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| | Hypsiglena
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Hypsiglena is the Avathar dark Earth Mother and She is also the mistress of snakes, depicted as a snake-haired woman (gorgon) or two-headed venomous serpent. She is a cold, cruel goddess who found the first Avathar child born inside the egg of one of Her serpents and only nurtured it to life so that She could savor its screams and devour it later. Some say that this child was an Eldar babe who fell into her clutches, from which She birthed the Avathar race. The Linnorms of the Great Salt Marsh also claim Hypsiglena as their mother-creator.
The Avathars are terrified of Hypsiglena. Those who do not pass muster at the death gates of the Duirgurth are devoured by Her or swallowed whole, spending an eternity being slowly consumed in her round belly. Fear of being taken by Hypsiglena is perhaps one of the driving factors behind the Avathar obsession with longevity and Necroalchemy.
The Baal and Dwur believe in both Xohm and Hypsiglena as a multi-aspected Earthmother, bright and dark. To them She is the "Mother of Wyrms", having given birth to countless evil Wyrms and venomous serpents, until they have become common on Ambar. The Dwur were nearly driven extinct by Wyrms tunneling into their mountain homes, and joined with the Baal to hunt these evil dragons for many hundreds of years.
In the Dwur mythos, Hypsiglena is an evil goddess who dwells in the deep earth, devouring those who tunnel too deeply or greedily. Consequently, most Dwur mine relatively close to the mountain peaks, unlike the dwarves of traditional Tolkien-based milieus. The corrupt Zuhls are Dwur who delved too deeply and fell into the clutches of Hypsiglena.
The Baal say that Hypsiglena was merely one of the guardian dragons who was tricked into becoming the consort of Tark at the time of the Breaking.
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