LunarTotems/Snake
Introduction
There is many beautiful and unusual things to see in Great Forks as many travellers and merchants know. Many wonders, some of them pleasing to the eyes, some of them disgusting or horrifying. It is a city of many entertainment and exotism.
The most interresting things, of course, are not the one that are easily found, but indeed those hidden in the shadows of the narrower streets. Follow this path, if you will.
There, you find a small, but wealthy shop. The sign at the entry displays a mysterious winged wand with two snakes entwined around it. Certainly, you think it is not of good omen ? Do not fear, what can cause you hurt, can also be your salvation. Open the door.
The shop is bigger from the inside, clad in wood decorations and heavy with an exotic smell of smoke and incense. The shelves displays the strangest glasses, filled with many colored liquids, powders or body parts. But you have little time to study their whirling contents as the possesser of the shop arrives.
She is beautiful, clad in silky robes the same green that her fascinating eyes. Her black, curly hair are kept back by a complicate silver circlet ornated by a brown stone.
"Yes, sir , what could I do for you ?"
Her voice is soft and suave, pleasing to the ear and yet oddly off-puting, as if it insinuates itself into your body.
"Do you want some medicine maybe ? Or would you prefer some sort of drugs ? I have some very good DreamDust that came from Gem only two days ago."
You shake your head, embarrassed, and scared to voice your want.
Leaning over you and lowering her voice to a whisper she asks. "Maybe you want a drug of a more... final effect ?"Reliefed, you nod. You are not a fighter and you can't think of any other way to defend your rights.
"There" she says, showing to you a beautiful red flower. "This plant can be used in decoction to bring peaceful sleep and sweet dreams for people plagued with nightmares or insomnia. Use more than three doses, though, and the sleep never ends until death. You see, what can help you, can also be your failing."
She makes a sly smile to you. "Would it answer your need, sir ?"
You give her coin, and disapear with a pot contenaing three dose of herb. As you walk back to the lightened streets fulled with music and dances you wonder... was it one of the beautiful or one of the horrifying place that Great Fork has to offer ?
Vera Emerald Scaled, No Moon Apothecary
Charms :
Finding the Spirit's Shape (Snake)
Deadly Beastman Transformation (2)
Infection Resisting Method
Lick Wound
Ox Body Technique (2x -1)
Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
- Dance of the Smoke Cobra
- Dragon of Smoke / Serpent of Flame
Snake Form : Sta 2, Str 1, poisonnous bite.
Beastman Form : A beautiful, only slightly scaled woman up to the waist, the rest of the body is a long snake tail, Dex +3, Sta +2, Resiliance of Nature, Wound Knitting Power, Poison Bite
Tell : Forked tongue
Symbolism : Androgyny, circle, convalescence, cunning, danger, death, deceit, destruction, divine emanation, evil, false appearance fertility, guardianship, generation, grief, health, intelligence, jealousy, lasciviousness, malice, materialism, misfortune, phallus, pleasure, power, prophecy, prudence, renewal, revenge, self-creation self -indulgence, self -sustenance sensation, sensuality, sin, subtlety, temptation, treachery, the unfathomable, universe circle, vexations, vice, wiliness, wisdom worldliness. Emblem of lightning, physicians, witchcraft.
Snakes, which shed their skins, thus creating themselves anew, and whose poisons have been used in healing, death-dealing, and trance-state for thousands of years, represent transmutation, wisdom, alchemy and healing. Some deities which consider the snake sacred include Hygieia, Cihuacoatl, Quetzalcoatl, Erzulie and Hecate.
Figure used on amulets, or represented by a wavy 'M.' From primeval times revered as the reimbodiment of deceased mortals, most ancient of phallic totem beasts. Assigned to mother goddesses. Form of earth, river, sea, and underworld deities, and rain-withholding clouds. Appears in all tree-worshiping cultures as a weather-controller. In African tradition a dawdler, untrustworthy messenger, but life restorer.
From the legend in which God, angered by man, sent a tortoise with a message of death. Relenting, He sent a snake to overtake the tortoise. The snake loitered on the way, thus man must die first, then he may recover his eternal life.
