the sharp / the sweet

The Voronina (A Shrine Family)

(with thanks to Degen, Geo, and Jesse)

The Voronina haven't been a shrine family for very long. The story goes that a few generations back, a Mystery fell in love with a Garden-touched woman with a lonely heart by the name of Liza Voronina. Joining with the Mystery in sacred marriage, Liza enshrined her serpent-wife as a local patron of sorts, and developed a sacred art of binding poisons, toxins, and negative feelings into the roots of plants to make medicines.

Is it true that they made their daughters from blood and soil and poison? Well, maybe. But it's kind of rude to ask, isn't it? After all, their descendants are still around, living in the family shrine—which is really just an unusually large Old Molder house built on the bones of old factory rooftops, with a large tree snaking its limbs over (and sometimes into) the building.

Members of the Voronina Family often have Superior Child of Mysteries.

The Voronina Family Magic

[Obstacle 0] know the types and uses of herbal medicines and poisons

[Obstacle 1] reassure, befriend, or speak to a snake or minor snake-like spirit

[Obstacle 1] see through the eyes of a snake or minor snake-like spirit

[Obstacle 1] find someone who has isolated themselves or hidden in their loneliness

[Obstacle 1] intuit why someone is troubled and alone in the moment

[Obstacle 1] slow the effect of a poison to an indefinite halt

[Obstacle 2] draw out a poison, literal or metaphorical, from a living creature

[Obstacle 2] bind a poison into the roots of a growing thing to neutralize it into a medicinal plant

[Obstacle 3] create a child of cursed blood from blood, poison, and the earth

[Obstacle 3] draw out evil, wicked, or poisonous spirits or creatures, and unhinge your jaw to devour them, taking their poison into yourself

Suggested Bonds

Bond: I don’t understand how to be a person.
Bond: The world outside the temple is scary to me.
Bond: I’m prone to climbing trees, or into high lonely places.
Bond: I don’t want anyone to be left behind or forgotten.
Bond: I am drawn to the Garden.
Bond: The Garden rejects me for my nature.
Bond: My cursed blood keeps me away from others.
Bond: My cursed blood is a potent poison.
Bond: I am attracted to warmth.
Bond: I’m most comfortable around my family.
Bond: No one really understands me.
Bond: I have an affinity for things and people that are strange or wicked, or at least seem to be.