M'daess

M'daess, called the snake-mother, was a demigoddess of the sarrukh who arose during the Days of Thunder. She was an aspect of the World Serpent. She was a goddess of purification and of young snakes and serpentfolk.

History & Legend
With the rise of the empires of Mhairshaulk and Isstosseffifil from, the sarrukh came to hold countless creatures in slavery, while all sarrukh lived in freedom and luxury. In time, they decided their fellow sarrukh were simply too important to sacrifice to the World Serpent as they had once done in grisly fashion, but the formerly unworthy enslaved Scaleless Ones were in fact quite suitable to slaughter sacrifice after all. This change in fundamental doctrine caused a split in the faith and in the World Serpent himself.

While the World Serpent agreed in principle that Scaleless Ones were worthy sacrifices, it could not reconcile the sarrukh's breaking of their agreement. Unable to back down from his demands, or force the sarrukh to stick to its terms and risk them converting to a different deity, the World Serpent elected to maintain the letter of the agreement and accommodate his worshipers' evolving needs and demands. Thus the World Serpent divided and created M'daess.

Activity
Her task was to take the souls of "unclean" non-sarrukh sacrifices to the World Serpent and purify them, thus making them equal to sarrukh souls in his eyes.

Symbol
The holy symbol of M'daess was a snake emerging from a cracked egg.

Her favored weapon for her followers was a scythe.

Worshipers
She was worshiped by sarrukh, whom, it should be said, no longer had to be sacrificed and purified.

Spells
A weapon of the deity spell cast by a follower of M'daess produced a +1 merciful scythe.