He'll hang you from that tree 'til you understand (In Nomine)

May the Aesir, the Vanir, and all the other divine beings bless my patrons Todd, Jaina Bee, Ferny, Casey, Dave, and Darius!  Truly their honor is great and their virtue impressive!

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Bandlaik, rigger and returned einheriar in service to Freya (dreamshade)

Half of all who die a good death go to Valhalla, as modern memory still records.  The other half, forgotten by current trends, is chosen by Valfreyja, Freya of the Slain, to join her in Folkvangr.  Freya’s many-seated hall, Sessrumnir, lies within that land, the central governing place of that field.  Bandlaik lived there for a millennium or more.  Time passes oddly in the dream-places, and it was quite long.

In life, Bandlaik was not much different than the many children of the fjords.  Sure, practicing seidhr cast aspersions upon him that he might enjoy the rough pleasures of a bottom, but ergi or not, the matter was settled with a series of holmgangs and anyone who watched him fight while a-viking.  He often spoke, too, of Odin hanging himself from Yggsdrasil as a sacrifice of himself to himself so as to learn the secrets of the seidh.  What harm was there, he argued, in learning and teaching in Glad of War’s own way?

Bandlaik sharpened the blade of his dreams every night, the whetstone of the day scraping down their length with ever-present force.  Many mourned when a Slavic warrior caught a lucky strike on Bandlaik’s back during a raid.  The seer-warrior lost the use of his legs that day, and rumors flew down too-well-worn ruts to claim that his glorious days ended when the Slav chose not to kill him.  The Norseman laughed at these rumors.

Shifting his focus to more domestic martial pursuits, Bandlaik became an expert in fortification and defense, a master at extending the longevity of the few Norse colonies.  The Kievan Rus’ felled him when they overran his settlement’s walls and shields by sheer weight of horseflesh.  His last dying thoughts seized onto those sharpened dreams of Folkvangr and Sessrumnir, and before he knew it, his soul was snagged upon his queen’s realm, not yet ready to give up the fight and move on to a final reward.

It was good for a while.  A long while.  Death was everything Bandlaik had hopd it would be, fighting when he chose to, singing when he chose to, the most delicious food and drink he could imagine, available to him with the simple effort of imagining it.  Then the angels came.

With a black-winged zealot at their head, angels of all choirs came rushing through the lands of the gods like the very locusts they had sent against the Egyptians.  This was no war for territory or argument or glory or loot.  It was a far more ignoble kind of war, one fought for purity, which is to say: this was murder wrapped in a war’s clothes and called by the wrong name.

First, Olympus fell, and then Fair Ament.  Thor, of course, wanted to fight.  Many agreed, but Odin called for a more defensive tactic, a stand at Bifrost Bridge to draw the line, and then fortifications to hold back Heaven’s dogged forces.  Bandlaik helped prepare those battlements, and imagined into being the mechanisms that would allow them to surprise the angels with their appearance.

Bandlaik saw Thor ignore Odin’s hornblow call to retreat.

As Asgard withdrew from the Marches as a whole, becoming insular and infected with a centuries-long cabin fever, Bandlaik’s afterlife grew less and less fun.  More than once, he considered loosing his bonds to Sessrumnir and moving on to his final reward.  He was a good man, and knew he would go to Heaven, and that was why he kept refusing.  He wasn’t going to give Uriel the satisfaction.

His malaise was not aided by the trickle of Essence which began to return to Asgard a thousand years after the Crusade and picked up speed a century after that.  This Essence smelled wrong, tainted as it was with the same ridiculous and disgusting idea as those of the Heavenly Host who had felled Thor that day.  Although Bandlaik was one of the few einheriar that still served the Aesir unfelled, he began to forsake a canny Odin who saw only Essence that could be used against those who would oppress or kill the Aesir.

Bandlaik spent more and more time with Valfreyja, learning more of the ways of love and the valkyrie.  The 1970s brought with them the first steady trickle of Essence untainted with purity.  Accepting and universalist, this was the mountain stream that braced Bandlaik’s despairing soul.  Almost five decades later, he has petitioned his queen to grant him a vessel that he might walk among the mortal dreamers, recruiting new einheriar to fight beside him and furthering the cause of Freyja and Asgard in the corporeal realm.

And, after discovering what the modern world meant by “dungeon”, just plain enjoying himself occasionally.

Corporeal  2 // Strength  5  Agility  3  // Body  20
Ethereal  2 // Intelligence 3  Precision 5  // Mind  6
Celestial  1 // Will  2   Perception  2  // Soul  2

Vessel:  Human male/2, Charisma/1
Role:  Photographer/2 (Status/1)

Skills:  Area Knowledge (Small Town in Scandinavia/3), Artistry (Rope/2), Dreaming/3, Escape/1, Fighting/4, Knowledge (Engineering/3, Farming/3, Bondage/1), Languages (English/1, Old Norse/3N), Large Weapon/4, Sailing/1, Survival/1, Swimming/1, Tactics/3, Throwing/3, Tracking/3
Attunements:  Ethereal Connection
Songs:  Attraction (Ethereal/1), Dreams (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/2), Nimbus (Corporeal/1, Ethereal/2), Souls (Ethereal/2)
Discord:  Disabled*/6 (paraplegic; uses a wheelchair)

*  “Crippled” is a slur.

Death doesn't make me not a dad (Mutants & Masterminds, 3e)

Donald Ebberman

"Bringing back the dead (or saving the living from the shadow of death) is the ultimate queer act."
—Sharon P. Holland, Raising the Dead:  Readings of Death and (Black) Subjectivity


Donald Ebberman came to the MGM desperate in 1980.  He'd had a daughter in a previous relationship, before he'd admitted even to himself that he was a man, and her condition was getting worse, the treatment more expensive.  He'd just lost his job and was in sore need for his meager savings to be significantly more than meager.  Gambling was the only option he could think of.  He took everything out of the bank and brought it to the casino, thinking only that there needed to be something to give thanks for at the upcoming holiday.

He spent the night of November 20th strapped into the roller-coaster of fortune that is a casino when more than a mere dopamine hit is on the line.  There was no way for him to realize it in the intentionally timeless space of that casino, but the sun had left and returned as he watched the rise and fall of his bankroll.  At 7 a.m., an electrical wire that had lost its insulation and grounding lit an abandoned restaurant within the hotel called the Deli on fire.  Six minutes from the resultant wall of flame finally being noticed, the building was engulfed in flames.  Donald was one of the 18 killed on the casino floor.

"If you spend a week at a casino you will very easily see that people have a certain way of behaving in a casino."
--Mads Mikkelsen

Donald's life insurance policy just barely covered his daughter's treatment, ensuring her survival but not her shelter or food or anything similar.  As he was reluctantly dragged by the hand by some sort of dog-headed person, that math was all that he carried in his head and in his heart.  Memory becomes a little fuzzier after that.  Running, lots of running, through any number of surreal and strange landscapes, pursued by . . . something.  It only settled into a stable construction when he found himself in the center of a casino.  It was Bally's Las Vegas, and it was six years later.

The hotel where Donald had died has been sold and rebranded.  As comprehension dawned in fiery panic, he ran through the city ~ walls were as solid as holograms ~ searching for the family he'd left behind.  They were in a tenement in Downtown Las Vegas, where a single father could pay as little as possible for a roof over the head of a disabled daughter whose treatments were paid for, but not the accommodations that made her life both possible and livable.  He set out once more to take care of the two people who still mourned him.


"The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets."
--William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Unwilling to put his loved ones through the stress of discovering that he was a ghost, Donald set out to test his haunting abilities and scheme to turn them towards the well-being of his family.  He used his control over heat and flame to punish those who would harm them before figuring out more skillful uses of such power.  The real revelation, however, came when he discovered that he could possess the living and make them do things.  Surely, he thought, this would provide for those he'd left behind.

Quite an urban legend built up around the ghost who came to be known as Emberwight on the burgeoning internet.  Donald himself barely noticed ~ it's not like he spent much time making small talk with the living.  But other beings with powers and experiences beyond the normal did.  His efforts began to get tangled up and distracted by his interactions with these beings and people, making his eternal death all that much harder.  Interestingly, Catspaw was not one of those people ~ she discovered his existence when he possessed her in order to pull off one of his schemes.  You can guess how well that went.

