A Year and A Day: Mariamman

Changeling: the Dreaming

Homebrew Rules

Character Creation Guide Download: Mariamman.pdf

Quoth the Mariamman:

“Cholera? Yes my love. Dengue fever? Of course, my Duck. Chagas Fever, Malaria, Tetanus? All those and more. Now, tell me of the offerings you brought to make me happy. I pray they are pleasing to me, else bloody shit will down your legs in crimson rivulets and fever burn away your mind.”

Kith Excerpt:

The Mariamman is a Goddess in India, worshipped as a Goddess of health and happiness, but outside of the Perfumed Empire, down through the Halls of Golden Lions, there is a whole lineage of feared Hantu (Kith) that share her name. The Mariamman are an all-female line of illness-Fae, witches of illness and misery. Those within Earshot of the Mariamman will lovingly proclaim that they are venerated. Yet everyone, including the Mariamman themselves knows the truth. They are feared, not loved.

From the moment of their Chrysalis, they move out to the edge of town, and set up shop as hedge-wives and wise-women. Mortals know about them, and fear or hate them in turn. Every small village throughout Southeast Asia boasts at least one, and all are known amongst their community. Even if the mortals involved are unaware of the Mariamman’s Athurakal (Changeling) nature, they are still fully aware that she is more than she appears.

The other Hantu know about them and feel the same. The Mariamman are hated, feared, sometimes even reviled. But they are always treated with respect.

Flavor

“Every sickness has an alien quality, a feeling of invasion and loss of control that is evident in the language we use about it.” ― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves