Yash-Yabha is a minor deity amongst the Ten Thousand Immortals. As the youngest son of Western Sun, he is considered a member of the Divine Imperial Family, but his role in the affairs of mortals is small. He is associated with sunbeams shining through clouds and trees and is sometimes invoked by poets and artists as a source of inspiration. He is also known as a patron of travellers.
In the Time of Legends, Yash-Yabha's father and uncles were fighting over who was to become the next Sun God, the Divine Emperor. Yash-yabha was no warrior, unlike many of his brothers and cousins. Even his sister, the goddess of Dawn, was more warlike than he. The civil strife was reaching its climax when Winter Sun was slain, but Yash-yabha wandered far in the Celestial Realm, dancing on clouds, changing the colours of leaves and inventing tunes in his head. He reached the top of a high mountain and there he saw a great host of monsters approaching. This was the Horde of Ignorance, the army of demons led by the treacherous Lord Three Smoke come to claim the Sun Throne. It was Three Smoke who had secretly fomented strife between the sons of the Sun God, and who now hoped to take advantage of the confusion and mayhem that he had caused.
Yash-yabha leapt up in alarm at the sight, and raced to warn his father and uncles. As he ran, one of Three Smoke's demon scouts shot him with a black dart and wounded him in the ankle. Yash-Yabha leapt from mountain-top, to dale, to forest, to mountain, in mighty strides of a hundred leagues each. At each spot where he touched the ground a drop of his divine blood fell from his wound. His wound was not serious, and he made it to the Celestial Court to warn the other Immortals. His father and uncles stopped their pointless struggle and united against the Horde of Ignorance. Yash-yabha was healed but he played no part in the might struggle that came next. Even so, his family were proud of his valour and forgave him his daydreaming and wandering.
It is said that if you can find the places where Yash-Yabha's blood fell, and if you know the right magic, you can use them to travel from footstep to footstep, thus travelling hundreds of miles in a single step.
(c) 2007 The Creative Conclave.
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