Sahkil Tormentors

Sahkil Tormentors

Trigger warning — the sahkil’s entire schtick is to induce fears and phobias, so if you have concerns about content like that, I suggest you give this fiend family a miss altogether!

Home Planes: Deep Ethereal / Xibalba; Nether

Tormentor	Portfolio
Ananshea †	Brutality, torture, wild animals
Chamiaholom †	Domination, hopelessness, mortality
Charg †	Catastrophic decline, complacency, monsters
Dachzerul †	Deadly pranks, stalkers, sudden death
Eil †	Incurable ailments, premature demise
Hataam †	Drought, drowning, stagnation
Him	Suffocation, nightmares, and sleep paralysis
Iggeret †	Darkness, empty places, pits
Kakasbal ‡	Selfishness, betrayal, treason
Kasadeya ‡	Industry, parasitism, seduction
Lilauss ‡	Dolls, dread, and the uncanny valley
Nameless †	Delusions of authority, doubt, torment
Ozranvial †	Despair, restless spirits, sadism
Shawnari †	Isolation, loneliness, lost time
Velgaas †	Emotional manipulation, emptiness, ignorance
Vermillion Mother †	Fecundity, overgrowth, psychoactive plants
Xiquiripat †	Evisceration, fatal falls, massacres
Zipacna †	Avoiding responsibility, shifting earth, violence

Sahkil is from † Pathfinder lore; ‡ homebrew

In the deepest reaches of the Ethereal reign the sahkil tormentors—the apex predators of terror. These fiends embody the primal fears that have haunted mortal minds since they first discovered the emotion of dread. Each tormentor claims dominion over a specific terror: the fear of failure, the dread of isolation, the phobia of drowning, the anxiety of one’s inevitable death. No matter their particular obsessions though, all tormentors share certain awful traits—they themselves are immune to fears, they possess the ability to phase between the Ethereal and the Prime Material planes at will, and they can command lesser sahkils through raw power. intimidation, and the terrible charisma that comes from being fear made manifest. Their intense gaze can shatter even the strongest minds, and encounters with them can curse a sod with new with phobias that persist beyond death itself.

The tormentors rule their nightmare kingdoms through a feudal system of terror, with each commanding dozens of lesser sahkils—pakalchis of insecurity, ximtals of isolation, qolok of yearning, and dozens of other specialized terrorvores who serve as bullies, stalkers, or patient ambushers in their dreadful masters’ campaigns against mortal sanity. Unlike the rigid hierarchies of devils or the chaotic free-for-all of demons, sahkil society operates on a principle of specialized dominion: each tormentor carves out territories based on their particular obsession with fear, rarely stepping on each other’s philosophical toes. A tormentor obsessed with drowning won’t poach victims from one who specializes in social isolation—there’s plenty of terror to go around, and their hands-off pact yields richer harvests of fear than competition.

The tormentors are ancient beings—after all, mortals have been afraid of the unknown for a very long time indeed. The first tormentors were originally psychopomp ushers whose minds were poisoned against the eternal cycle of souls, and sought to build their own terrible portfolios of power. Many tormentors are also linked with the ancient Maya pantheon, particularly the Dread Lords of Xibalba—the “Place of Fright” that serves as the underworld of the Maya. Fearsome bloods like Chamiaholom (“the Skull Staff”) and Xiquiripat (“the Flying Scab”) are demipowers of death who turn corpses into skeletons and put poison into cutters’ blood. Graybeards believe the first sahkil tormentors were drawn to Xibalba like leeches to a fresh meal, and the Maya powers welcomed them as useful vassals. Cutters should pray they will never encounter one of them face to face, for they will almost certainly be doomed.