The Kasthyarhi

The Kasthyarhi is a tripartite Ascended God worshipped in Ardulidyl and Lochar.

The Triune Goddess
The Kasthyarhi is properly a union of three ascended deities, either sisters or lovers dependent on the myth, the three ascended goddesses Kasthyrha (lit. ‘great queen’), Aun (lit. ‘crow’), and Angadril (lit. ‘battle frenzy’).

Kasthyrha (CG) was a great queen of the drow, Aun (NG) was her trusted seer and advisor, and Angadril (CN) was her greatest and most valiant general. They lived on earth as mortals long ago, Kasthyrha ruling the ancient queendom of Ardulidyl, which had its heart in the lands now known as Lochar.

Ascension
During the height of her reign, Kasthyrha found her kingdom assaulted by Vydhrar, a warlock of dark and terrible power bent on freeing Minathren from her prison. Unable the stand against his undead armies, Kasthyrha pleaded with Nex’il, the primordial goddess of night, to grant her power to protect her queendom from the monstrous threat. Nex’il noticed that the faith her people had in her placed Kasthyrha just shy of ascension, and agreed to grant her a place amongst the ascended gods on one condition – that she would act as a vassal for Nex’il where disputes arose, so Nex’il could focus on more important tasks, and more widely, that she might act as a just mediator between the various warring factions of the gods. Kasthyrha acceded, but her close advisors and lovers, Aun and Angadril, would not allow her to go alone, and begged Nex’il to allow them to take up the mantle of deity together.

Nex’il agreed, as much out of interest to see if such an arrangement could work, and so the three Kasthyarhi were bound together and ascended into deity.

Kasthyrha was given a portfolio of sovereignty and justice, bound to resolve disputes between the gods but also becoming a continuing symbol of the rightful rulership of the land she ruled long ago – and for many generations, the kings of first Ardulidyl and then Lochar would perform a ceremony when they ascended to the throne in which they symbolically married the Kasthyarhi for the right to rule her kingdom.

Aun’s gift as a seer was extended to a portfolio over fate, doom, destiny and legacy; she was tasked to oversee drow upon the battlefield, where she would take the form of a crow and decide who should live, and who should die, leading those who died on to their eternal destinies.

Angadril was appointed as a general of the ascended gods and granted a portfolio of war, legacy, and honour. She is one of the wilder war gods, glorifying warriors who break ranks to prove their worth in personal combat.

Together, the Kasthyarhi fall under the domain of Nex’il, with a particular focus on protecting those who travel at night or in the dark, alongside their individual portfolios.

Worship of the Kasthyarhi
When they first ascended, the Kasthyarhi were taken as the national deity of Ardulidyl, involved intimately in both state and the personal religion of individuals, and this continued even into the foundation of the nation of Lochar.

However, following the invasion of the Delenthor Empire and the establishment of the Free Cities of Lochar after the war, the cult of the Kasthyarhi in Lochar has drifted away from its original deity. The Kasthyarhi has been reimagined as a deity of wealth and monetary fortune, to fit the new culture of the nation, and the church of the Kasthyarhi has turned its back on the true deity for idols of gold.

This move away from Kasthyarhiism was actively aided and abetted by Delenthorian influence. Settlers from Delenthor who arrived in Lochar were threatened by another sovereignty deity besides the Watcher and attempted to suppress worship of Kasthyarhi as a deity of queens in Lochar, while the locals saw that an army claiming a divine right to rule from a different deity had managed to conquer Lochar, and thus concluded that the Watcher must be a superior deity of rulership, willingly moving away from worshipping the Kasthyarhi in that capacity.

Although the name of the Kasthyarhi is still heard throughout Lochar, true worship of the Kasthyarhi has all but vanished, and with it, the divine power of the Kasthyarhi has waned and faded, until they are only holding deity by a thread.

Relationships with Other Deities
Due to her fading influence, the Kasthyarhi are held in low regard by the various ascended deities. In the height of her power, she had a fierce rivalry with Nara, always disliking that the other goddess became the patron of the drow beyond Ardulidyl/Lochar, when the Kasthyarhi consider themselves to give a better model of the life that drow can aspire to, shrouded in glory.

The Kasthyarhi also had a fierce rivalry with Neruthel: she was banished from the Court of Stars when she tried to challenge Neruthel for its rulership, and she still considers him a weak ruler for the elven pantheon.

Lastly, the Kasthyarhi is still a vassal in the service of Nex’il, required to do her bidding when she calls upon them.