The Anaconda

The Anaconda
Origin	Blood and Flesh
Titles	The Anaconda The Rib-Key The Shedder of Skins The Bedaggered Adder
Names	The Anaconda-Decieved The Joined Thora, Wyrm-Watcher Elaine, Wyrmspeaker
Aspects
Date of arrival	c. 1100 B.C.E.
Owner(s)	Anaconda With Sword

The Anaconda (The Shedder of Skins, The Rib-Key, The Bedaggered Adder, once known as Scáthach) is the Twenty-First Hour of the Fansus, created by Anaconda With Sword. It is either a God-From-Flesh or a God-From-Blood, ascending to Hourhood after the Segmenting of the Serpent. Its aspects are Knock, Winter, and Moth in decreasing order of importance. The Anaconda's spheres are wild things, curses, and assassinations.

The Rite of the Lindorm Historian has been claimed to relate to the Anaconda.

Its tarot card is Judgement.

Description

Appearance

The Anaconda takes the appearance of a vast constrictor, typically carrying a sword or some sort of weapon. It is this form which most adepts will view and potentially even interact with. This is also the traditional depiction of the Anaconda in occult art. The Anaconda has often been conflated with Jörmungandr or other "world serpents," but has thankfully not been known to leave the Mansus since its ascension to Hourhood.

On occasion, the Anaconda has been recorded as appearing as a genderless humanoid figure with seven snakeskin shifts. There are no known records of the Anaconda's motives for taking this form, but they always correspond to deaths. It does not please the Anaconda to be depicted in this form, and those who have often die as well, their works going missing.

Principles

The Anaconda is an Hour of assassinations, of the silent death which takes away all sound and breath. Thieves, smugglers, and those who do not wish to be noticed often call upon the Anaconda to keep them from sight. Explorers, naturalists, and wanderers have also called upon the Anaconda to let them reach paths others have not tread, and to keep their travels from disturbing the places they walk. Interestingly, those fond of bad puns have also been known to invoke the Anaconda's wit, and the Hour itself may purposefully make those puns itself.

Worship

Cults

The Ouroborines, domain of the Undawned: the cult which foolishly revered both the Wrong-Serpent and the Rib-Key. Their motto was To break the cycle.

Judicar's Order, domain of the Scaled Ones: A cult solely devoted to the Anaconda, where the exalted shed their identity and their skins to become something greater than they were before. Their motto is From order, justice. From justice, peace. From peace, knowledge.

The Garrison, domain of the Sentries: A cult devoted to the Anaconda, with the occasional secondary worship of Hours like Old Tarnished, where the exalted guard the mortal world from the ever-encroaching dangers of the Mansus. Their motto is We stand guard, at the end.

Mark

"Take off your skin, and whip the flesh beneath. Again. And again. Seven times, for seven shifts, and the seven skins beneath it. Once you bathe in the lye for the last time, you will begin anew." These are the Marks of Exploration, fraught with danger to body and mind.

1. Temptation: Exploration: It has occurred to me that I hold the key to new frontiers.
2. Dedication: Exploration: I have dedicated myself to appeasing my curiosity. I will find those places that have remained unfound, no matter the cost.
3. Ascension: Exploration: The Anaconda may have touched me, yet there is no visible Mark. She has passed unseen, and I remember nothing of the ritual nor of those places I have ventured to before. I know this to be the Third Mark.
4. Ascension: Exploration: The Fourth Mark has brought hungers to my mind, and stillness to my soul. I venture to familiar places and leave finding them strange. Yesterday I watched the muscles beneath my skin during the bath of lye. Tomorrow, perhaps, I shall do so again.
5. Ascension: Exploration: The Fifth Mark leaves my skin fragile, and easily torn. It pulls away with the slightest wound, and leaves the skin below free. I can stay still for days, watching the movements of the little things in the dirt.
6. Ascension: Exploration: The holes in me grow ever-wider. My skin is pale and peeling, like layers of paper imperfectly glued to a frame. I have never done this before. I have always been doing this. This is the Sixth Mark.
7. The Shedding of Skins:: I have passed through the Tricuspid Gate, smooth and sinuous as a serpent. No, I am a serpent. Have I always been a serpent? My memory is full of openings. My name is... My name is... My name is... Who am I?

Servants

Emanations

• Stollenwurm: The cat-headed Stollenwurm resembles others of its kin; two-limbed and long-bodied. When you pat it, perhaps you will feel scales, or hair like a copper brush, or teeth like pearl knives.
• Whiteworm: Seeing a Whiteworm is only lucky if you are not the one in its jaws.

Names

Thora, Wyrm-Watcher

"I wonder what you look like on the inside."
Aspects: 12, 12; Proto-Germanic Teacher; Deceiver
Temptations: 10, 2, [insert Nowhere-thing here]

  Summon a Name of the Anaconda:
  Like the Hour she serves, Thora studies the corpses of that which comes from Nowhere. Knock will permit her to enter, and Histories will remind her to keep to dissecting that which comes from Nowhere- hopefully.
  
