In the politics of the heavens, beyond the watchful eyes of mortals - perhaps even beyond mortal comprehension, the heavens have always been a hot bed of activity. Generally speaking, to the Gods, it is a game. He who has the most toys - worshippers - wins! For most, it's an open ended plan of expansion. Spectacular, fast, but ultimately short lived. There was one God however, who was different. He was a rogue among Gods that were worshipped. Although not a God of Darkness per se, he was sneaky, elusive, demanding of those who knew his ways, and was extremely jealous of any other dieties. His name, was Yodheh.
His history is much older than our world, however. During the ancient times, before Earth was Earth, before man existed, there was nothing - but the Old Ones. The Old Ones created many things in their time, among them were a handful of Gods to help them assemble the megaverse as they saw fit. Yodheh was, among a handful of other Gods, one of those who had a hand in building the Earth.
They then left the Earth, to attend to other things, for it to complete it's cycle of flame. They only left the barest of life's seed on the Earth.
Millions of years later, there was an uprising among the Gods and the various other races created by the Old Ones, on a distant world - the first world ever created. Yodheh was the first to strike a blow against them by calling down a shower of flaming balls of Sulfer upon the Old Ones. It succeeded in harming them, and blinding their immortal bodies, but their response was an incredible blast that shattered Yodheh's body, and sent him flying into space.
During the Eons that followed, the Old Ones were defeated, and the glory of it's success was heralded upon them. Meanwhile, Yodheh's body gradually repaired itself. The strange form of Magic used to devastate his body so, was difficult for his natural rejuvenative abilities to repair. When he finally came to he teleported back to where the battle was taking place, and found that the world had changed so dramatically since he was last there - that he couldn't really see any landmark he recognized. Figuring that the old had been washed from the world in the battle, he teleported back to a small world he had created millions of years ago - far away from the combat, where he could observe his handy work again. Only to find, that several of his compatriots had already come back to Earth. They had already told their stories to Mortals, and had become famous among them. Their roles, however miniscule, in the production of this World was considered great - and was blown out of proportion so that every race of men on this world believed their own Gods had single handedly made this world. This made Yodheh insanely jealous....
Yodheh's response to all of this was to simply cut in on the action. His start was first to convince a young boy that the Gods of this world, were false Gods, represented by false idols. It took his scheming and plotting a thousand years beyond this first contact to see to it that those who were among his faithful came into enough power to establish a homeland for those who held his faith highest.
This base of power was established in the old Canaanite center of power, Jerusalem - known by the name of Israel. Here he had his people build an idyllic paradise, that would be the envy of all of it's neighbors. It's harvests were plentiful every year, on the sixth year it was so plentiful that an entire year could be taken away from the harvest. Miracles were displayed in the streets every day, and the people were more sheep to bend to his will than ever. All of this sounded like the ideal, but it was flawed. The people who followed him came to call on him for everything. They grew lazy, and grew to expect these miracles to solve their problems. Meanwhile, the followers of other religious beliefs grew to wonder why they followed the more thrify Gods. This angered, among others, Marduk of the Pantheon of Sumer. He, the principle diety of the very influential Assyrian Empire, approached Yodheh to make his case to him directly. He figured that he could appeal to Yodheh's good senses to stop acting in this way. Yodheh would not listen however. While all this was transpiring, Israel split into two - the northern half called Israel, and the southern called Judah. As such it eventually led to a war in which Israel was conquored. Later, Assyria attempted to conquor Judah - but failed when Yodheh set the plagues upon the Assyrian army during their siege of Jerusalem.
This drove Marduk and the entire Pantheon of Sumer to declare outright war on Yodheh. Even as they grew furious, Yodheh undermined their furthered plans to conquor Judah, by pitting the Pantheon of Ra against the Pantheon of Sumer, and in doing so it weakened the Empire of Assyria to the point of collapse.
This did not end the conflict, as the Pantheon of Sumer built up the power base of Babylonia for a second time in history, to the point that it expanded into a second Babylonian Empire. Yodheh again attempted to lure the Pantheon of Ra into fighting, but Osiris learned of the ploy and ended Egyptian involvement in the conflict. His ploy foiled, he was forced to meet the Babylonian Gods in battle. The war between Judah and Babylonia lasted a number of years, and simultaniously Yodheh battled against Marduk, Enki and Ishtar. The battle, when it finally ended, was the surrender of Jerusalem at the end of over a year of siege, and when Yodheh, wracked with the pains of a spell unleased by Enki, surrendered before the Pantheon of Sumer. At first Ishtar wanted him to be executed for his insolence at making all other Gods look bad, Enki was not so quick to decide upon death, but instead suggested that he be imprisoned for his rash actions. Finally, Yodheh begged that the Gods of the Babylonians forgive him and allow him to join them, so that he may learn from their example. He further went on to explain that it would be so, so that people could continue to be permitted to worship him without penalty from the authorities in Babylonia. Furthermore, that he would also cease handing them such open handed miracles - and as such making all the other Gods look bad. Marduk, being a just God, permitted this - and Yodheh became a God of the Pantheon of Sumer.
