Devi

Devi began her divine career as a minor functionary in the Bureau of Seasons, charged with the tracking and notation of Western tornadoes in the late First Age. There was little for her to do, and little room for career growth--what control she had over her associated weather pattern, she found it unseemly to use to extort further prayer, and in those days it would have been risky to show such corruption in Heaven anyway. So she performed her duties, which occasionally took her down into Creation (which to be honest, she found more fun anyway).

Everything changed during the Usurpation. She happened to be visiting a Lunar acquaintance, ostensibly on business, when the Lunar's Manse was attacked by Dragon-blooded usurpers. What appeared at first to be a simple assassination attempt gradually proved to be more wide-spread and systematic, and Devi's control of the weather proved to be useful in breaking sieges. In later years, she was often asked why she hadn't simply Hurried Home to Yu-Shan, where every divine hand was needed to quell the growing chaos. Her answers are varied--perhaps she herself doesn't know.

Regardless, when the battle was eventually, inevitably lost, Devi found herself changed. She was disgusted by the ultimate betrayal of the rulers of Creation, and felt no desire to spend time in Heaven with the self-satisfied, unpunished Sidereal Host. She found excuses to spend her time in Creation, and soon her coworkers and superiors began asking her to do things on behalf of the Bureau (or themselves) in the world. Over the centuries, she gained a reputation as a problem-solver, though one cursed with an unusually-strong sense of justice. She spoke little of the old friend she'd lost in the Usurpation, and her unsuccessful attempts to find the Lunar's later incarnations.

Then came the Contagion, and the seeming death of the world. Devi watched as an enemy she could not touch slaughtered everything but her and her peers, and she felt keenly the loss of the heroes that could have averted such tragedy. All too soon, however, an enemy arrived that she could fight, and so she did, along with other odd gods out that preferred adventuring to life in the Celestial Bureaucracy. As a result, she was fighting the Fair Folk when the weather of Creation snapped, as several storm gods attempted to use Creation's weather to repel the invaders. She saw firsthand the devastation wrought by her irresponsible superiors, and ensured that she was in a position to speak against their actions when they were brought to trial. She grew more disillusioned with her peers even as she gained a small measure of respect for the Dragon-Blooded that saved Creation with far fewer resources and far more ingenuity.

Devi has continued to fight the Fair Folk in the West since their invasion, sometimes physically, sometimes by sending storms at them, and sometimes by working with others. Someone she worked with on several occasions is the independent Sidereal Nazri, informing him of the movements of the Raksha, working with Sidereals against them, and so forth. Whilst she enjoyed working with an exalt again, his seniority and concentration on his careful politics in the Bureau of Destiny prevented their friendship from ever growing beyond that of allies who can also enjoy each other company.

Though many of her peers quietly supported her, her growing willingness to speak out against her superiors acted to retard her promotion in the Bureau of Seasons. Still, with the economic unrest brought about by the loss of so much prayer and so many gods' positions, and some quiet support from Nazri, she was promoted fully to god of waterspouts, and appropriately enough of the change of seasons where Descending Air meets Ascending Water, her actions and words earned her the other title, usually only spoken behind her back. She maintained a measure of her outsider status even as she focused on her work, more than she had for centuries. On occasion she still found excuses to indulge her wanderlust, and on occasion the Bureau of Seasons gave her even more.

A few years ago, Nazir introduced her to a Dragon King, teaming them up on one of her unofficial missions. And while it wasn't quite the same, she found herself thinking of that time long ago, when it was just her and her old friend against impossible odds. It was good to find a partner once again.