Meta:Fleshwarping
Retcon
Paizo retroactively removed drow from the Pathfinder campaign setting as part of the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project. A canon replacement for drow in this context might not exist. See Meta:Drow.
Fleshwarping was closely tied to the drow prior to this retcon, and the ramifications for the retroactive removal of drow from the campaign setting are not yet fully known. Monster Core 152–153 revised the origins of grothluts and irnakurses and more exclusively associated the practice's origins with Haagenti. It also removed many explicit ancestry-specific connections between fleshwarp types.
Related assertions removed from or edited in this article include:
- It refers to two different practices: true fleshwarping wherein the entire body is violently transformed into another form and fleshcrafting wherein the body is transformed by mutation and/or replacing body parts with the features of vermin.1
True fleshwarping
- Most fleshwarping subjects come from drow stock. While the drow often capture members of other races and choose fleshwarping as a means of eliminating the threat they pose without actually killing them, they find far more candidates for these alterations among their own kind. A drow who instigates a rebellion against an established matron is sure to become a drider. Other candidates include any drow who are born with birth defects or mental deficiencies, caught after committing a vicious crime against another drow who is politically in favor at the time, or who simply find themselves on the outskirts of drow society and run afoul of the wrong house.2
Fleshwarps
- Victims of the twisted drow art of fleshwarping are known as fleshwarps. The best known fleshwarps are the arachnid-bodied driders but there are numerous other forms of these abominations as well. What creature a victim becomes in the process of fleshwarping is determined by their race, and members of the same race always warp into the same monstrosities.3
- Examples of fleshwarps include driders (drow), ghonhatines (troglodytes), Gomnits (gnomes), Grothlut (humans), Halsora (vegepygmies), Oronci (orcs), Irnakurse (surface elves) and Jashoi (halflings).4
Fleshcrafting
- While the average drow is too vain to submit to permanent body modification, their inclusion of Haagenti in their pantheon means that some are willing, under the right circumstances, to make a few adjustments. The claw of a scorpion, the fangs of a spider, the chitinous shell of a centipede—all come in useful, from time to time. For most drow, temporary physical alterations via a fleshcrafting poison provide enough of an advantage for most short-term goals. More permanent alterations involve the terror of fleshwarping and offer larger benefits, but come with numerous drawbacks. All permanent alterations run the risk that the procedure will result in death.5
For the version of this article prior to these changes, see revision 431537. -Oznogon (talk) 22:20, 14 June 2024 (UTC)
References
- ↑ . “Abominations of the Drow” in Endless Night, 58. Paizo Inc., 2008
- ↑ . “Abominations of the Drow” in Endless Night, 59. Paizo Inc., 2008
- ↑ F. Wesley Schneider. (October 24, 2008). Could It Be Worse?, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ . “Abominations of the Drow” in Endless Night, 60–61. Paizo Inc., 2008
- ↑ . “Abominations of the Drow” in Endless Night, 61–62. Paizo Inc., 2008
Unincorporated sources
- Inner Sea Magic 11 --Fleanetha (talk) 22:36, 16 June 2013 (UTC)
- Bestiary 4 101 --Fleanetha (talk) 10:56, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
- Potions & Poisons 21 re fleshcraft elixirs --Fleanetha (talk) 13:07, 13 February 2018 (UTC)
- The Lost Outpost 73 --Fleanetha (talk) 22:09, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
- Heavy is the Crown detaches some fleshwarping conventions from the drow, which have been retconned out of the setting. Heavy now attributes some Darklands fleshwarps to Thassilonian experimentation, but more specific canon replacements for drow connections have not yet been specified. -Oznogon (talk) 23:29, 7 January 2024 (UTC)
- Monster Core 152–153 -Oznogon (talk) 22:06, 14 June 2024 (UTC)