Božena, The Rotting Heirophant (Boh-shen-yuh)
"I will not let another star disappear... To stop me is to destroy the Universe."
Božena (Boh-shen-yuh), is a necromancer spoken of with a mixture of high regard and disdain by her followers, the L'huine Zombies. Most information known about her so far was presented by such a zombie after the Spiritual Travelers defeated a group of Death Blossoms on Nurend 16, 308.
When originally referred to in the Zombie's story, Božena was simply called "The Necromancer" alongside another figure called "The Psychic". It's possible that "Necromancer" was as much her title in this ancient civilization as it was a set of powers.
From what was gathered in the Zombie's story, Božena was held in high regard by her followers, and she supposedly preached to them great promises to be found in The Spirit World. She may have been a religious leader with this in mind. While Božena's original message was, to some degree, pure, she eventually became obsessive in her quest for more power to accomplish her originally "benevolent" goals.
Physical Description
Body Features
Božena, like other L’huine, is rather tall compared to the more modern species of Taranel. She's about ten feet tall, with her headwear rising another two feet into the air at its highest point. Her flesh, at least that parts that were visible, is rotting similar to the other Zombies. Pale skin is stretched tight against bloating, oozing flesh beneath.
Her face was similarly decayed, however, it was quickly covered by her mask.
Her body is bloated and rotting as mentioned, but mosty hidden beneath a dark dress and cloak. This gives her a rather amorphous appearance, especially when hunched over and facing away from whoever might be observing her.
Hidden within her cloak are three extra arms. They bend in grotesque ways to wield her two books and her spear.
Special abilities
Božena is a master of spells involving necromancy, curing injuries, treating illnesses, causing plagues and blights, and those related to faith. Her faith in herself and her ability to prevent the rot has led to years of practice and devotion, but her time and concentration is focussed mostly on sustaining her ritual. It is likely that, were she not currently casting a far more powerful spell, she would be even more of a challenge for the Spiritual Travelers.
Additionally, Božena's inner circle was broken long ago. Their spirits live on in this realm of rot, but they are just shadows of their former selves. They seem to have been consumed by Božena to some degree as they are now pieces of her and her ritual.
As Božena is wounded, she replaces herself with one of these spirits until it falls. When it does, it causes Božena to return along with an ever-increasing amount of undead.
Ortyl'boz - A ghoulish apparition. No legs or hips, just the upper body, arms and head of some massive spirit. It is almost solid considering how much more opaque it is compared to other spirits, especially the other Ortyl. Its mouth is stretched open wide with a lower jaw that reaches down below the entrails that hang from its severed body. Foul smelling liquids drip from the same hole these entrails are coming from, its breath is rancid, and its flesh is rotten almost with the appearance of rags hanging loosely from an emaciated frame. Its eyes are just sunken pits with maggots and other earthly detritivores burrowing in and out of them. Her'aen described this spirit as being obsessed with the physical body and preventing decay. It consumed human flesh while alive, and its obsession led to the achievment of its goal. It no longer decays and can restore its life by consuming others. Kaswink was able to see Božena vanish and be replaced with Orty'boz, and she was its first target. Its claws filled her with more rot while its jaws seemed to harm her a great deal more than they should've because of how much she had already decayed. As she collapsed from this bite, Ortyl'boz seemed to grow stronger as it syphoned her energy, muscles and so forth.
Ortyl'en - A face and a pair of arms. Eyes are constantly half closed and angled downward towards a book which it is holding and turning the pages of as it chants. Its voice is monotone and morose as it speaks in some long forgotten language. “Vel’aše tel’ázo m’rú a vel’aše tel’ázo dú’ni, al nez om’rú a nez odú’ni.” “Your bodies will die and your bodies will rot, but you will not die and you will not rot.” It was described by Her'aen as once being a priest obsessed with knowledge and living forever to learn everything. It achieved this goal, but in a rather unfortunate way. The knowledge it has causes madness in others, and it tends to still repeat the same mantras it chanted for Božena in their temple ages ago. Ortyl'en was the first of these spirits seen while they were traveling towards The Rotten City. While fighting Božena, it tried to cast spells to confuse the group or otherwise alter their perceptions, but it was quickly vanquished.
Ortyl'a - Has yet to be seen, but Her'aen described it as someone obsessed with authority to the point that it became just a title and the symbols of its authority.
