Epilogue: Kariss

After the events that had transpired with the Queen of Ash, Kariss worked with the Yuan-ti. She helped them establish a small village in the southern forests of Novos. Her and Gralmor spent years among the new Yuan-ti settlers and helped them build a stable society free from the strictures of their past. They no longer sacrificed to Sssseth or any other god. Many of the actually began to worship Kariss as their savior from the usurper god.

The village in the Oasis grew larger as access opened up. The citizens there also worshiped the strange, unknown snake woman who had healed those afflicted by the Curse of Ash during its rampage. These prayers coalesced into power and before long Kariss felt the pull of ascension. After a brief goodbye with Gralmor she left with his blessing. He watched her go off into the wilderness outside the Yuan-ti village with tears streaming down his face. He was heartbroken but knew that she had a higher purpose. She would be a beacon to the lost and beaten. Kariss walked into the dense jungles that had inevitably formed around the Yuan-ti never to be seen again. 

The light played on the leaves of the greenery around as she walked in silence. Even the animals that normally chirped and flourished in the undergrowth were silent. She thought about all the things she had been through: her beating at the hands of her own people, her salvation through Bahamut, her adventures with The Hand of Destiny, and finally her life with Gralmor. All of these things played in her mind but she found their importance fading as her new calling took hold. All of her mortal failings fell away. Her inadequacies, her failures, her doubts. The mortal part of her was dying in the best way. The ties of the world no longer bound her and she drifted off towards her own domain. 

She became known as Aspiration. She was a guide to the lost and a symbol of the unfulfilled potential of people. She helped those who needed her to achieve their potential. Aspiration was worshiped in the growing desert village at the entrance of the desert that houses the healing waters of the Oasis. The Yuan-ti refugees that had made Novos their home also held her in high regard and often asked for her guidance of their young in their life quests. Though she remembered the adventures of her mortal life, she could not feel the emotions that came with those memories. Being a god meant being aloof from mortal life. Since gods are near immortal they do not cleave to emotion life mortals do. Things that once seemed immense now felt immaterial. 

Gralmor spent some time among the Yuan-ti, helping them set up a new home with no carnage as part of daily life. After some time though, he noticed that the power of the gods was waning on the island. He sent missives to the few friends he still had left on the mainland and received the same reports of waning connection to the gods. Items blessed by divine beings were losing their power and spells that were once prolific were now rare or entirely forgotten. Soon it became impossible to even use magical items. Items that had charges still remaining after the Third Sundering, which is what people called the battle between the Queen of Ash and the Hand of Destiny. The Queen had upset the balance between the gods when she had killed many of the lesser deities to make her elixir. 

Worried about her well-being up there with the other gods, Gralmor left Novos for the mainland. When he arrived he went about setting up a temple in her honor high in the mountains north of Waterdeep. He spent years dedicated to her memory and maintaining her shrine. The temple was a haven for all weary travelers who sought inspiration. They prayed for guidance and meditated for answers until they came. So Aspiration was able to keep her divine existence with a strong foothold in Novos among natives and newcomers as well as those who found her among the wooded crags of the mountains on the mainland. She wasn’t a well known or highly worshiped god but with power waning in the world and darkness creeping in, she was the only being listening. 

She had power but not enough to bring back abundant divine magic in the world. Her boons were more inspirational in nature. Ideas, breakthroughs and clever notions were her boons. She helped people reach their aspirations, helped them succeed. Not really a great power in the land but it was more than people had had in a long time and that was enough for most. Knowing that the gods were not gone but merely missing or cut off was a soothing balm for many. Aspiration was the only member of The Hand of Destiny to become a god but this was her calling and only she could shoulder the burden of being a guardian to so many.