#suncloud

okay so first of all. the second part of the question before i forget it exists lol. the other gods are trapped on the island! they’re still conscious and moving around, they just can’t leave, nor can they do anything about the curse. the rest of the island is in a sort of… stasis? if that makes sense?

so pretty much they’re all stuck there waiting for something to happen and cheering eclipse on lmao

and as for how many gods… the answer is “yes”. if a concept is big enough to feature in wishes, then it’ll have a god that is worshipped! in my brain, there’s some gods that don’t actually “exist” and may never exist as individuals rather than concepts. astreia has a Lot of gods!! most of them aren’t actually conscious

generally these are known as minor gods, and they don’t have faces or names, and sometimes not even titles!

but if enough people wish enough times within a short span of time, that wish energy can create something. it sort of goes from concept -> dormant god -> waking god -> vessel given -> learning and growing as a vessel -> proper awakening -> full-fledged physical god

the celestial gods (loop/euanthe/solstice/change, siffrin/eclipse, moontide, and suncloud) are sort of the exception to this, in that they’ve… always existed? in a way? they aren’t born of human emotion or desire. they’re technically Outsiders to the world which is fun

lamb and feast are Also exceptions to this, but only because they were born purely of wishes before astreia learned to create vessels :3

there were some examples given in the end notes of breaking the cycle, but we haven’t really drawn them much? there’s a couple exceptions, but mainly they exist as ideas in our brains. but!! i can put some descriptions here and also the few i have drawn!!

this is serpent of remedy, mainly known as remedy for brevity‘s sake. they became aware following the second part of astreia’s civil war. any/all but they prefer people pick one pronoun and stick with it for a while lol.

they’re generally docile but very resolute—determined to do the right thing, make good choices, and make up for their shortcomings.

remedy represents all sorts of health, mental and physical! they want people to take care of themselves and each other, and they lead by example in that they spend their time wandering the island, offering their services as a traveling healer. they are one of the first gods euanthe talks to upon their return to the island, and their relationship is sort of… well, complicated.

this is the moon that pulls the tides, usually known as moontide, and later on, tal! they/any, but mostly they. they’ve been present for quite a long time, but they go through periods of hibernation and waking. technically, they have a physical body, but not in the same sense as other gods :3

moontide is pretty playful overall, but in the sort of way where they don’t quite realize the impact of their actions? in the same way the ocean can be gentle and relaxing but in the next moment drag you under. they’re also deeply angry underneath it all.

they represent, obviously, the moon and the tide! the movement of water and its depths, the relation to the moon in that sense, as well as the cyclical nature of it all. they’re also a god of protection—guarding what you have with teeth and claws and violence. the first blow. the last.

they’re also one of eclipse and change’s older siblings

(Nudity here)

(i asked for these images and ray said “Helio does not wear clothes and I keep not using the built in censor bar as a censor bar” lmao)

this is sun that guards the clouds, otherwise known as suncloud, or later, helio :3 ae/she. much like moontide, ae goes through periods of waking and dormancy, and at some point is granted a physical body to match them.

she’s pretty chill, quite knowledgeable and uses that knowledge for good! mostly. ae has a mischievous side to aer… she can also be incredibly overwhelming on occasion. like when the sun blinds you, or the clouds obscure your vision. suncloud is not angry so much as she is… hm. determined, perhaps? steadfast.

ae is a bastion, to any and all, protecting those who cannot protect themselves. she represents the sun, and all weather to some degree, though storms in particular fall into a different domain. suncloud is the shield to moontide’s sword—they both protect the people but in vastly different ways.

moontide is scrappy, taking any opportunity and using it. suncloud is overwhelming, pushing the enemy back with unrelenting force. they complement each other :3

ae is the second of eclipse and change’s older siblings

(Blood/eye trauma)

and our favorite, lamb that bleeds and flees :3 and a doodle of ram that screams and dies, as a treat (this is also lamb, just the form it takes on when it appears on a battlefield. it doesn’t like this form. it prefers to be a weak and dying thing.)

i uhhhh. don’t know what pronouns we use for this guy. it? they? some mix of those prob (it/its -Ray)

lamb in particular is a bit strange because it's less of a person than other gods? it was born out of desperation, out of a plea for survival, out of endless bloodshed. for the longest time, that was all it knew.

(the feast that runs and rots is similar in this regard. they were born out of desperate hunger, starvation, pleading for just one more scrap, one more morsel, that might let you live to see another day. long enough to outlast the famine.)

they are a god of… i want to say necessity, but that doesn’t feel right. they’re a god of instinct, born out of terror, praying and begging that one might see the morning. hiding away from the clash of steel and the sound of boots on earth. they are the ones left behind. the survivors.

(feast is starvation, but it is also plenty. it is the satisfaction of a warm meal at midnight, the joy of seeing a field to its harvest, the heartbeat of a hunt in your throat as you fell a deer that will feed your family for a couple of weeks. it is tears falling upon your hands as you taste something that is not dirt and grass for the first time in days.)

anyway. in this case they don’t really have the same sort of… drive that other gods do. they’re mostly ruled by instinct and the perceptions of people around them. lamb will linger on battlefields, but they stop for people to drape them in flowers. feast is always running, but sometimes, they will pause to laze in the sun.

but at the end, they will always return to what they were meant for. lamb will always flee. feast will always chase. it’s a cycle they cannot escape