The Remnants of the Leviathan

Down and deep / dark and dank / below our feet / below they sank
Under waves and / under ground / no light we have / no hope for sound
Beneath us still / sea and mound / remember will / with silence found

Long ago, Tiamat was a great and powerful dragon who ruled over the lands and exercised her rights of ownership with great cruelty. She demanded sacrifices from the frightened people of the soil, and she bore many monsters to expand her kingdom. The oppression of Tiamat did not forever last, for eventually a great champion of the human people arose with powerful magic from the sky to battle her. For days they fought, and ultimately it was Marduk and not Tiamat who was victorious.

But while the great Tiamat was slain, her children walked the Earth and swam the seas still. Each of her children bore children of their own. Many of these were able to pass for human and walk in the world of men, and still many more were monstrous beyond mortal comprehension. The taint in the blood of those who are heirs to the power of Tiamat gradually makes itself known. These new generations, called Leviathan, become less human in countenance and thought as they grow in age and power.

Tiamat's descendants are foul tasting as swamp mire, but they are prized as food regardless because whosoever devours the flesh of a Leviathan gains near immortality. However, the otherworldly and inhuman degeneration which happens to a natural born Leviathan happens twice as fast to those who attain their state by eating the flesh of mermaids.

Those born to Leviathan broods who are not luminaries will (if they are lucky) never betray their leviathan heritage, appearing for all the world as normal humans (though perhaps with a strange bestial cast to their features). These leviathan kin carry Tiamat's taint, and if they have children of their own they may revert to being full leviathans should they be luminaries themselves. Other children are not so lucky, and many of them are pathetic spawn monsters, often with little or no human intelligence. The mutated visages of humanity’s castoffs make ample fodder for nightmares, and little else.

Leviathans suffer aggravated damage from Iron. Most Leviathans suffer under Master Passion Fear and it is not unusual at all for them to flee from the world and hide themselves deep in the wilderness in fortresses of their own making. Some of these are simply Geinian farmsteads, whose only "real" defense from the outside world is obscurity.

The Deep Ones: Scions of Dagon

"Those horrible eyes. Unblinking and inhuman, twas like looking at fish more than a man."

According to legend, Dagon was spawned when Tiamat mated with the Tigris River. He was a powerful and fish-like creature, and his progeny all carry fish traits about their being. Hailing from the oceans, a Deep One gradually becomes scaled and gilled as he ages. His eyes flatten and rarely blink, and the lure of the sea becomes harder to ignore. There are few who can stomach long departures from the coast, for in their mind they can always listen for the strange whispered yet incessant call of the ocean.

Deep Ones can breathe water as easily as air (though they do not need to breathe at all), and they have no problem speaking with lungs full of fluid. The strange whispers they hear in their own minds can also be shared with anyone foolish enough to look a Deep One in their strangely opaque eyes. Over time, the Deep One's teeth become sharp like some benthic terror and their skin becomes scaly and slimy like a muck dwelling fish.

Deep Ones are in many ways closer to Tiamat than other Leviathans, and the corruption she caused is manifest in the way they seem to affect the world. Ordinary people who spend long periods of time in the company of Deep Ones will find their sanity frayed at the edges like cloth stretched too tight. A Deep One gripped by Master Passion Fear spreads terror amongst the mortal Extras they converse with, whether they want to or not. Deep Ones dominated by other Master Passions spread different madness by mere presence.

A Deep One has an Astral power source and a Lunar power schedule.

The First Deep One?

The secret histories record the first Deep One by name. He is Dagon, the first and largest of the Deep Ones. Accounts differ as to his appearance, but all attest to his great size and blue scales. While some historians doubt the veracity of the Dagon myth, the majority of those who study the Deep Ones regard it as true. The general opinion is that Dagon is still alive, lurking and dreaming deep beneath the waves. Sometimes one of the progeny will be contacted in their dreams by an Elder that claims to be Dagon, and the general opinion of Deep Ones is that those contacts are real. The requests that the putative Dagon makes are perplexing and do not seem to add up. Opinion is divided as to whether this entity is playing a far deeper game or is simply completely out of touch with reality.

If the Dagon story is true, he would have been born somewhere between 3 and 5 thousand years BCE. That would make him ancient beyond reckoning even by the standards of Elders.

Deep One Starting Powers

Core Discipline: Discernment

• Aura Perception (Basic Discernment)
• Supernatural Senses (Basic Discernment)

Basic Powers

• Dream Vision (Basic Veil of Morpheus)
• Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)
• Command (Basic Authority)
• Rising Mists (Basic Chasing the Storm)

Advanced Powers

• Telepathy (Advanced Discernment)
• Conditioning (Advanced Authority)

Distinctive Flaw: Infectious Mood

Story Inspiration: The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Mermaid's Scar

The Troglodytes: Progeny of Drakaina

"Thousands of years we have toiled beneath the Earth. We will not stop just because shiftless Eloi tell us we must."

