#tansul

i don't think we have enough confirmed information to make any logic leaps about that quite yet, but azgra and tansul's animosity likely pre-dates the conquest of aramán.

what i think the presence of demons in tannesar represents is something that tsul'reckshi all but stated outright. at least some demons hated azgra (and maybe the rest of the shapers too, the way tsul'reckshi does). maybe what the statues represent is that some demons were willing to offer their services to a temple dedicated to killing azgra. i think it's pretty likely that azgra murdered the queen of demons, the way trozhna killed tehana, so it tracks.

there's also a possibility that these demons were taken by tansul as an insult towards azgra, the way the font of gavzidra was, but given the way they're displayed, i don't think they're there as an insult.

“You look out and see a robed ancient sorcerer, a laurel of green leaves around his brow, a sorcerous emperor holding out a hand and watching as slabs of stone some hundreds of feet long float through the sky as though floats in a parade. You see he looks out as people clap and applaud. And with this sustained magical effort, an act of telekinesis carrying some thousands of tons of stone across the horizon towards this end, you see them placed here. Consumed by the sand, this is the ancient homeland of the fallen, or what would be called the Sundered and Broken House of Calistra, the last members of which either have been in hiding for 70 years or indeed are all dead. Looking at this holy site here, you see the stones placed in a massive temple to Tansul that are, you know, commemorating his beneficence, the glory of the sun in this place, looking towards the west where the sun ever sets. You see, the stone regards you, speaking this word of power, the arcane, a memory of the stone when young comes to you. You see a young priest of the House of Halovar looking out, a massive brazier filled with shimmering oil, a massive brazier filled with shimmering oil, unlit, a wide golden pan suspended over an image of the god of the sun. The fire lights. And within it, the stone remembers the face of a living god. You speak to stone that saw the Shaper of humankind. A category you no longer belong to, though you once held that title.”

It would be really bad news for all the Sundered Houses if anyone ever got around to properly following the instructions and forged a Deva Vindicta to target Tansul’s enemies. Because here in the present day? All of the houses would be on the god’s posthumous shitlist. Not just the rebels of Royce, Einfasen, and Cormoray. Hell, it was their ancestors who turned on the god, and they’re long dead. If anyone would be on the vengeance itinerary ahead of them? It’d be Tachonis and Halovar.

Tachonis, for obviously abandoning their duty as psychopomps and making any kind of effort to restore order in the afterlife, the better to bloat the Underworld and their own well of power. Then, because an infinite power supply wasn’t enough, they’re now pulling some cosmic level bullshit via mass slaughter, soul enslavement, and desecrating the places and powers Tansul left to them.

Halovar, for making the leap to pure capitalist parasitism wrapped in a fake religion, abusing one of Tansul’s last angels to siphon him for magic blood to power false miracles. This being the bait to get mortals in the door, crowing about how Tansul was a false god and all they have to do to be saved by the Light is hand over pure obedience and ignorance and, oh yeah, unknowingly sell their souls to the demonic Pit for all eternity upon death.

The houses closest to Tansul, short of House Obridai itself, have not only turned on his memory, but are actively smearing an already horrid history while simultaneously gutting all the gifts he left their families.

But back to the Deva Vindicta itself. Consider the exact words in Tannesar:

"In its right hand shall it wield my scepter, and in its left will it hold aloft the sun. Crowned in glory, it shall be terror to god and mortal alike, and from the earth and heavens shall no foe be suffered to live or die without its terrible command. No passage given, nor to stay from passage suffered without the grim pronouncement of its edict. Woe to the foes of man in the age of the final angel."

Then consider the exchange we saw between Tansul and his ancient priest:

"To make a servant in your image, what will we make it from?"

"Nothing can be made without sacrifice. Nothing can be made that is of worth without my dearest materials."

"What would be a sacrifice worthy of this weapon?"

"Sacrifice that thing which is most precious. And what could be more precious to me," Tansul extends a finger towards the heart of this priest, "than you?"

The same priest who was weeping, denying the thought of a world without Father Tansul, swearing the tools he left them for avenging him would not be needed. A priest who loved the Shaper of the Sun.

