Iristor

Iristor is a deity from Paxia, mostly associated with Time, Salvation, Reincarnation, and Ice and Stone. Largely remembered as a wise and paternal figure, Iristor has been a dormant and hidden god ever since the destruction of Paxia, as he bears no worshippers, no powerful allies, nor any philosophical or theological significance in the landscapes of Rathnir, Eldham, and the Tremons. Nevertheless, Iristor still exists, being trapped inside a comet that roams the cold nothingness of the Veil.

Appearance
There are two competing descriptions of Iristor's physical form:

His anthropomorphic description speaks of him with cracked grey skin like stone, with long hair and beard that is black at its roots and turns white at its tips. He wears deep blue robes with a gold trim, and carries around a lantern and a shovel with which he digs up bodies.

His ambiguous description poetically speaks of him as a great tongue of flame that melts the edges of ice around him, where hard crystalline ice turns to water and clouds at his touch, and then freezes back to stone as he walks away and casts it in cold shadow. Some have taken this to mean that Iristor has a non-physical form, but exists as a large flame with properties of heat and transformation.

In Paxia
Iristor was a god separated from the others in Paxia. Since Paxia was inhabited by thousands of gods in conflict, his seclusion made him notable and trusted by others, like an unbiased third party that could mediate and settle differences among them. The gods would ask him to judge whose armies were better, whose worshippers were more devoted, who could create the grandest city, etc. Iristor eventually settled on using the passage of time to settle these disputes, as he turned the clock forward, he could see which god's creation endured, and which was withered and destroyed.

In the Akshyn Etra
One later story in his development saw Iristor approached by nine gods, all claiming ownership over the largest continent on Paxia, along with unique egoistic boasts about how great they were. Iristor agreed to judge the conflict, and he turned his back on them so that he may turn time forward to see its victor. When he examined the results, he saw that one of the gods, called Segra, had killed all the other gods, destroyed their cities and empires, and enslaved or genocided their mortals. Out of shame of his negligence, this was the final time he mediated a conflict and used this power. This story, as it is remembered regarding Iristor, is called the Akshyn Etra, or "Wounded Doing". The only justice to come from this, was that during the destruction of Paxia, Iristor was able to send Segra to the Weregate, a place of eternal imprisonment and torture.

The Purgatorio
Iristor's home was black castle made from obsidian called the Purgatorio, which floated in a pocket realm separated from Paxia proper. The Purgatorio was covered in layers of ice, and always had streams of water and clouds flying around inside of its towering halls. With the trust that the other gods put in Iristor, eventually he was appointed as the post-mortem judge of mortal and divine souls. The souls would collect in the Purgatorio, embedded in the ice, water, and clouds. Oftentimes the souls would float around the castle with their faces appearing as emotive masks, stinging visitors with sharp and judgmental gazes. When a Paxian soul died, their soul would be brought to the Purgatorio, where Iristor would judge them. If they were good and honorable in life, then they would reincarnate, perhaps in Paxia, perhaps in another, unseen world in the Veil, or perhaps even as a new world itself. If they were deemed flawed or dishonorable, then they would stay in the Purgatorio for cleansing and purification within the ice and water. If they were unsalvageable and evil to their core, then Iristor would either annihilate them completely, or hand them over to the Authority, a figure that would inflict unending imprisonment and torture in a place called the Weregate.

In the Destruction of Paxia
The destruction of Paxia, while a widely unknown and unexplained event, is recorded from the perspective of Iristor. When the destruction began, the sea levels began to rise, the grass and flowers turned to sharp razers of flint, and the water turned to blood and lava. Iristor's home in the Purgatorio broke into the sky over Paxia as the realms of the void, sky, nether, and end crashed into the main world. Recognizing the collapse at the end of time for this world, Iristor gathered all the mortal and divine spirits that he could, and he protected them within his own light and flame. He then encased the Purgatorio in a giant ball of ice and stone, and launched it out into the Veil as a comet. Paxia fell away into destruction, and the comet flew off towards new worlds. Before Iristor and his Paxian Spirits froze into hibernation within the comet, he looked forward in time for the last time and made this prophecy to them:


 * You are the lucky few that I have saved.
 * For time could never be on your side.
 * You have done well to live and survive,
 * we shall awake in a place that's bright and new.
 * But our arrival will bring very much strife,
 * For the worlds we seek have been enslaved
 * By a sick master and a maniacal man
 * who's tricked the people that he's their friend.
 * So sleep now and rest yourself well.
 * For we have a great fight which we await.
 * We will judge the worlds that we find truly,
 * and give its people the kindness they deserve.