Ifrit

"Gather round, now, and learn you of the fiery god of the Amalj'aa. A demon wreathed in ever-shrieking flames, Ifrit's breath sears with furnace heat. His blistering talons turn iron to slag, His smoldering horns char the heavens, and those who oppose his all-consuming rage perish screaming in a hell of primal fire." --Amalj'aa folktale

Ifrit
Ifrit is the tribal deity of the Amalj'aa, the reptilian nomads of Paglth'an and Thanalan. He is called the "Lord of the Inferno".

Early History
It is written in the religion of the Amalj'aa that, in the beginning, there was only Ifrit. With his fiery claws, He carved out a world from the Void, and brought into being only beasts. Those beasts, with no purpose nor reason, fought endlessly against one another for the survival of the fittest--and among those, the fittest indeed was a species of reptiles. These pleased Ifrit so, that He imbued them with sparks of His own essence, seven males and seven females.

Those seven pairs, no longer beasts but Amalj'aa, descended from the heights of Zanr'ak, and begot the seven tribes of the new race.

Depiction and Worship
The appearance of the primal Ifrit illustrates the consensus of how the Amalj'aa perceive Him. A great, lithe reptilian being, His scales burn all over with hellfire. His head is crowned with great horns, and His hands and feet end in terrible claws. Such an appearance is deformed and ugly to the eyes of most men, but to the Amalj'aa, no doubt Ifrit is the pinnacle of beauty.

The Amalj'aa hold that their homeland of Paglth'an and the mount Zanr'ak are sacred to Ifrit, but some go further and assert that all of Thanalan is hallowed by His fire.

It is counted a sacred pilgrimage for aged warriors to travel to Zanr'ak, where they immolate themselves in their final hour. They consider this to be returning their souls to the flame, and their bodies to the ashes--a form of transcendence, rejoining Ifrit.

The Primal
The Primal Ifrit, naturally, is necessarily not identical to the god Ifrit. Primals, being born of the wishful thinking of those who summon them, take on the expected personality and attitudes as well as the intended appearance.

The primal Ifrit has been ever summoned out of the desperation and vengeful anger of the Amalj'aa, beseeching him to judge the nation and people of Ul'dah and drive them out before him. Out of such is born the primal's blind, unfathomable rage, and need to destroy that which he does not dominate.