#paphos

[katerinaaqu]

You know...seeing up close what you have only seen in your books while studying gives you a whole new essence of privilege

Paphos Theseus Mosaic my beloved ♥️ it had brought back memories from my mini-thesis about mosaics!

[allthingseurope]

Paphos, Cyprus (by datingscout)

[foreverfitnesspositivity]

[thecreaturecodex]

Paphos

"Umbra" © Austin Mengler, accessed at his deviantArt here

[Sponsored by @coolclaytony, and I gotta say, thank you. Their concept, a risen kyton that acts as a fairy godmother for body image, fits perfectly into the themes that have been running through my writing for more than ten years now. A creature that can sculpt your body to order and wants to do that to help people is pure wish fulfillment to a trans girl like me, and I'm sure to a lot of other people as well. The name is thematic to both bodily transformation and wish fulfillment: Paphos is the daughter of Pygmalion and Galatea (although she's not called Galatea yet) in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

The CR was chosen for play purposes; in my experience, high single digit levels are when players start to look at their characters and think, maybe I should have built them differently. So the paphos acts as a way to have a character respec in an in-universe way. Plus, they're at a good level to shift from "this character can save our asses if we get in over our heads" at lower levels and "they can generally take care of themselves but still might need to be rescued from a powerful enemy" at higher levels.

If you'd like to sponsor your own Codex entries, see bonus monsters, or just chip in and help a girl out, visit the Creature Codex Patreon here!]

Paphos CR 8 LN Outsider (extraplanar) This woman has a beautiful face and idealized proportions, but her arms are mechanical, a riot of hooks, blades, pinchers and tendrils. She wears a tight fitting robe seemingly made out of darkness.

A paphos is a patron of body image and autonomy, a surgeon that can sculpt flesh like marble and uses this power to make people’s dreams come true. They are an example of a risen fiend; paphoi come from the ranks of the kytons. Most paphoi were once kyton evangelists, those who delighted in the freedom of using their bodies as a canvas and wanting to grant that ability to others without imposing their ideas or suffering on the target. Strangely, a few paphoi were once anatomical idols, demonstrating that those constructs’ belief that they can make themselves into full outsiders is true, but not in a way their kyton masters would appreciate. Unsurprisingly, true kytons despise paphoi, and the feeling is mutual. Most paphoi live somewhat secretive lives to avoid attracting kyton attention, and many of them have left the Shadow Plane for safer domains such as Axis or the Material Plane.

Paphoi believe strongly in medical consent, and anyone seeking out their services is informed of the costs and consequences ahead of time. A paphos can perform plastic surgery that makes mortal surgeons mad with envy, being able to completely change a face, alter a subject’s gender expression to order, and even grant creatures hair, eye or skin colors far outside the norm for their species. If given more time, a paphos can even alter a subject’s body and brain to make them smarter, stronger, faster or more charming. These alterations do come at a cost, but one negotiated ahead of time: physical strength for less dexterity, trading charisma for book smarts, or the like. Paphoi can sculpt their own faces and bodies much more easily, and may do so to demonstrate a possible look to a client or simply for aesthetic purposes.

Most paphos avoid combat if they can help it, but will fight to defend themselves or against an enemy of bodily autonomy. They are advocates for ethical fleshwarping practices and oppose those who force their will upon the bodies of others, including drow, zern and the cult of Zepar. The arms of a paphos are fully mechanical, and can compress down to dexterous hands for delicate surgery or expand into nightmarish oversized claws. A paphos can alter these claws to their liking as well, granting them weapon properties to suit their needs. Against angry mobs convinced a paphos is “tampering in God’s domain”, they may use disarming, tripping or nonlethal weapons to keep their enemies alive through a fight. If fighting evil fleshwarpers, on the other hand, a paphos fights to kill.

