The Dangling ChainSource Mechageddon! pg. 165
CE goddess of aberrations, clocks, factories, unsatisfied desires
Centers of Worship Apostae, Infosphere Financial, Advice Communities, Verces, the Veskarium
Symbol A clock face with 13 hours
Alternative Theme Knowledge Reduce the DC of Life Science checks to recall knowledge about aberrations by 5 or reduce the DC of Culture checks to recall knowledge about business ventures by 5
Favored Weapon Garrote
Edicts Put your desires first, attach a clause to every deal, profit off others’ suffering
Anathema Forgive a debt, give to charity
Blessings A gift appears unbidden. Your enemy’s greed overtakes them.
Curses Interest accrues. A contract is altered. Chains close around you.
Mortals build the chains that bind. Shivaska understands this truth. If forced to work long hours of menial labor, most people would chafe and try to escape. However, when a mortal believes these conditions are their own idea or are necessary to achieve a goal, they embrace the chains and pull them ever tighter. By encouraging unattainable wishes and promising a path to satisfaction through suffering, Shivaska doesn’t need to toil to keep most mortals in line.
Shivaska and her worshippers had all but disappeared prior to the Gap as the demon lord’s power dwindled. Her techniques no longer gathered followers, and her methods of control slipped. Her power plays to gain territory in the Abyss and grow her following on the Material Plane failed. She sulked for a time, turning inward and missing out entirely on exploiting the chaotic events of the Gap.
As she plotted away in her clock tower in the Winding Wood during this time, Shivaska came to understand that mortals had already built systems perfectly suited for her own needs. She no longer needed worship; she needed payoff. Pyramid schemes, get-rich-quick scams, and corporate advertisers all controlled their victims through desire. When the potential rewards were high enough, a small but significant portion of people set aside their doubts and trusted even the most outlandish promises.
For Shivaska, the time of squabbling for power was over. She would instead inspire others to struggle for her, profiting off both their efforts and the suffering it caused them and their dependents. Pleased with her new mindset, Shivaska began making careful preparations for her debut on the Material Plane, where she would charm powerful followers to join her cause by any means necessary. And what an amusing pursuit it was for the mutable demon lord.
Shivaska crafted her current shell into one that shifts to reflect the desires of her targets. This form often mimics a charmingly competent woman of the most prominent species on a planet. In her home plane, she appears as a skathoil draped in glimmering lavalieres strung with her soul-powered HypeEf batteries.
After the Gap, Shivaska made her initial overtures as an angel investor for companies focused on inventing new desires. The fewer questions an organization asked about her, the better the fit. Greed shone in the eyes of her initial targets. After all, they would gain the benefit and pass the risk down—at least, that was the plan. Soon, Shivaska ensured a diverse investment portfolio, from companies that sold kitchen implements, to real estate on remote planets, to cryptocurrency investment schemes. She learned of the promises corporate players made each other and the temptations they couldn’t refuse; she attended sales conventions on Apostae, corporate conferences on Verces, timeshare pitches for Veskarium colony resorts, and scrolled endless infosphere threads promising financial independence, early retirement, accruing wealth, and social clout. She learned to mimic these mortal desires and more. Each contract Shivaska forged came with clauses that would benefit only her in the end. She only had to wait until interest rates caught up to her victims.
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