"I think every child deserves a family as loving and committed as mine. Because the sense of family comes from the commitment we make to each other to work through the hard times so we can enjoy the good ones. It comes from the love that binds us; that’s what makes a family. ... My family is just as real as yours."
— Zach Wahls

Home Base:  Las Vegas.
Gender:  Transmale
Sexuality:  Gay vanilla
Romantic Identity:  Monogamous romantic

"Morrison imagines the spectral sphere as always already queer, a provocation and challenge to heteronormativity—with the ghost sometimes an active participant in disruptions of compulsory heterosexuality, sometimes a figure embodying closet desires, and sometimes a disembodied emanation that counterpoints homophobia"
--Toni Morrison and the Queer Pleasure of Ghosts

Recurrent Foes:

• Ammit the Devourer of Souls, Great of Death:  When Donald died, his heart was heavy, loaded down with worry for his husband and daughter, self-recrimination for his failure, and a host of other, similar feelings.  It was not lighter than a feather, so he ran.  He ran from the strange dog-headed man who had brought him to . . . the Luxor? . . . and he ran from the green man who operated the scales, who had plucked the feather from atop the winged woman's head and his heart from his chest to compare their weight.  And he ran from the lake of fire and the strange animal that stood snarling beside it.  A crocodile head atop a body that's leonine in the front and hippopotamine in the back, and it somehow failed to catch the gambler until he'd run back to this world, a ghost.  Ammit hungers for the soul of this man who failed the test and pursues him still.  If he succeeds, Ebberman will be gone forever, reduced to nothing.  Ammit doesn't even shit.  Emberwight knows to run and to trick and to recruit allies when he catches a glimpse of his divine predator, because there is no way that he can stand against such a being.  So far, his wits have earned his continued existence, but he frets over the day he runs out of ideas and allies.
  
  • Notable Powers:  (PL 16) Senses (acute smell, low-light vision), Swimming, Environmental Adaptation (aquatic), Bite (STR-based soul or piercing Damage 8, Improved Critical), high STR & FGT, Affects Insubstantial on everything, Protection, Insubstantial, Growth, Shrinking, all combat advantages, Favored Foe (those escaping the destruction of their soul), Fearless, Great Endurance, Tracking, Well-Informed, Immortality, lots of Immunities, Movement, Senses, Variable (Devourer of the Dead).  Terrifying Roar, Speak with Animals, Swallowing Shadow, Immunity to Darkness, Immunity to Light, Gloom (extreme), Darkvision, Banshee's Wail (as Alternate Effect with Terrifying Roar), Feature (deathly aura, mental Strength), Death Stare, Suppress Life, Shielded Soul, Death's Gate, Valkyrie's Ride, Death Sight, Death Visions, Speak With the Dead, Dimension Walk (Affects Others, Area), Dimension Sense (analytical), Immolate (soul or fire, after critical damage), Immunity to Heat, Warm (extreme heat), Life Sense, Psychic Diagnosis, Power Detection (acute, analytical), Aura Reading, Cutting Loose, Massive Knockback, Shockwave, Bracing, Tug of War, Makeshift Handholds, Super-Leaping, Unstoppable from Power Profiles.
• Vincenzo Sangiovanni:  The undead crime family Vincenzo is a representative of specializes in necromantic magics and interactions with ghosts.  Despite the two meeting when Emberwight's spectral wrath came to Vincenzo's casino in the flaming deaths of a handful of patrons, the ghost didn't start out as particularly special to the blood-sucking hotelier ~ just another ghost to be bent to Vincenzo's will like so many others.  It was only when Emberwight successfully resisted his control that Don Sangiovanni's pride became bruised, putting Donald in his crosshairs.  That same pride, however, has been Emberwight's saving grace, as Vincenzo is stubbornly unwilling to give the fiery wraith any more of his attention or resources than is minimally needed.  The couple of times the time traveler known as Tonka Truck has become even peripherally swept up into their conflict, the spiritworker's seemed strangely spooked.
• Notable Powers:  (PL 12) Metrosexual Vampire from Supernatural Handbook.  Command the Undead, Grasping Graves, Death Sight, Death Vision, Necromancy (with a number of spells as Alternate Effects), Speak with the Dead, Mind Control from Powers Profile.  Death-activated equivalent of Scrying Stone of Sirrion and large installation from Gadgets Guide.  Benefit (wealth 5)
• Catspaw:  Emberwight possessed Dikadora at one point.  Quite innocuously, to be sure ~ his intent was to establish a bank account he could later deposit money into that could provide for his husband and daughter.  He didn't know about Dikadora's fey-twisted heritage, but that ignorance didn't protect him.  His plan devolved into bad luck and failure, ending up taking money from his survivors rather than giving it to them.  Vengeful wrath has led him to become a recurrent foe of the werecat's, a relationship which is complicated by Donald's occasional need for flight or protection from Ammit the Devourer of Souls, Great of Death.  At times, he has brokered an unstable peace with Catspaw that allows the two to work together to save his ethereal hide, but the effort always invites Catspaw's powers.  The two never come out friends afterwards, sadly. (PL 10)
  
• Ravella the Riverboat Queen:  Emberwight is a recurrent player at Ravella's table, appearing whenever he can scrabble together some intangible bankroll exciting enough for Ravella to be willing to play.  Quite a few of his more desperate plots have come from this quest for an ante she'd accept.  He has won a game or two, but he also has an addiction.  Ectodopamine is a helluva ghost-drug.  Only once or twice has he been able to walk away from the table while his chips were high, but even then he soon discovered that his winnings were either not enough to secure his husband and daughter's future and comfort or that his winnings actually hurt them (which drove him back to the table, hoping to gamble those winnings away).  One notable storyline involved someone utilizing Donald's addictive appearances at Ravella's table specifically to harvest his ectodopamine as an ingredient for a superdrug.  Ravella revealed a bit of gold to her heart as she exerted herself to save her ghostly friend from his oppressor.
  
  • Notable Powers:  (PL 10) Variable (can bet and receive bets for anything; Affects Others, Slow, Precise, Variable Descriptor, Distracting, Limited: Only in Betting Games, Side Effect 1, Check Required: Opposed Expertise: Gambling), Immortality, Immunity (aging)
• Pastor Repressor:  Raised in a very conservative Christian home, Stacey Robertson tried to become a police officer.  While there, he asked a classmate out after they had spent time at gay bars together after class.  Socially awkward and disliked by classmates, he did manage to get one, single, solitary boyfriend (Miguel) and a few one-night stands by visiting Vegas's gay nightclubs and using dating apps.  His parents' homophobic teachings sat in his brain like a wriggling mass of worms all slathered in ghost-pepper sauce, however, leading to many nights at the club as a loud and belligerent drunk in a corner by himself.  The day he learned that he might have been exposed to HIV by one of his lovers he saw a pair of ghosts on the Strip.  Two men, who by their manner of dress had died in the late 1940s, appeared all wispy and pale, lost in the romance of a kiss.  The bigotry of his childhood and the fear of disease manifested in an explosion of futile disgust and a flight back to the home ~ and church ~ of his youth.  After enduring the usual barrage of insults from his parents, he renounced his former life, and buried himself in studies of his faith.  Particularly the rituals and practices of exorcism, casting out the demons like Jesus did Legion from the pigs.  After all, he reasoned, if he could exorcise the globe of queer ghosts, then he will have eliminated queer history.  Without queer history, he never would have even considered that he might be queer, and everything could be right with the world.  His eventual conflict with Emberwight is obvious, don't you think?
• Notable Powers:  (PL 8) Exorcism in the Name of God (as Occult Exorcism of Obroros), Dimensional Banishment (limited to ghosts), Command the Undead from Powers Profile. Ritualist, Comprehend (spirits), high Expertise: Theology & Philosophy, Expertise: History, Insight, and Investigation, Artificer, Connected, Contacts, Fascinate (Expertise: Theology & Philosophy), Favored Foe (queers), Favored Foe (ghosts), Extraordinary Effort, Ultimate Effort, Luck, Inspire, Interpose, Languages, Leadership, Trance, Spirit Binding (Affliction, Affects Incorporeal Only, Limited Degree; vulnerable, immobile), Deflect (limited to ghostly powers), Senses (Ghostly Awareness, Counters Concealment Limited to Ghosts, Counters Illusions Limited to Ghosts, Danger Sense, Detect Ghosts, Shred Ectoplasm (alternate array: Damage ghosts, Weaken ghostly powers, Weaken ghostly attributes, Damage ectoplasmic objects).
• Slum Lord: Richard Beaumont fucked a djinn, a fey being that had come to the Nevada desert from the Arabian desert.  He did strange drugs off of her tramp stamp, and then he fucked her.  As Dikadora Kelly can tell you, that side of her family (no matter how distant) can have a whimsical sense of justice and a twisted magic.  See, Beaumont had made a bunch of money in some shady real estate deals, which he barely even remembered when this beautiful Arab-American woman looked him in the eye, irises blazing behind her pink contacts, and murmured, "I can give you so much more, but only if you're brave enough to see.  Do you want it?"  Brain full of lust and foaming wines, he nodded and whispered from an expectantly dry mouth, "Yes.  Yes, all of it yes, give me all of it!"  Their simultaneous orgasm brought him great magical power over the urban landscape, but only those portions of the city to which he had brought suffering.  He's come to regret this hasty deal, which forced him into a close examination of his actions' effects.  Now, Richard's not sure if he's a villain or a hero, as he endeavours to do good things in more and more parts of Vegas ~ which means making tenants like Emberwight's family suffer.
  
