Ashava, Nhimbaloth, and Lady Rushlight: A Connection?

[Virellius]

So, party today stopped through Sandpoint on the way for their journey and it just so happened I have a player who loved ReturnOTRL, so I thought why not throw in a cameo? Audrahni was there visiting the cathedral and talked a bit to the party, and they got into the topic of her goddess and lore tied to Lady Rushlight, the first will-o'-wisp. One of the party members rolled a nat20 on a recall knowledge for wisps and I mentioned Nhimbaloth as an entity associated with them and then it hit me: Nhimbaloth is said to be the progenitor of all will-o'-wisps; Lady Rushlight is said to be the first.
Did Nhimbaloth create Lady Rushlight and is Ashava, without really having it mentioned as part of her history or lore, fighting against Nhimbaloth directly? As far as I remember, she wasn't mentioned in Abomination Vaults in any way connected to The Empty Death but this just seems too good.
Am I overthinking it? Was this just a coincidence or is there an intended connection here?

[Eeveegirl1206]

Hm I never thought of it. But looking at the wiki pages they do seem similar.

Ashava Being a daughter or connected to Nhimbaloth makes sense .

As a Elder god Nhimbaloth is probably far older then Will O Wisps.

Maybe they were a case of convergent evolution and Nhimbaloth just happened to then associate herself with them. When they ejere made.

Not connected directly.

But like how Zon-Kuthon is associated with the Vesltlics despite not having any direct connection to them.

[James Jacobs]

As the creator of both Nhimbaloth AND Ashava, here's my take:

Nhimbaloth comes from my fascination with the Algernon Blackwood short story "The Willows" and my desire to create my own personal pantheon of Great Old Ones and Outer Gods for my writing projects; I invented her in the very early 2000s.

Ashava comes from a combination of my appreciation of the Forgotten Realms goddess Eilistraee, my desire to build an empyreal lord that would be Varisia flavored, and a desire to have more bard-friendly deities.

That said, the will-o'-wisp connection is indeed an intriguing connection. It's not one I've put more thought into than what I'm doing right now with this post, though, so feel free to explore it further in your games.

That said, it's worth noting that as far as ghosts go, these two deities are about as oppositional in opinion as you can get. I expect Ashava and her faith are VERY strongly opposed to Nhimbaloth, but Nhimbaloth probably doesn't even know or care about any of that until they die and maybe she gets to eat them.