Paphos CR 8 XP 4,800 LN Medium outsider (extraplanar, lawful) Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +16 Defense AC 22, touch 19, flat-footed 16 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural, +3 deflection) hp 95 (10d10+40); regeneration 2 (chaotic or silver) Fort +11, Ref +12, Will +8 DR 10/chaotic or silver; Immune cold; SR 19 (25 vs. divination) Defensive Abilities cloak of shadow Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee 2 claws +14 (2d8+4/x3) Special Attacks reconfigure armament Statistics Str 19, Dex 21, Con 18, Int 15, Wis 16, Cha 16 Base Atk +10; CMB +14 (+16 trip); CMD 30 (32 vs. trip) Feats Combat Expertise, Dodge, Fleshwarper (B), Healer’s Hands, Improved Trip, Iron Will Skills Acrobatics +14, Craft (alchemy) +15, Diplomacy +11, Disguise +7 (+17 when using sculpt flesh), Escape Artist +14, Heal +19, Knowledge (planes) +15, Perception +16, Sense Motive +16, Stealth +14; Racial Modifiers +10 Disguise when using sculpt flesh, +4 Heal Languages Common, Infernal, Shadowtongue SQ redistribute gifts, sculpt flesh Ecology Environment any land (Plane of Shadow) Organization solitary or clinic (2-4) Treasure standard Special Abilities Cloak of Shadow (Su) A paphos is wrapped in shadow that grants it a deflection bonus to Armor Class and CMD equal to its Charisma bonus, as well as the benefits of a nondetection spell (CL 10th). The paphos loses this benefit in natural sunlight. Reconfigure Armament (Ex) As a move action, a paphos can alter its claws to grant it the blocking, brace, disarm, nonlethal, reach or trip weapon qualities, or to grant its claws a critical threat range of 19-20 or a critical multiplier of x3. A paphos can only have one of these abilities at a time. The paphos above is using a x3 modifier to critical hit damage. In addition, as a move action, a paphos can alter its claws to appear and function as human hands, or to revert them to their more monstrous appearance. Redistribute Gifts (Su) A paphos can grant a willing or helpless creature an inherent bonus to an ability score at the cost of permanently reducing another ability score. This requires a surgical procedure that lasts for 2 hours per ability point transferred in this way. A paphos can transfer up to four points from one ability score to another—it cannot transfer points from multiple abilities to one ability, or reduce a single ability to improve multiple abilities at the same time. An ability score cannot be reduced below 3 by this ability. Each time a creature is subject to the redistribute gifts procedure, it takes 1 permanent negative level, plus one additional permanent negative level for each previous time it has undergone the procedure. Ability points gained or lost in this way cannot be changed back without a miracle or wish spell, or another use of redistribute gifts. Sculpt Flesh (Su) A paphos can alter the appearance of a willing or helpless creature through a surgical procedure that takes 2 hours. The paphos can adjust a creature’s height and weight within the standard range for creatures of the subject’s type and size category, adjust the creature’s gender, physical traits (such as nose size, fingernail length and foot shape), and pigmentation (including hair, eye and skin color). Pigmentation adjustments can be outside the natural variation for the species. A paphos can use sculpt flesh to alter the apparent age of a creature anywhere in the spectrum of young adult to venerable, but these changes do not alter the creature’s ability scores or its natural life span. A creature subject to sculpt flesh takes 2 points of Constitution damage from the procedure. These changes are permanent unless reversed with a limited wish, miracle or wish spell, or another use of sculpt flesh. A paphos gains a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks made to sculpt a creature’s flesh into a copy of another creature’s appearance. A paphos can use sculpt flesh on itself with 1 minute of work, and does not take Constitution damage when using this ability on itself.

[romegreeceart]

Zoalios from Paphos

* 6th century BCE

* Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm

* Cyprus Numismatic Project

Stockholm, November 2023

[everydayescapeartist]

Rereading “Romancing Mister Bridgerton” and realizing that the journal entry Pen couldn’t keep herself from reading was about Cyprus (unlike Paris in the show) shortly after seeing that our Colin Bridgerton (Lukey Newts) was just in Paphos again makes me grin.

[hadjittofisyiannis]

When you look up at the vastness of the nightsky everything becomes obsolete or part of everything, a bigger mysterious purpose?

-Shot with Xiaomi 15 ultra & edited in Adobe Lightroom by me.

[aphromight-y]