Old Bitch of Lyrast

Identity

• Title(s) – Old Bitch of Lyrast, Snake Goddess
• Influence – Bludzrū, Poison, Serpents, Snakes, Venom
• Appearance – A giant Ortor old woman with straw gray hair and and sharp yellowed teeth, holding large snakes in her hands; some depictions of Parng show her with a snake for a tongue

Attributions

• Symbol – Snake
• Focus – A living venomous snake
• Color(s) – Black and Dark-Green
• Element –
• Animal – Snake

Cult

• Center of Worship – Serpent Tower, Tarsk, Lyrast
• Scriptures –
• Leader –
• Priesthood –
• Orders – The Coiled Guard, The Scaled Order
• Aspects –
• Touched –
• Holy Days –
• Friends – Bludzrū
• Enemies – Dwürden, Ikítikírittìk, and Yrūn kingdoms of eastern Lyrast
• Sayings – “Ortor may find harbor in Parng’s coils, but her enemies find only breathless death.”

Introduction

The Bludzrū of Lyrast do not know how or when Parng came to them, and find it baffling that people should wonder of things that happened so long ago. The Ortor of the eastern Lyrasti mountains are content with their patron Goddess, the Old Bitch of Lyrast.

The Cult

The Priesthood

The Bludzrū are ruled by the Scaled Order in accordance with the laws laid down by the Old Bitch of Lyrast. Ortor chieftains are chosen by the priesthood and are regularly members of the Scaled Order. Priests of Parng wear black and dark-green clothes, usually over battlegear. Clothes are normally emblazoned with snake or scaled designs. Coiling tattoos are very popular among the faithful. Rank within the priesthood is determined by a complex hierarchy of rituals involving Serpent Tests.

Daily Activities

In the mountains where the Bludzrū live, lizards and snakes are very common. Worship of the Old Bitch offers no protection to these animals, which instead are viewed as gifts from the Goddess. The skins of lizards are used in clothes, their bones are made into tools and jewelry, and their meat is eaten. Though not protected from the Ortor, the reptiles are seen as gifts from Old Bitch Parng and therefore are not for the consumption or use of anyone else. Because of this, the Ortor sometimes act as wardens for the same animals. This reverence for reptiles does not extend to Dragul.

Holy Days and Rituals

Temple sacrifices are common on unholy days, especially if giant snakes are kept as temple guardians.

Initiation into the Scaled Order includes a terrible ritual where the initiate’s hide is cut and slowly pulled from his body. This has been described as the Shedding. During the Shedding, attendant spellcasting priests and mundane healers do their best to keep the Ortor from dying. When all skin has been removed, the initiate is covered in snake and lizard skins and then slathered with a specially prepared ichor that hardens around the body. The initiate is then placed in a cave for ten days. After this “incubation” the hardened shell is cracked from the body revealing the Ortor’s new scaled body.

Places of Worship

Within the mountains west of Narsk, rises a large tower built to resemble a coiled serpent. The tower is very old, and few believe that the Ortor constructed it, though the Bludzrū claim their forefathers did just that. The Serpent Tower is the high temple of Parng, and though many Ortor travel vast distances to stand in the tower’s shadow, only priests of the Scaled Order may enter. It is believed that the bones of the Old Bitch lie within the tower, remains of her Mortal life before she transcended. High priests that have looked upon her bones claim that Parng stood over 20 feet tall. All those who partake in the pilgrimage to the Serpent Tower are presented with a small metal necklace with the snake sigil stamped onto one side. A Bludzrū that dies with the Serpent Tower necklace joins Parng in the afterlife, all others are greedily devoured by the demons that encircle her realm.