Pah-Wraiths

The Prophets dispense a positive influence from within their Celestial Temple, but there is also a negative force: evil counterparts to the Prophets, known as the Pah-wraiths. As with the Askia's gods, these beings appear to exist primarily as ghostly forms of energy, emitting a deep red glow. The Pah-wraiths are cruel and uncaring beings, once Prophets themselves they where banished from the Celestial Temple forever. Askiran legend has it that the Pah-wraiths once shared the Celestial Temple with the Prophets, but they advocated destruction and chaos, and were cast out for their ideology. Deemed to be 'false Prophets', they were banished from the Celestial Temple and forbidden to return, doomed to eternal exile in the fire caves of Askira. It was prophesied that if the Pah-wraiths ever escaped, they "Would face the wrath of the True Prophets". This legend, known as the Koss'moran from the words' kosst,' meaning 'to be,’ and 'amoran,' meaning 'banished,' has parallels in many other religions across the world. Askiran faith also speaks of the birth of a golden age, a Restoration of the world and its people, peace for a thousand years, but this concept is open to broad interpretation. Both the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths appear to have their own sense of what this event will entail. From the standpoint of the Prophets, the Restoration is first discussed in the age-old texts of Shabren's Fifth Prophecy; after receiving a vision from an Orb of the Prophets, Shabren wrote that the destruction of the 'Evil One,' a powerful Pah-wraith also known as Kosst Amojan, would bring about a thousand years of peace world-wide. The Emissary of the Prophets, an Askiran chosen to do their bidding, would face the Evil One and lead the way to this new utopia. The Pah-wraiths' interpretation of the Restoration is a reversal of the Prophets' vision, however; they see the new age of the world literally rising from the ashes of the old, as the earth is laid waste by the burning fires of their vengeful wrath. For the Pah-wraiths, the Restoration means release from the fire caves and a chance for revenge on the Prophets who banished them. For the Restoration to occur according to Shabren's prophecy, a conflict between the forces of good and evil must first take place, an event known as the Reckoning.