(FAMES - “STARVATION”)
“I SUSPECT THAT HUNGER WAS MY MOTHER:
FROM THE TIME THAT I WAS BORN
I HAVE NEVER BEEN FULL.”
Ölön: Demon of Lust, Excess, and Succumbing to Starvation.
Aliases: The Hostile Housemate, the Starving One, Fames.
Symbols: Contours of a hungry dog, ribs, bite marks, meat, predators, prey, shapechangers.
Worship: Live frugally and waste nothing; always acknowledge what you have taken, always pay the debts you owe; soothe what haunts you before it claims you.
Dwelling: The Vemairian steppe, Tousav, and wherever excess or waste are found.
Equivalents: Demons of the Exarch Termina (Orthian Concord), folk aspect of Grimsayth’ur (Aardayni), adversary to the Messiah (Virtudom).
In the Vemarian steppe and the countryside of the Gray Marches beyond, Ölön is a malevolent demon who pursues those who live in excess and waste. The tragic heroes of these stories must learn to live frugally, demonstrated by feeding the ravening creature, or they will inevitably succumb to their own vices and become bestial. In these folktales it is referred to by the moniker of ‘the hostile housemate’—it can represent greed, lust or gluttony, but always manifests as some form of insatiable hunger that attaches to those who lack discipline. Worshippers of Ölön rarely make offerings out of veneration, but to placate the demon and avert its attention.
Ölön is often depicted as a rolling mass of flesh and fur, indistinct in its shape until it is compelled, by hunger, into motion. The creature—or creatures—is a consummate shapechanger in mythology: sometimes it is a predator, sometimes it is the prey. Emaciated wolves, bone-thin rats, and swarms of flies are its favored forms. It never speaks when it appears in writing, but relentlessly haunts an unwitting victim until some grave misstep they have committed is remedied.
Acts of Favor
- A plate of raw meat, still fresh (1 Favor)
- The leftovers of a feast, offered with wine (2 Favor)
- A plate of cooked meat, still warm (3 Favor)
- An entire inhuman carcass (5 favor)
- The runt of the litter, still living (15 Favor)
Invocations
Food Preparation Complexity: 1 Favor: 1 Range: Touch Duration: Until next rest AP: 1 Effect: You preserve Bulk (1) of rations. If used for the Cooking a meal rest action, they count as Bulk (2) rations.
Bloodhound Complexity: 2 Favor: 2 Range: Paces (5) Duration: Until next rest AP: 1 Effect: You can smell blood within range, allowing you to spot it through darkness and obscurement. You can identify if the blood came from the same source by scent.
Sink Your Teeth In Complexity: 2 Favor: (#) Range: Touch Duration: Persist (#) AP: 1 Effect: Tether (0) yourself to the target for a Duration up to the Favor you spend. You can end the Tether (0) Condition at any time.
Exsanguinate Complexity: 3 Favor: 5 Range: Touch Duration: Instant AP: 1 Effect: The target suffers Bleeding (2).
To Love Is To Be Eaten Complexity: 4 Favor: 15 Range: Touch Duration: Instant AP: 2 Effect: If the target is Unconscious or Dying, they instantly die and you clear all Fatigue.