Elikhet was the first Khet of the Kheteratans. He was one of the thousands of gods of the Bulwari Pantheon, and descended from it to lead his chosen people away from the oppression of the Bulwari God-kings. He had many names, depending upon what he was doing at the time. Elikhet the Renouncer, after he abandoned godhood. Elikhet the Architect, after turning what was formerly desert into the greatest nation on Halann, with wonders across it. Elikhet the Avenger, when he banished the genies of the Salahad who tried to enslave his people. Elikhet the Wanderer, when he explored the world, and founded many cities which still exist to this day. Elikhet the Provider, after creating feasts to feed his people after the fields were burned in The Onslaught. And Elikhet the Resurgent, after the Day of Ashen Skies occurred, and he returned to life.
Elikhet behaved very differently than all other Khet, being capable of leaving the Mother's Sorrow and seeming to have a broader set of abilities rather than the water-based feats other Khet are capable of, leading some to question if he truly qualifies as one of the Khet. A minority of scholars believe such feats could be achieved by any Khet, but no others have lived long enough.
History[]
Elikhet is the divine founder of the Kingdom of Kheterata, claimed as the longest-lasting human realm in the world, founded three thousand years before the Day of Ashes. His earliest recorded action was descending from the heavens to lead his people, the original Kheteratans, away from the tyranny of the Bulwari God-Kings - many scholars believe this to be a religious interpretation of Elikhet himself having been a God-King who rejected the tyrannical measures of his fellows and so left to found a new kingdom, with Elikhet having created the Sorrow as well as the Khet using unknown magics. Regardless of his origin, it is known that a land once categorized as a blasted desert inhabited only by exiled djinn and roaming gnoll tribes in Precursor records would become a fertile river valley with a growing human civilization.
In the early stages of his rule, Elikhet would fight a war in the desert against the djinn sultanates and gnoll tribes of the Salahadesi. It is believed that Kheterat itself, capital of the kingdom, was built near the flooded ruins of a major genie city - indicating that, perhaps, the Sorrow was created to be as much a weapon as a source of water. By all accounts, Elikhet was wildly successful, and drove djinn and gnoll alike out of the central Salahadesi - though certain gnoll tribes instead accepted a form of vassalage, acting as guard dogs against their hostile fellows in exchange for gifts from Elikhet's Court. Though these gifts were usually baubles or tokens, Elikhet would sometimes grant a gnoll pack a personal favor. Most notably, he is said to have once created a second tributary of the Sorrow to provide water for a thirsty but loyal pack, a river known now as the Krah. It is also recorded that these loyalist packs would provide the Kheteratan Kingdom with slaves, captured from the humans further south, as tribute.
Elikhet would later go on to wander the Divenhal, finding regions like Busirat (modern Busilar), Ibtat (modern Elizna), and Tefat (modern Eborthil) and founding cities there. This would be the height of his influence, as the era of Ancient Kheterata would draw to a close and the actions of Elikhet himself would be recorded less and less, his next notable action being to provide food for his people after the devastation of the Onslaught before once again disappearing from the historical record.
Elikhet would later return during the short First Gnollish Subjugation, swiftly destroying the invading gnolls before they could even settle in and once more returning to seclusion. His next appearance, during the Second Gnollish Subjugation at the hands of the First Xhazobine, would be his last, though it is disputed even in Kheteratan circles if he died of unrelated reasons shortly before the Xhazobine arrived or if he was killed by the Xhazobine in personal combat.
He would miraculously return on the Day of Ashen Skies, launching a war against the Damerian Republic that had since occupied the Kingdom of Kheterata and declaring that none but the Kheteratan people themselves shall rule his kingdom. With Kheterata eventually retaken from the Damerians, Elikhet would preside over a general removal of foreign culture from Kheterata, with the teaching of Common and the worship of some deities of the Regent Court which had become popular during the Damerian occupation being particular targets. He would eventually return power to his descendants and return to his sarcophagus. Though Kheterata would later be subjugated by the dragon Aakhet the Bronze and the sun elf Jexis, his final words declaring for a Kheterata ruled by Kheteratans would continue to inspire nationalist uprisings in the Kingdom for the duration of its existence, such as the Nirat Uprising of 1444.