Dalai

Dalai is one of the elder gods, daughter of Aio and wife of Zanish. She bore a son by the father of the gods, and his name was Grafika. Her husband Zanish created all which his imagination could conceive; of those creations, Dalai chose those which her son Grafika would destroy. Once the universe was just as she wished it, she bade her son to kill Zanish to persist the perfect order forever. He did so.

In righteous anger, Zandar, son of Zanish by another goddess, Jassi, slew his half-brother Grafika and his traitorous mother Dalai. He organized the surviving sons and daughters of Zanish, the Zanishnaya, under his rule.

Dalai was reborn in the Nether, and damned to stay forever in the infinite void of all things which do not exist. She gained dominion over the realm, and used her power to reconstitute Grafika as a destructive power with which to wield her terrible vengeance against the Zanishnaya.

By her son Grafika, Dalai bore a daughter, Akasha. She sent her daughter into the world in the form of a human girl named Manna. There, she was meant to seduce the greatest of Zanish's creations: man. She would offer herself to him, and he would be tainted by the darkness within her. He would become the agent of Dalai, and a tool against the Zanishnaya.

However, Manna fell in love with the king of all men, Indig, whose love for her transformed her into a creature of light and goodness. In mastering her, he gained her power, but it was the power to create wonders, as the gods do. However, deep in Manna's soul was the taint of Dalai; in the will to destroy that which one believes should not be, man now possessed the ability to become as the Nether goddess, a destroyer, an evil creature.

It can be said that all magic, and indeed all knowledge of artifice, is the power of Dalai. Zanish crafted a perfect world, and Dalai upset that balance by setting in motion a cycle of violence and betrayal. Because of her cowardly attack on mankind, she inadvertently gave man the gift of magic and artifice.

Akasha serves as the guardian of that power's darker side, but it must be the hearts of men which temper it. Both can be used for great good or great ill. Since they cannot be unlearned, and should not be used for evil, it is the duty of good people to use these gifts for good, as did Zanish the Creator.

In the shamanist traditions of the Dragon Isles, Dalai is a goddess with many names, which usually translate in the native tongue as "the dark goddess". Few shamanist traditions have a place for Zanish or any of the original Zanishnaya, so she does not play the role of a betrayer. Instead, she is part of a pantheon consisting of the elemental gods, and her counterpart Akasha, who they call Manna.

The shamanist Dalai is a goddess of wisdom, healing, and power. She holds the knowledge of life and death. While any god can provide healing, only the dark goddess can fight death itself; thus, those with terminal illness or mortal wounds usually seek the aid of Dalai.

Rituals to Dalai are generally bloody and morbid, in contrast to the elated and joyous offerings to Akasha/Manna. Dalai is an elder goddess, a crone, who is offended by the vigor of youth and disinterested in the pains and pleasures of flesh. She is a realist, a pessimist, and her magic is equally pragmatic.

While shamanist myth focuses on a cycle of destruction by dragons, they do not blame Dalai for the destruction. She and the other gods are separate from the dragons, and yet are the dragons, depending on who is asked, and how. In either case, she bears no more or less responsibility than any of the other gods.

The Circle of Nine acknowledge the presence of a dark goddess. Only the most elder hierophants, and the gods themselves, know anything more than that she exists, and she is to be feared and respected. She was once one of the Circle, and the greatest among them.