Ateshua

The ateshua (pronounced /əˈtɛʃuː.ə/) are former servants of the One God Calshuar, created during the Age of Light when he was the supreme deity of the world of Vlastach. The ateshua are former mortal worshippers of Calshuar, whom he raised to their current state as a reward for their faithfulness.

An ateshua resembles its original mortal self, but surrounded by an ever-moving nimbus of bright light that twists and contorts into long streamers and tendrils. The ateshua's glowing aura is, in fact, semi-tangible, and its extrusions are capable of grasping objects like radiant tentacles. Ateshuas usually keep their arms motionless at their sides and their legs together, moving by flight and relying entirely on their tendrils of light for manipulation. If an ateshua does actually touch something with its body, that object, unless extremely resistant to heat, will instantly go up in flames and be utterly destroyed.

At the end of the Age of Light some nineteen thousand years ago, when they were at their most numerous, there were approximately eleven hundred ateshua. The years after that were not good ones for the ateshua, however, and many of them were imprisoned or destroyed either in the Forgotten War that led to Calshuar's deposal or in the years thereafter when Calshuar was still apparently in hiding. Only a fraction remain now of the ateshua that existed then, probably fewer than a hundred and certainly no more than two hundred at most. Since no new ateshua are being created now that Calshuar's power is so sharply diminished from what it was, the number of ateshua can now only decrease.

The remaining ateshua have gone various ways. Some remain in Calshuar's service, having remained faithful through all the days of his disappearance, and joyfully re-pledged themselves to him on his return. Others have found other deities to serve, or forged for themselves new paths in service to no god. Some have left the Mortal Planes entirely and found homes and purposes elsewhere. Disturbingly, a small handful of the remaining ateshua have found new masters not in the gods, but in the demons; these dark ateshua are wreathed in darkness instead of light, and are powerful and dangerous forces of evil.

Certain documents and holy books left over from the Age of Light list all the ateshua by name, giving more details about many of them—the Lucent Grimoire having the most thorough information. No such complete record, however, exists as to the fates of each of the ateshua after the Age of Light, so discovering whether a particular ateshua still exists, and whom, if anyone, he now serves, can be a daunting task; although some ateshua are well known, many of them keep lower profiles. Perhaps the best known individual ateshua is Esion, the Grey Ateshua, notable for having chosen after Calshuar's downfall to serve neither a god nor a demon, but the land itself.