Tehom Elis

(APASU - “FEMALE CHIMERA”)

“BEFORE THERE WAS ANYTHING, THERE WAS NOTHING.
BEFORE THERE WAS NOTHING, THERE WERE MONSTERS.”

Tehom Elis: Goddess of Vermin, Mutation, and Maternity.

Aliases: The Primordial Mother, the Mother of Small Things, the Chimera.
Symbols: A twin-tailed snake, chimeric Gallu, carrion birds, insects, rodents, the moon, mothers.
Worship: Embrace chaos as life’s only constant; nurture the unloved, the unwanted, be a sanctuary for filth; shed your skin when the old becomes an irritant, never stop growing.
Dwelling: The abyssal waters between worlds, the reflection of the moon, mirrors.
Equivalents: Apasu (Orthian Heresy), folk aspect of Syah’varfutl (Aardayni), adversary to the Messiah (Virtudom).

Tehom Elis is depicted differently across cosmologies, but trends towards an anthropomorphic representation of the qualities men admire: beauty, mutability, mystery, and maternity. These are, most critically, always contrasted against monstrous or bestial features. To the Orthian Concord she is Apasu, a heretical interpretation of the Nadiral Exarch—serpentine sister to Concordia, his Dyad—who mingled with the causal waters to birth the lesser Exarchs. In Virtudom, she is a nymph and a temptress, adversary to the Messiah who seduced men and fashioned them into devils to stall his ascent. The schoolmen of Ansium viewed her as a shadow of Ista, and believed she birthed Athari from her union with Varasha. And in Aardayn, she is a folk aspect of Syah’varfutl who molded humanity from clay stained in the blood of Harm’lyoth.

Today, Tehom Elis is worshipped in cults dispersed across Yiegdra who refer to her as the Mother of Small Things or the Primordial Mother. They believe her to be the origin of Gallu and an agent of radical metamorphoses— nurturing the unwanted, revealing their true potential. She takes a serpentine effect, dwells in abyssal waters, and is only visible in the reflection of the moon. Her favored creatures are unloved by others: serpents, insects, carrion birds and vermin.

Acts of Favor

• A bowl of dried insects or the meat of small creatures (1 Favor)
• A bowl of live insects (2 Favor)
• A live mouse, rat, crow or snake (2 Favor)
• The meat of a large beast or monster. (3 Favor)
• A live beast that is larger than a human (10 Favor)
• A live monster (25 Favor)

Invocations

Mastery over Small Things Complexity: 1 Favor: 1 Range: Earshot Duration: Persist (6) AP: 1 Effect: You command a small animal or insect to do your bidding. If the creature is not hostile towards you, it will comply to the best of its ability. If it is hostile, it suffers Dazed (1).

Locust Swarm Complexity: 2 Favor: 3 Range: Paces (5) Duration: Persist (1) AP: 2 Effect: Targets within Sphere (3) suffer the Blinded (1) and Unsteady (1) conditions.

Flock of Crows Complexity: 3 Favor: 5 Range: Paces (5) Duration: Instant AP: 3 Effect: Select one target within the range. They must succeed a Willpower vs. Dexterity contest; on a failure, deepen all Minor wounds up to Moderate.

Fashioned from Fragments Complexity: 4 Favor: 10 Range: Touch Duration: 1 Week AP: 5 Effect: You resurrect an inhuman corpse as an animalistic Gallu. It retains its Strength, halves its Dexterity and Willpower, and becomes a Hireling that does not require rations and cannot be demoralized. Living Hirelings are forced to make a morale save with Disadvantage (1) or immediately leave your service.

Stillbirth Complexity: 5 Favor: 10 Range: Self Duration: Instant AP: 1 Effect: You become a Gallu while still living, healing all Minor and Moderate Wounds, and Scarring one Major Wound. Your transformation is more violent than other Gallu. Roll a 1d10, gaining a mutation from the table:

	Stillborn Gallu Traits
1	Your eyes become cloudy and corpse-like.
2	A bestial tail painfully erupts from your spine, stretching the skin and compromising your balance. Gain the Tactless flaw.
3	Thick fur breaks out over your body. Your tongue becomes coarse and you struggle to speak. Gain the Bestial flaw.
4	Bat-like wings sprout from your shoulder-blades. The leather skin aches and flaps uselessly. Gain the Flat-footed flaw.
5	Your skin becomes pallid and tight against your bones. Deep black bruises appear over your body. Gain the Thin blood flaw.
6	Vestigial limbs flower. Your face is crowded with blind eyes, useless arms unfurl from your back. Gain the Delicate flaw.
7	Feathers explode in a plumage across your body. Your eyes become owl-like, your bones brittle. Gain the Nocturnal flaw.
8	It feels like you’ve been submerged in water. Piscine scales grow over your skin, your senses dull. Gain the Amaurotic flaw.
9	Everything inside turns outwards, expelling your skeleton into a fragile, full-body carapace.. Gain the Masochist flaw.
10	The chimeric transformation overwhelms you. What you become can scarcely be called human. Gain the Pariah flaw.