Emla Character Bio

Emlaalth'kir 'Emla'

18, female lowly one, prospective goddess

Appearance- Emla's main appearance is that of a slightly chubby woman in her late twenties with purple skin, long black hair, and multiple monstrous features. These include three green eyes, a pair of goat horns, black furry legs with goat hooves, demonic wings, big bulky hands made of pulsating shadows, a big purple snake tail. As her entire gimmick is being a mother of monsters, she is not limited to this selection of monster parts and she can swap them in and out as she desires. What I'm describing is just her default appearance and presumably what most art of her will use as the basis.

She sometimes takes a human form to interact with her followers, but no matter what form she's in, Emla is a very kind soul who always has a gentle expression of love and when she's looking at her husband, adoration.

Her godly form is that of an amalgamate blob of monster parts surrounding a stylized womb like the one depicted in her sigil. A humanoid yet unrecognizable female figure floats in the center of the womb in the fetal position.

Personality- naive, innocent, nurturing, loving, motherly

Abilities- As a literal god, albeit a minor one, there's a lot to run through here. Let's just say she has the blanket canvas of abilities that most Lovecraftian monstrosities do- powerful psychic power, control over the minds of other lifeforms, her presence inflicts madness on those with weaker minds, a general command over cosmic magic, shape-shifting, very limited omnipresence, and whatever else I'm neglecting to mention. This is all more or less a starting point. I reserve the right to make up shit as I go along and given that a core part of the series is making her stronger Emla will obviously develop more powers as the .

As for personal abilities, Emla is specifically a fertility/motherhood goddess. She is incredibly fertile and anyone blessed by her becomes drastically more fertile and lustful. Her fertility power extends towards the land, making the swampy soil of her home able to support crops and yielding them at a drastically increased rate. Because of the cosmic nature of her powers, the crops often take on strange and unsettling forms, but they're still edible. Fertility powers extend to lust, and Emla will likely have plenty of fun abilities for that. One notable fertility power is she is always lactating a magical pink milk. When children drink it, they become stronger but when an adult drinks it they become aroused.

Her main power is that as a daughter of Mmaarharl, Emla is a super breeder and her children can take on infinite forms. Any woman who is given her mark on their womb as their reproductive organs spiritually linked to Emla's, transforming them into thralls capable of birthing monsters. The resulting offspring biologically belong to the birthmother and Emla at the same time. They will love their birthmothers, but they are implicitly loyal to Emla for obvious reasons. Emla is linked to all of her children, able to feel when they are sad and experience joy when they're happy.

There are two types of children Emla and her followers can birth- broodlings and scions. Both are considered kin and not true outer gods. Broodlings are monsters, that although still very intelligent are nothing more than cannon fodder. Scions are much more humanoid in comparison, with higher power overall and they are capable of developing into lowly ones should Emla become more powerful and advanced past that state herself.

Though Emla is a very powerful being, she's a pacifist and the times where she uses her strength are predictably contained to incidents where her children, followers, or husband are endangered or injured. In most occasions, she prefers to solve problems peacefully and even more so than her husband she is a very convincing person able to make friends and allies with just about anyone.

As a 'mother of monsters', Emla shifts her form around often- at times intentionally and others unconsciously. As an example when she's angry she might develop claws, fangs, and so on before snapping back to her default form.

Emla has a section of the Veil of Dreams all to her own, a lush ecosystem of dreamlike terrain of just about every biome. Known as the Ample Menagerie, many of Emla's and her follower's children are sent here. For plot reasons, it's so that the cast stays thin and more easy to manage. Narratively, Emla's power grows the more this land develops, and as she starts making moves and catching the notice of other outer gods they will be looking for her realm in the veil. The more protection, the better. Plus, it will mean a lot more when one of the girls actually gets a child who sticks around.

Not so much inability as it is a trait of her body, but Emla is always hungry. Being a walking monster fertility factory takes a lot of energy, and keeping her fed is a chore the maids have always struggled with. When feeding, Emla will create nightmare appendages sporting mouths to faster devour wide quantities of food. It's not pretty.

Motivation- Emla is primarily motivated by the drive inside her telling her to create an endless family of monstrous children. She lives for this and her childhood was spent psychically searching throughout the realms for the soul that would become her husband. Emla is reluctant about the cult aspect of her life but building up a good cult and a relationship with her followers is important to her. She knows that she can't just have a big family- if she doesn't take the steps to protect her way of life by increasing her power, then as a lowly one she will be sought out by rivals and destroyed. Still, she relies on Zethras and her closest servants to help her make the decisions she can't make on her own.

