Title: Ius, Animal God
Author: Buljursoma 
IsNaughty: False
Price: 385
IsUnique: False
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Content:


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[/center]Ius,

[/center]Animal God



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 The statues one sees throughout Valenwood and parts of
Hammerfell and Elsweyr that seem to be of a misshapen
humanoid carrying a rod are of Ius, tHe God of Animals. 

 The rod He carries has its origin in the tale of The Ox and The
Evil Farmer. It seems that one day an evil farmer decided to
kill all of his animals and have a big party. As The story
unfolds, animal after animal is killed and prepared for a
big meal. Lastly the farmer comes to the ox and prepares to
slit its throat. The ox, not wishing to be anybody's dinner,
prayed very vocally to Ius. This came out as a loud Moo,
of course.

 At that very instant Ius appeared carrying a rather large
set of balance weights. Without explanation, Ius ate the
farmer and vanished. Ever since that day Ius The Extremely
Agitated, has always been protrayed as carrying a large set
of scales with him. The local Ius worshippers have no idea
why and do not seem to care. Although this story has been
called fanciful at best, I personally know a racoon who had
actually talked to The Ox. That is, before the Ox became
filler for the local inn's larder.

 I do not have any information one way or the other about the
validity of this second myth. It is, however, quite
traditional.

 It seems that many, many years ago, before the reign of Uriel
Septim VII, before the reign of Cephorus Septim II, yes,
even before the age of Pelagius Septim III (long may his
name be praised!), there lived a wombat who was the pet of
Lady Greelina, daughter of the Lord Prufrock of Rockcreek.
Lady Greelina loved her wombat so, and it loved her too
with all the passionate intensity a marsupial can muster.

 Unfortunately, it was a time of great sorrow in Rockcreek. A
pestilence had come through the town, destroying all their
cash crops (which consisted of raspberries and a few scraggly
odd weeds that caused Argonian women to look very
attractive to those who partook); Then a plague had come,
inflicting nearly every cobbler with chronic hiccoughs;
finally a witch had cursed the townspeople so the only words
any could utter were "Hmmm. Precisely." All the businesses,
stores, and guilds fled from the town faster than an
extremely fast thing.

 Lady Greelina saw her father despairing the loss the town was
suffering, so she brought her wombat in and told him,
"Father, my wombat can save us all, for it is sacred to the
god Ius, God of Animals. The only reason I didn't tell you
earlier is because I am an early adolescent going through
that period when I don't like to communicate. But please, ask
a wish of my wombat, and Ius will fulfill it, for my
wombat loves me."

 The king thought this was fairly flakey, but he had nothing to
lose so he uttered a modest wish to the wombat, "All I want is
for one business to come to Rockcreek that will never leave
no matter the calamity."

 I probably should have mentioned before that the king had
always been cruel to the wombat (he used to lick it and try to
make it stick to walls), so the wombat had Ius create an
equipment store in front of the palace gate that would
never go away. The royal family ended up going mad and
eating one another (and ironically, the wombat was one of
the first to go). But that is why there is to this day an
equipment store blocking the palace gate in Rockcreek. If
you don't believe me, go there and see.



 