Yodheh began his plotting immediately for his people, and he, to become free of these Gods. He sought out Ahura Mazda of the Persian Pantheon. He had heard rumors from travelers that power was growing in this region, AND had also heard that there was some minorly bad blood between the Babylonian and Persian Gods. He explained to them of how the Babylonian Gods had forcibly deported his people to the far corners of Babylonia. He also went on to tell them about how he had heard the Goddess Ishtar discussing with one of her subordinates something about invading the realm of the Persian Gods. Although Ahura Mazda is not usually quick to pass judgement, his already shady experience with the Babylonian Gods, and the fact that Yodheh was so highly regarded by his worshippers, allowed him to make quick decisions. He agreed to invade the Babylonian Empire in a set amount of time - with the condition that the Hebrews assist them when the time was right, and following this that they then would become allies to the Persians. Yodheh agreed. Seventy years to the day of when Judah fell - the Persians with their Median allies, marched into the city of Babylon and slew the entire ruling class.
Once this happened Judea was rebuilt, and it became a vassal state of the Persian Empire. When the Persian Gods crossed swords with the Greek Gods, Yodheh refused an honest plea from Athena to assist the Greek Gods in fighting the Persians, after which she only narrowly escaped capture by the Persian God Verethraghna.
From here on after Yodheh's plots and deceitful actions continued for centuries, crossing a hundred different pantheons of Gods, and defeating each of them with his lies and schemes. By the time the cataclysm rolled around over 60% of the world's population followed his beliefs in one of it's forms. Many of which over the years had fought entire wars over the definition of who were the true followers of Yodheh's faith.
When it happened, Yodheh's interests were struck hard. Deceitful, sly, and at times cruel as he may have been, the sudden death of 98% of his followers hit him very hard. Despite his efforts to help out his few remaining devoted followers, it was inevitable that he would lose yet more.
Three hundred plus years have past since the cataclysm, and the world is in remission from the cancer that scoured her surface for more than three centuries. Mankind is on the rise again, and multitudes of new races walk the face of this world. With them a number of new and old Pantheons have come to claim territories as their own. Yodheh has again introduced his church on this radically changed Earth, and has made it a personal goal to see to it that he again becomes the worlds most powerful diety, once and for all.
To describe Yodheh would be difficult, as he is one of the few Gods that can change his form at will to whatever shape and size he would like - more like his Alien Intelligence parentage than like most true Gods. He could be as small as an insect, or as large as a fire breathing dragon. He tends to prefer the paternal look however, usually appearing as a wisened old man with a full beard, long hair, and dressed in the most modest form of clothing imaginable for a culture. (Drab robes, a simple peasants garb, jeans and a tee shirt, etc.) Although he never directly interacts with his followers, he does interact quite frequently with them through the use of a Fragmented Essence. When using these essences he uses one of several million different identities - otherwise known to many as Angels. While in these forms he tries to portray an aura of omniscience, answering questions thought through in a persons mind before it is asked, often in a way so that it seems as though the person he's speaking with should have known all along. In dealing with his contemporaries, he acts very similar to a businessman, very cordial although cool towards any of them. That all changes if his contemporary has the upper hand. Then he is very cordial, and very forthcoming with information and offers of assistance. In regards to forming a Pantheon, Yodheh has NEVER been one to share power with other Gods, owing to the fact that he is insanely jealous of all other Gods being followed by who he believes should follow him. The closest he has ever come to sharing power with anyone was when Yodheh created the fragmented essences that were known by the names Jesus, Yahshua, and Muhammad.
Today much of the North America is back in the clutches of Yodheh. The majority of the citizens of the Coalition States follow a very lean and watered version of the ancient teachings of Christianity, without much of a recognized church. A more direct, "Fire and Brimstone" revival has also surfaced throughout the old American West, and in portions of Eastern North America. Although he has attempted a revival in old Israel, he failed miserably. At present he is focused on North America. Here, however, he is directly opposed to the Native American Great Spirits who remember well what he did to their people the first time, the Aztec Pantheon in and around the Vampire Kingdoms who remember what the Spanish did to their people, the Dragonwright expansion in Lazlo, New Lazlo, and New Hope who have had no previous experience with Yodheh, and the Shinto following in Wa-Daisho and Desert Star who remember well what the Americans and British did to their people in World War II. At present he is watching carefully the activities of the Aztecs and the Shinto. The Aztecs appear to be focusing on a mass expansion to the North, which appears to be the beginning of a holy war with the way the Aztecs have been killing off Christian priests whenever they are found, while the Shinto appear poised to strike down this expansion. If and when this war begins, Yodheh has every intention of aiding the Shinto to strike down the threatening Aztec Pantheon - the Aztecs appear much more threatening than the Shinto to the new Christian Expansion.