Zygotic Lord

Once a mortal begins to walk the Path of the Beast, there is no turning back. The first steps are always the easiest, filling the supplicant with exhilaration and bliss. Reaching the end of the Path of Ruin is another matter. An ecstatic state of adoration allows supplicants to fall into a deep trance and travel into the unseen world where lies the object of their thirst and desire: a way to undo the form God’s Creation has imposed upon mortals.

To walk the Path of the Beast is to walk backwards through the invisible labyrinth of Creation itself. The road is neither straight nor narrow, and it runs through the great maze, invisible, and ever-changing. Each twist and turn changes the petitioner, costing them part of their humanity and their memories, and changing its form into ever more bestial aspects of itself.

Exceedingly few ever reach the end of the Path. Almost all the adherents are lost in one of the dead-ends from which there is no return. Others lose their purpose and independent will, forgetting what they once were searching for. Forever lost in a shape between the Beast and man, they swell the ranks of the packs that haunt the isolated woods and unforgiving mountains. Throughout the ages people have called such creatures by many names; skinwalkers, changelings, werewolves, marbendil and numerous others, in an attempt to define creatures that stand apart from any comprehension. But they are not truly an aspect of the Beast: such privilege is reserved for the chosen few who find their way through the nigh-endless, eternally shifting maze.

The horned priests teach their followers that at the heart of this labyrinth sleeps Behemoth, first of God’s Works, a beast that predates the rest of the world. On the skin of the beast are painted Sefirot, the divine emanations, twenty-two Letters of Creation. The combinations of these letters and the Divine Name form the structure of all things, construction of the world and cosmos. Combining these letters the supplicant will be able to escape all the shackles God has placed on them so they can remain a part of His great and powerful plan. Here, at the heart of the labyrinth, the clay of creation can be broken down into its parts, remolded by the supplicant as the final prize for the adoration of the Beast. The triumphant supplicant will rebuild its being according to its own will, to represent the aspect of the Beast that they once decided to follow. It emerges from the labyrinth in the shape of its own choosing, reflecting the inner self as an aspect of the Beast: a monstrous thing called the Zygotic Lord.

It returns to Earth as a newborn, embryonic and weak, but will then develop according to its own design rather than according to the Divine Plan; its growth into an apocalyptic monstrosity dictated only by its own will and the hatred that the Beast holds for all humankind.

It then travels into the wild places of the world, haunting the deep valleys of the mountains, forgotten grottos or impenetrable forests. The hunting packs of the Beast and their mortal followers gather in the vicinity of their lairs to worship it, waiting for it to emerge and lead them into revelries of blood and euphoria.

The Zygotic Lord will dwell in its lair for many moons as its pack brings offerings and choice morsels to consume. It will grow until no dark forest or mountain cave can hide its awful majesty. It then rises and gathers its adherents around it, and the lesser creatures of the Path creep and slither from their hiding places.

Though possessed with unnatural speed, strength and enormous size, it is the voice of the Zygotic Lord the Faithful fear the most. It emits howls of adoration, throwing its followers who hear it into an ecstatic state of frenzy, but for those unwilling to accept the Path of the Beast it reveals the labyrinth around them in all its awful horror. It takes extraordinary willpower to wrench your mind back into the real world, and most are lost in the labyrinth, dwelling amidst the wonder and glory of the Beast forever, even as their bodies lie catatonic in hospices or sanatoriums.