On Nya’gothia, Keeper of the Hush, and the Rise of the Aetherion Faith
As recorded by Lysander of the Ember Veil

Though my heart cleaves first to Verdessa, it would be folly to set down the chronicles of our age without remembrance of Her sister—Nya’gothia, the Lady of Night.

In the earliest dawns, when the world was still unshaped, Verdessa and Nya’gothia rose from the depths of the void, their powers entwined yet distinct. It was Verdessa who lifted the sun from beneath the horizon, setting the world ablaze with life and light. And it was Nya’gothia who drew the moon across the sky, weaving shadows in which dreams and rest could take root.

Without their shared labor, the world would be lost to endless day or swallowed in eternal night. But through their sacred rhythm—the ceaseless rising and setting of sun and moon—time itself was born, and the cycle of life began.

Yet it is truth that across the breadth of this land, few raise altars to the Night Queen. In the great cities of the Ember Coast and among the river folk of the Southern Reaches—what some name Egyptas—Her worship found little root. The people, ever wary of what stirs in darkness, chose instead to cleave to the visible, life-giving radiance of Verdessa. Only among the flame-hearted Imperium did Her cult endure in strength, practiced in hidden vigils and whispered rites.

Even so, the wise recount that Nya’gothia, too, has walked among us in mortal guise. Those who claim to have seen Her speak of a woman of haunting beauty—long hair of palest gold deepening into amethyst at the tips, eyes as purple as the dusk, skin tan. In this shape she wanders the thresholds of night, unseen by most, yet ever watching.

And lo, in this age when the dragon-goddesses yet move unseen in the world, there has arisen a new and foreign faith—the Aetherion Path. Its teachings come not from ancient gods, but from the words of a mortal sage named Caelus the Radiant, who dwelled once in the sky-shrouded citadels of the West.

Caelus spoke of one Source above all others—a singular Flame beyond form or name, from which all souls are sparked and to which they may one day return. His followers, the Aetherions, teach compassion, sacrifice, and the abandonment of all lesser spirits. They name Verdessa and Nya’gothia not as evil, but as incomplete echoes of the greater Flame. To some, this is heresy; to others, a path of clarity.

Among the Fox Folk and the Lunar Wolves, among Elves and the sons of Man alike, this new faith mingles strangely with the old. Some offer prayer to Caelus’s Flame by night and still light lamps for the Sun Queen at sowing time. Others declare themselves bound solely to the Source, rejecting all gods as veils that conceal truth.

I have spoken with such men and women and found them sincere—full of conviction, and radiant in spirit. Yet I cannot walk with them in every belief. I have seen too much, felt too deeply the warmth of Verdessa and the quiet counsel of Her sister.

It is a marvel—and a trial—of these days that all faiths now walk beneath the same sky. The might of Verdessa cannot be denied, nor the hush of Nya’gothia gainsaid—but neither can the fire in the hearts of those who follow Caelus be ignored.

So I reckon it meet that each must choose the path by which their soul shall travel. Whether in the blaze of day, the hush of night, or the nameless Flame beyond the stars, may that choice be made in truth and reverence.