  Thora has eyes like a snake, and hair like copper wire. Her smile is the crescent blade of the silver knife. If I touch her skin, my hand will come back bloodied.

Elaine, Wyrmspeaker

"..."
Aspects: 12, 12; Devourer
Temptations: Unsummonable

  The Wyrmspeaker:
  Like the Hour they serve, Elaine is silent as the snow. In response to being addressed, sometimes they echo what was spoken previously or utilize one of their five phrases, but oftentimes they simply say nothing. Their memory and intellect, however, are razor-sharp. They move slowly, but have never been known to make a false or needless motion. 
  
  Elaine is scaled and fanged, with pearlescent skin that has the sharpness of their teeth. One does not touch the Wyrmspeaker, and one does not harass them. They suffer a peculiar and inexplicable terror of the recently-invented vacuum cleaner, the usage of which resulted in their one sanction for biting another Minister in The One Sanctum.

The Diadophian

"Why, doesn't this look like fun?"
Aspects: 12, 12; Deceiver
Temptations: 10, 2, 4

Summon the Dancing Diadophian:

  One of the few of Bayal's Second History inhabitants that did not ascend to the Aquarium, the Diadophian serves as the Anaconda's eyes when needed. Provide Forge for the gleaming city of Bayal, and Grail for the rotten core within its golden spires.
  
  The Diadophian dances into existence with a swirl of gold and red velvet. Her appearance is almost exactly that of a young child, although no parent would dare dress their daughter in such a dress, or clasp that gold collar around her neck. She smiles without showing teeth, closing her eyes to hide their golden color and slit pupils.

Lancelot, Penitent

"I am the alienated, the ridiculed, the despised. There is no need to praise my name."
Aspects: 12, 12; No Rebellion

Cu Chulainn, The Serpent's Shadow

"Ahh, this is boring. Let's go fight!"
Aspects: 12, 12; Devourer

Buorm, The Yersine

"Kill and eat." Aspects: 12, 12; Devourer
Temptations: 10, 2, 4

Summon Pestilence:

  Where sieges grow long, where poisoners ply their trade in wells and stockpiles, where the corpses of the dead are thrown over the walls, there Buorm is found. Whet his appetites with Grail, and protect yourself with Heart, and he will come to you.
  
  Buorm is an ugly thing, purple-brown like a bruised arm where he isn't black like necrosis. His eyes are a hideous, milky blue... But who would dare to look away from them? There's a beauty in those wells, if you just look a little closer. A little closer...

Locations

The Fansus

The Anaconda has no one location in the Mansus. It curates the Wyrm's Museum, swims within the Aquarium, coils around the spires of the Golden City, and chases the Tail around and around. It holds no court, but neither does it reject the company of wanderers who happen upon it.

The Histories

• A Decrepit Asylum: An aspiring psychologist once attempted to prove his theory of pan-human archetypes by sending children into the Mansus. It would be distinctly unwise to enter the place he experimented within, but there may be something there of use.
• Probably a Colony: No one could be said to have won the War of the Doors, not even the Hours who fought in it. All that remains is a pile of corpses, and what they carried on them when they died.
• Probably Not a Colony: No one could be said to have won the War of the Doors, not even the Hours which fought in it. The simultaneous crushing and rending of the Ways has left this area scarred, and even a slight injury can send horrors spilling out from the skin.

Items

Tools

• Shed Garrote (8, 12): It constricts.
• Pass-Fang (8): Keys are attuned to a certain configuration of wards. This tooth is attuned to all of them.

Ingredients

• Scale Whip (2): Useful for some Rites.

Influences

• A Charter of Passage (4, 8): This boon from the Anaconda grants the bearor the right of passage. Eerily, it does not specify passage through what. Decays into a Pass-Fang.

Books

• The Blue Book (2): A study of dreams from individuals with persistent social deficits, compiled by an analytical psychologist. The psychologist discusses the archetype of the Giant Serpent in conjunction with inborn social isolation. Unfinished.
• Two Beings (2, Contentment): A fable written in the style of a children’s story about a squid and a reptile, and the friendship they share. The illustrations are typical of books written by the People’s Committee for Openings.
• Juliette Eunectes (2, 2): A parody of the libertine novel Juliette, wherein the characters are all different types of serpents. Why are you reading this, again?
• The Tears of the Conjoined (4): An acrostic poem in the style of the tomb of Silo of Oviedo; each page contains numerous ways of reading the same phrase.
• What Might be the Truth (10, 10): A compilation of advice for the aspiring explorer. In Old Norse.
• Princess Lindworm (12, Rite of the Lindorm Historian): An ancient fairy tale, in its original form. In Proto-Germanic.

Rites

• Rite of the Lindorm's Creation: "In certain places or occasions of power, the Rib-Key locks the essence of a being into their body until the prescribed rites are completed. The experience is unsettling for all, and excruciatingly painful for the assistant." Requires an influence, an assistant, and lore; consumes the assistant.

