Bhalla

Bhalla (pronounced Bah-la) is the Cardinal Goddess of Life, and one of the original Ten Gods of the Djor pantheon. She is a paradoxical goddess, breather of life into all that is created in the universe, but uncaring of what happens to them after their birth.

Bhalla, like her siblings, seems to care little for mortal life; more concerned with the greater perpetuation of the universe. Though she is worshiped as the Mother of Life, she is detached from her "children" and responds to their prayers only on a seeming whim. She is depicted as a portly woman wreathed in a gown of grains and wearing a crown of flowers. She carries a cornucopia full of fruits and vegetables in her left hand and a bleeding pomegranate in her right. She is generally depicted with children surrounding her or holding a new babe.

Despite what most would assume, Bhalla finds the most comfort and affinity among her siblings towards her younger brother Karthex, Cardinal God of Death. She sees him not as an enemy nor rival, but as a partner in the cycle of life, death being but the end of one life and the seed of another. Many of the Heeding Gods that created their own races act either as agents or emissaries of Bhalla, seeking her permission prior to the creation of a new race.

War of Divinity
At the Dawn of the Age of Divinity, before the creation of the Prime-Material Plane and when Primordials roamed free, from the aether of the Astral Sea came ten entities. These self-fashioned Gods came into conflict with the Elder Primordials, and sought to bring order to the universe around them. Leading them was Akaene, the Firstborn. The battles of the newborn Gods and the Primordials were devastating, ripping portions of the Astral Sea open. However, the disorder of the Primordials proved to be their downfall. The siblings were able to isolate and defeat each of the elder beings, as while together the Primordials were indominable, alone they were only a difficult foe. In the final battles, the Cardinal Gods failed to destroy Primordas, the mightiest of the Primordials, and were only able to separate portions of Its essence. They used what remained of Its power to create a new realm, aiming to forever seal away their greatest foe.

The Cardinal Gods started to debate how they would divide their newly conquered realm, but their squabbles started cracking the very foundations they just formed. From the darkness came a figure unlike any they had seen, a being cloaked in flame and shadow that was neither Divine nor Primordial, holding in its hands a scroll of gold and vellum. The being spoke with civility and decorum, informing them that the adversary they fought so valiantly to seal would eventually be reborn if they did not take careful steps to ensure the stability of their newly created realm. Ashmedae referred to himself as a curator of order and divided the fundamental forces between the younger gods as a neutral party. No recollection states exactly what was said, but a contract was formed, a Divine Mandate, one that would ensure the everlasting sealing of the First Adversary and balance of the Inner Planes.

Divine Mandate
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