Trial of Ink - Day 12 - Beauty (Patreon)

Zhermanna, The Five Whispers

Zhermanna is a unique beholder that dwells inside a dungeon located underneath Empress Azmaria Mountain. The dungeon was a secret temple built by the follower of The Veiled Mistress, a deity of secrets and purity. During the founding era of Azalis Empire, The Veiled Mistress was worshiped by most of the citizens of the capital city. But during the chaos insurgency, the deity decided to side with the Children of One for an unknown reason and thus instructed her followers to join the war against the celestials.

Before the war begins, The Veiled Mistress chooses 4 maidens from the royal blood of Azalis Empire as The Whispered, the only individuals who were bestowed the knowledge and reason behind her decision. She then locked them inside the temple after giving them her blessing that turned them into immortal beings and granting them the ability to turn any living creature that meets their gaze into stone, but at the same time, the blessing changed their appearance and made their word incomprehensible to anyone except each other. She also binds several creatures from different realms including a newly born beholder kin to guard the temple.

The beholder grew really close with the sisters because its aberrant nature allow it to change itself making it capable of understanding their word just a little bit. Those 4 maidens are the ones who gave it its name, Zhermanna, which means ‘Family’. But, after the Chaos Insurgency was thwarted, the new emperor of Azalis sent his army to eradicate the remaining follower of The Veiled Mistress, including The Whispered. Zhermanna failed to protect them, but manage to barely survive. The regret and insanity of losing its sisters changed the beholder kin, it took the blessing of the Veiled Mistress and changed its body to create 4 ‘eyestalks’ with the body of the 4 sisters at the end of it. It stays in the temple, protecting its home while still pretending that the sisters are still alive with it even though those eyestalks are not sentient at all, it’s just Zhermanna talking through the humanoid body.

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Thank you to DrezenDragon for mentioning the saying "Beauty is in the eye of beholder", started from a silly and simple idea, I think I end up writing a whole story... I hope you like the lore as well as the illustration~!