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| Nation | Poisonous |
| Species | Abomination |
| Classification | Construct |
| Sphere | Pestilence |
| Origin | Followers of Seminibus created them from vile energy |
| Lifespan | Immortal |
| Habitat | Swamps |
| Food | Health |
| Description | A poisonous will appear as a dark silhouette in a massive green cloud. |
| Procreation | Poisonouses are formed via a ritual of pain on a very sick person. Poisonouses rarely form their own new poisonouses; instead, worshippers of Seminibus create new ones in order to poison or infect an area. |
| Esoterica | Poisonouses are made of vile energy and arnum. They can wield it innately. Some are able to wield other forms of mswhat, include pure msawhat, brown aether, misfortune, parasitic energy, and black nommos. They cannot use celestial energies, and they rarely use anything else save perhaps parfum de marais. |
| Special Powers | A poisonous's very presence sickens others. Each poisonous bears a specific malady or poison, and their presence spreads it. Those who become sick slowly feed the poisonous. A poisonous can sense health. |
| Weaknesses | Curacion and ashar can harm a poisonous. If they do not get enough moisture, they dry up and become feeble. |
| Maleficing | Powerful users of vile energy can create, control, or summon poisonouses. The ritual of creation requires infecting or poisoning someone with the malady or poison the poisonous will represent, then tormenting them until they are near death. Once they are in this state, the wielder of vile energy must invoke a Name (their own or one of a powerful being of vile energy) by inscribing it into the flesh of the victim in order to transform them. To control a poisonous, one must either be the creator thereof (control will last so long as the creator's will is stronger than the poisonous's), one must have the Name used to create the poisonous, or one must perform a ritual involving the malady the poisonous represents and a new victim, which will serve as a vessel that will capture part of the poisonous. So long as the vessel lives, the poisonous will be under control of the one who has a piece of that vessel (usually hair or teeth). The poisonous can challenge control via a contest of wills at any time To summon a poisonous, one must either take one of their victims and sacrifice them in a blood-letting ritual, invoke the Name used to create the poisonous, or to perform a special rite. The rite requires the use of swamp water and rat piss mixed into a potion, drunk by the performer of the ritual, and then vomited into a magical circle. Once the circle is charged with this foul concotion, the summoner must place four objects of power or significance into the circle and speak a Name of power. The four objects must represent mind, body, heart, and soul. Because poisonouses have bodies of light and energy instead of something more material, they can be channeled by powerful wielders of infernal energies, similar to how necromancers channel phantasms for power. Doing this is very dangerous--if the poisonous is strong enough in will, it can control the channeler, and the channeler will almost always be diseased or poisoned afterward. But it grants enormous power in vile energy while it lasts. To channel a poisonous, one must find or summon one, then step within its light and either speak the Name used to create it while intended to channel, or to hold up a lapis viridis and speak any Name. |
| Culture | As most poisonouses are created by mortals, they usually exist as slaves to those mortals. Due to their need for moisture, they must dwell in moist places, usually wetlands. Created-poisonouses derive their malady from the ritual they were created with. They are used in profane rituals as sources of power or as biological weapons to wipe out enemies via disease or poison. Free poisonouses are extremely rare beings that live as isolated individuals. They hide in swamps and feed off travelers and anything alive that is susceptible to their specific kind of malady. They do not have language (or voices), but they can understand others to a certain extent. The name "poisonous" is a translation of what most locals near them end up calling them. Though they don't name themselves, they are often given names based on what malady they cause others. Powerful ones are given the title "lord" by those who hunt them. Some poisonouses decide to create a new poisonous, as they have the drive to procreate as any other living thing does. When a new poisonous is spawned, they linger for a while and feed off the health of any living thing nearby until they take on a specific malady, usually derived from germs or compounds nearest them when they reach a certain strength. Their parent poisonous has usually long since moved on, and if not, they will be driven away as competition. The young poisonous will teach itself to hunt for victims and find a niche somewhere in a swamp or wetland. Though they do not communicate much, they are extremely cunning and often toy with their prey. If someone they infect infects others, they can feed off the health of all infected. As such, they sometimes lightly infect a victim and then hope they reach other vulnerable living things. Because they are so dangerous, most poisonouses are hunted and killed before they get too dangerous. In some places, they are re-captured and used as sources of biological esoteric weaponry or simply for esoteric purposes. This is common in Vendale especially. |
| Religion | They do not have a collective culture, and thus, no real religion has formed among them. |
| Notables | Lord Borreliosis (deceased); Lord Oncovirus, Poisonous Manifest |
| Notable Occupations | Slave, Survivor, |
| Mortal Interactions | Mortals who dwell near a swamp where a poisonous lives speak of them with fear. They are viewed as monsters and hunted down. Often, those who live near swamps have special hunters who know how to defeat a poisonous. If a poisonous ends up in a place where they are not known, they often end up very powerful until someone figures out how to destroy them. In Vendale, they are viewed with reverence as sources of power. |
| Sample statistics | PRO 9 ATH 11 STR 8 AWA 14 WIL 13 Health Sense 15 ROG 13 Malady 14 |
GrandGuignol
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