#jethrault

You don't really get used to the taste of the potions, and most people only stay on the diet for a few days to a few months, to avoid nausea, dizziness or the difficulty of managing your aether needs according to your activity, as well as the loss of body mass. And with no reserves in the body, the risk of discomfort or coma increases tenfold.

But for Jethrault, these effects are minimal compared to the idea of touching food. He began this strange diet in his mid-teens and has adapted to it, for better or worse. His uncommon powers of calculation have protected him from bouts of withdrawal. Those who don't know him won't suspect his disorder, except that he's very thin, even for an elezen. As a WoL, his body is much stronger than that of a normal human, and for a long time, this was perfectly bearable. His kitchen is never used and is purely decorative ! But...

Jethrault is difficult for me to imagine as Azem. Like, I don't see him get along very well with Ancients. Maybe Hythlodaeus ? I think Emet and Azem would have been close only because Emet was powerful enough to contain Azem if he broke too many Ancient laws.

Yet I have one headcanon about Azem!Jethrault. He already had his ferocious nature but his endless curiosity too. Not fond of the creation politic, he didn't make any concept. But he created some creatures, gifted by a soul since he designed them for for the first purpose to live. Since this kind of creature were highly regulated, and because he never presented his concepts, he was advised to stop creating more of them. An Ancient, member of the Concile, and watched to prevent any of his creation, in a world everybody can create, no matter how silly or dangerous or vicious the concept is? Of course he created one more ! He put all his mind and ether and creativity in this creation. It took him a whole year to create it, thinking of every detail of it. He wanted not only to create something the Concile could never get, but his first motivation was to recreate something he thought his people lost, a too long time ago. He used his admiration for the young Themis, got inspired by the joy of his mentor Venat, by the wonder in Hythlodaeus' eyes in front of new concept, even the tenderness within Emet when he witness success despite his pessimism. But most of all, he gathered all his knowledge about the whole planet and its inhabitants. To form his creation, he used the most fragile and powerful ether he could form, produced by his soul itself. The process alerted Emet Selch who rushed but arrived too late. Azem was exhausted, but smiling at the creation. Even if it hadn't a physical form, made of pure aether, Hades saw that the planet had also granted a soul to it, a will and life by itself. If he had to, he would have described it as a laughing boy, floating and gasping at everything he saw. Ancient had lost this concept for a long time in two different ways : They didn't believe in superior entities beside the planet, and their cycle of life prevent them to bear such naivety. So Azem crated a little God of Innocence. And even the stoic and stern Hades was bewildered by the entity when they slid past him to escape hiding itself forever as a nice breeze of air. A remembrance of the imagination, and happiness guided by the ignorance of harm and fear and consequences.

Azem regretted his creation, not for itself. He was happy to see more creatures and Ancients having some moments of wonder, of playfulness, influenced by a minor god. Innocence enhances hope and dreams, imagination and creativity, it might lead to problems, but isn't Azem's role to solve them? Yet, it didn't prevent the apocalypse. It wasn't its role. Perhaps even because the creatures had this renewed innocence, their return to the ether was made more difficult for Hermes to bear. It inspired the Zodiarch project, and Azem couldn't stop it since he was the creator of "a successful prototype". But Azem knew his creation stripped him of a part of his soul, the very one it encourages in others.