Hircismus
by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary Davies(LEPTAR)
Patron of Violence, Lord of Pain
Level, Alignment, Sphere: 13th (Celestial), CE, Entropy
Symbol: a cat of nine tails
Portfolio: violence, pain, torture, destruction, humanoids
Worshipped in: Known World (Karameikos, Soderfjord)
Appearance: an enormous muscular humanoid with his body covered by a long, shaggy pelt under which are hidden poisonous spines, his arms are disproportionably large that are dragged behind with the posture of a gorilla, his hairless face covered by always sweating, fleshy skin and by deformed features, with eyes that rotate like mad, his cheeks covered by perennially animated dribble caused by the convulsive quivering of his constant laughing, armed with a cat-of-nine-tails and without armour, seeing that his passion is fighting man to man. His only garment is a robust belt from which dangle twelve severed, groaning heads with eyes opened wide in an eternal expression of horror (one of these macabre trophies is a druj skull together with two druj eyes, that Hircismus uses for unfairly fighting his enemies).
History: PROBABLE THEORY: Hircismus lived with the mortal name of Leptar in the Broken Lands during the rise to power of Queen Ubdala. No one is exactly sure which race he belonged to, but he was a humanoid so fat and violent that he frightened even the members of his own family, who wouldn’t dare contradict his decisions. After having followed the great horde of Ubdala in the invasion of Rockhome, Leptar was among the thousands of humanoids that gained salvation by the route of the Sardal Pass (492 BC) and to flee southwards. Setting himself at the head of the survivors of her other goblinoid tribes, Leptar led his troops at first to raid the small human villages in eastern Darokin, and in 491 BC invaded the lands of the Traldar, ending with them also directly threatening the human community of the Volaga valley, and gained the thanks of the demon Orcus. With his numerous cruel followers, Leptar pillaged one after the other the numerous Traldar settlements in the eastern part of present day Karameikos, forcing the survivors to flee on mass and to scatter. These races, together with the invasion of other human raiders arriving from the north, brought the paltry remains of the Traldar culture to its knees, which fell into its dark age and in the following centuries was transformed into the Traladaran culture. To finish off his work he decided to perform an epic action and assaulted the city of Krakatos, the last Traldar kingdom remaining standing. After many months spent pillaging the nearby countryside for acquiring food, the humanoids finally stormed the city thanks to the intervention of the shamans of Orcus, who scattered everywhere hordes of plague-infected rats. In the confusion that followed, most Traldars and as well as humanoids lost their lives to disease (the former due to hunger, and the latter for having eaten the rotten meat). The victory then changed very soon into a catastrophic defeat, and a fever Hircismus guided those that remained of his band northwards, in search of the miraculous water that according to the Traldar legend gushed from the Fountain of Chardastes. Thanks to the help of the shamans, Hircismus discovered the sanctuary and was able to recover from the disease thanks to the curative powers of the magical water. Subsequently however, killing all the clerics who guarded it, and destroyed the temple consecrated to Chardastes and the artefact sacred to the Immortal (the Fountain of Life), hiding the fountain and completed his rise to Immortality in the Sphere of Entropy at the end of the V century BC. This exploit however, attracted on him the hostility both of Petra and of Chardastes. Afterwards his legend became a gruesome history with which frightens in turn in the cold Traladaran nights. Now his cult is secretly popular among some human fanatics and humanoids of Karameikos, who worshipped him with the ancient with which he was known (Leptar), while among the humanoid tribes of Soderfjord he manifested himself with his Immortal name, or Hircismus, and is one of the more important Immortals.
Personality: Hircismus is a hairy brute without too much brains, only able of fighting and torturing his adversaries with terrible methods. For this he is recognised as patron of torture, pain and tyranny by his followers (especially among the kobolds of Soderfjord and amongst the more brutal warriors and slavers of the Known World), and is often a bogeyman evoked by Traladaran mothers to their disobedient children. Hircismus is a ferocious adversary of Halav, Petra, Zirchev and Chardastes and most often seeks the alliance of Orcus when he needs him.
Patron: unknown [presumed: Orcus]
Allies: occasionally Orcus
Enemies: Chardastes, Petra, Halav, Zirchev
Alignment of followers: Chaotic
Favourite weapon: whip and scourge (allowed all bludgeoning weapons)
Clerics’ skills and powers: +1 bonus to Strength, free torture general skill
Domains: Entropy, Chaos, Evil, Pain
Preferred weapon: whip or scourge
Source: IM3, GAZ7, WotI, B1-9