Tansul’s tools and recipe were intended to make the final angel in his own image with the foundation of it required to be one of his priests. We saw with Murray’s vision through the spent Candle of Slaughter that Occtis—or any other lucky volunteer for the sacrifice--was never meant to be the real thing. He was a celestial soaring against the night, bringing death alone to the Golden Orchard. An incomplete Deva Vindicta only concerned with killing, not prevention of death as punishment.

(Shall no foe be suffered to live or die without its terrible command.)

Because Tansul wanted his final angel to be in his image and of the same stuff that he granted to his priests of Halovar and Tachonis—Light and Dark, Life and Death, Healing and Rot. And, regardless of the graffiti and magic shortcuts, I don’t think House Tachonis can—or truly wants to—put together the full-scale Deva Vindicta, even if that means only getting half the original design right.

The true Deva Vindicta must not, cannot, come into being.

Must not, because Tachonis and all the other houses are firmly on the Tansul Shitlist for all the rebellion and blasphemy and posthumous backstabbing they’ve been up to. Azgra and his orcs are no longer priority. It’d be all about the traitors of old Obridimia getting set on the chopping block.

Cannot, because it’s possible that none of the family members of Halovar or Tachonis have the finishing ingredient implied by the flashback to Tansul and his priest. Physically, yes, the bodily sacrifice of a priestly descendant and their heart will get something out of it. But the reality is that not a single member of Tachonis or Halovar are true priests of Tansul anymore. They’re all just coasting on heirloom sorcery and angel blood. A ‘true’ priest, cleric, whatever else of Tansul’s, giving themselves for love of the god and vengeance on his betrayers and foes, is not to be found among them or anyplace else.  

…Probably.

Vaelus and her fellow Sisters of Sylandri are still mourning. Back in a little dwarven village, ragged and bunched up close to a view of the Stormwrack, the faithful of Trozhna, Shaper of the Forge, still pray to her and plead for her return. There was at least one war priest of Azgra, the most violent and bloodstained deity in the lot, who refused to give up his loyalty to the god as he demanded a blessing for him with a dying breath; one priest of many to a mad horror of a divinity within the period of his being alive to torment and wage war.

It’s not an impossible thing to imagine a real candidate for Tansul’s wishes exists out there. Someone of faith and vengeance and the right sorcerous roots.  

If I were of the Sundered Houses, I’d pray that such a soul never manages to find their way into Tannesar and put the altar back in its proper pre-Tachonis shape.

If a Shaper married the Queen of Demons, it was probably Tansul, considering House Halovar's current connection to demons. However, Tyranny said she was made by Ksha'aravi, the High Prince of Demonkind - a Prince, not a Queen. A Queen would outrank a Prince, in point of fact.

We also know that Trozhna, Shaper of Dwarves, annihilated her consort, Tehana, the Mother of Earth. Knowing this, I cannot help but wonder if the other consorts met the same fate.

This leads me to the following thoughts:

Was the Queen of Demons similarly destroyed by her Shaper husband?

Who was Ksha'aravi to the Queen? A son, a brother, a cousin, or merely a demon noble with a title?

Okay. Why?

There must be a reason for this choice. Tansul obviously made celestials for other reasons; the one chained up in Yanessa Halovar's basement is one of his. If all his siblings used celestials for this purpose, why be different?

What we know about celestials is still pretty vague. The Shapers were supposedly taught how to make them by the Primordials, presumably before the usurping. But if that's the case, this heart sacrifice ritual seems Tansul-specific.

We know for a fact the Stone of Nightsong was created from the rib of a celestial who died mourning the first elven death. Does that make sense if that celestial was created by Sylandri ripping the heart out of some other elf?

There must be some other process.

So maybe Tansul didn't assign a celestial psychopomp for humans because he didn't have the knowledge to make them. I mean, if you're resorting to human sacrifice to knock together an angel? Sure sounds like some slapdash reverse engineering to me.

Hell, maybe the fact the Halovar are full of blood from one these things is why they're immune to the process.

But if Tansul didn't get the real Primordial celestial recipe, why not? We haven't heard about a Primordial spouse for him. Maybe the other Shapers got the knowledge through their marriages.

Although we also haven't heard about Azgra* having a spouse, he presumably had at least one celestial for psychopomp duties, so that might not mean anything.