  • Notable Powers:  (PL 6) Movement (Permeate, Limited to Urban Construction Materials, Limited to Into & Within Areas Where He Has Caused Suffering), Senses (Detect City Details and Layout (Acute, Analytical, Extended), Radio; Limited to Areas Where He Has Caused Suffering), Dynamic Array (Perception Ranged Move Object, Damaging, Precise, Limited to Urban Materials, Limited to Within Areas Where He Has Caused Suffering; Transform (any urban material into any other urban material), Continuous, Limited to Within Areas Where He Has Caused Suffering; Remote Sensing (all senses), Subtle, Limited to Urban Areas, Limited to Areas Where He Has Caused Suffering; Teleport, Accurate, Change Direction, Change Velocity, Easy, Turnabout, Medium (urban areas), Limited to Into & Within Areas Where He Has Caused Suffering), high Expertise: Civil Engineering, Diehard, Benefit (wealth), high Will and Toughness

Recurrent Allies:

• The Hummingbird Thief:  Professor Cullen might be over-focused on (his interpretations of) Huitzilopochtli-as-hummingbird, but he hasn't forgotten that he was also a sun god, or had been raised to such exalted status by the cihuacoatl Tlacaelel I.  This has led him to team up from time to time with the fiery ghost Emberwight.  Usually, he allows Emberwight to possess him, allowing them to combine both the Hummingbird Thief's superspeed and Emberwight's control over flames.  They often go by the name of Solar Flare in this form. (PL 8)

"Here’s to the ghost
We still seem to host
How he’s becoming us
Here come the vultures
Here come the vultures
Screaming down at us"
--Charlotte Wessels, Here Come the Vultures, The Human Contradiction

Physical Appearance:  I can't draw, so I really like providing a few reference pictures and trusting in your imagination to build a good image of Emberwight.  He looks like some combination of these five pictures:

"The double ontology of ghosts and ghostliness, the manner in which ghosts exist inside and out and traverse categorical distinctions, seems especially useful for a queer criticism that attempts to understand communal mourning, group psychologies, and the need for a politics that ‘carries’ our dead with us into battle for the present and future"
--Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia 

Emberwight (PL 8)
STR -  AGI 0  FGT -1  AWE -1
STA -  DEX 0  INT 2  PRE 2
Powers
Burned to Death & Mad About It:  Environment 5 (extreme heat), Features 4 (always knows where his husband and daughter are, deathly aura, flame aura)*; Immunity 10 (Heat Effects); Senses 1 (infravision), Enhanced Trait: Soulfireball 3 (fades, reaction: when absorbing heat, distracting); Soulfireball 1 (Ranged burst area soul or fire Damage, Dodge resistance check (DC 10 + rank) for half effect, resistible (Will as well as Toughness), affects corporeal 1) • 40 points
Dead:  Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects); Insubstantial 4 (innate, permanent) • 51 points
Death’s Gate: Movement 2 (dimensional 2, afterlives), portal • 8 points
Death Sight: Senses 4 (detect dying at range; precognition limited to visions of death) • 4 points
Invisible:  Concealment 2 (normal sight) • 4 points
Skin-Riding:  Perception Ranged Cumulative Affliction 4 (resisted by Will; dazed, compelled, controlled), quirk: merge with subject, subtle • 16 points
Speak With the Dead: Senses 4 (postcognition) • 4 points
*  Deathly Aura: Your touch is inimical to simple forms of life: small plants wither and die when you touch or even just walk over them, and small insects perish upon touching you. Although an inconvenience (and good for a complication) at times, this is a net Feature good for, amongst other things, a circumstance bonus to Intimidate checks.  Flame Aura:  Harmless flames that flicker within the depths of the character’s eyes or around their person, providing a +2 circumstance bonus to Presence-based checks.
Advantages
Favored Environment (casinos), Startle
Skills
Deception 2 (+2), Expertise: Gambling 4 (+6), Intimidation 3 (+3), Perception 3 (+3), Sleight of Hand 2 (+2)
Offense
Initiative +0
Soulfireball +0:  Ranged, Damage 1 (soul or fire; up to 4 after absorbing heat)
Defense 
Dodge  0
Fortitude  immune 
Parry  -1
Toughness  0
Will  -1
Ground speed rank 0 (2 mph)
Complications 
Haunting Temper: Being a ghost carries with it certain realities and phenomena, one of which is a simmering rage, an anger at those who are alive and don't know what they have and a jealous wrath that can sneak up and jump out of a ghost when they least expect it.  Every feeling gets twisted towards fury.

Motivation ~ Responsibility: Although he can get pulled into any number of other plots by virtue of being dead, the only thing Emberwight wants is to know that his family is safe and comfortable.  Everything he does tracks back to that desire.

Power Point Totals:  Abilities -16 + Powers 127 + Advantages 2 + Skills 7 + Defenses 0 = 120

The Big Bronze Hog of Vileswe, Part 3 of 3

“O, how I wish I could draw and paint!  Then I could obtain the whole world for myself.”

The first leisure moment that the little androgyne had next day, they seized a pencil, and on the white side of one of the pictures they attempted to copy the drawing of the bronze hog, and they succeeded!  A little crooked, a little up and down, one leg thick and another thin, but yet it was not to be misunderstood; they themself exulted over it.  The pencil would not go just as straight as it should do, they could could perceive; but next day there stood another bronze hog by the side of the first, and it was a hundred times better; the third was so good that everyone might know it.

But the glove-making went badly on, the town errands went on slowly, for the bronze hog had taught them that all pictures could be drawn on paper, and the city of Vileswe is a whole picture-book, if one will but turn the leaves over.  On the Halatlo to Tlinita, there stands a slender pillar, and on the top of this stands the Goddess of Justice, with her eyes bound, and the measuring rod and line in her hand.

She soon stood on the paper, and it was the glover’s little androgyne who had placed her there.  The collection of pictures increased; but everything in it was as yet but still-life; when one day Velissina hopped about before them.  “Stand still,” said they; “you shall be beautiful, and be amongst my pictures!” but Velissina would not stand still, so he must be bound; his head and tail were fastened; he barked and jumped: the string must be tightened ~ when in came Sinwola!

“You wicked child! The poor animal!” was all that e could say: and e pushed the androgyne aside, kicked them with eir foot, and turned them out of eir house; they, the most ungrateful rascal, the naughtiest child!  And crying, e kissed eir little half strangled Velissina.

Just then the painter came up the stairs, and ~ here is the point on which the story turns.

Many years later, there was an exhibition in the Agatenwa ti Olte in Vileswe; two paintings placed by the side of each other drew a number of spectators to them.  The smallest painting represented a merry little androgyne, who sat drawing; they had for their model a little, white, nicely-clipped pug-dog, but the animal would not stand still, and was therefore bound fast with pack-thread, and that both by head and tail; there was life and truth in it that must appeal to everyone.  The painter was, as they said, a young Violeswino who had been found in the streets when a little child.  They had been brought up by an old glover and had taught themself drawing.  A painter, now famous, had discovered this talent, the androgyne having been turned away because they had bound their adoptive parent’s favorite, the little pug-dog, and made it their model.

