Anthropophage (Patronage Supplement)

Anthropophagi

Anthropophage
Experts in the Most Dangerous Game, Anthropophagi breed their shedim for the hunt, and they also breed ravin to be the most challenging prey. Realm: Mongrel Island Cities: This Realm has no known cities. Noble: Shedu Shedu Breeds: Gnoll, Kenku, Shifter Base: Ravin Ravin Breeds: Kenku, Minotaur, Shifter

This stylized image of an Anthropophage can be found in the city of Artifice as part of a motif illustrating the torture of Queen Bahra during the Ardashid Dynasty of the Second Empire.

The Anthropophagi are the Patronage term for demons. Any epic-tier creature that would hail from the Abyss in the default 4e Cosmology might be called an Anthropophage in Patronage. Heroic and paragon tier demons are called "simulacra" in Patronage, and are considered to be wan mockeries of the Patrons who created them, more akin to golems than creatures. The Anthropophage govern the Realm known as Mongrel Island. (It is not known what the Anthropophagi call it). There they dwell with their shedim and ravin servile races. They entertain themselves with the bloodiest of sports: training ravin to be the prey in a massive fox hunt, with packs of shedim trackers who help their Anthropophage hunt, kill, and, so it is said, eat their prey. It is a barbarous land and few who are not born there have ever traveled to see it. Fewer still have returned to describe it.

Shedim and Ravin

The shedu and ravin are the bestial creations of the Anthropophagi. They were created, respectively, to serve as predator and prey. The Anthropophagi are consummate hunters and they enjoy nothing more than unleashing a ravin on the countryside and then hunting it down with a pack of loyal shedim. Any of the breeds listed for the race can be shedu or ravin. Strangely, shedu and ravin of the same breed cannot produce offspring.

The distinction between shedu and ravin is simple. Shedu generally resemble warm-blooded carnivores, while ravin generally resemble warm-blooded herbivores and omnivores. For example, a shifter who appears wolf-like would be a shedu. A kenku, on the other hand, might appear more ravenous, and thus classified as a ravin. For the shedu and ravin who dwell in the Wild Lands and Free Kingdoms beyond the reach of Mongrel Island, this distinction is of lesser importance. However, even there the more aggressive shedu tend to dominate their ravin counterparts.

Prominent Shedu and Ravin

• Filia: The first female Dyarch of the Southern Empire, she and her counterpart Mnemon established what many consider a stable and peaceful dynasty.
• Mnemon: The first male Dyarch of the Southern Empire, she and her counterpart Mnemon established what many consider a stable and peaceful dynasty.
• Mnemon XIV: The last Dyarch of the Southern Empire, he allowed his first mate to be assassinated by the Alabastrians, and was then seduced by Xalia, naming her the new Dyarch. When he died, Xalia bloodlessly absorbed the Southern Empire into the Alabastrian Empire.
• Corren: A ravin who stood up to the Alabastrian Empire for fourteen days. She was badly burned in the struggle. For the next 22 years, she led the rebellion. Though she died before the struggle was complete, her bravery inspired others, who founded the Free Kingdom of Chisel, and named its capital Corren's Stand in her honor. She is known as the "Charred Queen" even though she never held a title.
• Caraw: A ravin who founded the the Free Kingdom of Carraway.
• Marco: A ravin monarch of Carraway who forged an historic truce with the Caliphate
• Frenza: A shedim who founded the Carrawegian Peerage, and became the first monarch of the so-called Shedim Dynasty.
• Giane: The current Queen of Carraway.

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