Metathiax is one of the 36 demons of the Decani – creatures who barter in disease. It is bound to the region of Montréal.
Biography
In search of new lands to conquer, Metathiax sent Terrence DeBouville to the New World with Jacques Cartier's vessel, The Emerillon, in 1535. He was a mortal infernalist responsible for consecrating unholy ground atop the island mountain, in service to his master. Metathiax kept him preternaturally young to corrupt the Iroquois that came to that place, and the Europeans who followed later.
Supposedly the Hochelaga Huron maintained several thousands natives at the base of Mount Royal, in a forest of oak trees, when Jacques Cartier first landed on the island. However, no remnants of the community nor any of the oak trees have ever been discovered. Many attribute this to inaccurate mapping of the region, but the Sabbat believe otherwise. The Hurons were killed during their battle with Metathiax and the demon was trapped in the island itself.
Metathiax learned of the Sabbat in 1653 when Terrence received the Embrace from Connaught. However, the newly created vampire never emerged from his grave. Methatiax discovered a way to claim those who have been buried in the mountain, and it scoured the soul of its acolyte to create an empty receptacle in which to place its own essence. From that point on, DeBouville's body became Metathiax door to the mortal world – and for centuries the demon has walked the streets of Montréal, guiding Sabbat and mortal alike with its dark influence.
As a result of Metathiax power over the land, only a handful of Creation Rites have ever worked on the slopes of Mount Royal. Buried Sabbat either vanish or are found dead in their graves. In one case, an emerging vampire who survived the rite was pulled back into to the ground by an unseen force and his grave was found empty. Metathiax is able to take those Cainites who are put into the ground and drag them down to the bowels of the mountain. It often spends years torturing them far below the city, dissolving their bodies with disease and eventually reforming them into grotesque mockeries of humanity. Most of the creatures that survive the torment are allowed to wander through the city's sewers.
Metathiax's presence is causing the formation of a tiny pinprick in the Shroud between the world of the living and the dead. People have reported a glowing opening in the city's forest. They say it project darkness like a frame of a film's negative image. A few Necromancers have called it a "Nihil".
Current Events
The demon is constantly looking for souls and recruits. Pierre Bellemare of the pack Les Orphelins and Cedilia of the Tongue are in its thrall. Cedilia, however, fled in fear with her pack to Haiti, in order to meet up with a rival Decani, Bothothel. While in Haiti she met Sangris the Serpent, a thrall of Bothothel who would play a similar game and flee to Montréal and Metathaix. Sangris played the two demons against each other, and during the skirmish escaped into the body of Sabbat Inquisitor Santiago DeSoto.
This stunt came with a price, for in the aftermath the demons collaborated, and Metathiax discovered that it could escape the prison in which the Native Americans had trapped it. Sangris' soul was the key to escape, and while Metathaix looks to Bothothel for aid, Bothothel pays it lip service, not wanting to loose its sibling.
So while Sangris tries to play both demons, they, in turn, try to play him. Metathiax has convinced everyone that the Infernal blight on the city is gone, while all the while trying to corrupt Sangris' childe, Ezekiel. Metathaix expects that Sangris will be forced to use his Demonic Investments in order to save his progeny. As a distraction, Metathiax deployed Midget to get the local Tremere to interfere. Meanwhile, it had DeSoto, in the body of Terrence DeBouville, hunt down Sangris.
The demon agreed to place the tortured soul of Santiago DeSoto in the empty shell that was once the body of Terrence DeBouville in order to hunt for Sangris, for Metathiax has promised Sangris' soul to its demon sibling Bothothel in exchange for help in breaking its ancient prison. Unbeknownst to Bothothel, Metathiax altered DeSoto's mind and new body, making him believe himself to be Sangris. In this manner, the demon hopes to trick Bothothel into claiming the wrong soul.
Metathiax has therefore put the Inquisitor in the care of the Sabbat scholar Marie-Ange Gagnon. Gagnon is being corrupted by the confused soul she believes to be Sangris'. Now the demon waits for its pawns to play their parts until its prize surrenders himself.
The demon has access to Midget and Cairo, who provide fresh souls via failed Creation Rites, and his feral thralls can travel through cancerous arteries of Mount Royal like maggots emerging from rotting flesh. The trees of the demon's Mountain Prison whisper with its voice, and their branches reach out to snare prey. The earth is hungry and can swallow Sabbat whole. It is also served by the Black Spiral Dancer named Leperhead, and by an enigmatic Daughter of Cacophony called Muse.
The only person safe from its influence is Jacob the Glitch, a Tremere antitribu whose failed Creation Rites tapped him into the fears and psychoses of Metathiax. Jacob speaks in many tongues as his shattered psyche struggles in vain to shrug off his demonic burden. Jacob's ramblings would be a valuable insight on Metathiax if they could be deciphered.
Blood Circle
The Blood Circle is located under a dilapidated tenement of Old Montréal. It is the original patch of ground first consecrated to Metathiax in 1535 by Terrence DeBouville. Rites vary with the depraved nature of Metathiax's infernalists, but the demon enjoys sacrificing Native Americans the most. It also commands its followers to kidnap vampires for the mere pleasure of scouring their souls and rotting their corpses.
Blood spilled in the circle instantly becomes diseased. Infernalists drink this vitae in worship of their master. They thereby imbue their bodies with virulent plagues which they pass on to mortals and Cainites alike. During rituals that commemorate the anniversary of Metathiax's imprisonment, brackish poisons ooze from the Circle and the infernalists bathe on the deadly mixture. The ceremony is known as Decani's Fountain, and Pierre Bellemare is currently the only one able to lead this ceremony.
References
- VTM: Montreal by Night, p. 34, 59-60