Asak, to whom I may have sometimes referred as the god of evil, is, more properly, the god of despair. Despair is the greatest of evils. Perhaps the only true evil, with all other deriving from it. It is a conviction of the meaninglessness of existence and a hatred for all that is. Asak seeks total obliteration of all being, even while knowing it is impossible. To make matters worse, gods can’t commit suicide, what with being immortal — he is doomed to ever exist, with no escape.
All his pantheon (and there infinite others in infinite existence) is quite symbolic in this fashion. Asak is as completely ‘evil’ as is possible, just as his opposite number — his twin brother Kamat — is totally good. Almost; nothing can be absolute. Of course, he has complete faith that existence has meaning. That, ultimately, is what true faith is, when one strips away various dogmas and ideologies.
Both Kamat and Asak are Ildin deities. The Ildin, as a people, have been in and out of the Izan tales, sometimes playing a role, sometimes mentioned mostly in passing. But their religious beliefs, and their gods, have had their impact.
