Meat Gods
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| From Dark Sun. |
Ever since the dawn of time, man has feared death and craved power. This has been an unshakable certainty about the world, from the mists of prehistory to the dying lands of the Latter Earth. There are those which crave power yet are denied by birthright or circumstances. They seek to artificially transcend the limitations of the human (or near-human) form through whatever means are available. The process of becoming a Lich is a classic example, but the Meat Gods are the opposite: where a Lich is a cold, unfeeling being which is forever 'frozen' in their state of undeath the Meat Gods are the opposite. They are living, ever-growing and changing monstrosities which overflow with stolen life.
The path to Godhood requires much in the way of vile acts and is built upon a foundation of sacrificed lives and stolen power. Most spellcasters will, at best, reach the point of trying to extend their lives in some capacity (WWN has the Necromancer's Art 'Unaging' for example) but those on the path to Meat Godhood eventually take it further. There is no particular spell, technique or forgotten super science which create them, as each is a unique process with unfortunately similar side-effects. Through a combination of bodily alterations, magic and possibly genetic reshuffling those seeking immortality are able to stretch and distort their biology far beyond its normal limitations. The conversion process invariably requires countless victims to be sacrifice and/or assimilated by the prospective would-be God. For those seeking Legate-level power, further and further self-modifications are required, carving away the 'unnecessary' or 'inferior' human organs or reabsorbing them into their general biomass. Flesh and matter is grafted and assimilated, spells are encoded on a genetic level and the body continues to grow and mutate, akin to a living cancer possessed of a wicked and now inhuman intellect.
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| Art by Taissa Abdoullina. |
Many would-be young Meat Gods are creatures of intense vanity, reshaping their growing form into great and statuesque avatar of beauty and power, reveling in their newfound form and experiencing entirely new life pleasures. Unfortunately this 'stage' is temporary. The protean nature of these beings is inherently flawed and chaotic. Each time they reshape their body or add something new to it, a small flaw will develop in its form. These flaws accumulate as incompatible information, stolen power and the unholy knitting of flesh rebel, too chaotic and incoherent to stabilize. Too many new organs have been grown, cultivated or absorbed and their bodies have been pushed too far. At that point each of them is a living pile of Blight, all vying for control over their form and function. The ancient posthuman 'Gods' of prehistory were designed from the ground up to be beings of a higher order. By comparison, a Meat God is an unholy assemblage of whatever was available.
As their transformation continues, growth is increasing and at exponential rate, often driving them insane with pain and pleasure. As their bodies become too bloated and chaotic, their bones break...and then instantly begin to repair at odd angles. This process repeat itself several times per day for every single organ, until a form of natural singular evolution occur: the body sticks to the form and shapes most suited for its current purpose and environment and so most aren't bipedal. Skin thicken with bony barbs, many grow a tail, claws and fangs. Quite a few 'dragons' of Latter Earth are in fact Meat Gods. The greatest of Meat Gods, however, are found the ocean's depth or in space, where gravity is no longer an issue to their macro-scaled frame and bloated, blubbery whale-like forms.
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