A lamia is a creature which appears as lean and attractive women from the waist up, while below possesses the body of a powerful lion. Even their humanoid features bear distinctly feline traits, their eyes slitted and feral and their teeth like predatory fangs. A typical lamia stands over 6 feet tall, measures more than 8 feet long, and weighs upward of 650 pounds.
The hate-filled inheritors of an ancient curse, lamias are attracted to the ruined and forsaken parts of the world. Crumbling keeps, abandoned cities, and forgotten monuments all satisfy these deadly hunters' cruel aesthetic—particularly those in arid or otherwise lifeless environs. Foremost, though, lamias favor decrepit temples. They delight in seeing the shrines of good deities in ruins and go out of their way to bring hardship to thriving holy places.
Lamias look to the eldest female of the group as their leader, mother, and shaman, cleaving to her with fanatical reverence. While lamias shun most religious followings—viewing such as the source of the curse that blighted them with bestial forms—lamia elders claim to hear the whispers of the scouring desert winds and know the cold whims of the stars, drawing upon such mystical sources to lead their people.
The lamias presented here are but the most common and least powerful members of this cursed race, with others bearing serpentine, avian, and even more perverse forms.
History
The lamia were very present during the later dynasties of the shi-imti-civilization. After the fall of that state, the lamias migrated with humans to the east where they brought around the midanian-empire. Lamias are still popular in the lands of the former Midan Empire to this day.
Lamia Lore
Some bards have said "….the chief characteristics of the Lamiae, apart from their thirst for blood, are their uncleanliness, their gluttony, and their stupidity".
The common expression, "the child has been strangled by the Lamia", explains the sudden death of young children.
Lamias are famed for leading children astray and then devouring them. In some legends they also seduce young men for the same purpose.
"Lamia" has become a popular pseudonym for prostitutes.