Relationships

• The Meatgrinder: A confusing, albeit surprisingly cherished, child. At first begrudgingly tolerated, but the continued attempts at connection managed to win the Anaconda over. They'll learn the Law someday, if the Anaconda has anything to say about it.
• The Architeuthian: These two Hours have typically been considered to be friends. The Anaconda has never needed to break into the Aquarium, and the Names known as the Anaconda-Decieved and the Joined have long been under the Architeuthian's watchful gaze. It has been said that they collaborated at least on Platypode-Plague, and perhaps have done other things in other Histories.
• Snake Tail with Appendages: The Anaconda chases the Tail like the Ouroboros of myth. The two shall continue their battle until the Great Serpent is brought to the Fansus once again.
• The Engine of Cycles: The Anaconda despises this Hour for what it did to the Tail.
• The Peacock: Although the Anaconda is responsible for the imprisonment of the Peacock, the Ways always seem to allow his servants to deliver messages to the Crone.
• Old Tarnished: The Anaconda feels great responsibility for the existence and predicament of this Hour, and can often be found in the Golden City because of this. It has been rumored that the Anaconda has occasionally even deferred to this Hours advice about human affairs, as it has been inhuman for centuries, if it even ever was such a thing.
• The Spark: There is no record of these two Hours interacting. However, the idea to sacrifice everything and turn one's self into a giant snake surely came from somewhere.
• The Cuckoo: The Cuckoo's nest fell from a broken branch and sunk into the mire beneath. No one witnessed the cause, no one was there to say that any hour at all might have done such a thing. The fact that it put the Cuckoo in a prison of her own devising surely indicates that it was her own fault, right? The Anaconda may dislike the Cuckoo, and often chide or thwart that Hour, but certainly no one could ever claim that it had struck against the Cuckoo.
• The Silver Owl: The Anaconda has been remarkably lenient towards the Strigiforme Slag's transgressions. Perhaps it can understand the injustice of her situation. Perhaps it merely does not care enough to stop her from harassing the Engine.
• The Bright-Delver: The Anaconda has been known to refer to the Bright-Delver as its elder sister, and can often be tempered by this Hour's gentleness. The Delver is rarely cheated or tricked by mortals, as the Anaconda responds swiftly and finally to those who hurt its sibling.
• The Harvester: Along with the Engine of Cycles, the Harvester has gained the Anaconda's ire after what happened to the Tail.
• The Snow-Stained: Although this Hour can be highly disruptive, the Anaconda has been notably more lenient to it than it has been to other Hours. Let no adept claim that the Anaconda does not recognize unique talent where it sees it.
• The Aged Bones: Both Hours are friends of the Architeuthian, and it is no coincidence that the Ways to the Throne-Eternal twist and contort if one who means harm to her walks them. There is, however, no record of the two Hours ever meeting.
• The Mendicant Without: After the Mendicant disobeyed the Great Serpent's decree, breaking the truce within the Fourth History, the Anaconda was the Hour which exiled the Mendicant from the Fansus. Only the Delver's interference prevented the Anaconda from slaying the Mendicant on the spot; if the Delver was to be harmed by the Mendicant, that safety would surely be nullified.
• The Anvil: The Anaconda and the Anvil supposedly collaborated on the Gilded Gate, and other projects.
• The Maker: The Anaconda and the Maker disliked each other immensely when the latter still existed. The Anaconda does not like being bothered or touched, and the Maker was interested in improving it further when it was still merely a Long. It has been said that the Anaconda assisted the Anvil in the construction of the Gilded Gate for the imprisonment of the Maker alone as much as for the preservation of the Fansus.
• The Deceiver: The Anaconda has always had complicated feelings about this complicated Hour. Followers of the Anaconda never trafficked with it if at all possible, and neither did the Hour. Despite the Anaconda's status as judicator of the rules of the Fansus, it was not the one to slay the Deceiver.
• The Ferryman: As a former Name of the Great Serpent, the Anaconda is aware of the deal the Dolomodes was made to accept. While many of the Great Serpent's more whimsical rules have fallen by the wayside since its journey, the Anaconda keeps a watchful eye out to ensure that this deal remains kept.
• The Vizier: While the Anaconda has never considered this Hour to be trustworthy, as a fellow former Name of the Great Serpent, these two often shared goals. The Anaconda has great respect for the Vizier's governing acumen, something which it does not share. When these two Hours shared the same goals, the Mansus flourished.
• The Void-In-Skins: The Anaconda worked to corral this Hour as a Name, and now that it is an Hour as well, takes the containment of this and other Hours from Nowhere very seriously.
• The Great Serpent: The Great Serpent was the Hour which took the Anaconda as its Name, before the Segmenting. The Anaconda is deeply loyal to what it perceives as its patron's wishes, and takes on the duties which those wishes entail with great responsibility. A Name of the Deceiver once claimed to have heard the Anaconda refer to the Great Serpent as "Father," although all claims made by adherents of the Deceiver should be taken with a grain of salt.