The glover’s child had become a great painter.  The picture proved it; but it was particularly shown in the larger one by its side.  Here was but a single figure, a ragged but beautiful androgyne, who sat and slept in the street; they leaned up against the bronze hog in the street Tesla Lossa.  All the spectators knew the place.  The child’s arm rested on the swine’s head; the little androgyne slept soundly, and the lamp by the image of the founder of Natsiyaasim cast a strong, effective light on the child’s pale, sweet face.  It was a magnificent picture; a large gilt frame encircled it, and on the corner of the frame hung a laurel wreath, but between the green leaves, a black ribbon entwined itself, from which a long crepe veil hung down.

The young artist was just then dead!

--------

Sinwoa cus-Ypee
CN female lim-Fus suffering spiritualist 9
Medium-size monstrous humanoid (lim-Fus)
Occupation:  Painter
Homeland:  Fusop, in the Hemeya Sea
Current Residence:  Vileswe, Tosganwa region, Holbytlan peninsula

Strength  9 (-1)
Dexterity  13 (+1)
Constitution  8 (-1)
Intelligence  12 (+1)
Wisdom  14 (+2)
Charisma  12 (+1)
Immunities  maze spells, getting lost, flat-footedness

Senses  bonded senses 9 rd/day, darkvision 60 feet, detect undead at will (CL 9), enhanced danger sense (Ćesepfu sage talent)*, low-light vision, read aura skill unlock 2/day, see invisibility 1/day for 10 minutes; Perception +5

Initiative  +3 (+1 Dex, +2 trait) 

Armor Class  13 (+1 armor, +1 Dex, +1 natural armor) (15 within reach of ectoplasmic manifestation)
Saves  Fortitude +6, Reflex +5, Will +8
--Phantom Confined in Consciousness  Fortitude +6, Reflex +5, Will +9 (+13 v. mind-affecting)
--Within Reach of Active Ectoplasmic Phantom  Fortitude +8, Reflex +7, Will +11
--Within 30 Feet of Conscious Incorporeal Phantom  Fortitude +6, Reflex +5, Will +9 (+13 v. mind-affecting)
Hit Points  25
Special Defenses  Spiritual interference

Attacks  merciful lantern staff +5/+0 (2d6-1 bludgeoning, plus 1 fire, all nonlethal) and gore +5 (1d6-1 piercing)
Combat Maneuver Bonus  +5
Combat Maneuver Defense  16
Speed  30 feet
Special Qualities  Bobbing in the Sea of Time (alter talent)**, etheric tether, expanded horizon (Ćesepfu sage talent)***, keen temporal sense, phantom recall, shared consciousness
Spells  ∞ knacks, 5 1st-level, 4 2nd-level, and 1 3rd-level per day
--6 knacks known:  daze, detect magic, detect psychic significance, guidance, mage hand, mending, message, open/close
--5 1st-level spells known:  burst of insight, charge object, psychic reading, sanctuary, unseen servant
--4 2nd-level spells known:  emotive block, jealous rage, object reading, psychic leech
--2 3rd-level spells known:  contagious zeal, locate object

Spell-Like Abilities  calm spirit 1/day
Weaknesses  Fusop gas dependence, light blindness

Base Attack Bonus  +6/+1
Favored Class  Spiritualist (9 skill ranks)
Languages  Holbytlan, Istahaanu, Lim-Fus
Traits  Outlander (Exile), Simple Disciple (painting)
Skills  Appraise +6 (5 ranks + 1 Int), Climb +2 (0 ranks - 1 Str + 2 skill focus) (+4 when phantom is confined in consciousness), Craft (painting) +16 (9 ranks + 3 class + 1 Int + 2 prodigy + 1 trait), Float Upon the Sea of Time**** +10 (9 ranks + 1 Cha), Heal +5 (0 ranks + 2 Wis + 3 skill focus) (+7 when phantom confined in consciousness), Knowledge (cosmology)***** +9 (5 ranks + 3 class + 1 Int), Knowledge (engineering) +7 (3 ranks + 3 class + 1 Int), Knowledge (history) +8 (4 ranks + 3 class + 1 Int), Knowledge (nobility) +10 (6 ranks + 3 class + 1 Int), Knowledge (religion) +9 (5 ranks + 3 class + 1 Int), Perception +9 (5 ranks + 2 Wis + 2 alertness), Profession (art merchant) +6 (2 ranks + 2 Wis + 2 prodigy), Sense Motive +6 (2 ranks + 2 Wis + 2 alertness)
Feats  Alertness, Craft Wondrous Item, Endurance (only when phantom is confined in consciousness), Light Armor Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency (kukri), Martial Weapon Proficiency (sap), Martial Weapon Proficiency (scythe), Prodigy (painting and art merchant), Simple Weapon Proficiency, Skill Focus (Climb), Skill Focus (Heal), Temporal Sensitivity******

Gear  Calming haramaki*******, cloak of resistance +1, marvelous pigments, merciful lantern staff, shawl of the lingering phantom

Phantom of Poor Halfling Androgyne:  Type Outsider (phantom); Size Small; HD 7d10+21; Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (good) (when incorporeal); AC 19 (+3 Dex, +8 dodge (in incorporeal form) or +8 natural armor (in ectoplasmic form)); Saves Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +5 (+9 v. enchntment); Attack 2 slams +8 (1d8+1); CMB +8; CMD 21; BAB +7; Ability Scores Str 12, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 13; Skills Climb +8 (7 ranks + 1 Str), Craft +19 (7 ranks + 3 class - 1 Int + 5 magnum opus + 2 prodigy + 3 skill focus), Heal +7 (7 ranks + 0 Wis); Feats Dodge, Endurance (B), Magnum Opus (painting) (completed), Prodigy (painting, beggar), Skill Focus (Craft); Special Attacks Deliver touch spells, magic attacks, numbing aura, repelling strike; Special Qualities Darkvision 60 feet, link, share spells.

* Adapted from the Baran Do Sage talent tree in Star Wars SAGA's Jedi Academy Training Manual.  Cus-Ypee traded her bonded manifestation class feature for this talent.
Enhanced Danger Sense:  You gain a +10 bonus on Perception checks made to avoid being surprised.  Additionally, you can spend a Time point to act in the surprise round, even if you are surprised.

**  Adapted from the Force Flow talent in the Alter tree in Star Wars SAGA's Knights of the Old Republic.  Cus-Ypee traded a level of spellcasting for this talent.
Bobbing in the Sea of Time:  You surrender yourself to the rising and falling of time, like the constant swells on a clear sea.  Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll or Direct the Flow check, you gain one temporary Time point.  If you do not spend this Time point before the end of the encounter, it is lost.

***  Adapted from the Baran Do Sage talent tree in Star Wars SAGA's Jedi Academy Training Manual.  Cus-Ypee traded a level of spellcasting for this talent.
Expanded Horizon:  Whenever you use the search your feelings application of the Float Upon the Sea of Time skill, you can sense the consequences of your actions out to 1 hour into the future (instead of the normal 10 minutes).  You can spend a Time point when you do so to expand this window out to 8 hours.

