Ix Tab
Ix Tab is an Earthbound demon of House of Rabisu.
She is currently bound in within a reliquary of a massive stone altar that resides at a museum in Monterrey.
Biography
Ancient Mayan legend speaks of Ix Tab, the goddess of suicide. This being is usually portrayed hanging from the sky by a noose. Mayans believed that suicides, like priests, warriors killed in battle and mothers who died in childbirth went immediately to Heaven upon death. The being who inspired those legends, however, still lives, and is a far cry from what the Mayans imagined.
Centuries upon centuries ago, the demon who would become known as Ix Tab was summoned to Earth by a band of shamans in eastern Central America. What means of summoning the demon they used is unknown, and it is not likely to ever be uncovered — Ix Tab (then known by another name, of course) decimated the village in a mad rage, saving the body of a young girl to inhabit. She quickly discovered, of course, that any human body she possessed began to disintegrate almost immediately. Unwilling or unable to devote the time necessary to bond with a reliquary or form a cult, Ix Tab began moving west, massacring anything in her path and feasting on the Faith thus released. After destroying a village, she would inhabit the body of a young girl and move onward. In time, some villages heard of her depredations and left sacrifices of young girls for Ix Tab. These sacrifices staved off death for only a short time, however. Ix Tab is a Devourer, and not given to negotiation or placation.
Yet her bloody rampages ended when the jungle’s ancient protectors, the jaguar-men called the Balam, rose up and destroyed her… or so they thought. In fact, they only managed to force her to become spirit for a brief moment, after which she finally took a reliquary. This object, a massive stone altar, escaped the skinchangers’ notice, and they disappeared into the jungles whence they came, sure of their victory.
Ix Tab lost little in the way of power, however, because the altar was still in use. A cult in the area used that altar in reverence to their goddess of suicide. A volunteer would kneel on the altar and then slit her own throat, while the others watched and chanted. Over time, a curious legend arose — the body of young girl who performed this act might rise again and disappear into the jungle to hunt.
With the coming of the Spaniards, the cult was decimated, and Ix Tab sank into slumber. Her altar became overgrown by vegetation, and not until shortly before the Maelstrom did she darken Creation again.
In 1998, a crew clearing a section of jungle happened across the altar. It was immediately transferred to a museum in Monterrey, yet still Ix Tab slept.
And then one evening, a young girl named Maria Dominguez wandered through the museum. Depressed and a little unbalanced, she read the placard next to the altar and saw that once, people had died and been reborn on the stone slab. Taking a razor blade from her pocket, she climbed onto the altar and cut her own throat.
While her body was removed before Ix Tab could rouse the strength to possess it (a good thing for anyone in the city of Monterrey) her hot blood, given willingly on the altar, woke the ancient demon. In the weeks that followed, she began building a cult of followers out of anyone who lingered long enough at the altar for her to invade their thoughts. By the time the Maelstrom opened cracks into Hell, Ix Tab was ready once more to take human form and continue her march westward. That she has not done so is due almost entirely to the efforts of her only demonic servant, Naraumiel.
The Cult
Ix Tab’s cult comprises mainly young locals, some of whom have toured the museum on school outings and been entranced by the demon. The cult’s tenets are similar to those espoused by the native people who fed Ix Tab with their blood and Faith so long ago. Namely, they believe that to commit suicide in deference to Ix Tab ensures a place in Heaven. Likewise, anyone who dies in defense of the goddess reaches paradise. Ix Tab has enthralled several of the most physically capable of her cult, granting them enhanced strength and sometimes access to her martial lore. While most of her cultists are teenagers, only a few older than 18, they are easily a match for anyone who might come looking for the altar.
As much as Ix Tab wants to be free, she has abstained from possessing the body of any of her followers thus far. As the cult has grown, six young women have committed suicide on the altar, all of them in full view of the rest of the cult. (One of the few adult members of the cult is the museum’s head of security, and he facilitates both the late-night rituals and any cleanup required thereafter.) While Ix Tab accepts tribute from either gender, she prefers that men prove themselves by dying in battle. Of course, this would be easier in Mexico City, and the demon is contemplating having her reliquary moved to a larger museum in that city so as to build a larger cult base. Since most of her followers are children, however, and therefore unable to simply pick up and move with her, she has not pursued this plan yet.
The Demons
Before the rebellion, the angel who would become Ix Tab was a minor Elohim in the House of the Wild. She was responsible for putting finishing touches on predators, such as the subtle shadings of fur or the curves of fangs. Her immediate superior was an angel called Naraumiel, and it was he who encouraged her to join Lucifer’s revolt. It was a decision he has come to regret.
During the War of Wrath, Naraumiel watched his protégé grow bloodthirsty and vicious, even toward humans. As the war ended, the more powerful Devourer decided to destroy her before she could inflict greater suffering on the world, but he never got the chance. Both demons were flung into the Abyss.
After the Maelstrom, Naraumiel found himself in the body of a surgeon in Texas. Struggling to remember the events of the war, he let his instincts guide him to Mexico and then to Monterrey, where he found to his horror that his former subordinate — the demon that he had inadvertently created by talking her into joining the rebellion — was now leading innocent children to suicide. Ix Tab, as she was now known, was far too powerful for him to confront directly, but since she never knew of his intention to kill her, she accepted him as a servant. She charges him with protecting her from any supernatural incursion and advising her on the state of the world.
Naraumiel is in a tight predicament, indeed. He knows that he does not have the power to directly challenge Ix Tab, and he doesn’t know how much longer he can talk her out of possessing one of her victims and rampaging across the land as she once did. He has, however, heard legends of her defeat at the claws of the jaguar-men, and he wonders if these beings are myth or reality.
Character Sheet
Ix Tab, The Suicide Goddess
Nature: Judge
Demeanor: Judge
Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3, Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 3, Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Wits 4
Abilities: Alertness 2, Awareness 2, Brawl 3, Crafts 2, Expression 2, Intimidation 3, Leadership 2, Melee 5, Recall 4, Stealth 5, Survival 5, Subterfuge 3
Backgrounds: Cult 2, Hoard 2, Mastery 3, Thralls 2, Worship 1
Relic Type: Perfect (20 Faith points)
Willpower: 6
Faith: 8
Torment: 10
Urges: Emotion 4, Flesh 5, Thought 2
Apocalyptic Features: Armor, Claws/Teeth, Cloak of Shadows, Extra Health Levels, Horns, Lashing Tail, Sense the Hidden, Supernatural Vision
Grotesqueries: Abhorrent Sounds, Decaying, Eyes, Glow, Skin, Slime, Unstable, Vestigial Limbs
Lore: Beast 5, Death 3, Earth 3, Flesh 5, Violation 3, Realms 3, Wild 4
Reference
- DTF: Demon: Earthbound, p. 150-151
