The Snow-Stained
The Snow-Stained, also called the Bully's Stick and, more ceremonially, the Brass-Beater, is one of the Hours of the Fansus, created by some cancerous infestation of the brain. It is a God-From-Blood from a time that no longer properly exists, except in echoes and shards of glass. It occupies the Tower card in the Fansus Tarot deck. It holds no dominion, but wanders the plumbing of the Mansus unrestricted.
| The Snow-Stained | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Origin | God-from-Blood |
| Titles |
The Snow-Stained The Bully's Stick The Brass-Beater |
| Aspects |
   |
| Date of arrival | 19th Century |
| Owner(s) | a cancerous expansion of the soul into the mind |
Contents
History
From the plumbing of the Mansus, a lead pipe was plucked. Its purpose changed in the hands of an occultist. Glass shattered. Time bent, dented. The occultist fell into it, and all the blood of the things that would never be born, and the terror of the disaster averted. Shards fell from the tower; snow dripped from the coat of its vehicle. They fell together, and together they hid. The Stick was the man, and the man was the Stick--the Brass-Beater, who allows no conclusion. It changes essential nature as it strikes.
Its mind dulled. It sleeps, now, as it walks and as it swings. It dreams of a future where all things are fluid, and where nothing ends. There are few who worship it.
Principles
The Bully's Stick is aligned with Heart, Forge and Edge. It is the damage done; it harms, but never kills, and whatever it harms, it causes to change. It is ugly, hateful, petty and violent. It is rarely invoked by those who expect to live comfortable lives. It is loved by survivors and by brutes in equal measure, for the harm it causes and the conclusions it prevents. Revolutionaries and terrorists pray to it. It has been described as raucous, dynamic and spitefully persistent. It deforms whatever it strikes.
Location
It makes its home in the plumbing of the Mansus, which it is capable of fitting into effortlessly, despite its bulk. In an especially deep place within the Mansus' labyrinthine pipework, it keeps its store of mementos. They contain a great deal of what made the people who owned them what they were; should an enterprising Occultist recover them, those fragments could be invoked.
Relationships
- The Meatgrinder:
- The Aged Bones:
- The Caladrius:
- The Bright-Delver:
- The Architeuthian:
- The Engine of Cycles: The Bully's Stick appreciates the desire for change, but makes it a special point to destroy any part of the Engine it perceives as being related to bringing about endings. Nonetheless, they are more closely aligned than the Bully's Stick is with most.
- The Vizier: The Bully's Stick detests the Vizier for its ordered mind and its desperate need for control. Its failure to prevent the cataclysm that nearly claimed its history is also fresh in its mind.
- The Harvester:
- The Watcher in the Window:
- The Apple-of-the-Eye:
- The Rider: The Rider was the one who informed the occultist who would become the Bully's Stick of the inevitable future. Even so, the Bully's Stick despises predestination, and so it despises the god of seers.
- The Elder Sister:
- The Silver Owl:
- Old Tarnished:
- The Cuckoo:
- The Fanged Bramble:
- The Snow-Stained occupies this slot.
- The Spark:
- The Ferryman: The stagnancy of the dead in the Dolomedes' care offends the Snow-Stained. Were it to find a way to crack open their prison, it would do so without hesitation, almost irregardless of the consequences.
- The Diagram:
- The Anaconda: The Snow-Stained is dimly aware that its continued existence within the walls is due in part to the Anaconda's willingness to tolerate it. It does the Anaconda the courtesy of steering clear of it, though whether this is a conscious decision or not is unclear.
- The Great Serpent:
- The Peacock: The Bully's Stick frequently urges its followers to disrupt the Peacock's parties. Raucous as it is, it does dislike the way they tend to carry on.
- Snake Tail with Appendages: The Snow-Stained approves of its anarchic nature and its desire to open. It is less fond of its nature as a God-From-Nowhere.
- The Insidious:
- The Mendicant Without: The Bully's Stick has no strong feelings about the Mendicant one way or another, but as in all things, it finds the separation of walls dissatisfying. It has attempted in the past to create a hole through which the Mendicant could pass, and will likely do so again in the future.
- The Unmirror
Items
Tools
Ingredients
Books
The Grey Lad of Krous Street ( ) ( ): A short, trashy story of violence and damage.