****  Adapted from Star Wars SAGA's Use the Force skill, described throughout the entire run of that game.
Float upon the Sea of Time (Cha) 
At a moment’s notice, you can align yourself with the Eternal Now, the All of Time in its circularity, to help you recover from injuries, gain special insights, or perform other remarkable acts.  You must have the Temporal Sensitivity feat to gain ranks in this skill.
Activate Time Power (Trained Only):  You make a Float upon the Sea of Time check to use a Time power.  This use of the skill requires no action.
Breath Control (Trained Only):  You can slow Time’s consumption of the air in your lungs to help you hold your breath for an extended period of time.  A successful DC 15 Float upon the Sea of Time check allows you to hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to four times your Constitution score before having to succeed on Constitution checks to continue to hold your breath.
Meditate on the All of Time (Trained Only):  As a full-round action, you can meditate on the All of Time with a DC 15 Float upon the Sea of Time check.  In this state, you remain fully aware of your surroundings.  Each hour you remain in this trance, you regain a number of hit points equal to your character level as if from a day of natural healing.  You can emerge from the trance as a swift action.  If you remain in a Time trance for 4 consecutive hours, you emerge from the trance fully rested (as though you’ve rested for 8 hours), though this does not restore things like prepared spells or spells per day.  While you’re in a Time trance, you can go ten times as long as normal without food or water.  As a full-round action, you can place an adjacent willing ally that you touch into the same meditation on the All of Time with a DC 20 Float upon the Sea of Time check.  In this state, the target ally rests as though in a deep coma and is considered helpless.  Each hour the target remains in the meditation, the target regains a number of hit points equal to its character level, as if from a day of natural healing.  You can bring an adjacent ally you touch out of the meditation as a swift action, but the target cannot otherwise come out of the meditation on their own.  If the target remains in the meditation for 4 consecutive hours, the target emerges from the meditation fully rested (as though having rested for 8 hours), though this doesn’t allow them to re-prepare spells and the like.  While the target ally is in the meditation, it can go ten times as long as normal without air, food, or water.  Unwilling targets cannot be placed in the meditation.
Move Light Object (Trained Only):  As a move action, you can use your position at the center and circumference of Time’s circle to telekinetically lift and move a relatively light object within your line of sight.  A successful DC 15 Float upon the Sea of Time check allows you to move an object weighing up to 10 pounds a distance of 30 feet in any direction.  As a standard action, you can use the object as a projectile weapon.  If your Float upon the Sea of Time check beats the target’s AC, the object hits and deals 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage.  Using an object as a projectile weapon is otherwise treated as a ranged attack for the purposes of talents and feats that interact with ranged attacks.  You can use this application of the skill to catch and move a thrown weapon, such as bombs, that lands within your reach.  The object can weigh no more than 3 pounds.  You must ready an action to catch the object on your turn, before the object is thrown.  Moving the object requires a Float upon the Sea of Time check, with a DC equal to the attack roll of the thrown weapon.  If you succeed on this check, you catch the object by means of its movement through Time and can immediately move the object up to 30 feet away from you; otherwise, resolve the attack as normal.  If the object you caught is an explosive, like a bomb, it explodes at the end of its movement.  You can use the object caught as a projectile weapon, as normal.
Search Your Feelings:  As a full-round action, you can make a DC 20 Float upon the Sea of Time check to determine whether a particular action will yield favorable or unfavorable results to you in the immediate future (10 minutes or less).  For example, you can make the check to determine whether destroying a Fated artifact will have immediate unforeseen repercussions.  The answer does not take into account the long-term consequences of a contemplated action.  Using the above example, a successful check would not portend a future encounter with vengeful Tosj angered by the destruction of the Fated artifact.  (The GM must assess the immediate consequences of the action, based on what he knows about the circumstances.)
Sense Pivots in Time (Trained Only):  You automatically sense pivots in Time.  A location that has a strong and active Fate can be sensed out to a range of 1 mile.  A relative, companion, or close friend in mortal danger or great pain can be sensed out to a range of 1000 miles.  A great disturbance, such as the destruction of an entire city or the distress of a whole order of allies, can be sensed anywhere, as long as you haven’t departed the world for one of the Spirit Realms.  As a full-round action, you can make a DC 20 Float upon the Sea of Time check to determine the distance and general direction to the location of the disturbance.  As a full-round action, you can use this ability to actively sense other people with ranks in Float upon the Sea of Time or with the Temporal Training feat out to a range of 100 miles.  If you succeed on a DC 20 Float upon the Sea of Time check, you know how many such people are within range, their approximate distance and direction from you, and whether you’ve met them before or not.  If such a character wishes, they can try to conceal their presence from you by making an opposed Float upon the Sea of Time check.  If they equal or exceed your Float upon the Sea of Time check, you don’t sense their presence at all.  You can also specify that you are attempting to sense only Time-floaters with a Fate Score of 1 or higher; success reveals only those Time-floaters with Fate scores, and not any other Time-floaters.
Sense Surroundings:  As a swift action, you can make a DC 20 Float upon the Sea of Time check to ignore the effects of cover and concealment when making Perception checks to detect or observe targets until the start of your next turn.  Increase  the DC by 5 if this ability is used against targets with total cover. 
Telepathy:  As a standard action, you can establish a telepathic link with a distant creature.  Through the link, you can exchange emotions or a single thought, such as “Go!”, “Help!”, or “Danger!”  The target must have an Intelligence of 2 or higher, and the distance between you and the target determines the DC (same city 20, same country 25, same continent 30, different continent 35).  Against an unwilling target, you must make a Float upon the Sea of Time check opposed by the opponent’s Will save that also meets or exceeds the base skill DC; if the check fails, you cannot establish a telepathic link or attempt to telepathically contact the target for 24 hours unless the target becomes a willing one.
Special:  You can’t make Float upon the Sea of Time checks unless you have the Temporal Sensitivity feat.  You can take 10 on a Float upon the Sea of Time check, but you can’t take 20.

*****  Knowledge (the planes) with a better name

******  Adapted from the Force Sensitivity feat and Force Points system described throughout Star Wars SAGA.
Temporal Sensitivity (General)
Benefit:  At the start of the day, you gain 1 Time point, though throughout the day you can gain Time points up to a maximum of your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) in either of two ways.  Each time the Time-sensitive confirms a critical hit with a lightsaber, she regains 1 Time point. Confirming a critical hit on a helpless or unaware creature or a creature that has fewer Hit Dice than half the Time-sensitive’s character level doesn’t restore Time points.  When the Time-sensitive reduces a creature to 0 or fewer hit points with a lightsaber attack while in combat, she regains 1 Time point. Destroying an unattended object, reducing a helpless or unaware creature to 0 or fewer hit points, or reducing a creature that has fewer Hit Dice than half the Time-sensitive’s character level to 0 or fewer hit points doesn’t restore any Time points.
This allows you to make Float upon the Sea of Time checks and can expend one Time point as a free action to add 1d4 to the result of an attack roll, ability check or any skill check other than Float upon the Sea of Time checks, as long as you are trained in that skill (even if you take 10 or 20 on that check). You make this choice after the check is rolled and before the results of the roll are revealed. You can use only one Time point per skill check.  You can also spend a Time point to avoid death and fall unconscious instead, or to lower your Fate Score by 1.
In addition, at every odd level, you have the option of selecting a temporal or temporal tradition talent instead of one of the class features you would normally gain (you can sacrifice a level of spellcasting in this way).  You must met the prerequisites of the temporal or temporal tradition talent to select it.
Normal:  You can’t make Float upon the Sea of Time checks or select temporal or temporal tradition talents unless you have this feat.

*******  I see little reason other than the obsessive chasing of an elusive and idealized "balance" for the requirement that a weapon or armor hold a boring old +1 enchantment before taking the more interesting ones, so I threw out that rule.  Both cus-Ypee's belly-warmer (haramaki) and staff benefit from this.

The Big Bronze Hog of Vileswe, Part 2 of 3

CONTENT NOTE:  Child physical abuse.

***

The large folding door flew open, lights shone from the altar, through the church, into the solitary square.

A strange ray of light streamed forth from a monument in the left aisle; a thousand moving stars formed, as it were, a glory around it.  A device displayed itself on the tomb; a red ladder on a blue ground ~ it appeared to glow like fire.  It was the grave of the halfling astrologer Galilwo: it is a simple monument, but the red ladder on the blue ground is a significant device; it is as if it belonged to art alone, for here the way goes always upward, on a glowing ladder, but to the heavenly plates of the gods.  All the prophets of genius are treats to the divine palate, like the prophet Elwas.

In the right aisle of the temple every state on the rich sarcophagus seemed to be endowed with life.  Here stood Nitlasjelo, and there Tastë, with the laurel-wreath upon his brow; those great men, Holbytla’s pride, with Avweli and Nagwaveli, rest here side by side.  It is a handsome temple, far more so than the marble cathedral of Vileswe, although it is not so large.

It was as if the marble habiliments moved; as if those great forms raised their heads with ore dignity than ever, and looked, in the deep night, during song and music, turned toward that variegated, beaming altar, where white-robed novitiates swung golden censers: the powerful odor streamed forth from the church into the open square.

The androgyne stretched forth their hand toward the beaming light, and at the same moment the bronze hog dated away with them.  They were obliged to cling fast to it; the wind whistled about their ears; they heard the church doors creak on their hinges as they closed; but at the same time they appeared to lose all consciousness; they felt an icy coldness, and opened their eyes.

