[spah-tah-lohs]
Basic Information
- Name: Spatalos
- Domain: Profligacy, Wastefulness, Myopic
- Title: The Wastrel, The Shortsighted Fool
- Alignment: Chaotic Excess
- Symbol: A gaping maw lined with teeth
- Primary Worship Area: Decadent courts, opulent estates, and places of overindulgence
Physical Description
- Appearance: Spatalos is depicted as a gaunt, skeletal figure with skin stretched tight over his bones. His head resembles that of a predatory beast, but it appears weak and wasted away to little more than gaping jaws with sunken, hollow eyes. His legs are bowed and unbelievably frail, resembling those of a stork. He wears tattered cloth that hangs loosely from his emaciated frame. Where his stomach should be is an open maw lined with countless teeth, perpetually exuding drool, symbolizing his insatiable hunger and greed.
- Height: 290cm
- Weight: Variable
- Distinguishing Features: The open maw in place of his stomach, lined with countless teeth.
Personality
- Traits: Indulgent, shortsighted, wasteful
- Strengths: Can incite and amplify desires for excess and wastefulness in others, causing them to overindulge to their detriment
- Weaknesses: His shortsighted nature, mean that what he gains he inevitably wastes immediately, be it followers, resources or even favorable battle positioning.
- Goals and Motivations: To spread wastefulness and excess, feeding off the overindulgence and profligacy of mortals to increase his power.
Relationships
- Allies: Vilcren
- Rivals/Enemies: Listunos, Mercio,
- Attitude towards Mortals: Sees mortals as pitiable creatures, he seeks to insight overindulgence and consumptions while the opportunity allows. This leads to wastefulness however, and famine and poverty follow where ever Spatalos’ influence takes root.
Mythology and Worship
- Creation Myth:
When humanity spread across Staterum, their rise was swift and unrelenting. Forests fell, rivers were redirected, and the bones of the earth were stripped bare in pursuit of progress and prosperity. What began as survival became expansion, and what was taken out of necessity soon gave way to excess.
In those early days, it is said there once existed a lesser god—now forgotten—who embodied the balance of consumption and renewal. A quiet force that ensured what was taken was returned, and that the land endured even as it was used. But humanity, in its hunger, did not see this balance, nor heed its warnings. They took without restraint, and in time, the god that once safeguarded the natural order was diminished, starved of purpose, and ultimately undone by the very excess it sought to temper.
From its death, something else took root.
Where life had once flourished, the land became hollow. Where balance had once been maintained, only waste remained. And from this desolation Spatalos was born. His form, skeletal and gaunt, bore none of the vitality of the being that came before. He was the echo of balance, corrupted into endless consumption—the embodiment of indulgence without purpose, hunger without end. Spatalos does not create, nor sustain. He consumes, and in consuming, leaves only ruin in his wake. It is said that where he walks, the land remembers what it has lost, and what remains begins to wither in quiet resignation.
- Major Cults and Religious Practices: The main worshipers of Spatalos are the Gnolls of Donatus Stultitia, said to have been born from his corruption.
- Rituals: Although not much is known of the specifics of Gnoll practices, every year there is a major raid, with numerous Gnoll tribes gathering for this sole expedition. During this raid, many hostages are taken, assumed to be used in thier dark rituals to Spatalos.
- Clergy and Temples: Beyond the Gnolls, worship of Spatalos is very rare, as only fools seek to bring to inevitable despair that follows in his wake.
Significant Historical Impact
- Major Plot Points in World History: Spatalos is most well known as the creator of Gnolls. However, his influence has often been felt across Staterum, leading time of great famine and poverty across the lands, particularly in Eastern Kair’Thear.
- Artifacts:
- The Tree of Donatus,
- Spatalos’ Sickle,
Quotes
”Let your desires flow unchecked, for life is fickle and there is no pleasure in restraint.”