Ortyl'boz - A ghoulish apparition. No legs or hips, just the upper body, arms and head of some massive spirit. It is almost solid considering how much more opaque it is compared to other spirits, especially the other Ortyl. Its mouth is stretched open wide with a lower jaw that reaches down below the entrails that hang from its severed body. Foul smelling liquids drip from the same hole these entrails are coming from, its breath is rancid, and its flesh is rotten almost with the appearance of rags hanging loosely from an emaciated frame. Its eyes are just sunken pits with maggots and other earthly detritivores burrowing in and out of them. Her'aen described this spirit as being obsessed with the physical body and preventing decay. It consumed human flesh while alive, and its obsession led to the achievment of its goal. It no longer decays and can restore its life by consuming others. Kaswink was able to see Božena vanish and be replaced with Orty'boz, and she was its first target. Its claws filled her with more rot while its jaws seemed to harm her a great deal more than they should've because of how much she had already decayed. As she collapsed from this bite, Ortyl'boz seemed to grow stronger as it syphoned her energy, muscles and so forth.
Ortyl'en - A face and a pair of arms. Eyes are constantly half closed and angled downward towards a book which it is holding and turning the pages of as it chants. Its voice is monotone and morose as it speaks in some long forgotten language. “Vel’aše tel’ázo m’rú a vel’aše tel’ázo dú’ni, al nez om’rú a nez odú’ni.” “Your bodies will die and your bodies will rot, but you will not die and you will not rot.” It was described by Her'aen as once being a priest obsessed with knowledge and living forever to learn everything. It achieved this goal, but in a rather unfortunate way. The knowledge it has causes madness in others, and it tends to still repeat the same mantras it chanted for Božena in their temple ages ago. Ortyl'en was the first of these spirits seen while they were traveling towards The Rotten City. While fighting Božena, it tried to cast spells to confuse the group or otherwise alter their perceptions, but it was quickly vanquished.
Ortyl'a - Has yet to be seen, but Her'aen described it as someone obsessed with authority to the point that it became just a title and the symbols of its authority.
Apparel & Accessories
Božena wears a dark dress and cloak which mostly hides her decayed form. The trim of her garments is all a dark, blood red while portions of her cloak are a variety of different forest greens, each dark enough to almost be black.
She has a tall, priestly hat similar to a mitre with strange, insect-like legs protruding in all directions. These legs bend and point upward to create the farcical likeness of a crown.
Specialized Equipment
Božena's most often seen piece of equipment is her mask, Attrition. She donned it the moment the Spiritual Travelers got her attention, and its porcelain design is quite similar to Hysteria's own. It has a distinct collection of swoops and curving lines etched and painted into it with a color reminiscent of the rest of this realm. Mushrooms dot the mask as well, but they seem to be grouped into the area above her nose.
She also has several items hidden beneath her cloak.
Her spear, Mordrimna, has a blade that is unusually clean compared to the rest of this realm. Its silver shined in the light as if it had never been used. The staff of this weapon looks to be made of the same dark wood as her pear tree, and it seems to be tangled around several chunks of rotting flesh. It seems to poison the body, cause it to decay, and cause whoever is struck with it to be more prone to future injury.
Her books, Life and Death, contain her spells and portions of her mind. They allowed her to cast more spells in a shorter period of time than the average person and divide her concentration between multiple attention-craving tasks. Life had spells that cured wounds and treated illnesses, but when used by her they seemed to do the opposite of the intended effect. Death was filled with blights, diseases and such things related to decay.
The only other seen piece of equipment was a paring knife used to cut one of the pears from her tree.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
An unknown number of years ago which Božena either refused to answer, didn't know the answer to, or just didn't see the point in disclosing, Božena and the other L’huine began constructing a city. News of a world filled with Spirits intrigued her, according to Her'aen's story, and she began preaching of ways to finally "fix The Cycle".
She was already terrified of death before this, but the Spirit World was an opportunity for her to do what she saw as something that "needed to be done". Her and her followers helped build the city and were among the first to wander into the Spirit World upon Osv’žiar’e's completion. She led them far to the southeast where they found Pluarsh ec Relovut and built the prison and other structures found there.
While her followers worked on their strange projects, Božena was hard at work making a Gate. It wasn't a physical gate like one might find outside a cemetary, no, it was a very temporary gate which only existed after consuming a special mushroom. This mushroom didn't exist until she spent a great deal of time gardening. She was successful, however, and the gate opened as her and her followers enjoyed a meal featuring the new fungi.