It was morning; they sat, but half glided down from the bronze hog, which stood, where it always used to stand, in the street Tesla Lossa.

Fear and anxiety filled the child’s mind when they thought of her whom they called mother; her who had the day before sent them out and said that they must get money; thy had none, they were hungry an thirsty.  Once more they took the metal hog round the neck, kissed its snout, nodded to it, and then wandered away to one of the narrowest streets, only broad enough for a well packed ass.  A large iron-bound door stood ajar; they went up to a bricked staircase with dirty walls and a slippery rope to serve as a hand rail; then came to an open gallery hung round with rags; a flight of stairs led from thence to the yard, where thick iron wires were drawn from the wall to all the floors in the house, and the one pail swung by the side of the other, whilst the pulleys whistled, and the pails danced in the ar, so that the water splashed down into the yard.  There was another dilapidated brick staircase which he went up; two centaur sailors sprang merrily down, and had narrowly upset the little androgyne.  They came from their nightly carousal.  An exuberant female halfling, not very young, but with thick black hair, followed them.

“What have you brought home?” she demanded of the child.

“Do not be angry,” they exclaimed; “I have got nothing!  Nothing at all!” and they took hold of their mother’s gown as if they would kiss it.  The two entered the chamber; but I will not describe it.  Only so much may be told, that there stood a pot with a span handle (“nolto” it is called) and in this was charcoal.  She took it on her arm, armed her fingers, and struck the child with their elbow.

“To be sure, you have money?” said she.

The child cried, she kicked them; he cried aloud.  “Will you be still, or I’ll knock your screaming head in two!” and she swung the fire-pot, which she held in her hand; the androgyne fell to the ground with a scream.  Then her neighbor entered the door, she also had her nolto on her arm.

“Velitlita!  What are you doing with the child?”

“The child is mine!” answered Velitlita.  “I can murder them if I choose, and thee, also, Jwanina," and she swung her fire-pot; the other raised hers to parry the blow.  The pots clashed against each other, and the broken pieces, fire and ashes, flew about the room; but at the same instant the androgyne was out of the door, over the yard, and away from the house.  The poor child ran so that at last they were quite breathless.  They stopped at the temple of Nasta Gwotle, ~ the temple whose large door had the night before opened to admit them, ~ and they went in.  There was a flood of light; they knelt by the first grave to the right; it was Nitlasgelo’s, and they sobbed aloud.  People came and went; the daily and weekly rituals were performed; no one took notice of the androgyne.  At length an elderly dwarfin citizen stopped, looked at them, and then went away like the rest.

Hunger and thirst tormented the little androgyne; they were quite exhausted and sick; they crept into a corner between the wall and the marble monument, and fell asleep.  It was toward evening when they were again awakened by someone shaking him; they started up, and the same old citizen stood before them.

“Are you ill?  Where do you live?  Have you been here the whole day?” were a few of the questions put to them by the old dwarfin man.  They were answered, and the old man took the home with him to a small house close by, in one of the side-streets.  It was a glover’s shop they entered; the spouse sat diligently at work.  A little white Volonwoso dog, clipped so close that one could see its rosy red skin, skipped on to the table, and jumped about before the little boy.

“The innocent souls know each other,” said the dhampir (that is: descended from a vampire breeding with a living mortal) spouse, as e patted both the androgyne and the dog.

The good folks gave the poor child to eat and to drink, and they said the child should be allowed to remain the night over.  Next day father Jwusehhi would speak with their mother.  The child had a poor little bed; but it was a magnificent one for them, who was often obliged to sleep on the hard stone floor.  They slept so well, and dreamt of the rich paintings, and of the bronze hog.

Father Jwusehhi went out the next morning, and the poor child was not happy on tht account, for they knew that this going out was in order to return them again to their mother; and they cried and kissed the nimble dog, and the spouse nodded to them both.

And what answer did father Jwusehhi bring?  The citizen spoke much with his spouse, and e nodded, and patted the androgyne.

“They are a sweet child!” said e.  “What a fine glover we can make of them ~ just as you were!  And they have such fine, pliant fingers.  The gods have destined them to be a glover!”

And so the androgyne remained there in the house, and the genderqueer emself taught them to sew.  They lived well, they slept well, they became lively, and they began to tease Velissina ~ so the little dog was called; the genderqueer threatened them with eir finger, and chid them, and was angry, and it went to the androgyne’s heart, as they sat thoughtfully in their little chaber.  It looked out to the street, and they dried skins there; thick iron bars were before the windows.  They could not sleep, the bronze hog was in their thoughts, and they suddenly heard something outside ~ “plask, plask!”  Yes, it was certainly the hog.  They sprang to the window, but there was nothing to be seen ~ it was past.

“Help Sinwoa to carry her color-box!” said the old genderqueer in the morning to the androgyne, as their young neighbor, the lim-Fus* painter, came toiling along with it, and a large roll of canvas.  The child took the box, and followed the painter; they made the best of their way to the gallery, and went up some stairs; they knew it well from the night that they rode on the bronze hog; they knew the statues and paintings; the beautiful marble Mirtiin; and those that lived in colors; they saw again the founder of Natsiyaasim and his angelic companions.  They now stood still before the picture by Bwostlino, where Astinwu descends into a watery grave, and the children round about smile in sweet certainty of transformation into celestial form; the poor child smiled also, for they were here in their heaven!

“Now go home!” said the painter to them when the androgyne had stood until she had adjusted her easel.

“May I see you paint?” said the androgyne; “may I see how you get the picture there on to that white piece?”

“I am not going to paint now,” answered the young woman, and took her black crayon out.  Her hand moved quickly, her eye measured the large picture, and, though it was but a thin stroke that came forth, yet Astinwu stood hovering there as on the colored canvas.

“But you must go, now!” said the painter, and the androgyne sauntered silently homeward: he sat down on the table, and learned ~ to sew gloves.

But their thoughts were the whole day in the picture-gallery, and, therefore, they pricked their fingers, were intolerably awkward, but did not tease Velissina.  When it was evening, and the street door just chanced to be open, they stole out; it was cold but starlight, so beautiful and clear, and they wandered away through the streets, which were already still, and they soon stood before the bronze hog, which they bent down over, kissing its bright snout; and they got on its back.

“Thou blessed animal,” said they, “how I have longed for thee!  We must ride a little to night!”

The bronze hog remained immovable, and the fresh water welled from its mouth.  The little androgyne sat there like a jockey until some one pulled them by the clothes.  They looked around, it was Velissina, the little, naked, shorn Velissina.  The dog had crept out of the house and followed the little androgyne without their having observed it.  Velissina barked as if it would say, “You see I am with you, why will you sit here?”  No fiery dragon could have frightened the boy more than the little dog in that place.  Velissina in the street, and withot being dressed, as the old parent called it!  What would be the consequence?  The dog was never allowed to go out in the winter time without being clothed in a little sheep-skin, which was cut and sewed to fit it.  The skin was to be bound fast about the neck and belly with red ribbons, and it had bells.  The dog looked almost like a little kid when it had this habit on in the winter time, and was permitted to trip out with Sinwola.  Velissina was with them, and not dressed; what would be the result?  All their wild fancies had vanished, yet the androgyne kissed the bronze hog, and took Velissina in their arms.  The animal trembled with cold, and therefore the child ran as fast as they could.

“What are you running with there?” cried two halfling gendarmes whom they met; and Velissina barked.

“Where have you stolen that pretty dog from?” they asked, and took it from them.

“O! Give it me again!” whimpered the androgyne.

“If you have not stolen it, you can tell them at home that they can get the dog at the guard-house.”  They named the place, and away they went with Velissina.

Here was sorrow and trouble.  They knew not whether they would spring into the Olno, or go home and confess all.  The couple would certainly kill them, they thought.  “But I would willingly be killed!  I will die, and then the gods will smack their lips and lick their teeth;” and they went home with the thought of being killed.

The door was locked; they could not reach the knocker; there was no one in the street, but there was a loose stone; they took it up and hammered away at the door.  “Who is that?” cried a voice from within.

“It is is me!” said they.  “Velissina is lost! ~ let me in, and kill me!”

They were so frightened, particularly Sinwola, for poor Velissina!  E looked directly to the wall where the dog’s vestment always hng, and the little sheep-skin was there.

