Ushas

Ushas is a 4th zen god and the goddess of dawn.^[1]

Appearance

Adult Form

Ushas takes the appearance of a young adult woman, and has long purple and pink wavy hair with yellow tips. Her eyes have a similar color scheme, being half-purple and half-grey with pink pupils. She also has silver earrings shaped like crescent moons with a star in the center. She wears a long strapless dress that has a white top, and multiple pale yellow layers, with unattached sleeves that are connected to rings she wears on her ring fingers.

Baby Form

In this form Ushas resembles a young infant, her hair being much short and her dress covering her shoulders.

Personality

Ushas is incredibly kind, being one of the few gods that felt sorry for the human soul that was cursed by the gods. She was the one to mention the idea of blessing the soul.^[1] This is further apparent when she puts her own life at risk to stay and help Garuda Rakshasas get to safety. She also has a great sense of responsibility, blaming herself for Aruna's death and doing everything in her power to save him.^[2]

She has a cheerful side, being willing to wait a few months for Aruna to recover his vigor and to spend time with him.^[3] An extension of this can be seen as she is rather cheeky, telling Marut that Ratri and her were going on a secret date. Varuna mentions that Ushas had said similar things in the past that could me misconstrued, with Marut thinking that Ushas probably does it on purpose.^[4]

Skills and Abilities

At the early stages of the universe Ushas was a minor god, but has now reached 4th-Zen and is soon to become 5th-Zen, making her one of the most important Astikas. Little is known about her powers, as she has passed them on to Maruna. However, by doing this Maruna has become an elite rakshasa of great power.

Light Generation (unnamed): While playing around with Aruna, Ushas demonstrates the ability to create little balls of light to entertain the young rakshasa.^[3]

Elemental Form (unnamed): Similar to other gods, Ushas is able to take on an elemental form with unknown effects.^[3]

Plot

Season 3

Chapter 47: Words That Never Reached You

(16) When the gods destroyed the ancient human race, they could not destroy Brilith's soul because of her betrothal to Agni. Thus, they used tens of thousands of curses to ensure her soul would face hardships to prevent her from gaining the power to become a threat. Ushas was among the few who sympathized with Agni, and blessed the soul for her to meet her betrothed again.

Chapter 53: Ananta

(3) Ushas, accompanied by Ratri, arrives in the human realm at the request of Garuda and Vinata to train their son Aruna. Surprised by the lack of nastikas, Ushas states that the king's intentions do not matter as she is curious to meet a rakshasa closer to dawn than her.

(4) They are introduced to the young rakshasa by his caretaker, Ushas finding his outburst cute and questioning if he can really use such a power transcendental. At the caretaker's confirmation, Ushas better understands why they planetary gods were sent to fetch them in secret. She offers to use Ratri's skill to witness this transcendental away from spectators, but due to Aruna's lack of vigor they are forced to wait before they can witness his unique transcendental skill. Ushas exclaims that this is not an issue, and that she can use this time to get to know Aruna better.

A week later, Ratri expresses her discomfort at stalling for too long as rumors of fiendish magic problems have already begun to fly. Ushas retorts that since there are no humans on this planet, any conflict that arises will not start there, giving them the time to react if needed. Ushas proceeds to spend time with Aruna to get to know him.

Later on, Aruna tells Ushas about his favorite fruit, the snowflake apple, Ushas asks him if he will share it with her the next time he finds one. Soon after a large storm begins, they are told it was created by a fiendish magic user with Ushas thinking that Ananta might have been the culprit then. Ratri urges her to return to the god realm, but Ushas decides to stay and help get the Rakshasas to safety instead. After hearing that Aruna is not with the others, she goes out looking for him.

(5) Ushas, Ratri, and the caretaker find Aruna's body. Unfortunately he died after being struck by lightning. Ushas notices the apple on the ground, realizing he must have died trying to grab it. Ushas blames herself for his death. Ratri and the caretaker tell her it isn't her fault but Ushas begins to cry. Ratri sighs and agrees to help her save him, passing Aruna's body to Ushas to take him to a place where the light of dawn reaches. Ushas explains to the caretaker that they can bring him back to life, however, he would lose his name and become weaker. Ushas makes the decision to give Aruna her own power to make up for his power loss which would lead to his death.

(6) Ushas tells the caretaker that she will give her power to Aruna so he can meet the power expected of him, which will mean she will take a break from living during that time. She tells the caretaker to leave before Ratri returns or he will be blamed, she then tells Aruna's corpse that she has faith he will find the right place to use this power.

(7) Now in her baby form, Ushas is carried back to the god realm by Ratri. They arrive as the other gods are meeting, and Ushas immediately calls out to Indra running to him.

(8) After seeing the state of "the dawn to his sky", Indra demands an explanation. When Indra becomes enraged and unleashes his power, baby Ushas gets scared and begins to cry while calling him ugly. Unlike in the early universe, there was no possibility that the rakshasa had forcefully taken Ushas' jurisdiction, meaning she must have given her power to him willingly. This reveals that whenever Maruna exists, Ushas takes on this incomplete form as she gave him her power.

Side Story 17 - Dawn of the Gods

(1) Early on in the universe, many gods were created by the development of the ancient human race, and began to develop a sense of self, but Ushas didn't. She remained in a very young form making little progress, to the surprise of the created gods who state that as a natural god she shouldn't have been born young like them. The created gods continued to grow, treating her as a little sister and later like a daughter, before leaving her side as they were bothered. Ratri, the goddess of Night, stayed by her side and took care of her due to their close origins. When Ratri was busy, Ushas would be entrusted to the highest gods due to her importance.

She eventually grew to dislike Indra and would cry in his presence. Eventually, Ushas wanted to meet Agni but was denied by Yama as Agni had not yet learned to control his power. During this meeting, Ushas took a liking to Yama and asked to spend time with him. This continued on, with Ushas even sneaking off to the underworld on her own to go visit him. She eventually got to meet Agni, but lost interest over time as he got busy with his betrothed, causing Ushas to return to Yama.

When the ancient human race was eradicated, Indra came to the underworld to pressure Yama into breaking the betrothal between Agni and Brilith. As a fight was about to start between them, Ushas appeared in her adult form and confronted Indra calling him ugly before leaving. Much later on she returned to Indra to apologize, with him telling her there's no need as he had dumped the reason for her apology at the top. No progress between them occurred for a very long time until the scandal faded away.

References