Porescoro

Porescoro presides over Misery Mire. She is also at the head of the The Cult of Advanced Viromancy, a healer college at the forefront of Altairian medical research.

Her role in Altairus revolves around healing, albeit in unconventional ways. Aside from the The Cult of Advanced Viromancy, she and her plagues do population control on parts of Altairus that have suffered from famine or drought. Unpleasant as it is, this is the first step towards restoration for the land itself.

Porescoro's form is unlike that of any other creature in Altairus. Her body has been described as avian, though it is actually more like that of a wyvern with feathered wings. Her skin is covered in various growths, and the feathers in her wings are ragged and falling out.

Instead of a head, Porescoro has eight tumorous faces emerging from her neck and chest; four canine, four feline. Each speaks with a different voice and has a slightly different personality.

At the end of her long, serpentine tail is a syringe-like spike. This spike is primed with venom that, once injected, begins the Trial of Porescoro.

As you might expect, Porescoro is considered the first viromancer. Her powers over disease and decay are her most prominent abilities. She can pass on these abilities to willing Altairians by stinging them with the spike at the end of her tail.

Even more frightening than her command of microbes is her Regrowth breath. While Regrowth is usually a healing spell, when the tendrils of green light emerge from Porescoro's mouth, they are powerful enough to give their target cancer.

Bizarrely enough, she is also credited with the creation of several medicinal plants. It is said that they sprung from her footsteps as she made her long journey to Misery Mire in her youth. Perhaps this is simply because all of her abilities are rooted in classic Earth magic, expressed in unusual ways.

Porescoro was one of the original ancients of Altairus. The story of her birth is a rather sordid one.

About fifty years into Altairus's history, The Royal Beasts, Fatamoph and Mutamoph, faced a problem. Since their progeny, the faeries and the Magical Beasts, did not die of old age, they had started to outstrip their resources. Only a few more years, and they would begin starving.

In their desperation, The Royal Beasts pleaded with the Heart of Altairus for a solution. Soon after, Mutamoph came down with a mysterious illness. A rash spread across her body as her eyes glazed over and her strength faltered. Fatamoph took her from town to town, commissioning healers from all around the world to find a cure.

Eventually, one healer whose name has been lost to time found one. A small cake prepared with hair from a cat and a dog and the powdered remains of a snakeskin, infused with powerful Earth magic. When they fed this to Mutamoph, she recovered in a matter of hours. Her scales cleared and her weakness abated.

The next day, Mutamoph laid an egg. But this was not like the eggs she had laid before. It was covered in mold and blight, blackened by disease. However, it was not dead; life still pulsed from within. All Mutamoph could do was tend to it and wait.

Only three months later, Porescoro hatched from the egg. The abundance of Earth magic present in the cake given to Mutamoph had mutated the whelp into a being with eight heads, four canine, four feline. A being said to have caused Fatamoph to faint upon seeing her.

Nevertheless, it seemed like their prayers had been answered, in a rather roundabout way. The plagues and blights Porescoro produced from her body swept across Altairus, killing off a good portion of the populace. However, this gave Altairus time to renew itself, its supplies for food and space no longer so strained.

Nevertheless, it soon became apparent that Porescoro's powers of plague were too much of a good thing. When she was fully grown, she was cast into and given domain over the land of Misery Mire. Since then, Porescoro has vowed not to interfere in the affairs of other lands unless it is necessary. When Altairians outstrip their resources and the land starts to starve, Porescoro and her plagues step in to cull the excess and restore the land to its original healthy state. While many see Porescoro as evil, she is acknowledged as a crucial force of nature which Altairus would be worse off without.

Porescoro is technically a hermaphrodite, producing fresh plagues and other Earth-associated organisms through self-fertilization. Regardless, she identifies as female.

Porescoro has eight faces, each with a different voice. She typically only speaks using one mouth at a time.

1. Black Wolf Head: Has a deep, gravelly, distinctly masculine voice. It tends to be rather terse.
2. Gray Bulldog Head: Has a smoother, yet still masculine, voice. It tends to speak for longer than the other heads.
3. Tan Chihuahua Head: Has a high-pitched voice of indeterminate gender and is prone to making exaggerated enunciations.
4. Grinning Labrador Head: Has a pleasant, somewhat feminine voice.
5. White Persian Cat Head: Sounds like a woman with a deep, raspy smoke voice.
6. Black Cat Skull Face: Has an ethereal, distorted voice that shifts in pitch every so often.
7. Tawny Kitten Face: Does not speak much. Communicates in broken vernacular.
8. Silver Kitten Face: Does not speak. Is always thinking and sees everything despite being blind.

When Porescoro becomes enraged, she will shriek using all heads at once. Her scream can shatter glass.