Chimeras, Beasts of Paxos

“Even after the All-Mother was betrayed by her own creations, despite being tortured for millennia, her soul longs to shape and foster life. How could we, her children, deny her wishes? We dream feverish visions of her creative chaos. We sculpt with hair, fur, flesh, and blood. Our effigies walk in our footsteps, and as we obey our mother, they obey our will.”

— Ira’nyr, Ur-Takra of the Feversong Kith

The forests of Paxos harbor the greatest menagerie of beasts in all of Selejia. There, amidst the thick trees and dense foliage, creatures both great and small prowl in search of their next meal, be it a fellow denizen of the jungle or an unsuspecting traveler. For the Conclave, it is a known fact that trying to catalogue all the creatures that roam Paxos is a fool’s errand—for many have tried. While such scholars believe that this diversity stems from the wild magic of Ymiris, few are aware of the role played by the shamans of the Primal Blood.

Even bound by the Thorn of Olem, tortured by the transgressions of the First Children, Ymiris still retains the will to create new life. The shamans of the Primal Blood know this all too well, and by drinking a special concoction brewed with the blood of a giant, brimming with the power from the Heart of Avakra, they are able to walk the same path that Avakra did in the past, opening their souls to dream wide awake and commune with Ymiris. During this mystical reverie, they become one with the All-Mother, seeing all matter in the world as clay waiting to be shaped and twisted into a new form—and they return touched by it.

All life, in one way or another, originates from the power of Ymiris. Through their connection to the All-Mother, the shamans are able to wield a fraction of her demiurgic power, the same breath of life that, in ages past, brought the First Children into being. Through their dreams, Ymiris guides the shamans, teaching them words that were never spoken, sigils of powers unknown, and guiding their souls to gather the materials to perform a ritual that begets life itself. This process may take months, as they gather flesh, bark, claws, teeth, roots, and blood to create an effigy, an image given form and carefully shaped by attentive hands. The effigy is then drenched with the shaman’s very blood, suffused with the breath of Ymiris. For weeks, it remains idle. All the while, the shamans must protect their creations from whatever harm could befall them, much like a bird protects its nest. Eventually, the effigy breaks, and from within, a Chimera is born.

Even though this power hails from Ymiris, it is but a fraction of the whole, and the shamans, mortals as they are, do not revel in the godlike knowledge of the All-Mother. As such, their hands cannot replicate the spark of knowledge that gave the First Children their minds. Even worse, the All-Mother’s mind is clouded by rage and pain, and her guidance contaminates the dreams of the shamans into creating monsters.

These Chimeras are, to some extent, children of the shamans, and remain bound to them as long as they draw breath. In Paxos, it is not strange to see a shaman who journeys with one or more Chimeras by their side, providing them the brawn that they lack. With the shaman’s death, the magic that binds the Chimera is severed, causing it to flee into the wilds. These escaped beasts, more often than not, find each other and reproduce, beginning a new lineage of monsters altogether.