Latest revision as of 15:53, 10 August 2010

Malfeas, the Demon City

Making
Progeny Count: 5:9:7
Back to A Taxonomy of Madness

• Ligier, Fetich Soul, the Green Metal Sun (custom stats, other custom stats)
  • Berengiere, Indulgent, the Weaver of Voices
    • Neomah, the Maker of Flesh
    • The Passion Moray
  • Gervesin, Messenger, the Grieving Lord
    • The Decanthrope
    • Metody, the Malfean Elemental
    • Patrok, the Havens of the Wanderers
  • Sondok, Warden, She-Who-Stands-In-Doorways
    • Erymanthoi, the Blood Apes
  • Unknown, Expressive, Unknown Title
    • Grindle, the Demon Heralds ((BogMod))
  • Azimer, Warden, the Hollow Knight (Quendalon)
    Ligier is great among the demons of Malfeas. He guards many treasures that he holds dear; he has many goals that he would see fulfilled. The Hollow Knight serves as his right hand in such things. Azimer appears as a knight clad wholly in shining green steel. No flesh shows through his visor, nor through any chink in his armor. His keen senses and skill in battle are without peer, and there are few in Malfeas or Creation who would dare stand against him when he wields his brother Gervesin in battle. Should his visor be pried up, the armor falls away in a heap, lifeless and empty.
    • Massassi, The Formless Forms (DS)
      When the Primordial War first began, Ligier sought some means of fighting against the Exalted. He is not Autocthon, and could never create Exalted Shards; but he did unleash the Massassi, crafted of the Hollow Knight's own flesh, blood and bone. The Massassi themselves have no more substance than a shadow; however, they are adept at taking control of a human host. Some cultists summon them and willingly allow themselves to be driven by the Massassi, vicariously triumphing through its strength; some Exalts use them as spies without compare.
• Amalion, Fifth Soul, the Manse of Echoes Ascending
  • Kujulu, Wisdom, The Walker of a Thousand Glowing Paths (Caelene)
    As any novice geomancer knows, for a manse to be build there must be energy for the manse to tap into and control. While his creator is an architect beloved by all who see her smiling face, Kujulu is rarely seen at all. He dwells within the various dragon lines that weave and wander throughout Malfeas; when a more tangible form is needed, he takes the shape of a man of indeterminate age made up of tiny flecks of opalescent Essence. His presence can be foretold by the pulse of Essence that always accompanied him, not unlike that of the center of an uncapped demense.
    • Ihiyo, the Breath of the Earth (Caelene)
      The Ihiyo are often used by Kujulu as temporary markers for notable nexuses of dragon lines for later development into demenses. They speak in tinny high-pitched voices, giving diagnostics on the local geomancy even without being bidden. They appear as ever-mutating crystals with peculiar matrices that change color depending on the flavor of the local dragon lines. Some geomancers have been known to use the Ihiyo in a modification of the shadow manse, using the demons as the markers for the manse's boundaries rather than the traditional paper and bamboo.
• Ipithymia, 13th Soul, the Street of Golden Lanterns
• Suntarankal, 15th Soul, the Crucible of Brass and Iron
• Ekrasios, the Sculptor in the Maze (FourWillowsWeeping)
  In the bowels of the Demon City, there walks a man draped in banners of white silk, which fly behind him as far as the eye can see. At his feet rises a bronze cloud, into which the banners vanish. Whatever creature touches the draperies of Ekrasios turns to glittering dust and joins the cloud that follows him. He is lost forever in contemplation; he knows all the memories of the creatures he transfigures. A fragment of his pale robe, wielded by one with knowledge and power, turns flesh to precious metals dependent on the wielder's nature. It can be a potent weapon.
  • Jolenta, Wisdom, the Creeping Oracle (FourWillowsWeeping)
    Three serpents writhe inside Jolenta's clockwork bowel; she is an orrery, a nest of silver and brass hoops and gears, supporting revolving orbs of precious unearthly stone. She imprisons her three favorite children: the underworld serpents Furious Leaf, Coiling Brilliance, and Silent Fangs. In her motions, she blocks their every attempt to escape; studying her spinning orbs reveals the motions of the Malfean heavens.
    • Jasperid, the Precious Serpent (FourWillowsWeeping)
      These serpents of Malfeas are made of agate and onyx, and have triple-forked golden tongues. There are three kinds: day serpents, twilight serpents, and night serpents. The day serpent's venom makes its victim turn to fire in sunlight; the twilight serpent's victim fades away when he steps out of shadow, and the night serpent's victim turns to black ice in the darkness.
