Lifeforms · Third Kingdom · Any

Cavasinthas, The Rotting Trees of the Damned

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Hideous creatures, they stand motionless and filled with intense sorrow at their existence.

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In Bastard Demonspeak, the Demons called Rotting Trees of the Damned are known as cavasinthas, which comes from the Demonspeak khvah'jhazhin's, 'ones of dark rot' or 'black putrefying ones'. Hideous creatures, they stand motionless and filled with intense sorrow at their existence.

Cavasinthas generally stand about 8 feet tall, but range in height. They are human-ish in shape, but not quite humanoid, for they are too unformed, like a tall, thick body whose legs are unseparated and whose head emerges like a column from it's shoulders. Their long, thin arms extend stiffly away from their bodies at bent angles. But generally, an observer is too sickened by the rest of them to be concerned with this body shape. They appear to be composed, entirely, of rot, like hideous trees made from piles of bulbous warts and pustules, masses of stinking veins and webs of clawed, pulpy arteries, crusty, antenna-like extrusions, flacid sheets of muscle that hang, apron-like, bulbous fingers of fungus, long taloned tentacles; the whole creature is slick and shining with slow ebbing, crimson blood. Parts of their long arms are clad in shards of sticky, yellow-dripping bone, and their fingers are long, twisted, irregular things made from flaking, dusty crusted chitin. Where there face should be there is no face, only a simple porcelain funeral mask, smiling stupidly and palely amidst a head of oozing, pustulant horror.

Cavasinthas have no capability to move from beyond where they are planted- their legs are fused together like rotten trunks, and their feet are clawed roots that grip savagely at the ground. When they speak, it is a foul sound, not the sound of a voicebox, but of hideous muscles and impossible organs squelching and splattering together to form words.

The Rotten Trees of the Damned are the children of Tzakhli Boyajh, the Tree With Flowers of Blood, a vast, forsaken god who takes the form of a hideous tree and who rains blood down over the land as it crawls ponderously on giant tentacular roots. The blood splashes to the floors of Hell, and there takes evil root, growing rapidly into the horrible and hideous beings which are the Cavasinthas. Cavasinthas typically are found growing in stands where several drops of Tzakhli Boyajh's blood have spilt, extending arms mournfully and sending forth an outrageous stench of rot and blood. Standing in these Groves of Fear, they share the pain of their existence, which is infinite and incomprehensible to beings who have their innards on the inside, and compose sad and pain-filled prophetic dirges, which they sing out across the madnesses of Hell. They sing of the day when Its Shadowed Resplendency will explode forth through the membrane between life and Hell, and of the day when the sky will fold upon itself and die, and when the Gods will fall ill in a great divine plague and crash down from Heaven to rend the land, and when humanity will cease to be and the world shall finally, in paroxysms of fear and pain and fury, die, die forever, and the pain of the Cavasinthas will be extinguished forevermore.

Cavasinthas possess the power to grow fruit of blood and rot, which, when burst, release horrible diseases which may instantly slay the victim. In addition, they can, if a being is pushed into their surface, envelope and digest any who are inside them. These unfortunates become forever a part of the Tree, and their anguished faces scream out from the Cavasinthas' trunk.

Cavasinthas are never pleased, except by their own destruction and extinguishment. Sorcerors who, for whatever reason, summon the Rotten Trees of the Damned, can appease them and break them to will by promising instant obliteration and release from a life of eternal pain.

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Discussion

8 comments

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  1. Cheka Man

    Now that really is a new type of demon that I haven't seen before-one that WANTS to be killed because it's life is so painful.

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  2. Maggot

    Trust the Captain to come up with something that unqiue.

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  3. Scrasamax

    Wow. I think these tortured creatures are close to what I consider the heart of demonkind, living in a hellish condition of pain and suffering so that the onlt reprieve from that is the death of all that is.

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  4. Cheka Man

    I feel sorry for this type of demon. 5/5 and an HOH.

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  5. valadaar

    Well crafted + unique + emotional impact = 4.5/5

    Awesome!

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  6. manfred

    Short and to the point, with vivid descriptions of high quality. Pure, unwatered Captain.

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  7. Murometz

    lovely!

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  8. Stephie

    This is great! Just caught this in the random submission. I like the idea and the detail. I might have to use it!

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