#paphos

"Umbra" © Austin Mengler, accessed at his deviantArt here

[Sponsored by @coolclaytony, and I gotta say, thank you. Their concept, a risen kyton that acts as a fairy godmother for body image, fits perfectly into the themes that have been running through my writing for more than ten years now. A creature that can sculpt your body to order and wants to do that to help people is pure wish fulfillment to a trans girl like me, and I'm sure to a lot of other people as well. The name is thematic to both bodily transformation and wish fulfillment: Paphos is the daughter of Pygmalion and Galatea (although she's not called Galatea yet) in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

The CR was chosen for play purposes; in my experience, high single digit levels are when players start to look at their characters and think, maybe I should have built them differently. So the paphos acts as a way to have a character respec in an in-universe way. Plus, they're at a good level to shift from "this character can save our asses if we get in over our heads" at lower levels and "they can generally take care of themselves but still might need to be rescued from a powerful enemy" at higher levels.

If you'd like to sponsor your own Codex entries, see bonus monsters, or just chip in and help a girl out, visit the Creature Codex Patreon here!]

Paphos CR 8 LN Outsider (extraplanar) This woman has a beautiful face and idealized proportions, but her arms are mechanical, a riot of hooks, blades, pinchers and tendrils. She wears a tight fitting robe seemingly made out of darkness.

A paphos is a patron of body image and autonomy, a surgeon that can sculpt flesh like marble and uses this power to make people’s dreams come true. They are an example of a risen fiend; paphoi come from the ranks of the kytons. Most paphoi were once kyton evangelists, those who delighted in the freedom of using their bodies as a canvas and wanting to grant that ability to others without imposing their ideas or suffering on the target. Strangely, a few paphoi were once anatomical idols, demonstrating that those constructs’ belief that they can make themselves into full outsiders is true, but not in a way their kyton masters would appreciate. Unsurprisingly, true kytons despise paphoi, and the feeling is mutual. Most paphoi live somewhat secretive lives to avoid attracting kyton attention, and many of them have left the Shadow Plane for safer domains such as Axis or the Material Plane.

Paphoi believe strongly in medical consent, and anyone seeking out their services is informed of the costs and consequences ahead of time. A paphos can perform plastic surgery that makes mortal surgeons mad with envy, being able to completely change a face, alter a subject’s gender expression to order, and even grant creatures hair, eye or skin colors far outside the norm for their species. If given more time, a paphos can even alter a subject’s body and brain to make them smarter, stronger, faster or more charming. These alterations do come at a cost, but one negotiated ahead of time: physical strength for less dexterity, trading charisma for book smarts, or the like. Paphoi can sculpt their own faces and bodies much more easily, and may do so to demonstrate a possible look to a client or simply for aesthetic purposes.

Most paphos avoid combat if they can help it, but will fight to defend themselves or against an enemy of bodily autonomy. They are advocates for ethical fleshwarping practices and oppose those who force their will upon the bodies of others, including drow, zern and the cult of Zepar. The arms of a paphos are fully mechanical, and can compress down to dexterous hands for delicate surgery or expand into nightmarish oversized claws. A paphos can alter these claws to their liking as well, granting them weapon properties to suit their needs. Against angry mobs convinced a paphos is “tampering in God’s domain”, they may use disarming, tripping or nonlethal weapons to keep their enemies alive through a fight. If fighting evil fleshwarpers, on the other hand, a paphos fights to kill.

Zoalios from Paphos

* 6th century BCE

* Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm

* Cyprus Numismatic Project

When you look up at the vastness of the nightsky everything becomes obsolete or part of everything, a bigger mysterious purpose?