  • Tatjana, Expressive, the Sobbing Dancer (FourWillowsWeeping)
    Tatjana feels all joy and sorrow, so she dances through the world, celebrating and grieving. When she is torn from her exultant dirge, she can grant a moment of this perception to one who knows how to demand it, or free him forever from the pangs of pleasure and pain.
• Clariandra, the Empress Resplendent in the Panoply of Brass (Quendalon)
  This illustrious magnate, one of many who rule in the demon realm, sits enthroned in palaces and mansions throughout the endless layers of Malfeas, surrounded by wealth and grandeur beyond mortal imaginings. Her skin is black as jet; her eyes, brass orbs, blaze with golden light. Garments woven from her brazen hair gleam upon her perfect body. Clariandra holds dominion over any lesser being who accepts any favor from her or her household, no matter how small; thus-indebted mortals and First or Second Circle demons are bound to her service, and must fulfill even the vilest and most self-destructive commands. Though she has the power to bring order to the demon city, such a project would hold but little interest for her; instead, she occupies herself with her own obscure pursuits, leaving the reins of power in the hands of the lesser demons.
  • Mumadomna, Defining, the Brazen Patriarch (Quendalon)
    From a high minaret that looks out over the black infinities of the Demon City, the Brazen Patriarch calls the demons to prayer. Mumadomna is a massive, imposing near-human presence, clad in rich vestments of many colors, crowned with a tall mitre of blue glass and bearing a staff of ivory and gold. In Creation, he travels astride a water buffalo made of green sand. His voice is sonorous and deep with the power of the Yozis. He keeps his many faces within a compartment inside his chest so that he may switch them about at his whim; each compels those who listen to his sermon to succumb to a different sin.
  • Ur-Namuur, Wisdom, The Mask Who Stalks the Dance of Time (Nero's Boot)
    All things once obeyed Clariandra, for she was regent and queen of all things that crawled or swam or flew. Even time itself was hers to beckon or dismiss, and Ur-Namuur, the Mask Who Stalks the Dance of Time, was her herald in these things. Once, Ur-Namuur could travel the weft and warp of time, stepping between the moments like a spider in his web, but after the dawn of the First Age, such gifts were lost to him. Entrapped in Malfeas, Ur-Namuur cannot walk Creation, nor may he be summoned, for should he walk the world once more, time would be his to conquer. In visage, Ur-Namuur is a titanic clockwork man, with a timepiece in his chest; like all the clocks of the Hell-realm, Ur-Namuur cannot tell proper time, and thus is lost in the eternity of imprisonment.
• Mosarel, 14th Soul, the Rabid Angel (Han'ya)
  An immense scabrous giant, skin scarred and plague-ravaged, whose every pus-stained footprint could drown a city block, crawls through the jet streets of Malfeas, and where he breathes there is madness. The green fires of rage and bloodlust shine from his eyes and mouth, forming an aurora halo about his head. On each of his brass fangs is written one verse of the Furious Clamor Sutra. In his wake travels the Market of Rage, the foremost mercenary market in the Demon City, administered by his souls and staffed by his spawn. Mosarel is rage itself, the embodiment of his master's bloodlust and rage, and his passage tips entire layers into the anarchic slaughter that is his spawn's livelihood.
  • Volsk, Expressive, the Greenfire Cerebrate (Han'ya)
    Camped in an immense circus tent between Mosarel's shoulders, Volsk takes the form of a great floating blaze of green boreal fire, within which is faintly visible the outline of a withered body curled like a cut stem beneath a gigantic head. His domain is the minds of others, and his presence brings bloodshed. The personalities of the weak-minded are overwritten and replaced with insane savagery at his will. His only pleasure is in thus exerting his dominance over others, in the breaking of wills and the senseless destruction of peace. He walks the city for years on end, delighting in the carnage he sows, and the stones themselves grind against each other at his passing.
    • Shmir, the Wrathful Pipers (Han'ya)
