Maramaga[]
Maramaga was once a mortal teen who lived among the native veldritch elves of a small, unremarkable island off the coast of Ashenthorn during the Era of Exploration. After a particularly horrible drought and the looming threat of starvation, the priests of her ancient tribal culture decided that restoring nature’s balance necessitated a youthful blood sacrifice. Maramaga was bound to a fertility totem and flayed over the course of weeks as she wept for mercy and release from pain.
Just before dying from her terrible ordeal, Maramaga spat an angry curse at her people. Yet the tribal elders, well satisfied with their efforts, collected and spread her mortal blood over the scorched summer crops in hopes that it would bring the long-absent rains. Instead, some dark power sympathized with her long and tortured suffering whilst hearing her final curse. It granted her black divinity so that she might exact the vengeance of her dying words. She eventually brought the sweet summer rains her people had so long sought, but not without price.
After the miracle of her rebirth, Maramaga installed herself as the de facto harvest goddess over the multitudes. She began her rule by taking the blood of those who murdered her, the tribal elders, then demanded the sacrifice of the old, the infirm and the weak. Her hatred for the elderly and those dependent on others knew few bounds. When these were gone, she would eventually demand the sacrifice of young animals and children by the same twisted logic. In return for bountiful harvests, she continually demanded blood sacrifice, coming to value only the strong and the virile, which formed her new priesthood.
She also commanded the construction of tens if not hundreds of bizarre log ziggurats. In these, she ordered the composting of the dead, as well as living victims, heretics, criminals and infidel defilers, along with the common unwanted refuse of the many tribes under her onus. She also drew vermin, vultures and insects to her as divine servants, sending them as punishment for any demands left undone.
At the height of her frightening power, she visited crippling disease, decay and infestation on those who failed to answer to her divine will, even the primitive peoples of neighboring human and humanoid tribes. Ironically, it was the conquests of foreign soldiers from a more advanced nation, bringing new diseases with them, which eventually helped end her dark and bloody reign.
Her people died by the thousands to new disease as well as military conquest for the exquisite gold and jade treasures crafted by her culture. Taking advantage of her weaker state from less worshippers, the famous explorer-prince Jeryn Greycloud and his illumin paladins eventually destroyed and burned her immortal body during the Era of Culling, putting an end to centuries of blood sacrifice, the ravages of pestilence and, ultimately, unsatisfied divine retribution.
Most of the world has all but forgotten about Maramaga. Meanwhile her burned husk, the dead remains of her divine form, have long awaited rebirth. Her priests secreted the shriveled husk into the underworld long ago though Maramaga never imparted how to proceed from there. Yet knowledge of her divinity has been passed on to modern generations of lone clerics, oracles, and cultists, and her religion is still very much alive. And beginning to spread once again.
Titles[]
The Queen of Rot, the Scythe Mother, the Midnight Plague.
Current Status[]
Deceased.
Alignment[]
Chaotic Evil.
Symbol[]
A two-headed vulture, staring in opposite directions.
Portfolios[]
Death, Disease, Fear.
Era of Ascendance[]
Typical Worshippers[]
The twisted and evil worshippers of disease and rot, as well as those that fear such things.
Avatar Description[]
Maramaga's veldritch heritage is almost completely absent in her new form, the only vestige of it being her blue-grey skin. Everywhere that she was cut or mutilated has since grown metallic or bone-like protrusions, horns, spines, and claws. Her head is adorned with a pair of massive, heavy, ridged horns and a pair of skeletal draconic wings sprout from her back. Her arms and legs from the elbow or knee down are now replaced with a chitinous bone armor ending in wicked claws that drip a sizzling maroon-colored ichor.
Known Artifacts[]
The Reaping Stone. Nothing is known about this powerful artifact other than it seems to be connected to the reaping sickness.
Associated Holidays[]
None.