LeviathanTempest:BahamutClan

Bahamutans

[Picture: The Symbol of Bahamut: An oval, fish-like scale with iridescent rays. It is inlaid with intricate filigree-work in some precious metal. Over this has been crudely painted an open eye, with no iris but a wide black pupil. Fingerprints are still visible in the paint. ]

[Picture: Central. A fisherman is standing under a streetlight. He is a young man, with a general Latino appearance. His legs are in oilskin pants but he is barefoot. He wears a wifebeater, under which bumpy, scaly ridges are visible that delineate his muscles. He has no hair and his scalp is glistening. His arms are tattooed, and one of his hands is holding the rostrum of a sawfish like a macahuitl. His jaw is gaping wide open, much larger than a human jaw could, and displays several rows of teeth along with a flat, wide tongue.]

Morphology

An awkward young man plays football somewhere in the heart of America, towering over his teammates and plowing through the opposition. It begins to rain, and his friends swear that they see his eyes blacken, his skin ripple with colors and patterns. Teammates pat him on the back with worried, nervous expressions. He is a Bahamutan.

A solid, strong woman struggles with lines on the deck of a vessel during a storm. Waves wash over her to no effect, and when she shouts to the crew, the windows of their ship crack. No one comes to help, but no matter how deep the rope bites into her flesh, she maintains her grip. Horrific shapes writhe in the blood that puddles at her feet. She is a Bahamutan.

A giant of a man in ill-fitting, ragged clothes kneels in an alley. Other vagrants occasionally bring him food, offered with reverence tinged with terror. When the cops come, or when some neighborhood toughs start to prey on the homeless, the giant stands, silhouetteed against the alley mouth, and just rumbles. Talking stops. There's a long, still pause. People clear out. The giant goes back to kneeling. Someone's left little tin-foil sculptures around him, still smelling of delicatessin. He is a Bahamutan.

Bahamutans are larger than life, in every sense of the term. They are heirs to a creature who was unnatural not because it had a strange shape or some hypnotic power, but because it was just. That. Huge. This often translates to actual size and mass, but there's a deeper, spiritual side to this.

Bahamutans are big fish in a small pond. Because of this, they are sometimes underestimated as gentle, or dumb. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are used to feeling constrained, not overwhelmed. They carry themselves around with the weight of someone who knows nothing is out of reach, nothing is too big for them.

Progenitor

The Bahamutans trace their descent back to a Progenitor labelled Bahamat or Behemoth. Reputedly a fish or whale of immense size, it was said to support whole cities on its back. Martial Bahamutans cite the biblical image of Behemoth's power as proof of a lost warrior tradition.

Genetics

Bahamutans are a very fertile line. They pride themselves on being able to breed easily, but reasonably. Unlike the Dagonites, whose fecundity is so great that it becomes a burden, Bahamutans can have many children if they so choose, but they retain a measure of control. Therefore, Bahamutan lines are known among Leviathans as the closest-knit families in the Wicked Tribe. This often gives Bahamutans a strong desire to be involved in the life and well-being of other Leviathans, a fact that can be more than grating to those of other tribes.

Evolution

In the Deep, Bahamutans in their True Form can be a respite from the Tempest. They are so large and peaceful that travelers are known to rest upon them before moving again. The churning, roiling Tempst seems to calm down around them. Strangely, they also seem to be eerily discreet, to the point of morphing with the environment. Bahamutans are known to be sluggish when unconcentrated, and near unstoppable when roused in the Deep.

Ecology

Bahamutans often take the well-being of their Cult personally. They take the success of their Cult as a personal success, and more than one has been emotionally ravaged when the Wake overwhelmed one of their Beloved to the point of irrecuperable madness.

Symbols and Associations

The Sea of Salahit, the Caspian Sea, the vice of Sloth.

Quote

"This is a good place. I like it here, and I spent years making sure it remains the sort of place I like. Usually this involves making sure punks like you don’t bother the good people of this town. Then it becomes the sort of place they don’t like. You still sure you want to set up shop here? "

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