American Indian sky and water symbol, life form given to lightning and the rainbow, with power over rain and wind. Among the Central American Indians symbol of poverty and want; a destroyer (worm) of the dead.
In Babylonian mythology the thief who steals the plant of immortality from Gilgamesh. In Buddhism, girdle of Mount Meru.
In Egyptian antiquity revered as a spirit which pervaded the universe, attribute of Kneph and Set The west wind sometimes was shown as a four- headed winged serpent.
In Greece sacred to Agathadaemon, Apollo, Asclepius, Athena, Erichthonius.
In Hebrew lore represents both good and bad fortune. Attribute of Aaron, salvation; Moses, redemption; Satan, fall from Divine grace.
The Hindu nags, symbolizing every branch of learning. A form of Ahi, Sesa, Vritra.
In Norse mythology a form taken by Loki and Odin. Frequently engraved on warrior's swords as a charm. Keener of subterranean gold.
Doreen serpent. Healer.
Erected by Moses in the wilderness after the visitation of fiery serpents. Those who looked upon it were cured. Later called an idol and destroyed as a mere piece of brass. By Christians revered as a symbol of God or Christ.
Cherish a serpent in one's bosom. Benefit a person who in return injures one; in allusion to the Greek fable of the man who was bitten by a serpent hatchers from the eels he had placed at his bosom.
Eight-forked serpent. In Japan a devourer of humans, outlaw. Serpent with a single body and eight heads and tails.
Erect serpent. Phallus.
Ourobouros. Serpent biting tail. Circle, eternity, power feeding on itself, zodiac.
Serpent. crooked. Crawling and slimy. Destructiveness, loathsomeness, obstructiveness.
Eliade observes that Gresmann (Mytische Reste in der Paradieserzahlung in Archiv f. Rel. X, 345) regarded Eve as an archaic Phoenician goddess of the underworld who is personified in the serpent (although a better interpretation would be to identify it with the allegorical figure of Lilith, the enemy and temptress of Eve). In support of this, Eliade points to the numerous Mediterranean deities who are represented carrying a snake in one or both of their hands (for example, the Greek Artemis, Hecate, Persephone), and he relates these to the finely sculpted Cretan priestesses in gold or ivory, and to mythic figures with snakes for hair (Medusa the Gorgon, or the Erinyes). He goes on to mention that in Central Europe there is a belief that hairs pulled out from the head of a woman under the influence of the moon will be turned into snakes (17). The serpent (or snake) was very common in Egypt; the hieroglyph which corresponds phonetically to the letter Z is a representation of the movement of the snake. Like the sign of the slug, or horned snake (phonetically equivalent to F), this hieroglyph refers to primigenial and cosmic forces. Generally speaking, the names of the goddesses are determined by signs representing the snake—which is tantamount to saying that it is because of Woman that the spirit has fallen into matter and evil. The snake is also used, as are other reptiles, to refer to the primordial—the most primitive strata of life. In the Book of the Dead (XVII), the reptiles are the first to acclaim Ra when he appears above the surface of the waters of Nou (or Nu or Nun).
There is so many things to do with snake totem, it's a very rich symboles. Snakes can be found in many many legends, from southern France's Melusine, to India's Nagah, or Austrialia's Rainbow snake and Aztec's winged snake... They are often linked to sorcery, wisdom, witches, fertility, prophecy (the Pythie of ancient greece) etc. so they can make amazing No Moon. You can also probably make very good Full Moon with all the unarmed charms that are snake-themed plus the snake martial style and poison bites, or you could go the brawler constrictor boa road with the charms from unarmed combat IV. You can also make very good Changing Moon by playing with the forked tongue liar and fascination theme linked with snakes, or go the noble nagah prince way. Well, there's almost no limits to what you can do with a snake totem.
For this one, I wanted to try to play with the snakes of the caduceus, the ambivalence of healing and poison. I wanted to do a healer character, but one who wasn't gentle and compassionate, and could as well kill you with her drugs than save you.
