"The Light of the Gods" ((Inuyoko Mass #43))

"The Light of the Gods"

by Inuyoko

Originally read in deoch 219 on the 10th sun of the 3rd moon.

((04/09/2026))

Hello, everyone. My name is Inuyoko T’Alveni. I am a Priestess of this Shrine, and a member of its clergy since deoch 53. Last double-moon, I spoke about Deoch, and what it means to “create our world”. Today, I’d like to talk about light again, because the power of light comes in many forms. I spoke a while ago about it as an elemental force versus the more common form; whether they are even the same, and what that might mean. Now I’d like to take a slightly different approach. 

Deoch is considered a god of light, despite being simultaneously a being of darkness. Danaan was thought to be *the* goddess of light. But really, all gods of the Octave are of the light. Though, much as we Aislings are not pure light or darkness, I don’t believe the gods are either. Some philosophers of deochs past have speculated that even Danaan and Chadul are not purely of one or the other. It is impossible to say what their true nature is, or even to what extent it matters. But the point here is not about that. It is about what the light of the gods represents. 

Deoch’s light emanates from His flame, illuminating our paths in this world so that wherever we go, we can see the way with clarity and resolution. It is the warm fire upon the peaks of Mount Giragan, thawing us from the paralyzing grip of the biting cold and giving us the strength to move forward. It is the heat of molten glass or steel that we may shape – pure potential.

Glioca’s light shines from every act of kindness, and every helping hand extended. What do we say of a smile brought to the lips of someone shown such compassion? Beaming. A beaming smile which can brighten the darkest of situations.

And what of Sgrios’ light? We may describe a deeply felt loss as a dark time in our lives, but perhaps we’ve also heard of passing described as a light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe these are just metaphors, but I think there is something deeper. A life without end is doomed to stagnation. Unalleviable suffering, too, may see death as a form of release. And all of this is to say nothing of Sgrios’ mercy towards we Aislings, delivering us back to this grey realm from the clutches of whatever afterlife may otherwise await us, for a time. For many, these realities are seen as a bright and hopeful state of things.

What is particularly special about the light of the gods is that it is not theirs, but all of ours. The beauty of the spark and in what we vainly call our humanity, though I extend this to other societies as much as our own, is this way that it brightens our world. When we collaborate with one another…when we help one another…and when we comfort one another in our grief, we are not simply creating cohesion. We are building ourselves up into something greater. We are working to make our sparks so blindingly radiant that not even Chadul’s darkness can dim it.