“Velissina in the guard-house!” e cred quite aloud; “you wicked child!  How did you get him out!  He will be frozen to death!  That delicate animal among the coarse soldiers.”

The old dwarfin man was obliged to be off directly.  The spouse wailed, and the androgyne cried.  All the people in the house mustered together, the painter too; she took the androgyne between her knees, questioned them, and by bits and scraps she got the whole story about the bronze hog and the gallery ~ it was not easy to understand.  The painter, however, consoled the little androgyne, and spoke kindly to the old spouse; but e was not satisfied before “father” came with Velissina, who had been amongst the soldiers.  There was such joy, and the painter patted the poor child, and gave them a handful of pictures.

O, they were splendid pieces, comic heads!  But above all, there was the bronze hog itself to the life.  O, nothing could be more glorious!  With a few strokes, it stood there on paper, and even the house behind it was shown.

------

*  The lim-Fus are an adaptation of the Kel Dor species from Star Wars ~ they're from the Hemeya Sea, which in ancient times was a minotaur-ruled realm with elements of both Dragonlance's Istar and Magic: the Gathering's Stahaan and Mirtiin.  After the Cataclysm came, however, it became a vast sea dotted with innumerable islands (née mountain peaks) that incorporates elements of Sinbad the Sailor, Star Wars, the Odyssey, Star Trek, and the first half of the Aeneid.  The lim-Fus come from Fusop, an island where strange vapors seep out from cracks in the rocks, Delphi-style.  As the lim-Fus changed from their minotauric roots after the Cataclysm, they became dependent on these vapors, and so when they travel, they wear a burning thurible around their neck.  The dried plants and herbs in the thurible give off large amounts of Fusop smoke, allowing the lim-Fus to survive.  They're a 6 RP standard race, much like gnolls, grippli, ifrits, oreads, and sylphs (kobolds, as another example, are 5 RP, the lowest published by Paizo).  Here's their stats:

• Ability Score Racial Traits (0 RP):  Lim-Fus are quick and wise, but they suffer from weaker constitutions than other races.  All lim-Fus receive a +2 bonus to both their Dexterity and Wisdom, but suffer a -2 penalty to their Constitution. 
• Size (0 RP):  Lim-Fus are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Type (3 RP):  Lim-Fus are monstrous humanoids with the lim-Fus subtype.
• Base Speed (0 RP):  (Normal) Lim-Fus have a base speed of 30 feet.
• Languages (0 RP):  Lim-Fus begin play speaking Lim-Fus and Istahaanu.  Lim-Fus with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following:  the Babbling, Bomenya Gnomic, Draconic Pidgin, Dwarfish, envi Chescajen si, Pearl Words, Savargin.
• Natural Armor (2 RP):  Lim-Fus have a thick hide vaguely reminiscent of that of their minotauroid ancestors, and gain a +1 natural armor bonus to their AC as a result.
• Natural Cunning (2 RP):  Their ancient and hoary minotauroid heritage has gifted the lim-Fus with an innate cunning and logical ability. This gives them immunity to maze spells and prevents them from ever becoming lost. Further, they are never caught flat-footed.
• Gore (1 RP):  Lim-Fus, like many races of the Hemeya Sea, have retained the horns of their minotauroid ancestors, giving them a gore attack as a primary natural attack.  This attack does 1d6 piercing damage.
• Darkvision (0 RP; included in type):  Lim-Fus can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
• Keen Temporal Sense (1 RP):  Lim-Fus may choose to reroll any Float Upon the Sea of Time check made to search their feelings or sense the Flow, keeping the better of the two results.
• Low-Light Vision (1 RP):  Lim-Fus can see twice as far as a race with normal vision in conditions of dim light.
• Light Blindness (-2 RP):  Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds lim-Fus for 1 round; on subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.
• Fusop Gas Dependence (-2 RP):  Lim-Fus take 1 point of Constitution damage after every hour they are deprived of the Fusop gas they need to breathe.  Travelling lim-Fus can purchase a thurible necklace for 200 gold pieces (equivalent to about $40,000-$100,000), or 50 gp on Fusop itself (that's $10,000-$25,000).  A year's supply of the herbs needed for the thurible costs 20 gp ($4000-$10,000), or 5 gp on Fusop ($1000-$2500).  Lim-Fus characters begin play with a thurible and a year's supply of herbs at no cost.

The Big Bronze Hog of Vileswe, part 1 of 3

This post is inspired and dedicated to my sweet and beloved Owner, Francesca Gentille, the merbunny who was indeed the spark for the entire D&D setting.  She’s in Firenze right now, getting ready to teach Tantra in Roma and all about Persephone in Sicilia in a week or so.  She posted a picture of her with Il Porcellino and that inspired this whole idea in my head.  Much of the text is adapted or outright copied from https://curiousrambler.com/2014/09/07/the-bronze-pig-of-florence/ and Hans Christian Andersen’s Bronze Hog stort from A Poet’s Bazaar.

In the city of Vileswe, capitol of the Tosganwa region of the northwestern Holbytlan peninsula, there is a bronze fountain nestled in a little cross street called Tesla Lossa (“Red Chariot”) not far from the Hwatla ti Gwantoga at the side of the New Market where thet sell vegetables to the artists and their patrons, and that fountain is in the shape of a wild boar.  Clear, fresh water bubbles out of the mouth of the animal, which has become dark green from age; the snout alone shines as if it were polished bright; and it is made so by the many hundred children and townsfolk who take hold of it with their hands, and put their mouths to the animal’s to drink.  It is a complete picture to see that well-formed animal embraced by a pretty, half-naked halfling, who puts his sweet little mouth to its snout.*  Volsolno, as the halflings call him, meaning “the big pig”, is said to bring good luck when visitors rub his snout and put a coin in his mouth.  If the water washes the coin from the pig’s mouth and it falls into the grate below, the giver-and-rubber will have good luck and will be sure to return to Vileswe.  If the water fails to wash the coin from his mouth, people just try again; the coins are used to support an orphanage, after all.

Volsol’ino was sculpted 330 years ago, and copies have been installed in places in the Ravenlost Penal Colony across the Plateau of Leng, the troll-ruled realm of Sjǫtrungnis, Ganatje full of ghostly expat villages living aside living indigenous villages, the unclaimed forest of Huginmathathir, and Orvad where humans trade away their freedom in order to have it. There are 2 in Natsiyaasim where everyone is descended from angels, 2 in Camugaard the frozen land of survivalist philosophers, 4 in Brobdingnag the last refuge of the giant peoples, one in each colony along the Savage Coast, and innumerable throughout the Holbytlan peninsula.

There once was a Violeswino halfling couple who could not have children. The husband blamed his wife and made her life miserable. One day the city was attacked by a band of swine-elfs (a.k.a., orcs) who were slaughtered by the Violeswino guard; sent to scavenge what was useful and dispose of the bodies, the wife of this couple saw heard a babe’s cry.  Following the sound, she found an orcish baby squawling under the fallen body of its mother.  She lamented to herself that this babe surely would die while she couldn’t herself bear children.  Praying aloud to Hwe, the goddess who rules youth and childhood, she took the child right home with her, a slaughter-field adoption.  The couple was so excited they were going to be parents, but they had no idea that the infant was no typical orc, but rather one that had been fey-touched.  Nonetheless and unknowing, the couple did in fact raise him as their own beloved pet/son, and did a damn good job of it, too, by all accounts.

As the young fey-touched orc matured, he spoke with eloquence and was quite clever.  Then the time came when Holbytlan culture said he should begin to think about marriage.  Most of the other boys steered clear of him because they were afraid.  However, one young and very poor halfling boy recognised that he was intelligent and not like his barbaric cousins that roamed Aoqina so violently ~ in short, he saw Volsol’ino as a person and not a racist stereotype ~ so he took a chance and went the whole hog – he married orc who had been raised as a halfling.**

On their wedding night***, the halfling groom was pleasantly surprised when his orcish husband shed his boar-like skin and stood in the form of a handsome young halfling man.  His fey heritage had finally manifested, giving him the ability to change his shape, unconsciously chosen in response to the love of a good man. He had not known this would happen, however, so he did not know how to control it.  In the daytime, he changed back into an orc – and this happened day after day.

