TheHoverpope/Tavamae

Back to TheHoverpope
Back to TheHoverpope/Demons
Back to TheHoverpope/ThickerThanWater

Tavamae, Aloft on Portentous Wings, Progeny of the Despairing Covenant

The Tavamae were born long ago, and there have been many stories of their beauty, their hypnotic grace, their dire, desperate hunger. They are a race of idiot beasts, their beauty and their power lying entirely in their animal instinct and desire, though they do take the shape of men curled by age. They look from afar like an old man hunched over, men who were once tall but have been ravaged by age, with staffs to lean on and huge stiff hump backs. Their skin is a hard chitin covered in tiny barblike hairs, and they walk slowly on two-clawed feet. Their mouthparts are visible as proboscices, ending in an inwards curl. This is, however, only the shape that their own lack of imagination forces them into. In the presence of any being that dreams, they stand upright, and their hump unfurls like an opening chrysalis to reveal two massive wings, twelve feet across, moth-shaped and rippling with fractal patterns that overlap, intersect, ripple and writhe, the image on the wings being a treatise written in the language of dream. The eye is drawn to it; any creature that can dream finds themselves simply shut down, their bodies overwhelmed by their own burgeoning subconscious. The mind is itself unharmed; if anything, the image grants its victims a terrible lucidity. The moths seek to heighten the consciousness that they feed on. They stand unable to move until the Tavamus touches them, extends a single, long curving claw from its left fore-finger, and driving it into the target sucks out their dreams and mind. This power is fuelled by the undercurrents in the dreamers own minds; as soon as the target is drained, the Tavamae no longer have any source of dream, being empty of it themselves, and curl back into the shape of an old cripple, their wings curling back away.
In the demon city, they are feared; for there are many demons that do dream. When the moons that transcribe the dreams of Sacheverell onto the Malfean skies are risen, the Tavamae hunt the streets, locked into their flighted forms; many demons then turn their gaze downwards and pray to the Ebon Dragon for the coming of the green dawn.

Attributes: 3/3/3, 1/3/6, 4/1/4
Abilities: Awareness 3, Athletics 3, Martial arts 3, presence 2, investigation 3, survival 3, dodge 2

Essence 3, willpower 7
Virtues: Compassion 4, conviction 1, temperance 3, valor 3
Essence pool: 65. Cost to dematerialize: 35. Soak: 8/8 (Chitin body, 5/7)

Charms and magical effects:
Third excellencies: awareness, athletics, survival, appearance.
Flies at quadruple its normal rate
The sight of its wings is a seven success mental attack. If this beats the target's MDV, they are rendered inactive. The Tavamae can incapacitate whole armies with this sight, but a single man of strong mind can cut one down. The Tavamae's wound penalties apply directly to the mental attack's successes as the wings start to fray and their hypnotic image things. The Tavamae feed by consuming intelligence; when they strike a target who is transfixed, they may choose to, instead of dealing damage, reduce their target's intelligence by 1. This is permanent for mortals; exalts and gods heal at a rate of one dot per week. If the target is reduced to intelligence 0, the damage is permanent except to any effect that can heal aggravated damage, and the target is rendered a comatose body.

Comments and such

This is flagrant thievery from China Mieville's Slake Moths, downgraded significantly to be first circle. - TheHoverpope

And it's still just as cool.
-- Darloth