Ammut
Ammuts are rare, immense fiends that roam the deserts of Osirion and the Black Desert with an insatiable hunger for evil or powerful souls.1
Appearance
Ammuts have the head of a crocodile, the mane and torso of a male lion, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus. Their fur colour ranges from sandy to dark brown. Ammuts measure 20 feet long and nine feet tall, and weigh up to 10 tons.2 Fire burns inside an ammut, resulting in sand coalescing into glass on its face and on the desert floor it passes through. Desert guides call these signs blaze bowls and avoid areas where an ammut might hide. When an ammut dies, the fire quickly consumes its corpse, leaving behind little but ash and glass.3
Ecology
Ammuts are picky eaters, only eating the souls of evil individuals or experienced adventurers. They disdain creatures of inferior intellect and leave them alone, claiming that their souls are dull. An interview with an ammut was published in Volume 36 of the Pathfinder Chronicles: the interviewee, after dismissing the interviewer, Tarana Geshepalamori, as a 'bland' soul, shared that ammuts taste souls like chefs taste food, and the most delicious souls are those that have faced (or especially inflicted) great suffering and evil.1
Ammuts never tire, and are willing to stalk prey for hundreds of miles before striking, but rarely need to do so, as they can daze foes with a high-pitched scream, dominate them to convince them to approach, and see through the most powerful illusions. It is unknown how long they live, or if they even age at all.2
Habitat
Ammuts lair in ruins scattered across the desert, usually the abandoned temples of Ancient Osirian deities.4 Outside their lairs, ammuts bury themselves in sand to wait for meals.2 Only two dozen sightings have been confirmed in Osirion's libraries, though it is likely that many other encounters ended with no survivors. Based on reports of the blaze bowls, Osirian scholars have estimated that there are from twenty to thirty ammuts living between the Junira River and the River Sphinx. Another has been sighted near the ruins of Tumen.3 Expeditions into the Black Desert have revealed that ammuts live in this region as well.1
It is unknown exactly from where ammuts originated. It is generally agreed that ammuts came to Golarion from another plane, but scholars are in disagreement whether their lineage stems from devils, divs, or daemons. According to ancient Osirian texts, all ammuts are descended from an ur-ammut more powerful than all existing ones combined that judged the souls of the dead (a role already fulfilled by Pharasma).3
Society
Ammuts live alone, and their social structures and reproduction (if any) are unknown. Few peaceful encounters with an ammut have been recorded, suggesting that they have little interest other than eating souls. Sometimes, merchants in Eto or Shiman-Sekh claim to foreigners and treasure hunters that they are selling a piece of an ammut's body for an extreme price. Native Osirians know how to ignore these fraudsters, but foreigners might be gullible enough to be fooled.3
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 . “Adventure Toolbox” in Lord of the Black Sands, 77. Paizo Inc., 2020
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 . “Bestiary” in Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh, 82. Paizo Inc., 2014
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 . “Bestiary” in Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh, 83. Paizo Inc., 2014
- ↑ The deities Ra, Horus, Anubis, Osiris, Ma'at, Isis, and Thoth stopped answering prayers in 4724 AR after events described in War of Immortals. The ramifications of this change in this context might not yet be defined in a canon source. See Meta:Osirian pantheon.