Ssiklis, the most purely evil goddess, is known with many names and epiteths.
Ssiklis is worshipped only by the evil lizardfolk. The more peaceful lizard, pangolin and turtle people aknowledge her role in creating their kins but do not actively worship her, preferring to chant their prayers to Sozara the Undying.
Origin: Shard of the Primal Force
Alignments: Life, Chaos, Demon
Other Names: The Scaled Mother, The Mother of Dragons and Demons, Mother of the Lizard Race, Layer of the Seven Million Eggs, Protector of the Antediluvians, Herder of Thunder Lizards, Forster of The Thousand Dragons.
The Scaled Mother, The Mother of Dragons and Demons, Mother of the Lizard Race, Layer of the Seven Million Eggs, Protector of the Antediluvians, Herder of Thunder Lizards, Spawner of the Thousand Dragons... Ssiklis, which many consider a wretched goddess, is known with many names and epithets, all fearsome and wicked.
According to the official ecumenical myth, when the gods first created the world, Ssiklis apparently refused to play the Godgame while, in reality, she was laying eggs of dinosaurs and other lizard creatures all around Norindaal. From those eggs of her that were touched by the lust of Xichtul, Supreme Principle of Chaos, the first dragons were hatched, to torment and torture the dwarven folk.
Once more, while she was trapped in a pocket dimension (theological treatises are contradictory on the matter), her eggs were fertilized by Xichtul again, giving birth to demonkind. She was to be later jailed in the Netherworld by the umpire of the gods, Tauramin, for cheating in the Godgame, or so theological dogma claims.
Along with other so-called “evil gods” (according to the Inquisition’s definition of evil, at least), Ssiklis was imprisoned by the Time God Tauramin in the Netherworld alongside her demon children. To this day, she awaits with trepidation, ravenously plotting her escape. The goddess’ cultists long for her freedom, eager for the time when “laws and morals will be thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy”, for the Scaled Mother will “teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves.” Woe will befall the world when this wicked day comes.
Ssiklis is worshipped foremost by the snake people and lizard folk. Their “evilness”, as the Inquisition claims, is proven by their very inhumanness. In due time, justice will be brought to the loathsome and evil elves, dwarves and halflings, too, but first things first.
The Dorantian empire’s sumptuous crusades thus spare no brutal effort to annihilate the rival lizard empire of Sskl'xkrtcjw'qqtk (Lyzaris, in the Dorantian idiom). The human empire’s virtuous genocide of the scaled ones will re-establish its righteous domination over the continent of Ssiklia, in time, but the necessary sacrifice of conscripts and serfs – as good fusiliers and knights would be wasted in such as war of attrition, best left to the unwashed peasantry – has insofar provided limited success.
Indeed, the wretched lizards have proven to be far more organized, persistent and crafty than expected.
Dorantia’s holy war against Ssiklia is likewise diluted by its other war with the no less repellent Orc Republics in the Southern Savage Lands of An Mòr and their enigmatic Withering Warlord.
While the benevolent Inquisition’s pure ethnic cleansing must assuredly purge all nonhumans, no exception of course, Ssiklis’ filthy reptilian brood are less of an immediate threat than the orcs, whose racial extermination cannot be postponed lest humanity’s Manifest Destiny be challenged.
As such, the snake goddess’ cult, the official state religion in the lizardman empire of Sskl'xkrtcjw'qqtk, had to be tolerated until Dorantia manages to drag enough slaves to drown the scaly filth under endless waves of expendable warriors.
According to the Gospel of Luura, the more peaceful reptilian, pangolin and turtle folk acknowledge wicked Ssiklis’ role in creating their species but do not actively worship her, preferring to chant their prayers to Sozara the Undying, a dragon god – barely less evil. For this reason, it is deemed virtuous and wise to slay all scaled beings on sight, just to be sure.