Igumi
Epithet: The Matron Spider[edit]
“All within the web of the world should be consumed and born again Fel.”
Introduction[edit]
What lies within the Burning Lake is not widely known, as witches rarely do turn on their sisters and share information outside of their covens, and the forces of the void rarely are able to cross the eternally burning flames. However, every gate needs a guardian, every door a key, and every moat a bridge. The Matron Spider Igumi, a patron of witch cults, provides those willing to give their life serving the blaze of Paschia Fel a walkway, a web to cross deeper into the Lake, while others seeking power might find her web leading to a Feltome in which to inscribe their names.
Background[edit]
Long ago, Igumi was a human, a priestess of Hysena, of earth and soil who lived in a sprawling forest in the lands of Kal Azul. She would assist in the cultivation rituals of the land, in the growth of agriculture, and in childbirth and rearing new lives that would start within the villages. It was because of this, because of her travels far from the caves of her patron and home, that she was not around when Mavkoda, a general of Vul'karik, began to burn her world.
When the Undead came to the village she was currently tending to, she assisted that village in fending them off for a week, and in that time, the horrors of the Grey Abyss made her paranoid of the fates of her loved ones, of her children. Eventually, Igumi could no longer bear to be without answers, and she abandoned her post at the village, leaving it to its fate. Heading to her home, she found her connection with Hysena vanishing. When she finally reached those caves that were once her home, she did not find a single soul alive. Void pollution hung heavy in the air, and the bodies of her loved ones had become undead. In these conditions, Igumi fractured, broke from the sight of her children’s corpses coming towards her, step by step those who she loved were coming to kill her.
No matter how much she begged, the bodies did not stop their approach, did not stop those grasping fingers trying to steal life from her. In that moment, she heard a voice, as if connected by a single strand of web for the first time. A command to survive and to regrow the family that had been stolen from her. By the time that she was able to make sense of it in her mind, the village she lived in would have been found to be no more than wisps of green flame, not even ashes left. As she watched it, the flame moved to her whim, though she didn’t remember how she had been saved, only how to move the flames that had burned away what was close to her.
She didn’t remember how she lost her family, but she did remember and long for them. She didn’t remember when she started walking, but she did hear the voice in her ear beaconing her steps forwards, and realized her feet had long since started to move. She blocked out that which hurt her, and started on the path that would bring her what she was missing anew.
The path to family.
Establishment of the Cult of the Deep Web[edit]
As more and more of Kal Azul fell to Demons and Undeath, the commanding voice in Igumi’s ear fed her desires. Her desire for family was granted in whispers of where villages were being destroyed, so she might sift through the wreckage and take the survivors. Her desire for power to protect her family was granted in the green flame that had once burned away the shambling corpses of her village. Her desire for a place in this world, after losing everything that gave her life meaning, the blessings of Hysena, the place she had called home, those she had lived among for years, and even her children, granted in the form of the Coven of the Deep Web, her new life, her new home.
With every service to that voice, a new change to her form. New legs allowed her to reach out, hold her family so they might not slip from her grasp. New eyes allowed her to watch and make sure that foes never surprised her. New fangs allowed her to poison the bodies of all who would try to take from her that which was precious while her silken voice, soft as the threads she became able to produce, offered homes to those that would take it, and join her family.
To the survivors of the Demonic invasion who found her, she would appear as a savior, even as her body changed into something fearsome. She offered them power and safety in exchange for joining her, forming some of the first covens of Kal Azul, the first families of Igumi, built from fear, and a desire to survive. She would teach them, preaching her hatred of Hysena and any other spirit that might have protected the people, who had failed to save the people she rescued. Those who fully became witches under her would then be sent to join other groups to expand the web, and lure them to follow their new mother Igumi’s beliefs as night by night, the Witch would adopt more and more features similar to her once patron, becoming a mockery in the image of the Mystery in the Dark.
Not all children started dedicated to the cause. The third child rescued from the smoldering ashes of the undead invasion, a name lost to time, was the most rebellious. Rebellions started small, the declarations that Igumi wasn’t her mother, that the green flame that saved their lives was wrong, that she would leave, and find her real family. The first and second times, Igumi scolded hysterically, hurt festering. The third time the Matron Spider lost her temper, cutting the girl to pieces and taking her remnants off into the depths of the webs. The girl was remade as a phantom, as an obedient child, who would never leave or even dream of abandoning her new family, the fate of any of her children who earned her ire from that point on.
For decades, the Matron Spider Spider directly led the Coven of the Deep Web, serving as an Apostle of her savior, Paschia Fel, who helped her when the world abandoned her. However, all things change with time, and Igumi aged and weakened. In her fortieth year as Matriarch of the Coven, when her hair had turned as white as her webs, that voice that came to her when she needed them most, called out to her. Igumi declared her successor in leading the coven, before following that voice to the deepest part of the webs, and it is there that her history as a human ended.
Beyond Humanity[edit]
In modern times, Igumi is a Phantom, everlasting, spreading the words of her savior by shadow and Phantom, offering that which had helped her to those that hold the same look she once did. Those going through crises of faith, or those who were wronged without the ability to make those wrongs right often find a spider in the corner of their homes, and beckon Igumi for aid.
Sometimes she answers, connecting for those who wish for her with the thread of a new web, for the Matron always wishes for a bigger family.
Trivia[edit]
It’s stated that most witch cults in Kal Azul can trace their origins back to Igumi and her cult.
After having seen her human family resurrected before her and trying to kill her, Igumi gained an everlasting hatred of Undead.
Battles between groups of Hysena worshipers and Igumi cultists are said to happen in the darker caverns of the world.
Credit[edit]
Author: Notyel https://forum.verdict.dev/showthread.php?tid=3868
Inspirations:
Jorogumo (tw: spiders)
Tsuchigumo (tw: spiders)
Uttu (tw: spiders)
Image: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b8/05/7e/b8057eb28c4c85a7156d0f4f59f421e8.jpg
