Ix'kythael, the Queen of Monsters

"The Ten would see life chained. I would see it unleashed."

God of evolution, infestations, diseases, and monsters, Ix'kythael is the horde made manifest. Where swarms fester and evolution is unhinged, Ix'kythael's will is done. Ix'kythael is the patron of swarms and the will of the horde. Everything from rat colonies to world-devouring fungi are the creations of Ix'kythael, for she seeks to defile Emaxus under a writhing mass of flesh and insects. Legends speak of great cities disappearing in a night, their streets left empty and their houses silent, the only remnants being the skeletal corpses of their inhabitants, bloody gristle still clinging to the otherwise eradicated skeletons.
Ix'kythael is as enigmatic as she is horrifying, her mind being that of the swarm and thus of a totally alien bent to most mortal conventions. She would see all life evolved and mutated beyond recognition, all in pursuit of her truest goal: she and her followers seek only the assimilation or eradication of all life in Emaxus into one great hive. All living things exist only to grow or to be consumed.

Depictions, Symbols, and Names

Ix'kythael is most often depicted as a horrifying hybrid of a rodent and an insect. Standing akin to a humanoid rat, Ix'kythael is typically shown with exoskeleton plates covering her matted fur at seeming random junctures, often looking bloodied and infected where the plates are attached to her flesh. Some depictions give the Queen of Monsters a fly-like head and wasp wings erupting from her rodent back, while other's give her a frighteningly beautiful, human face sunken into the neck of a centipede. The Maor of Aasveig depict her as a great brown rat with runes of rot across her body, while the Taesunese show her as a massive spider.
Ix'kythael's symbol is the Skull of Evolution. It is the skull of a rodent with brown-green eyes. True worshippers of Ix'kythael will often keep a rat skull on them, and those who cast spells through her will even encrust jade in the skull's eyes.
Ix'kythael is known by many names. Ix'kythael, Queen of Monsters, Broodmother, Swarmmaster, Mother of Vermin, Mother of Demons, and the Great Evolver are her most common names/titles.

Ancient Home

Ix'kythael made her home across Ix'akroth, turning it into the hive-plane it is today. She marshalled nearly all of the great demons and hives within to her brood, and it is believed that she had a great hive on the edge of the Primordial Chaos; however, where that fortress or the Primordial Chaos itself are is completely unknown. Since Ix'kythael's death, Ix'akroth is by no means silent. Indeed, there are many of those lesser champions of Ix'kythael who survived the Reckoning and now struggle for dominance, hoping to unite the Queen of Monsters' disparate hordes.

Worship Distribution

Ix'kythael has pocket cults across Yophas, especially in cities or towns where inequality is pronounced and disease is rampant. Slums across the multiverse house those who pray to Ix'kythael, though there reasons can vary in unimaginable ways.
Some worship Ix'kythael to give them the strength to overcome disease or to evolve and mutate to have more power. Others pray to her for doom to their foes or the system of power keeping them down, for plagues to wipe out civilization and rats to eat the rich. Others still beg her to free them from their mortal coil, to grant them a body of greater strength. And some don't even realize they worship Ix'kythael; they pray to conjured gods of famine, disease, or even boundless life, unknowingly bargaining with the Queen of Monsters for power over life itself.

Champions of Ix'kythael

Champions of Ix'kythael are known as Broodmasters. There are no known Broodmasters in current records or history.

Divine Domains

Ix'kythael is the god of evolution, infestations, disease, and monsters. She would see life put through the crucible of natural selection and disease until it is whittled down to its most perfect form: the hive.

COMMANDMENTS OF IX'KYTHAEL

• Assimilate, absorb, and annihilate.
• Those without the hive could never understand its beauty. Make them see.
• Bring the defenders of the natural and civil orders to their knees. They must pay for their gods' crimes.

Ix'kythael's Holy Symbol

Methods of Worship

Like her worshippers themselves, the methods of worship for Ix'kythael are incredibly varied; however, one main trait unites most rites and prayers to the Broodmother: they tend to involve sacrifice. While the reasons for this differ, it is usually because of the core belief that the old must die for the new to grow, and as god of evolution, this appeals to Ix'kythael.
As mentioned under Depictions, Symbols, and Names, the most devoted worshippers of Ix'kythael keep a rat skull on their person. Some even believe that this gives them a direct mouthpiece to the Queen of Monsters, and entire cults can be founded around a particularly fine rodent skull that is believed to be a relic of her's.

Mother of Demons

It is believed that before the Reckoning demons as they are known today did not exist, or were far fewer in number, and that Ix'kythael fused her blood with the Primordial Chaos to begin spawning demons.
In truth, Ix'kythael had nothing to do with the creation of the first demons. Instead, when the Reckoning began, she surrounded the Primordial Chaos with modern day Ix'akroth and ensured the demons had space to grow and evolve, for they represented a great hive in her eyes.

Titan and God

Because Ix'kythael is both a Titan and a god, she has total control over Life alongside the power given by Divinity. For more information on Ix'kythael as a Titan, see The Elemental Pantheon.

Ancient Foes and Allies

Ix'kythael's greatest enemies are Syluru and Xaen, for they represent the structures of life which the Broodmother seeks to tear down and homogenize. It was those two gods who are believed to have smote Ix'kythael, for Syluru bound her with great vines and Xaen shackled her with great chains, before wrenching from her an oath that forced the Broodmother to kill herself. The effort killed both of them, and so the gods' followers have a profound hatred for each other.
Ix'kythael's followers most often find kinship or at the very least tenuous alliance with Marzak's berserkers. Whether this is founded on a shared distaste for civilization as a whole, a belief that their gods parented demons together, or something else entirely, it does happen. And, as with all the Obsidian Lords, cults and creations of Ix'kythael can be bound to the will of Narvox's blessed few.

Ix'kythael's Pathfinder 2e Stat Block

Ix'kythael

The Queen of Monsters

God of evolution, infestations, diseases, and monsters; she/her

Divinity

• Realm Ix'akroth
• Allies The Obsidian Lords (when opportune)
• Enemies The Ten, especially Syluru and Laianath
• Divine Attribute Constitution

Religion

Edicts grow your hive, destroy the old to evolve into the new, destroy the natural and civil orders

Anathemas worship the Ten, cure diseases, be satisfied with the status quo

Symbol a rat skull

Temples hive warrens, rat nests, and infestations

Sacred Colors black and green

Holy Days Ix'kythael's Rebirth (day of dedication to Ix'kythael, especially in hive/infestation societies)

The Faithful

Cleric Spells 1st: summon plant or fungus, 2nd: vomit swarm or worm's repast, 3rd: wall of thorns, 4th: internal insurrection, 5th: plant form or wyvern sting, 6th: nature's reprisal, 7th: blightburn blast or pollen pods, 8th: monstrosity form, 9th: summon ancient fleshforged, 10th: summon kaiju

Divine Font heal or harm

Divine Sanctification can choose unholy

Divine Skill Nature or Survival

Domains Abomination, Change, Decay, Delirium, Family, Healing, Indulgence, Nature, Pain, Plague, Swarm

Favored Weapon injection spear