#tormanu

Tormanu first hatched on the plane of Ergamon.

Tormanu's intelligence is unlike most sapient creatures. No individual head is intelligent enough to read, speak, or reason through abstract concepts. But with all seven heads working in harmony through the magic of their music, collectively they produce an emergent intelligence that is smarter and wiser than most humanoid individuals.

@flavoracle‘s hydra ‘walker, Tormanu. The design is Dave’s, not mine, as is the character. The art is @dancing-sword‘s on this version. The set symbol is @akroveros ‘s Bant symbol after Dave’s suggestion. Alternate art/effects versions are available under the read more

(I had to look this song up so I could respond to this ask. And for that discovery, I am grateful, @my-keys!)

Tormanu never sings the exact same song twice, so nothing recorded could ever really be considered "their song."

Elani would absolutely try to see how many marshmallows she could fit in her mouth, but would nearly choke herself trying to force just a quarter of one in her mouth.

Considering their age, not as many as you'd think. Communicating with Tormanu requires a lot of patience and a willingness to think differently about communication. They rarely use words to communicate, and making the rookie mistake of focusing on any one head during a conversation is a surefire way to offend their other heads.

They know Ugin for sure, and he is probably the closest thing they have to a friend, though their interactions are still spread out over centuries.

Tormanu and Azor may have encountered each other back when he still had his spark, but I doubt they would have seen much benefit in getting to know one another. Any attempt by Azor to bring "order" to Tormanu's heads would have been met with strong and immediate resistance, and Azor probably would have written off the Hydra as a lost cause.

Urza may have learned of Tormanu, but considered them both an unlikely ally or enemy in his machinations, so he would've largely ignored them.

I can imagine it very likely that Freyalise would have encountered Tormanu, and perhaps even had occasion to interact with them. So there's a good chance that Tormanu knew her while she was alive.

Beyond that, I can't think of any other specific planeswalkers that Tormanu knows.

That sounds AWESOME!!! I'd love to read it!

Yes, each of Tormanu's heads has their own brains, each with its own personality and temperament.

Arguments among the heads are rare since their planeswalker spark ignited, but they do occasionally occur (approximately once a century.) When the heads are fighting and out of harmony, they cannot planeswalk, they are unable to communicate with other intelligent beings, and they are much less effective at catching prey to eat.

Tormanu doesn't really choose who they strengthen with their magic. They simply sing, and the harmonious chorus can he heard for hundreds of miles. The magical aura of this music is so strong that the elements themselves fall into its rhythm, the wind and waves keep time with the beat, and even geysers and other geothermal activities that have been dormant for ages will swell at the crescendo of a verse.

Within the sound of the music, wild plants and animals will grow in strength, vitality, and fertility in relation to how close they are to the source of the sound. Anything domesticated or tamed will gradually become wild again under the music's influence, growing stronger as they become wilder.

Tomanu gives virtually no thought to whether something is weak or strong, because compared to them, everything is weak. The concept of a "worthy opponent" is a totally foreign concept to them because they haven't encountered anything that could challenge since they gained their emergent intelligence and ignited their spark eons ago.

They have seven immense hearts and their hide is thicker than most swords are long. Their strength is measured on a seismic scale. Their jaws have a bite force comparable to the sheering of tectonic plates.

Each of their necks is approximately the same length and width of a full-grown redwood tree. And trying to cut off one of their heads would be about as difficult as chopping down a redwood in a single chop (before it snaps you up with dozens of obsidian-sharp teeth.) And even if you managed to succeed at cutting off one head, it would just fully grow back within a decade anyway.

For all these reasons, and more, the only real threat to Tormanu is fighting and discord between their own heads.

Narratively, this means that Tormanu is not very useful as a protagonist or central character in a story, but they can be great as a side character or force of nature. (Either to serve as a help to the protagonist, a challenge to get in the way, or even just a feature of the landscape to avoid.)