Thaia-thaan'ag

Lindorm

Thaia-thaan’ag has many temples. Even a handful of followers in a tiny village cell need a dark place to hide, a place to hurt. These basements or barns are generally guarded by whichever cultist is furthest under the effects of whatever corrupting mechanism is devouring them.

A successful cell outgrows these humble lairs as their neighbors’ wills fail and are drawn in. Converting some abandoned house or linking several nearby cellars into a twisting midden that undermines the town are common practices. Dedicated guardians such as cockatrices or cerastes are brought to these lairs from afar by secret couriers or grown from some of the infested through rank rituals.

Even a town given over completely to the worship of dissolution needs to obscure its faith in order to draw in more guests and victims. Similarly, large city-based cells need strong protection from both government, churches, and even crime.

Jaculus

The jaculus is a stout, dun snake which grows about a foot long, up to a third of which is its serrated rattle. It possesses an unusual, cross-hatched ribcage that grants an insectile appearance when moving and the ability to lock itself rigid, rib-against-rib. The breed has a narcotic venom akin to that of the amphisbaena.

In the wild, a jaculus typically hunts birds, squirrels, and beetles among the tree branches. During the spring, they cluster above predators’ lairs, and fall upon prey much larger than what they can eat themselves, stiffening their bodies to drive their rattle deep inside. This fragile structure then breaks off and releases a flood of debilitating toxins while the serpent withdraws to safety. The poisoned animal is easy prey for the larger predator, and scavengers and insects drawn to the kill provide ample food for the jaculus and its newly hatched young.

Thaia-thaan’ag breeds jaculi and use them in their raids.

Brotherhood of Saint Toad

Thaia-thaan'ag has decided the world must end. The Brotherhood of Saint Toad has decided the world must believe in its own end. A never-ending, wrenching, half-growth aside half-decay, propagating itself in terror. No cycle, no spiral - a bottomless fall whose origin never dims and whose nadir sucks and gnaws.

Members of the Brotherhood fervently support the cult's early operations in a region. However, when the plan would normally crash into panic and slaughter, the Brotherhood takes steps to maintain the crest of terror and suspicion. Heroes of the Lands should not consider these monks as allies united against the cult - they will eagerly destroy and publicly display the remains of any interlopers of noble intent so as to further demoralize their subjects.

The Brotherhood is the keeper of a rare and terrible breed of Thaaskith - the well toad.

Ouroboros Disciples

The Ouroboros Disciples believe that Thaia-thaan'ag is not exempt from its own principles. The sect works to undermine the cult's activities from within, plying the fear and paranoia of the worshipers against themselves and sabotaging their breeding temples. The members' motivations are varied: some seeks a paradoxical dissolution of dissolution, others cannot resist the urge to sow chaos in all forms, others believe the cult has failed in its current incarnation and must be purged.

The Disciples should not be confused with a heroic underground. They are as maddened and nihilistic as the rest of the Thaia-thaan'ag, and those who discover their existence and seek to manage their activities would do well to remember this. However, more than once an atrocity has been averted by discovering and empowering a sect member.

It is extremely rare to find more than a single Ouroboros Disciple within a cell of Thaia-thaan'ag cultists.

Tutsg'gac

The cult of Thaia-thaan'ag created this language to allow for secret communication and to serve in their dubious rites. It is composed of nigh-unpronounceable gutturals, clicks, and rolling vowels. It springs from Gasmith, having a set of hand signals used for surreptitious conversation as well as booming throat songs in war and worship.

Thaia-thaan'ag

Only madmen and nihilists become members of Thaia-thaan'ag, which seeks to complete the apocalypse it believes was set in motion centuries ago. Its members revere a spiral-symbol of entropy, which they posit has manifested as serpentine gods of destruction through history.

The Thaia-thaan'ag are responsible for the creation and proliferation of the thaaskith. When the cultists raid, they carry fire, which destroys and purifies as it provides the warmth their slithering nightmares need to be their most terrible.

According to the cult, the calamitous force that writhes behind the universe has pressed on humanity's minds since before the first murder - an ancient thing indeed. We have interpreted it many ways:

  • Apep - The ancient Egyptians knew a force opposed order and sought to swallow the sun.
  • Tiamat - Babylonia revered both the obliterating inevitability of chaos and its maddened generative properties.
  • Cthulhu - A comparatively modern manifestation of the thing which breaks stars in

Thaaskith

The Thaaskith are the hideous serpentine creations and idols of the Thaia-thaan'ag. Primarily reptilian, most incorporate some amphibian and humanoid traits. All share the ability to burrow and hibernate through the cold winters.

Though the bulk of the creatures are secreted within cultists shrines, some number are released into the wild each spring to sow despair and terror. The people of the Land of Still Waters must view each thaw with under a dim shadow of fear - Thaia-thaan'ag would not have it otherwise.

Samaelisk

It is the duty of the samaelisks to swell the ranks of Thaia-thaan'ag through temptation, blackmail, and madness. They resemble large serpents with human faces stretched over their long skulls, and tiny, embryonic hands. Through their hidden whispers and narcotic venom, they usurp others' wills and bend them to the cult's purposes.

Cockatrice

Like their larger cousin basilisks, Thaia-thaan'ag's cockatrices can spurt gouts of venomous blood from beneath their eyes. However, they trade size and ferocity for limited flight and predatory cunning.