They traversed the swampy nastiness that is the Rotting Gate until coming across a strange, decaying version of Osv’žiar’e, the Radiant City. They made themselves at home and Božena once again got to work. Her people were counting on her, after all. She started another garden with the center of her efforts being the Black Pear Tree. During this time, she began to channel the energy of the realm around her into a ritual. A spell with a casting time unknown to her, and a complete lack of a plan led to her running everything with pure instinct. She knew one thing, however, and that was that Skorumpovaný was the cause for all of her suffering. She needed to use the rot, twist it against itself, and stop it completely. Her ritual continued for millenia. Any plague that appeared, any blight or anything else connected to decay, corruption or rot was just a part of her spell. A word or a letter uttered, a piece of a circle drawn. Did she cause these events? Or were they just used by her? It's unclear. Her and her followers slowly rotted away as time passed. She was unable to fully keep the rot at bay, but their decay was slowed greatly. They became Zombies, and things were going according to plan until a group of adventurers arrived.
They traversed the swampy nastiness that is the Rotting Gate until coming across a strange, decaying version of Osv’žiar’e, the Radiant City. They made themselves at home and Božena once again got to work. Her people were counting on her, after all. She started another garden with the center of her efforts being the Black Pear Tree. During this time, she began to channel the energy of the realm around her into a ritual. A spell with a casting time unknown to her, and a complete lack of a plan led to her running everything with pure instinct. She knew one thing, however, and that was that Skorumpovaný was the cause for all of her suffering. She needed to use the rot, twist it against itself, and stop it completely. Her ritual continued for millenia. Any plague that appeared, any blight or anything else connected to decay, corruption or rot was just a part of her spell. A word or a letter uttered, a piece of a circle drawn. Did she cause these events? Or were they just used by her? It's unclear. Her and her followers slowly rotted away as time passed. She was unable to fully keep the rot at bay, but their decay was slowed greatly. They became Zombies, and things were going according to plan until a group of adventurers arrived.
Morality & Philosophy
A Poem
The first mention of Božena was, surprisingly enough, not from Her'aen's story. A Book of Poetry found in the coroner's office of a Prison actually had her name and title held within. The poem seems to contradict the claims she made while debating with The Spiritual Travelers, however, it could be interpreted any number of ways. "Skorumpovaný, The Consuming Decay" From the archives of the Necromancer Božena
Dripping, Oozing, Flesh bursts against the bloat
A held back anguish, rotting away all that I see
A corruption, expanding beneath the surface
And a million faces expressing terror as they flee There will be only death, and from the death I will draw strength
The strength to break the circle
The strength to end the cycle
The strength to destroy those that would threaten my fate Fevers, mites, ticks and the blackened branches of a mighty Oak
Bring about the undeath, a path walked
Forget peace and sanctity,
embrace the need to fight back against the inevitable.
And bring about a new world, where life is forgotten.
It is possible that this poem was written before she realized the "true nature of the universe", but it could also be that she's lying or that her vision of a preserved universe involves something rather corrupted.
Alternatively, it could be interpreted to align perfectly with what she said her goals were all along.
Analysis that might make interpreting it yourself slightly less fun
A held back anguish, rotting away all that I see
A corruption, expanding beneath the surface
And a million faces expressing terror as they flee There will be only death, and from the death I will draw strength
The strength to break the circle
The strength to end the cycle
The strength to destroy those that would threaten my fate Fevers, mites, ticks and the blackened branches of a mighty Oak
Bring about the undeath, a path walked
Forget peace and sanctity,
embrace the need to fight back against the inevitable.
And bring about a new world, where life is forgotten.
She laments the bloating, rotting corruption in the first stanza and describes the anguish that comes from it. She claims to take strength from death (rot? blights? disease?) and that she will destroy the cycle, but this could be interpreted to mean the current form of the cycle, the one that she sees as broken already.
In the last stanza she goes on to describe more things involving this gate, particularly insects and a "blackened oak" are new and could be references to the Spiral and the strange dark oil that covered everything in the future witnessed by the Spiritual Travelers. Lastly she declares a challenge against complacency, against the defeatest nihilism that she experienced, and calls those like her to rise up and fight the inevitable.
The most ominous, hard to explain portion is in the last line where she says the new world will have no memory of life. Though, this could be interpreted to mean that the current form of life that is being experienced will be forgotten in favor of something better from her perspective. Life as we know it will change.
