Mighty-In-Battle

Mighty-in-Battle appears as a massive elephant, whose skin gleams metallic copper and whose tusks are long and of purest ivory. He is a terrestrial god, avatar-spirit of elephants.

Mighty-in-Battle has suffered political defeats at the hands of his foes. Once elephants were common across the Southeast and Southwest, the Southeastern Savannah Elephants the largest and most ferocious while the Southwestern Forest Elephants were smaller and more calm. Mighty-in-Battle spent his time amongst the Southeastern herds, grazing and strangling smaller creatures for amusement... but it was not to last.

The coming of Ahlat the Cattle deity and God of Southern War was to devastate Mighty-in-Battle's herds... cows demanded space for grazing uninterrupted, and Ahlat manipulated events to ensure that local tribes ceased using elephants for labour and instead slew them in massive numbers, for ivory and to clear pasture for cattle. Mighty-in-Battle traveled to Yu-shan to petition Samas the God of Justice and gain aid of the censors in removing Ahlat, but the war god had too many supporters. Even Samas' judgement in his favour gained nothing for the elephant spirit, and he instead withdrew his sanctum to the safety of the jungles in the Land of Crushing Fragrance. There, and in neighbouring An-Teng and Blood River, the locals worked elephants hard and took their ivory, but they showed proper respect as they did so, offering due prayer and not engaging in the genocidal campaign of extermination seen in Harborhead.

An ally of Samas, Mighty-in-Battle delighted when that god descended to become the Golden Lord, and the elephant spirit now spends much of his time at the Lord's court atop the Pinnacle of Mercy. In times of war, he offers his back to his friend and together they ride to battle... Mighty-in-Battle dreams of the day they will do so in the name of Justice and Elephants to strike down the vile God of Southern War once and for all.