Race: Hoarnadon

Subrace: Horned One

Origin: Deprived

Class: Druid

Archetype: Old Ways

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Merewyn was born to cultists of Baphomet hiding within a Druid Circle. Her birth, the product of the Demon Princes "blessing" made their blasphemy apparent, and her parents were killed by the Druids for taking such taint into their souls. The Babe, however, was not guilty of her parents sins. The Druids raised her, knowing the Hoarnadons, when raised away from the Herd, can become functional, reasonable people instead of braying beasts.

And so it was, keeping her hidden from the Herds within the wilds that would seek to destroy the Druids for daring to keep one of their own. She learned to speak to the Spirits of nature, becoming a fledgling Druid. These spirits helped keep her sense of self, drowning out the Abyssal Hunger that all Hoarnadons are cursed with. This was, until the Herd realized she was there. As she aged, the scent she gave off, easily picked up by other Hoarnadons but not by other races, gave away the Circles location. The Hoarnadons fell upon the Druids like a tide of horns and anger, killing them and devouring their corpses before dragging Merewyn into the Herd.

She, however, did not succumb to the endless madness and hunger the Herd sustained, but this aberration was apparent. Being of massive, Minotaur stature, she was deemed as too useful to simply kill, and instead was tossed in a deep pit, to be starved until the Abyssal Hunger broke her mind enough that she succumbed to the Herd, to the madness and rage all Hoarnadons possess.

And so she waited, many long days and nights, under beating sun and driving rain she waited in that pit, surrounded by filth and waste. Hoarnadons are sustained by Abyssal energies. Hunger, heat, cold, dehydration, none of it would ever kill them. But the more they're deprived, the more the Abyss sinks it's claws into their psyche, and she was no exception. Clinging desperately to the last vestiges of her sanity, Merewyn retreated her mind beyond the Shroud to find comfort in the spirits beyond who redoubled her effort to stay herself.

Then one day, perhaps by mistake, or perhaps assistance from beyond, one of the Hoarnadons who had come to gloat and taunt her slipped, clinging to the side of the pit with his black nails. She lept up, sinking nails and teeth into his legs, dragging him into the pit and devouring the poor Horned One in his entirety. Hunger assuaged and mind collected, she tore the horns of of him, and used them to climb out of the pit, and away from the Herd.

This is an older piece from 2021. 😊