The Divine Taint

In ruined Shanriteth, greatest city in all of broken, dying Mettigar, the noble families rule with a divine mandate. For they are Gods. Or so they believe.

After all, they consume the flesh of Gods.

Did it not grant them tremendous boons and allow them to overcome the invaders of Xenhar and bring unity to Mettigar at a time of chaos and doom. And though Mettigar would never recover, and would forever linger on the brink of being engulfed by the abyss, it would endure.

For scholars, those few granted the privilege of studying at the Exalted Order of the Cosmic Kindred, claim that which the nobles devour are not Gods. They are mindless, idiotic creatures who infest the Outer Realm like rats do the mundane worlds. They are alien creatures born in a dimension inimical to mortals. Their flesh is not meant to be consumed by those of mortal flesh and to so will have terrible side effects upon both mind and body. They dubbed this the Divine Taint.

It has been two and a half centuries since the first Feast. And in that time the consumption of God flesh has wrought horrific changes upon the nobles. They are grotesquely proportioned in a variety of forms; impossibly long limbed and slender, or grotesquely bloated. Their teeth may be akin to that of carnivorous fish and they may possesses many mouths about their bodies. Their eyes, however many they possess, will shine with malign glory and snapping tentacles and wings feathered or batlike or bug like may sprout from their backs. They will eat mundane foodstuffs and in great quantities. They will consume a servant who is too slow or simply because they can. They are alpha predators after all and is it not their right?

And their minds too are corrupted. They possess wisdom beyond mortal ken certainly, but it is an alien one. It makes no sense to outsiders and their actions will often be unpredictable and without meaning. They may tear a servant asunder without warning, or treat them like a beloved relative only to suddenly kill them and cradle their broken, torn remains like a child clutching a favoured stuffed toy. They may still dress, as best they can considering their forms, in the latest fashions. They engage in rivalries and games on one-upmanship. The youngest males will compete for the taloned claws of the most beautiful females and offer gifts of baskets woven out of flesh and bone or intricately crafted bouquets of flowers wrought of organs.

And it is not just the nobles who are afflicted by this Divine Taint. So great is the corruption that it has infected the city entire. The vermin such as rats and cockroaches and even stray Dogs, Cats and the desperate homeless men and women of the city, will feed upon whatever scraps they can and be transformed into savage and horrific abominations. The common folk are infected in a more insidious way, afflicted by the madness of their ruling elite whom they worship, are a sullen and unpredictable people who pose a great danger to the unwary traveller who does not know the customs of this dark world.

It is very likely that the people of Shanriteth are doomed. Even if they foul practise of consuming God Flesh were to stop, its malign corruption is too imbedded. It is woven into the very being of all who dwell in that city, from the nobles down to the lost and the damned at the very bottom of the social order.

Those who travel between the Realms and know of Mettigar fear that one day the greed of the nobles will be too much for that doomed world to contain. If the nobles decided to spread their dominion beyond Mettigar only their utter extinction would stop it.