Overview
Hrzai is Xalmyrra's ancient divine goddess, the first successful god core of the Malverand Empire, and the golden being who later moves through Xalmyrra as Xelthys. Her original artifact form is the golden tree, and she is later revered in Xalmyrra as the first divine mage. As Xelthys, she lives among Xalmyrrans through chosen personas, guides long plans against Xol'Zahir and the darkness, and becomes the god bound to Eira / Aruviel through the golden tree mark.
Hrzai guards Xalmyrra, teaches divine magic, plans with Thalena around the cycles, guides Eira through the golden tree mark, and saves Cassian during the fall of the false Ozaith. She also hides her Malverand origin, her Xelthys personas, and parts of the cycle plan while maneuvering selected mortals through hidden designs.
Manifestation and Personas
Hrzai usually manifests as a radiant golden woman, with long golden hair, white-and-gold robes, divine light, and motes or strands of golden essence. When weakened, she can project only a partial or hazy form through her wielder. She chooses her visible form and can take different genders, shapes, and names when living among mortals.
In the cycle plan, the Xalmyrran council, Belanor, and allied gods know her as Xelthys. Hrzai creates personas tailored to mortal expectations and uses the Xelthys guise throughout her cycles-long plan to break Xol'Zahir's darkness over Xalmyrra.
Powers and Limits
Hrzai's divine magic includes healing, shielding, essence shaping, golden-strand manifestation, visions, and communication through her wielder. She can descend among mortals, speak through divine bonds, and shape how selected people perceive her. Her power depends on divine essence, belief, followers, and god-core structures; when depleted, she needs time, essence, or stasis to recover.
Hrzai knows how to reverse healing into unhealing, using golden strands to disconnect and unmake essence. Cassian inherits his god-slaying ability and gate-opening affinity through Hrzai, while his unusual perception and intellect come from Orin. Hrzai also teaches or transmits divine shielding and healing techniques.
The golden tree is Hrzai's original god-core form and later wielder mark. Eira carries it in her palm after accepting Hrzai as her god, and Belanor once carries a similar mark while he is Xelthys's wielder. Through the mark, Hrzai can speak, lend power, descend, and remain bound to her wielder across extreme displacement.
History
Arcanis's Malverand god-core research produces Hrzai's original golden tree form. During the 1790 BX test in Maraveth, Thamrielle establishes a mind link with the object, a golden healing being manifests, and the being restores Arcanis's severed arm. The being then reaches for the golden tree and vanishes when she touches it. She remains absent for centuries, and the personalities embedded in her creation leave her unstable. In 1388 BX, the golden being manifests in Xalmyrra during a plague, ends it, and begins teaching divine magic under the name Hrzai. Her plague-born self-origin is false: she is Malverand's creation and the first successful attempt at divine magic. The contradiction forces her to question her own origin. Sariel gives her a Malverand heart and leaves Xalmyrra in her care; Eira later carries that heart in her own body.
As Xelthys, Hrzai works through Xalmyrra's cycles and hidden history. She chooses Belanor as her wielder, directs him against Jorhan and the corrupted atraxi, and waits for a champion able to break Xol'Zahir's control. She also trains David Vorrel after he enters a dying Xalmyrran cycle and prepares him as Xalmyrra's hope.
Hrzai becomes Thalena's close companion in the hidden Xalmyrran past. Together they prepare the conditions around the War of Scars, The Eleven Stories of Old, Eira, Cassian, and the end of the cycles. Thalena eventually gives Hrzai the golden sword made to pierce the false Ozaith when the right moment arrives.
Hrzai loves Orin and mirrors his being so she can have a child with him. Their son is Cassian, though Dorian and Rowenna raise him in practice. When the false Ozaith descends against Thalassai, Hrzai descends with the golden sword, pierces him, and gives Cassian the opening to crush the god's essence. She later gives the sword to Cassian.
After Varnhallow and the broken cycles, Hrzai remains bound to Eira. She travels with Eira through ancient Vireen, the old Malverand past, the return to Valrindor, and into the Malverand Intergalactic Empire, where Eira still carries Hrzai as the first successful god core while Hrzai speaks with gods through Eira, adds golden shields to allied defenses, and stays with her in places where divine power is strained.
Relationships
- Eira: Hrzai's wielder, companion, and main vessel after the golden tree pact. Eira carries Hrzai through temporal displacement, stasis, Vireen, and the Malverand Intergalactic Empire.
- Orin: Hrzai's long-term partner and the father of Cassian.
- Cassian: Hrzai and Orin's son. Hrzai pierces the false Ozaith with the golden sword, giving Cassian the opening to crush the god's essence, and later leaves him the weapon.
- Thalena: Hrzai's hidden-history companion and planning partner in Xalmyrra.
- Brynor / Belanor: Hrzai's former wielder during the cycle plan against Jorhan.
- Silas / Sariel: The Malverand prince who gives Hrzai the Malverand heart and entrusts Xalmyrra to her.