Shirin
The Petal Fox
A small Monster that makes its home in the verdant valleys of the Dales. Festooned with a fur of petals and sharp, sleek features, Shirin’s most prominent feature is their tail. Once a year, at the height of spring, the enormous bud blooms into a glorious, unique flower. Haruspices divine the coming year from the colors, folds, and petals of the flower.
The Power
Shirin’s magic is subtle, quiet, and understated. Attracted to the scent of love, they seek out strong relationships and gift the members a petal from their tail flower. These petals are considered a great blessing, and often turn out to be of vital importance to the relationship in some way—stories abound of newly in-love polycules discovering that they need to fix their roof just as one of them comments on how waterproof their gift is, or couples finding the cost of their move to a different city or village just so happens to be exactly what a local merchant would trade for the rose petal they’d been given the night before.
Additionally, Shirin’s speed and grace is legendary. They are known to dance across falling leaves, and can stand comfortably on a single lilypad.
People
The people of the Dales celebrate Shirin with a yearly flower festival. Teams compete to create the most ostentatious displays of strange and vibrant petals from the rarest flowers. In recent years the fashion has been to breed your own new flower for the event, though many traditionalists argue this isn’t in the spirit of things. Shirin themself is a frequent guest of these festivals, often serving as an impromptu judge, picking the winner by nesting in their favorite display.
These festivals are also celebrations of love, and they are a common day for lovers to declare their affections for one another or for platonic friends to bask in the love they feel for each other.
Notable History
The origin of the Monster, and especially their flower tail, is the source of a hundred bedtime stories and myths. Oral history from the area speaks of four lovers, entangled in a web of jealousy and passion. Each loved the other three with all their hearts, but were convinced that they had to choose. To decide, each planted a different flower in front of the other’s homes. When they awoke the next day, they found the Dales covered in a thousand flowers, and Shirin standing in the valley. The four became the first to receive a gift from Shirin, and lived happily ever after.
An alternative, darker version of the tale ends with three of the lovers dying tragically, and the fourth becoming Shirin, to protect love between young people, and to guide them away from the same tragic end.
Epic Destiny
Every year, Shirin grows faster, more agile, more nimble. Their petal fur grows more lustrous and new colors appear. Perhaps one day they will become fast enough, and their petals plentiful enough, to gift every lover with their own petal.
Wounds
- Shirin’s flower grows enormous, and a noxious trail of poison follows it.
- The petals on Shirin’s body turn a putrid green, and turn sharp as glass.
- Instead of guiding a healthy love, Shirin’s presence inspires devotion and worship.
- Vengeful, jealous spirits follow Shirin, stealing from homes and disrupting friendships.
- Thick globs of gold clog Shirin’s flower, preventing its bloom.
- Shirin’s flower becomes a stinger, an angry red needle piercing the bud.