LeviathanTempest:DagonClan

Dagonites

[Picture: The Symbol of Dagon: A wooden carved statue representing a bust of a man with his hands cut off. His cheeks are hollow and his eyes are bulging like a fish’s, but he has a full Sumerian-style beard. His hair is replaced by scales. The statuette has claw marks imprinted on it.]

[Picture: Central. A young woman with shoulder-length black hair. She wears a light gray business suit with a white baby-tee underneath. Her shoes are stylish and heeled, but not ostentatious. She has an attractive full, rounded figure without being really fat. From the collar of her tee-shirt, you can see patterned patches of colour like the skin of an octopus reaching up to her ear. She is leaning against the edge of a desk, nearby a window. In her left hand is a pair of glasses, half-folded. In her extended right hand, she is holding a practical butcher’s knife, handle first as if she was offering it to someone. ]

Morphology

The line of Dagon is traditionally considered as the meeting point between primordial muck and cold functionality. Members are expected to be assertive and aggressive, both in their physical and social lives, and to ceaselessly move towards perfection through experimentation. This obsession with progress and refinement has led to the whole Strain being branded as calculating and manipulative, but, as these are not terms of weakness, most Dagonites embrace the stereotype gladly. Their tendency towards power-playing makes them natural candidates for leadership positions both inside and outside of Tribe society. The average Dagonite is expected to cull weakness without hesitation - meaning that, despite lacking the physical presence of some of their brethren, they are given a fair berth by their wary kin.

Progenitor

Dagonites claim their ancestry in the Progenitor Dagon, who they identify both as a patron of trade, the weather, and the harvest but also a force of power and fertility. Dagonites of a religious bent tend to replicate some of these facets in their directions to their Cult, adding another level of deific veneration to their relationship with their Beloved.

Genetics

In it's way Dagon's blood is the one that makes the most sense to modern understandings of genetics. While Leviathans of any Strains are most commonly born to bloodlines that have given birth to Leviathans before this tendency is most pronounced in the Dagonites. The more Dagonites in your ancestry, the more Lemashu in your immediate family, the more likely you are to be a Leviathan yourself.

Because the blood of Dagon weighs genetics heavily if one Leviathan begins his transition it's likely that others will soon follow. As many as five or six may appear, typically among siblings and first cousins over two or three generations. While this period can be extended even further it stereotypically ends when the young Leviathans yearn for control and power and leave their birthplace to forge their own petty kingdoms. The family splits, new converts are brought into the fold and the bloodline thins for a time.

Puberty

It begins with the flesh. The first a Dagonite notices of his heritage some physical affliction. These are impermanent and fluid markers, attempting to peal away a patch of scales will cause them to melt into flesh. Just as it seems like the fledgeling may come to terms with their condition the effects spread outwards. Attempting to remove an affliction causes it to burst in blood and small sea life. Small animals bearing outlandish mutations follow the Leviathan in slavish loyalty, the Wake begins during this time. Many Dagonites have to question where they end and other creatures begin. Who is an individual with their own thoughts and desires and who is merely a part of them to be used as one uses their own arm? The creatures in her blood? The loyal animals who follow them around? Her Beloved? Everyone?

Due to the insular and cultist nature of many established Dagonite families the arivial of a new Leviathan is typically responded too with well rehearsed rituals. This can provide a sense of stability both to the young Leviathan and her mortal family, however depending on the nature of these rituals some Dagonites honestly would have preferred naked panic. Outside of social influences Dagon's blood seems to lead towards no particular reaction.

As his puberty progresses a Dagonite feels a growing instinct to emigrate and for good reason. The stereotype says they tire family and seek unclaimed lands to conquer and while there is some truth in this they are in fact instinctively fleeing their own blood. Should the Dagonites remain; out of familial loyalty, a deliberate (and usually successful) attempt to breed more Leviathans or some other reason then the touch of Dagon's blood continues to strengthen. Whether mystical effect of Dagon's blood or just the result of so many Leviathans possessing the powers of Fecundity in the gene pool the family homeland is soon plagued with feral Lemahsu and mass graves filled with the young victims of horrible diseases.

Evolution

The True Form of a Dagonite is expected to resemble a unity of the portrayals of the line's fish-like Progenitor and the amalgamation of mammalian and piscine forms. Dagonite eyes in particular tend towards the size and intensity of a deep-sea fish, and in many ways their forms embrace all of the most unsettling parts of a fish's form - bulging and unblinking eyes, slimy (or worse, transparent) scales, and gaping mouths.

Ecology

Family

The Dagonite Strain is cited as the most fruitful but least nurturing of the bloodlines - the fertility of Dagon's lineage does not make room for errors, and while Dagonite-touched families are often numerous they are rarely healthy. The cultic leanings of the Strain have led to many of their modern incarnations finding themselves in isolated and forgotten corners of the globe, in the midst of cult-like families steeped in centuries of fevered and violently slavish tradition.

Lahmasu

The Dagonites lay claim to the Lahmasu Abuu, or "fathers" (singular Abum, often read "Patriarchs"). The bloodline is distinguished by both grotesque fertility and the appearance of overlarge eyes, scales, and similar piscine features as the blood of Dagon becomes more pronounced - visual markers that betray the "purity" of a bloodline and signify, in the minds of the Lahmasu, greater connection to the revered Tribe.

Cults

Dagonites and the stereotypical model of the Cult are deeply intertwined - the Dagonite assuming the role of father and god to a large and isolated group that has violent internal competition for preferential treatment. The severity and willpower that the line traditionally projects makes this position as a living deity all the more relevant - the Dagonite can easily dominate all aspects of his or her follower's lives.

Vestiges

Fecundity, Elements, Predation, Sanctity

Symbols and Associations

The Sea of Harkand, the Cilician Sea, the vice of Pride.

Concepts

Contract lawyer, backwoods patriarch, small-town mayor, preacher, head cheerleader, militia leader

Quote

"When you put your trust in me, that makes me responsible for what you do. I know you did it out of love, and I know you regret it now. But what happened is still inexcusable. And I’m sorry, I really am, but I can’t trust that it won’t happen again. For what it’s worth, I will miss you."

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