Personality

Can be quick to anger, though he tries to keep himself in check as anger tends to mean destruction. Is actually rather kind, despite his occupation as the god of destruction. He is very curious about new people and cautious, since his appearance and reputation have cause others to fear and hate him. When he is comfortable with someone he can be rather cheerful, sometimes flirtatious, and is a loyal friend.

Description

Exceptionally tall, at 7 feet. He has a lean, muscled build and tanned skin. His mid-back length hair is a deep black with an iridescent sheen, reminiscent of raven feathers, and is usually somewhat unkempt, as if he has just awoke from a nap. He has ice blue eyes, with no pupil, and black sclera.

He wears a baggy, long sleeved, mid-thigh length, light weight tunic like shirt with embroidery along the collar (and other hemlines), which is open to expose some of his chest. Matching loose pants are worn beneath it and a sash is loosely tied around his waist over the shirt. He also wears a calf length vest, of a slightly heavier material (though still light weight), with embroidery along the hemlines and across the back.
Occasionally, he wraps an oversized scarf on his head to shield his eyes the harsh sunlight and desert winds. When not using the scarf for its intended purpose, he uses it as a blanket when he sleeps (though it is not large enough to completely cover him). Due to magic, his clothes can be any color he wishes, though he tends to favor darker colors. He is usually either barefoot or wears tall, black leather boots that he tucks the legs of his pants into.

His animal form is that of a black owl and, unlike some of the other gods, has the ability to change his size in that form.

Background

When the gods were made, the Creator chose the kindest of his creations to be the God of Destruction, as if it were some sort cruel joke. Save for the Forest and Mountain gods, the other gods shunned Avdima. For who could trust the God of Destruction? Avdima hated what he was, hated the isolation and the Creator, though he loved the two friends he did have and wished that others could see him the way that they do, that he was just like them.

As the years passed, the loathing from the other gods and the fear from the people made his hate and resentment grow. It became too much for him to contain and his volatile rage destroyed almost half of the Raskogr Forest and created the Eshe Desert. He feared that his friend would hate him, just like the others, so he hid himself away in that desert. The people who had survived his wrath began to worship him out of fear and built a temple in his honor.

Soon, an entire village sprang up around the Temple. The people claimed that they loved him, which helped to ease the storm inside him. Though, their affections were nothing more than fear masquerading as love to placate the creature who could destroy them with less than a word.

The people's "love" kept him calm for over a hundred years. Calm, until some found a way to trap him within the vault in the Temple. With old magic, thought lost forever, the priests of the Temple confined the god inside the vault. They placed the power of opening Avdima's prison in the hands of one person, a person who's pupils were shaped like keyholes. They would be known as the Keeper of the Keys, who were akin to priestesses, and would guard the god until the end of their unnatural life.

Avdima would stay in his prison for a thousand years, having three Keepers to guard him in that time, the old magic kept them alive for longer than average. When a new Keeper took up her post, the magic had begun to fade, her will was not as strong as the others. She did not want to be the Keeper, it was not her fault that she was born with those cursed eyes.

The god, his fury stronger than before, broke free from his cage and took his wrath out on her. He defiled the Keeper and left her half-dead on the floor of the Temple. The priests managed to send him back to his prison before he escaped into the village and sealed him inside once more.

There he stayed, with his son Kalan as his Keeper, for another one hundred years. The greed of humans, who thought that the vault contained nothing more than treasure as they did not believe in the God of Destruction, set him free. He almost killed everyone in the Temple until he saw his son, his eyes the same ice blue as his with his mother's flaxen hair, his throat almost crushed in the god's hand. Avdima began to silently weep and released his kin. What had he done?

The god disappeared and has not been seen since. Though, rumors of a man who looks like him have traveled on the lips of the traders who pass through the desert village.