The couple, distressed, made a secret visit on a night with no moon to a certain gnomish witch who made their home in what is now the Old Market.  The witch told them that the orc’s halfling husband must promise never to tell anyone, for if he did, Volsol’ino would be forever trapped in the skin, not of an orc, but of a pig ~ and the halfling would be turned into a frog for not being able to control his tongue.  It was just the way of fairies and their magics.

Well, he tried to keep the secret but the story was just too incredible and he told his mother who in turn told her friends and by nightfall everyone knew the orc’s secret. So the halfling turned into a frog and his husband was reduced to a boar.  Well, “reduced” is how the Holbytlans tell it; the orcs got the way they are by seeking to emulate the Sow Mothers they worship, so it is possible they tell the story differently.  None of the Violeswini have ever asked.  The halfling/frog lived in the pool where the boar went to drink every day and chat with him.  It is said that he came to atone for the tongue he spread wide over his city, and the result was the grippli race, but that is an entirely other story.  A fountain in the form of a boar now stands in the same pool as a memorial to this doomed couple.  And as a lesson that one must learn to control one’s tongue.

Many years later, I will say, on a late winter evening, the mountains covered with snow, in the Dotle’s yonder palace garden, a thousand lilacs bloomed as they did every winter, a little ragged, androgynous halfling child had sat the whole day long, under the pine-tree’s roof.  They were a child that might the image of Holbytla ~ so pretty, so laughing, and yet so suffering.  They were hungry and thirsty; no one had given them even the smallest coin; and when it became dark, and the garden was to be closed, the porter chased them away.  They stood long on the bridge over the Olno river, dreaming and looking at the stars as they glistened in the water, between the child and the noble marble bridge, Ti Tlinita.

They bent their steps toward the fountain of the bronze hog, knelt half down, threw their arms around their neck, placed their little mouth to its shining snout, and drank a deep draught of the fresh water.  Close by lay lettuce salvaged from the remains of an orgy****, and a few chestnuts: these were the child’s supper.  There was not a person in the street; they were quite alone.  They sat down on the swine’s back, leaned forward so that their little curled head rested on that of the animal, and, before they themself knew it, was asleep.

It was midnight, the bronze figure moved; the child heard it say quite distinctly, “Hold fast, little androgyne, for now I run!” and away it ran with them.  It was a laughable ride.

The first place they came to was Hwatla ti Gwandoga, and the bronze horse which bore the statue of the Dotle neighed aloud; the variegated arms on the old Council Hall shone like transparent paintings; and the statue of the Heroic Shepherd swung her sling.  It was a strange life that moved!  The bronze groups with Holswus, and the “Seizure of the Savi,” were but too living: a death shriek from them passed over that magnificent but solitary place.

Volsol’ino stopped by the Halatlo ti Uvvitli, in the arcade where the nobility assemble during the pleasures of the Satolslwa.

“Hold fast!” said the animal, “hold fast!  For we are now going up the stairs.”  The little child said not a word; they half trembled, they were half happy.

The two entered a long gallery; the child knew it well, for they had been there before.  The walls were covered with paintings; here stood statues and busts: everything was in the brightest light, just as if it were day; but it was the most splendid when the door to one of the side rooms opened.  The little androgyne remembered the splendor here, yet this night everything was in its most beauteous lustre.

Here stood a beautiful naked minotaur female, as beautiful as nature and marble’s greatest master could make her.  She moved her fine limbs, those strange beings from the Hemeya Sea with the front halves of rabbits and the back halves of fish played around her feet, immortality shone from her eyes.  By the world she is called the “Mirtiin ti Netitli”.  On each side of her were numerous marble groups, in which the spirit of life had pierced the stone.  These were naked, half-formed men: the one sharpening the sword, is called the Grinder; the wrestling Gldiators form the second group; the sword is whetted, the combatants wrestle for the Goddess of Scientific Beauty.

The child was almost blinded with all this lustre: the walls beamed with colors, and all was life and motion there.  The double image of Mirtiin was here seen ~ that earthly Mirtiin, so swelling and observant, whom Titwas had pressed to his heart.  It was strange to see.  There two beautiful genderqueers; their handsome, unveiled limbs were stretched on soft cushions, their bosoms rose, and their heads moved, so that the rich locks fell down on their round shoulders, whilst their dark eyes spoke the glowing thoughts within; but ot one of all the pictures ventured to step entirely out of the frame.  The Goddess of Scientific Beauty herself the Gladiators and Grinder, remained in their places, for the glory which beamed from Natsiyaasim’s dawn-blooded founder and the angels which followed him, had bound them.  The holy images were no longer images ~ they were the sainted beings themselves.

From saloon to saloon what splendor!  What beauty!  And the little androgyne saw it all.  The bronze hog went step by step through all this magnificence and glory.  But one sight superseded the rest ~ one image alone fixed itself in their thoughts: it was caused by the glad, happy children who were there on the walls: the little child had once nodded to them by daylight.

+ = Astinwu, just to give you an idea of what he looks like, at least

Many, certainly, have wandered carelessly past this picture, and yet it incloses a treasure of poesy: it is Astinwu, boyfriend of one of the emperors of old, who descends into the netherworld by means of a watery grave; but it is not the tortured nor the forgotten nor the dreary shades we see around him; no, they tell of hope and immortality by means of the Beautiful Boy’s mysteries.  Nahwolo Bwostlino, the Violeswino, painted this picture.  The expression of the children’s certainty that they are going to be transformed into celestial beings, is excellent; two little ones embrace each other; one child stretches its hand to another below, and points to himself as if he said, “I am going to walk amongst the angels!”  All the gods stand nearby, sad, the one melancholy part of the picture, as they mourn these delicious morsels who have stolen themselves away from the plate.*****

The child looked longer at this picture than at any other; the bronze hog stood still before it; a gentle sigh was heard; did it come from the painting, or from the animal’s breast?  The child extended their hands toward the smiling children; then the animal started off with them, away ~ through the open front hall.

“Thanks and blessings on thee, thou sweet animal!” said the little androgyne, and patted the bronze hog, who with an amiable grunt sprang down the stairs with them.  “Thanks, and blessings on thyself!” said the animal.  “I have helped thee, and thou hast helped me, for it is only with an innocent child on my back that I have strength to run.  Nay, I dare now enter under the light of the lamp, before the image of Natsiyaasm’s founder.  I can bear thee away everywhere, only not into the temple; but when thou art with me I can look in through the open door from the outside.  Do not get off my back; if thou dost, I shall fall down dead, as thou seest me in the day at Tesla Lossa.”

“I will stay with thee, my blessed animal,” said the little child; and away they went with a whizzing flight through the streets of Vileswe, and out to the open square before the temple of Nasta Gwotle.

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*  No joke, this sentence is lifted with but a single excepted word from Hans Christian Andersen’s story about the pig fountain in Firenze.  I exchanged “halfling” for “boy” in an attempt to tone down how creepy it read to modern people . . . .

**  Yes, I am deliberately making the situation muddy.  It is quite likely that the only one to see Volsol’ino as a person could only do so because he had been raised outside of orcish culture . . . which would be racist, y/n?  I am uninterested in fantasy that addresses issues like racism only to give simplistic answers and shallow thought ~ I will not write such.  Racism is complicated, and sticky, and often shows up to plague us just when we think we have solved it.  Our fantasies can help us do better, but only if we depict it accurately and openly.

***  That said, same-sex marriages (or rather things similar enough that modern readers cock an eyebrow) existed within the Christian church(es) from the 8th, maybe the 2nd, all the way until the 16th.  Well, for men anyway.  Read John Boswell’s Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe for the same introduction to such that I got.  Accordingly, none of the gossip accompanying the marriage involved in the gender of the grooms.  Just their race.

As the sticker on my computer says, being queer doesn’t give you a free pass to be racist.

****  Of course my Roman-inspired halfling culture has orgies, but more importantly: lettuce was considered an aphrodisiac throughout the Ancient Near East, from Khemet (Egypt) to Kiengir (Sumer; southern Iraq).  I suspect that it is because its white sap can seem similar to semen.  This is simply too good an association to not add to Holbytlan culture!

*****  Holbytlan religion says that mortal beings were created as delectable treats for the gods to eat, and that life is the process of seasoning and cooking (or pickling or what have you) one’s soul to maximize your deliciousness.  Astinwu’s mystery cult is sometimes seen as blasphemous and dangerous because the transformation it promises results in the gods not getting fed properly.