Greymoria's Monstrous Children of Vengeance
Greymoria is the goddess of terrifying things like, poisons, drowning, darkness, and the necromancy, and her contribution to the the Divine Rebellion is especially horrifying.
She tortured thousands, possibly millions, of souls until they became so mutilated that they were poisonous when consumed by Turoch and the mutilated souls that were not consumed became the first undead.
Greymoria and her followers say that this sacrifice of millions saved untold billions and inflicted more direct damage to Turoch than the rest of the Nine combined, but this doesn't sway many people. Greymoria has fewer worship venerations in her honor than most of the rest of the Nine and most worship Greymoria receives is flavored with fear. Greymoria sometimes uses curses to punish those who offend her but she is most famous by her moniker of "the Mother of Monsters". She is most infamous for sending monsters at people who offended her.
by me with Midjourney
Summary
The ancient dragons of the First Age did not worship Greymoria as much as she wanted, so she created new races of monsters to punish them for their lack of piety and love.
The ancient elves of the the Second Age did not worship Greymoria as much as she wanted, so she created new races of monsters to punish them for their lack of piety and love.
by Zeta Gardner
Variations & Mutation
Almost no one doubts the fact that Greymoria created more new mortal species than the rest of the Nine. Many say that she created more than the rest of the Nine combined.
People still argue which races were created by Greymoria and which were not.
It is widely believed that chimeras, Wurms, kobolds, and ocumati were created in the First Age to punish dragons.
Most chimeras do not know or care what their divine genesis was. The Tiamalan kobolds, Gilgren kobolds, and Laershin kobolds all have drastically different interptretations on their hsitory and their relationship to Greymoria. The ocumati believe their ancestors created themselves, without godly assistance (which no one else believes), and there is a common theory that the wurms were dragons who sort of cursed themselves.
It is widely believed that goblins, arachpliza, cyclopes, camazotz, and dabeshi were all Greymoria's children. Most of these races admit this, but not all of them remain loyal to Greymoria today.
Most cyclopes have become generally impious. Many deny their Greymoria based roots. Many goblins will state that the Greymoria and the rest of the Nine left them to twist in the wind so none of them deserve worship.
The arachpliza remain one of the staunchest pro-Greymoria races in Scarterra and Scarnoctis.
The dabeshi are moderately loyal to Greymoria but has been argued that they are so simple minded that they lack the capacity to rebel. The camazotz are mostly pious towards Greymoria but a large faction defected to Greymoria's arch rival Mera, and evolved into a separate species, the kalazotz. The kalazotz are now thriving more than the camazotz despite being smaller and cuter. Because the kalazotz are much better at making friends.
Comissioned art of Camazotz/Kalazotz comparison by Diana Rahfoth
Tengku #5 by Zeta Gardner"We tengku do not know who, how, or when the first of our kind were hatched, we know it was sometime in the Second Age. What we do now and in the future is more important than what our ancient origins were. That said, I know we weren't created by Greymoria." -Eknok, tengku merchant
Cultural Reception
"As one of Greymoria's least intimidating priestesses, I get approached and asked a lot of fearful questions about the Dark Mother. I get asked a lot about Greymoria's so called 'monstrous children'. For some reason, young people especially want to know about mortal races that have gone extinct. They also want to know about new creatures created by Greymoria recently. I always have to hedge that I have to base my knowledge on passed down legends like everyone else. Despite the rumors and jokes, I don't have long midnight chats with nefarious giant talking spiders. I hardly ever leave the city. I'm not that different from other priestesses of the other deities save that I'm prettier and more magically adept. Whether Greymoria's monstrous children remain loyal to their Dark Mother or whether they turn away from her, Greymoria's myriad children do not often talk to each other. Most of Greymoria's monstrous live in the wilderness or the depths of Scarnoctis and most are illiterate so it's not like they have archives of written records to clarify discrepancies and contradictions in ancient legends. Sorry to meander. My point is, even we among Greymoria's spiritual Children don't much about Greymoria's physical children that are still alive and kicking, we know even less about the dead ones. Most of what know of the dead ones are from sparse and incomplete written records written by Greymoria's detractors. They were exaggerated. At most, I can name seven or eight supposed monstrous children of Greymoria from the First Age and eleven or twelve such creatures hailing from the Second Age. There rumored to be hundreds of extinct species linked to Greymoria. As for 'new[' physical Children of Greymoria. I can name all the species I'm aware of on one hand, and these are sketchy rumors at best. People ask me, why is Greymoria slowing down now? It is because Greymoria doesn't create as many new creatures as people think they did. I have no doubt some of Greymoria's physical children died during the First and Second Unmaking, but not as many as people say. The Dark Mother didn't created 200 or 300 new species in ancient times. She created maybe 20 or 30. She certainly isn't creating hundreds of new creatures now."-Carcelli the Arcane Priestessby Eron12 with Hero Forge"I don't know if Carcelli is a liar or a fool. Perhaps both. Greymoria is creating many new monsters in the Third Age. I have listened carefully to adventurer's tales of Grauen speaking monsters and they all have one thing in common. The new monsters rely on stealth and cunning. The ancient monsters relied on brute force. This is why the new monsters are so anonymous." -Beslyfle the gnome, matriarch of Mera's Tenders in Fumaya
Is Greymoria the only creator of vengeance monsters?
A pen and ink drawing of a tarasque (public domain) by unknown artist in the 1500s
More to come...eventually
comissioned art of Zirvid the Chimera by Harper James
Cover image:
by
Zeta Gardner
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