Mistress of The Ardent Thorns

Caravor trembled. He was on his knees, and naked but for a sack over his head, and the manacles around his thick wrists. He heard footsteps in the room, and he felt his heart race. They stalked closer, the heels ringing on the stone floor.

"Well, well, what have we here?" a deep, throaty voice asked. The words drifted into Caravor's ears like smoke, and gooseflesh rippled down his spine.

"Please-" was all he managed to say before a crop whistled through the air, and cracked against his back. A short, sharp breath hissed between his teeth, and his nostrils flared. All he could smell was leather, and the scent of incense somewhere in the room.

"If I want you to speak, I will say so," the woman purred, continuing to walk around Caravor's bound, kneeling form. He felt the touch of something cold and sharp beneath his chin, pushing his head back. Leather creaked, and he felt the weight of his interrogator crouching before him. "Now, finish the plea you began to me."

"May..." Caravor started, swallowing hard as he felt the pressure increase against his chin. "May I see?"

"No," she said, laughter in her voice as she stood, and let his head drop once more. "What you seek lies beneath the shadows. You will grow used to darkness, pet. Soon you will see all you care to see, and more."

Caravor shivered, this time in anticipation. When the next blow of the crop fell, it took his breath away as ecstasy entwined with the pain that rippled across his skin.

Expanding The "Temple Prostitute" Background Trait

As a way to round out your character in Pathfinder's first edition, characters received two background traits. One usually had to be a Campaign Trait, if they were playing one of the prewritten campaigns put out by Paizo, and the other could be from any other category. One of the ones that raised a lot of eyebrows was the background trait Temple Prostitute, which was (if memory serves) originally attributed to the elven goddess Calistria. The trait grants bonuses on Sense Motive and Diplomacy checks to gather information, and it makes one of those two skills a class skill for the character.

However, the Mistress (or Master) of the Ardent Thorns is a concept that takes this background trait out of the church of Calistria, and into the temple of Zon-Kuthon.

The God of Darkness, the Lord of Shadows, and a dozen other names hang about Zon-Kuthon's name. The rites and rituals undergone in his churches are blasphemous tortures that leave many sick to their stomachs... however, this god also draws on the Melniboneans from the Elric novels, as well as on influences like the cenobites from Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart (which became the film series Hellraiser). There is a certain dark enticement to Zon-Kuthon, and that is not by accident... he was, after all, once a god of beauty.

Dou-Bral, as he was once known, was the brother of Shelyn, and both of them were gods of beauty, love, and art. After a disagreement, he left known reality, and was found by something in the Dark Tapestry. It twisted him into the horrible thing he became, granting him power, and filling him with madness... however, there are parts and pieces of who and what he once was. Zon-Kuthon should have a twisted beauty to him. There should be a dark appeal that seduces, and drags one deeper and deeper into the shadows, making them walk across thresholds of experience that cannot be returned from whole... or sane.

I touched on some of this in The Transformative Properties of Pain: Delving Into Zon-Kuthon, Slaanesh, and Others, but the idea behind this week's topic is to ask what a Temple Prostitute of Zon-Kuthon would be like. Would they be torturers trained in stimulating nerve endings with minimal damage to the body itself, resulting in transcendental experiences? Would they be expert doms, able to psychologically dismantle and reassemble those who have come to them, using the phantom chains of power dynamics and emotional yearning? Would they use deprivation, plunging people into darkness and silence until they hallucinate, and see the visions of what lurks within the Dark Tapestry before they're given true release?

And, perhaps most importantly, are the dark pleasures on offer the sort of thing that might corrupt someone? The kinds of activities that might seem harmless, at first, but which open one's mind to the influence of the Midnight Lord? And if one tries to leave, will they come crawling back in time, unable to find satisfaction with the mortal delights that pale in comparison to the broken taboos provided by those of the Ardent Thorn?

Lastly, for more Zon-Kuthon concepts, check out the following:

- The All-Seeing Eyes of The Black Veil

- The Void Priest

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That's all for this week's Unusual Character Concepts post!

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