Ikselam/Lanatoxec
Lanatoxec, the Fallen Star, the Fire-Feathered Serpent
(Nahuatl pronunciation: lah-nah-TOH-shek)
Once a mighty god of fire, Lanatoxec was cast out of Yu-Shan after it was discovered that he was using his office as Censor to illegally encourage mortals to worship him. For this crime against the Celestial Order, the Fire-Feathered Serpent was stripped of his station and imprisoned in the most terrible hell imaginable to a fire-spirit: the endless oceans of the West. However, Lanatoxec's peers underestimated him; the fire of his indomitable will, which had once given him the title Unquenchable Flame of Righteousness, and was now stoked even higher by hatred for those who had judged him even as they turned a blind eye to the excesses of their Exalted, burned hot enough that even had each drop of rain in all of Creation been itself an ocean, all the waters of all the oceans in all the world would have been insufficient to keep him imprisoned.
Lanatoxec burned in the depths, melting the seafloor beneath his watery oubliette and causing it to thrust upward on flows of molten rock. Slowly, over the course of a thousand years, he made his way to the surface, finally bursting forth in a titanic explosion which blotted out the sun with soot and sent tidal waves crashing over islands up to a hundred miles away. The magma continued to flow, forming a new island whose heart was a seething volcano. Over the following centuries, Lanatoxec's anger called forth an entire chain of daughter islands, and animals and plants came to live on them. Bathing in the rivers of lava that coursed through his volcano's veins, the Fallen Star's powers slowly returned to their full strength. He was so consumed with planning his revenge upon the Celestial Gods that he didn't even notice when humans came to live on his islands, and to worship the volcanos.
This all changed when the Great Contagion came. Suddenly, Lanatoxec found his haven assaulted by armies of watery Fair Folk. For the first time since escaping his prison, he called upon his full powers, but even his incandescent majesty was insufficient to completely stop the onslaught. Lanatoxec was preparing to spend his last breath uttering a death-curse against Heaven when he suddenly realized that the surviving islanders were praying to him, begging to be saved from the plague and the Fey. When the priests began hurling themselves into his caldera, their self-sacrifice sent new strength blazing into him, and he returned to battle more powerful than ever before, vaporizing the faerie warriors like water droplets exposed to the heat of a blast furnace.
When the last of the Fair Folk fled back into the ocean, Lanatoxec turned his attention to the people whom he had never noticed before, but who had given him the strength to defeat his enemies. Their worship reminded him of that he had received in the First Age, and a new plan began to form in his mind. Swimming down a lava flow and manifesting in his full glory before his followers, Lanatoxec told them what they must do to please him.
Lanatoxec is a huge winged serpent, feathered and crested in red and orange fire. His eyes are like shining stars, and a fiery glow can be seen emanating from his gullet when he opens his mouth. When he takes human form, he is a dark-skinned, star-eyed warrior dressed in a cape of burning feathers, carrying a spear whose head appears fashioned from molten rock.
Although he spent almost 1500 years incommunicado, since the Contagion Lanatoxec has brought himself up-to-date on world events. He knows of the fall of the Celestial Exalted, and revels in the knowledge, feeling that some measure of justice has finally fallen upon the arrogant Celestial Gods. He also knows of the fall of Swan Dragon, and this pleases him even more, as Swan Dragon was the one chosen to replace Lanatoxec in his Celestial office. Lanatoxec bides his time, cultivating his worship and gathering power, fiercely anticipating the day when he will ascend to Heaven and scour Yu-Shan with flame and lava. He savors the irony that the very thing which caused him to be cast from grace, the worship of mortals, will give him the power to exact his revenge.
Lanatoxec is worshipped by the entire populace of his island chain, and in return protects them from outside threats. His priests frequently offer animal and human sacrifices, as well as venerating him with all manner of rites and festivals. Their most holy ritual, the Wedding of Fire, occurs every fifteen years when the Inviolate Virgin Priestess, who has been raised from birth as the Flame-Feathered Serpent's most holy servant, casts herself into his volcano. One week after she has been consumed by the lava, Lanatoxec rises from the volcano and inspects all the year-old girls of the islands, who have been collected and brought before him by his priests. He places his brand on the one who pleases him most, marking her as his next High Priestess.
Lanatoxec hates all the Celestial Gods. This hatred extends to their Exalted, and he will not suffer a Celestial Exalt to remain on his islands; his worshippers are taught to hate and fear them just as much as the most devout adherents of the Immaculate Order. Gaia is somewhat exempt from his wrath, as she alone spoke out against his punishment, condemning it as needlessly cruel. As a result, he tolerates the presence of Dragon-Blooded, but only if they do not challenge his authority.
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