IN> Dagonians

[Moe Lane]

http://moeticae.typepad.com/weblog_licentiae_moeticae/2008/02/dagonians.html

Dagonians
Gorgons

Corporeal Forces: 2	Strength: 5*		Agility: 4
Ethereal Forces: 2	Intelligence: 5*		Precision: 4
Celestial Forces: 2	Will: 5*			Perception: 4

*Built up.

Skills: Dodge/3, Fighting/3, Seduction/2, Survival/3 (ocean),
Swimming/3, Tracking/2

Songs: Beasts (Corporeal/2), Charm (Ethereal/3), Entropy
(Corporeal/1), Healing (Corporeal/1), Light (Ethereal/1), Numinous
Corpus (Fangs/1), Shields (Corporeal/2), Tongues (Ethereal/3)

Advantages: Ethereal Connection, Symphonically Aware

Discord: Ugly or Discolored/2, Aura/2, Lustful/2

Also note that all Dagonians are fully amphibious, can survive quite
comfortably in deep salt water, and will not heal Body Hits if their
skin dries out.  They are not immortal.


Yes, and the Saint of Flowers who used a close variant of these
monsters for one of his better works of cosmic horror would quite like
to know why he came so close to the truth, too.  It could be
coincidence, which in Angelic is a rather refined swearword, but there
are other possibilities.

Dagonians are, not surprisingly from the name, descended from the
couplings of various Phoenician gods with various Phoenician humans.
The change, when it occurs, routinely manifests itself as a
transformation into a vaguely humanoid form with both fishlike and
froglike features; the skin becomes rubbery, and in older specimens,
quite resilient.  They tend to wear very little clothing, and only
jewelry that can survive underwater.

So far, so Lovecraftian.  However, Dagonians are not inherently evil:
they are merely ugly, easily picked out of a crowd even when
disguised, in a near-constant state of sexual arousal and generally
forced into exile when their inhuman nature manifests.  Many of them
embrace their inhuman state, but surprisingly few become true
monsters.  By now there are a few Dagonian towns and cities located at
the bottom of the ocean; there, far from the reach of both most
mortals and celestials, they maintain a sophisticated civilization,
not to mention a surprisingly well-developed technology.  It doesn't
hurt that they continue to get modern "recruits": while Dagonians do
in fact breed true, they are also fully interfertile with human
beings.  One out of every six births to a human by a Dagonian will
himself be a Gorgon, and will manifest the Change some time after
puberty.  Dagonians have generally agreed-upon "spawning grounds"
where they go to look for mates; one of their number is always around
to keep a protruding eye out for an awkwardly swimming new recruit.

Dagonians are a sore spot among the Host.  While clearly the product
of forbidden ethereal meddling, the gods involved died millenia ago,
and their remote descendants generally keep themselves to themselves.
Heaven keeps an eye out for Hellish plots amongst the Dagonians,
enthusiastically punishes any actual evil that they catch one doing,
and otherwise tries their best to ignore them.  As Hell generally has
an opposite agenda, that last clause works out to more of a pious hope
than an actual strategy.