: It is said that all Monsters in the world are her children, birthed from her blood as she walked the world in her broken form. These monsters still carry her mark and challenge mortals to prove their worth.
• Mother of Orcs: Aratheia is the true mother of the orc race, though this fact has been deliberately stricken from the historical record by the remaining gods. They feared the knowledge of her connection to the orcs would inspire dangerous devotion to her. However, fragments of this truth persist in ancient texts, and leaders of the orcs still secretly honor her, though they suffer greatly for it.
• Relic of Rebellion: One of the shards from the crown she shattered when rebelling against the gods is said to be hidden somewhere in the world. It is believed that whoever finds it could channel her full power, though at the cost of their sanity.