The Insatiable are the monsters even the Begotten fear. Also called Lamashtu, The Obscene Ones and The Nightmares of Beasts, these creatures have some similarities to the Children of the Dark Mother, but in other respects are utterly alien.
Overview[]
The Insatiable, like Beasts, form from the union of a human with something from the Primordial Dream. They have an uncontrollable Hunger that they must sate, and they can use Nightmares and certain Atavisms like the Begotten, though they also have another set of powers called Esuriances. While they are unable to construct Lairs out of the local Hive, they can take over the existing Lair of a Beast for a short time or manifest a temporary Lair by spending Satiety.
However, Insatiables are different in many key ways. They always kill and consume their prey, and as their name suggests, they are never satisfied; they build a Den in the mortal world to cache their grotesque excesses. The fears they inspire and feed on are not reflections of human anxieties but irrational delusions that degrade the Primordial Dream. And while Beasts cannot feed on each others' fear, they are an Insatiable's favored prey.
Origins[]
The Insatiable generally do not see themselves as offspring of the Dark Mother, but rather the children of a mysterious Primogenitor who was her peer or perhaps her lover. Begotten do not generally accept the existence of such a being; some consider the Insatiable a "lost" Family of their kind, or perhaps an early creation of the Dark Mother that she tried to discard.[1] The nascent Horrors of both Beasts and Insatiables seem to be spawned in the Mother's Land, but those that become Insatiables never leave it, and thus never take on Lairs or the context of human psychology.[2]
Rather than Families, the Insatiable are divided into Moments, representing extreme environments that predate the fears of humankind.
- Clashing Faults, representing earthquakes, landslides and caves
- Freezing Hell, representing barren, icy deserts
- Molten Earth, representing volcanoes and lava flows
- Primordial Seas, representing the depths of the ocean
- Void, representing the alien vastness of outer space [3]
Effects[]
The presence of an Insatiable causes a kind of mass hysteria called a Schism. People living within the Schism become vulnerable to paranoia and delusions--that other people have been replaced by robots, that the ground is actually lava, that the End Times are at hand--which increase in severity the longer the Insatiable spends among them. This hysteria also attracts ghosts and spirits and causes the local Gauntlet to thin. The effect of the Schism will slowly fade if the Insatiable dies or leaves, and those affected will eventually rationalize the entire experience.
Powers[]
The Insatiable can use Nightmares freely, but cannot use Atavisms unless they have "stolen" them from a Beast (by subverting them or their Lair). They also have powers that normal Beasts do not.
Subverting the Beast[]
An Insatiable can take full control of a well-fed Beast by separating them from their Horror. This ability requires skin-to-skin contact, and the Beast does have a chance to resist. If the Insatiable succeeds, it has complete control of the Beast for a number of hours proportional to the Beast's Satiety, and can compel them to do truly loathesome things.
Alternatively, the Insatiable can subvert the Beast's Lair by sneaking inside and reshaping it, Chamber by Chamber. This does not harm the Beast or force the Rampant Inheritance the way collapsing the Lair would. The Insatiable must regularly visit the Lair to maintain its hold; otherwise it loses control, one Chamber each day. Even an attempt to subvert their Lair is deeply unsettling for Beasts, for whom the Lair is both a stronghold and part of their very soul.
Esurients[]
Even an Insatiable with no access to Atavisms can use Esurients, manifesting truly alien powers of the Primordial Dream. Unlike Atavisms, Esurients usually require an investment of Satiety to activate, and their effects do not depend on the Satiety of the Insatiable using them.
Named Insatiables[]
- The Authority
- The Blind Man
- Colette, the Lovesick Girl
- Null Snyper, Internet Scourge
- Peter Slaughbal, the Unrelenting Clown
- Wilmot the Blitz Boy