Encounter in her Garden
The Spiritual Travelers attempted to debate with Božena and convince her to stop what she was doing. However, she seemed to be both set in her ways after performing the ritual for so long, and still terrified of what death would bring. Božena's fear of death is a major driving force in her actions. Her philosophy aligns with certain sects of The Broken Circle, in that she believes the Circle is already broken and needs to be repaired. While it was originally believed that she is trying to destroy it, or break it, with hopes of achieving her goals, she claimed during the debate that it is already broken and in need of fixing. This "Broken Circle", to her, means that the lack of memories or death in general is due to the Circle not behaving correctly. She fears that her death will result in her memories being gone forever, that those that remember her will be gone someday as well, and that the planets and stars that all things rely on will fade from existence some day as well. Her fear of this pointless ending to a universe led her down her quest to use the Rot to correct these issues. “I will not let another star disappear. I will fix the cycle and prevent the deaths of a thousand worlds. All will be reborn with their memories intact. To stop me is to destroy the Universe.”The Pain of Knowledge
As a follower of Skorumpovaný, Božena studied and respected rot above all the other concepts represented by the Smrtohnya. She used this rot to heal the wounded, treat illnesses, and watched as people she knew died either from natural causes or accidents she couldn't prevent or repair. She pondered the end, she listened to the sermons given by the other nine, but the comforts and eulogies provided by the ones that served Mŕtvy and Remeselne stuck with her above the others. Death, from what she heard, was inevitable. Decay, from what she knew and believed, was inevitable. Time, as The Crafter said, constantly ticks away. She knew then that the world would go on without her, that she would be replaced as her body rots in the ground, and that the Cycle would bring her spirit back anew. Though, she recognized that, based on what these people said, she would not remember anything. She would work hard and accomplish much, but she would be oblivious to such things. Then what's the point? She was unsure of why she should continue doing anything if she wouldn't be able to remember it in a next life, but The Epitaph, she who was closest to Death, The Circle, Mŕtvy, tried to explain to her that those that live on will remember. "Your efforts change the world, those who live here may not remember you forever, but the planet will." Božena understood this, but she was also confused by the need for a Cycle. If our memories are washed away and all that returns is a spirit, then our loved ones are truly gone... what makes them who they are is scrubbed clean. So what's the point?Losing her friends and family, her followers losing her, those that live being gone and all memories being wasted. It was a lot to bear, perhaps too much, and a dense nihilism was taking hold for her. She turned to The Crafter, one who was closest to Time, Clockwork, Remeselne. She learned of how time never stops, and that it is because of time that Rot, Decay, Entropy and other corrupting forces can do what they need to. Rot relies on Time, as Božena knew already, but it went beyond this. As Time goes on the Universe ages much like a person. It decays, it crumbles, it spreads apart, and all things must reach a point of equilibrium. An equilibrium that is constantly becoming less than it was before. Entropy cannot decrease, and, in the grand scale of things, everything will stop some day. The last planet, the last star, the last bit of stuff will crumble and fade from reality. All that remains will be the void, and all we did will be for nothing. Then what's the point? The Crafter explained that life is what is Now. They understood the dread, the despair that comes from considering the end as all L'huine do, but they tried to convince Božena to live in the moment. She understood, but she was also confused. If everything is decaying at a constant rate, then even in the present moment our efforts are going to waste. So what's the point?
Skorumpovaný is Corruption and Decay above all else. Decay leads to this corruption. Plagues and blights are living, though they corrupt other forms of life. Maggots are living though they feed on the dead. A person could be corrupted without any form of disease as they seek more power, and the mind can be corrupted as it ages. Time and Decay move along a Spiraling track within the mind that leads to Cievka. Living in the moment, understanding that the end of all things is a long ways off, and knowing that those around you survive with your memories were all things that Božena considered and trusted, but something about it was off. What of the decay that is actively happening in this very moment, the decay that could be affecting the minds of those meant to hold onto the memories of those that have died? The memories of an individaul could become warped or lost entirely, and then there would be nothing. Then what's the point? She turned to The Oni, they who were closest to madness, dementia, spirals, Cievka, and tried desparately to get a straight answer about all this. It was a stressful, convoluted conversation, but The Oni did eventually say something that was understandable. "That's just the way it is. That's life. It's here and then it isn't, and sometimes, when it is here, it hurts." Božena was still mostly baffled by such a straightforward answer, but The Oni finished their thought. "But it doesn't have to be." So... that's the point. Božena had found Hope.
Other Names:
The Necromancer
The Necromancer
Current Status
Fighting the Spiritual Travelers
Current Location
Species
Age
???
Children
Belief/Deity
Skorumpovaný
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Ruled Locations
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