Worshipped by the Ixal, this capricious primal commands the winds. A figure equal parts woman and avian, Garuda calls the sky her dominion and the storms her servants.

Ixali teachings portray Garuda as the Empress of Birds. In the age of myth, she slew the malevolent Lord of Snakes, ending his foul attempt to bind the world’s creatures to the earth. It was through this deed that birds might now soar freely amid the clouds. The ferocity of the battle, however, left the victorious Garuda sorely wounded. She feasted on the carcass of the reptilian king to restore her strength, and, with her wounds thus healed, once again took wing. Legends say that Garuda’s bloody banquet, whilst healing her physical form, also left her with a taste for the flesh of land-bound mortals…

Thus for the flightless Ixal who claim kinship with birds, their bloodthirsty guardian deity is a source of both rapture and terror.