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Hataam
Trigger warning — this sahkil has themes of drought, drowning and flooding, so if you have concerns about content like that, I suggest you give this one a miss.
The River Eater (planar sahkil tormentor [it/its] / NE) â€
Portfolio: Drought, drowning, stagnation
Realm: Ethereal / Xibalba / The Brackish Fen
Alignment: Neutral Evil
In the rotten depths of Xibalba coils Hataam, the River Eater—a strange and terrible sahkil tormentor. An ancient demon of drought and excess, Hataam despises the speed at which mortals live their lives these days, always changing things, always innovating. Obsessed by stillness and stagnation, this sahkil works to hamper civilisation and prevent progress. Slipping through the cracks between planes, Hataam brings drought or flooding to the rivers of the Prime, tapping into elemental forces of Water and Ooze, Dust and Salt by breaching the barriers and opening the proverbial floodgates.
As the harbinger of both deluge and desiccation, Hataam feeds on the mortal fear that water—that most essential of elements—may either vanish without warning or return as a lethal flood. It can turn an oasis into a dustbowl, or overwhelm the levees of a river burg to turn it into a drowned tomb. Hataam can also manipulate the water inside its enemies too, causing their lungs to fill with brackish water, or turning their blood to dust.
Most of the time though, lazy Hataam is content to watch, lurking in stagnant waters and enjoying the fear of mortals as they drown, or die from thirst. Only when the stillness of his dark pools is disturbed does he unleash the true force of his displeasure.
Hataam’s form is weird and unsettling: Forty feet of shifting, liquid darkness that billows and contracts, flickering between the muddy churn of floodwater and the brittle, dust-choked fissures of a sun-baked wasteland. Its body looks like nothing so much as a pile of flotsam swept along by a tide—a chaotic tangle of bones, skulls, rotting vegetation, and the detritus of waste and loss. This junkpile constantly oozes briny water that scorches the earth to saltpan. It stinks of decay and musty, ancient dust, and is always surrounded by clouds of swarming, biting mosquitos.
Edicts: Drown your enemies, refuse to change your mind in the light of new evidence, throw your body in the way of progress
Anathema: Adopt new societal norms or innovations, save creatures from drowning
Canonical Source: Book of the Damned [PF1e] p133; Divine Mysteries [PF2e] p229, 320-321.
Source: Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: The name of this sahkil comes from combining the Mayan words ‘ha’ (deep) and ‘taam’ (water).