      The shmir are approximately man-height, and resemble long wooden staves. Their arms and legs fold perfectly flush against their bodies, and they often remain stationary for days on end. When touched with blood, their limbs unfurl into spastic, thrashing motion and their true functionality is revealed. The shmir are living musical instruments that convey their lord's hatred to the world. When they are played, somewhat like a gigantic saxophone, they can drive men mad with the sheer rage of their song. Brother will turn on brother, sons will devour the wombs of their mothers as if to atone for their own birth, and the elderly will crush the skulls of infants to the tunes of the shmir. A shmir's compliance and placidity can be secured by keeping it well-fed with blood and by playing it only occasionally. An angry shmir is a noisy shmir, and a noisy shmir is never a good thing unless it's your breath (and Essence) making the noise.
  • Carmarog, Defining, the Genius of Slaughter (Han'ya)
    Carmarog has the form of a great ogre, skin ruddy and crosshatched with fierce scars, with fangs of brass and hair as black and soft as ink. The great cleaver he bears, named Gorepater by those who have seen it and lived, is never still, always biting at the flesh of his prey. Carmarog never tires and never rests, and he never leaves the battlefield. If he has to go somewhere, he takes the battlefield with him. He's that kind of being. The only physical contact he has with others outside of beating them to death or tearing them limb from limb consists of almost insultingly cursory blows to those who catch his eye, to give them prowess in the fray and bind them to his service.
    • Ha-Rou, the Blade-Wolves (Han'ya)
      The ha-rou take the form of great dire wolves five feet at the shoulder. Great flanged, curving blades sprout from them at the shoulders, knees, and paws, and all along their back. As the demon ages, the blades grow and increase in number. Ha-rou are rabid, mad things, and usually spend their lives fighting pit matches for the amusement of the denizens of the Demon City.
    • Geshuggin, the Iron-Banded Slaughtermen (Han'ya)
      The geshuggin are hulking figures, lumpy with unsightly brawn. Their heads are clad in bands of iron wrapped around their skulls, sometimes obscuring even their eyes or their mouths. The geshuggin live for the cutting of meat. They find work throughout the Demon City as executioners, disposers of bodies, butchers, and of course soldiers. Many of them will cut themselves if nothing else is handy. They often serve as entertainment in Malfean cage-matches.
  • Baashael, Reflective, the Apostle of Blood (Han'ya)
    Wearing a robe of hair-thin copper wire, Baashael has the form of a seething column of dark blood taller than a man half again. He is the law of his master, and adjudicates disputes within the Market. Baashael can call blood from its veins, and for this reason he is much feared among demons with blood, rather than the more common ichor or stranger vitae, and of course among mortals. He is full of rage, hateful, destructive, and cannot be swayed by temptations of the flesh. Baashael is creeping, subtle, but swift and horrifyingly deadly. His favor cannot be won because he has no favor to win, and mercy is an alien concept to him.
    • Emputhanei, the Winged Choristers (Han'ya)
      The emputhanei take the form of red-haired, pubescent human girls, with their arms replaced by brass-feathered wings. The upper halves of their faces are concealed by eyeless iron masks. Their mouths are filled with delicate fangs, and they cannot speak except in birdlike caws and croaks. They will rapaciously snatch and devour any quantity of gold they find, and sing a wordless song of porcelain beauty and spiteful malice as they do. They cannot abide the gleam of steel or the sound of glass breaking, and can be shockingly violent when irritated. They flap in great flocks about the rafters of the Demon City, but even more of them languish, wings clipped, in Market tents or the palaces of demonic magnates.

Comments

I like the Massassi. Note that technically, the Hollow Knight has neither flesh nor blood nor bone; fortunately, with demons, none of that stuff is necessary, either for life or for making shadowy servants to kick Exalted ass. :) - Quendalon

Well, the Massassi don't really have flesh, blood or bone either. So it works out. :) DS

I'm thinking that Malfeas is not so much Growth as Making. - Quendalon

Shit. I agree. - willows

Discovered the 1st circle demon Patrok in Aspect Book: Earth p.26 - Vaegrim

Interestingly, it doesn't look like the erymanthoi show up in this taxonomy anywhere, which probably means their progenitors have never been named. Page 23 of the Infernals book has a paragraph on Malfeas where they are referred to as "his precious erymanthoi", so I'm adding them here, with "unknown" parents. - Wordman

I've removed Herannuen, as her Yozi progenitor is not specified in the text. Quendalon

Added stats for the Ihiyo, will work on the stats for Kujulu soonish. - Caelene