Interests- Probably not very shocking for me to say motherhood is Emla's largest interest. She enjoys taking care of her progeny, spending time with them, playing with them, nurturing them, and so on. Emla is also deeply interested in making new children and has an infinite lust for her husband.

Emla also has a slight Disney princess thing going on. Her worldview is very narrow and she's fascinated by things from the world outside her swamp. She enjoys collecting random shit that her maids have given her over the years and always desires more, even if she does understand most of the things she's brought.

Although 'food' is a generic interest, she's also very interested in trying new food whenever she can. Most of her life has been spent eating stolen livestock and swamp creatures, so she's desperate for variety. The downside here is that because she eats so much and so fast, she won't really taste it unless a lot is brought for her.

History- Going to start off with a spoiler here, but Emla is the last child of Mmaarharl and her long deceased original mate L'Deibo. Her father was slain eons ago and because these beings are beyond time and space, Emla only surfaced recently in the modern age, hatching from a cosmic egg eighteen years ago prior to the start of the story. The egg manifested in a palace, known as the Vacuous Cradle, under a lake located in remote western Drerland and before it hatched the presence inside claimed two young ir'athrid girls, Rin and Nia, as her servants.

Emla was born in a toddler's body and like most children of cosmic beings she could talk shortly after her birth, so Rin and Nia were not specifically mother figures to her and their role was more like older sisters/caretakers. They taught her a lot of things, but they didn't change her diapers or anything. Growing up, Emla was a big handful for her maids. She liked to play outside of the castle and would sneak out, often needing to be saved, and keeping her fed was always a constant struggle. The three developed a very strong relationship despite the maid's penchant for bickering with each other.

Rin and Nia continually preached that she needed to build a cult and increase her power, but they knew what an odd one they had on their tentacles. Emla wasn't interested in typical outer god things like warping the minds of innocents and increasing her territory, instead insisting that all things like that wouldn't begin until she found her mate. Because of some inherent knowledge she was born with, Emla knew there was a man out there that was destined to be her other half and she searching for him through magical and psychic means as well as by traversing the Veil of Dreams. She stumbled around for many years, combing through the dreams of countless men until she was fifteen and one finally resonated with her- Zethras Gremorrow.

The dream she found him in was a lonely one reflecting how in all his life he never had a place to belong. Taken from his parents, cast out from the Magicademy, four years on the road wandering and trying different jobs, it all made her feel so bad for Zethras and she tried to go and comfort him but the presence of an outer god was too much for him to take even in a dream. She backed off before it had any lasting effects or got too intense but the message was clear to take things slow and steady.

To keep Zethras a little closer and put him under her protection, Emla planted the seed in his mind to take up residence in Hollobell and she had Rin manipulate things to ensure he found a way to provide for himself until it was time. Rin did away with Lord Baldwin's previous court mage and not so subtly planted the idea to hire Zethras after he applied- and she made sure he applied, as well, drawing a lot of attention to the listing and making townsfolk talk about the position in front of Zethras like they were NPCs. 'Did you hear Lord Baldwin's court mage died the other day? I hear he's so desperate to replace them that he'll take just about anyone...'

For the next couple of years Emla slowly built his mind's resistance to cosmic beings up by visiting him in his dreams and making Rin and Nia ensure Zethras was exposed to artifacts containing small hints of cosmic power, observing him all the while. She saw something in him that no one else did, especially not her maids, who would rather Emla go the route of her mother and forgo a sole mate in favor of building an army of monsters through many fathers. Rin was the most annoyed by her choice, and Nia more amused than anything else. Despite any protests, they followed Emla's commands and helped develop him.

Once his mind reached a sufficient level of basic comprehension, the next step was to give him a more direct taste of knowledge through a intermediate-level introductory tome on the topic of cosmic beings.

she put her plan into action by sending Nia with a simple book that would open his mind even further and allow her to make contact and set into motion the chain of events at the beginning of the story. For the first several books, Emla is relegated to a mostly supporting role because Zethras still has to develop the resistance to be with her without losing his mind. She'll take a human form to give him the mark of L'Deibo, but that's the only contact they'll have. She instead tasks him with mating with Rin and Nia to further build his tolerance. Once he's ready for her, the pair will make their union official and building the cult (and her brood) will begin in earnest.