The ancient tablets speak of Drakaina, Tiamat's heir by the Euphrates. A terrible worm creature living deep in the soil, her descendants carry always her pallor and disdain for the sun. The eyes of a Troglodyte darken until they are naught but obsidian orbs in their pallid sockets. The fingernails of a Troglodyte grow rapidly and hard, and without constant hygiene they form into claws.

Troglodytes see in darkness perfectly and can even read in the total absence of light. However, their blackened eyes are light sensitive, and bright flashes can easily blind a Troglodyte. The sharpened teeth of a Troglodyte seem destined to devour flesh, and indeed that is precisely how they gain Power Points. A Troglodyte needs to feed upon the flesh of sapient creatures (generally humans, but some Troglodytes say that Mirror Goblins are delicious), though these need not be particularly fresh. The corpse of a human has 15 power points in it, and when they have been consumed, the rest of the corpse is worthless (though possibly still delicious). Many Troglodytes dig up the interred dead for eating purposes, and this activity has earned them the nickname "ghouls".

A Troglodyte has an Orphic power source and a Feeding power schedule.

The First Troglodyte?

The lineage of the Troglodytes goes back to the days of Babylon and likely before. The ancient worm-mother of the Troglodytes is likely a historical person, and some say that she yet lives. The secret histories claim that she burrowed deep beneath the surface world to found herself a new kingdom where the sun would never shine. This land beneath the land is not in contact with any surface dwellers - not even those Troglodytes who continue to see the stars.

Troglodyte Starting Powers

Core Discipline: Discernment

• Aura Perception (Basic Discernment)
• Supernatural Senses (Basic Discernment)

Basic Powers

• Touch of Darkness (Basic Lure of Destruction)
• Clinging (Basic Clout)
• Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)
• Hide From Notice (Basic Veil)

Advanced Powers

• Psychometry (Advanced Discernment)
• Burrowing (Veil / Clout Devotion)

Distinctive Flaw: Unattractive

Story Inspiration: The Mole People, Morlocks, The Hills Have Eyes

The Mi Go: The Larvae of Echidna

"There can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive."

"Tiamat begat Echidna by the Indus." That is the beginning of the story that the Mi Go tell of their existence. And it is there that the story becomes confused, because the Mi Go do not know what they are. This isn't some sort of regular existential angst caused by awakening to their supernatural nature, but a genuine question of philosophy and science. Each Mi Go is a telepathic symbiosis of human and insect, and it is entirely reasonable to question which (if either) is the actual person. Even the eldest and wisest of the Mi Go do not have incontrovertible evidence to determine whether they are a human that has insects growing within their body that they can control, or a colony of insects that lives within a man sized puppet host. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between.

A Mi Go experiences their first years of life from the perspective of being a human child. A human child who sometimes feels painful gnawing sensations within their body as they drift to sleep and as they wake up in the morning - as if they were being devoured from within by maggots. Which in truth, they are. If you were to drill a hole in one of these children, you would find larval insects in writhing clusters throughout their body. It is usually around their human puberty that the insects themselves mature to flying forms and it is a ghastly, painful, and terrifying spectacle when the insects burrow their way out of the awakening Mi Go's body and takes to the sky.

It is at this point that the Mi Go's powers truly become apparent, because during the metamorphosis, the young Mi Go feels not only their own flesh become torn asunder by uncounted scores of tiny mandibles, but also simultaneously see through the eyes of each of the hive's constituent members. From that moment on, "they" are able to see through the eyes of the bugs that grow within the human body and from the eyes of the human body. They do not have a "feeling" of having their thoughts or point of view necessarily within their head, and many of them are convinced that they are solely the hive and have murdered and stolen the memories of the child that they walk around wearing the skin of. Getting insecticides onto a Mi Go has roughly the effects of mace - it's incredibly painful and distracting. The poisoning of the bugs inside their flesh feels like the entirety of their body is on fire.

A Mi Go has an Infernal power source and a Lunar power schedule.

The First Mi Go?

The core question of identity is terribly important to many Mi Go, and finding the original being and asking it "Why" is one of the holy grails of Mi Go thought. According to the secret histories, Echidna flew into the Himalayan Mountains some four thousand years ago and has not been seen or heard from since. Many believe that she (it?) died during that journey. But there are many Mi Go who would kill to see even a corpse representing what form represents their destiny.

Mi Go Starting Powers

Core Discipline: Swarm Song

• Small Witness (Basic Swarm Song)
• Body Colony (Basic Swarm Song)

Basic Powers

• Abyss of the Body (Basic Descent of Entropy)
• Patience of the Mountains (Basic Fortitude)
• Attract (Basic Magnetism)
• Supernatural Senses (Basic Discernment)

Advanced Powers

• Telepathy (Advanced Discernment)
• Magnify the Swarm (Advanced Swarm Song)

Distinctive Flaw: Flake

Story Inspiration: Vampire Hunter D, Wrath of Khan, Starship Troopers, Whisperer in Darkness