Amphisbaena

The amphisbaena are the most common thaaskith. Outside the cult, they are commonly referred to as "banes", both for convenience of pronunciation and out of a vague superstitious fear of attracting their attention through their occult name. They are narrow serpents roughly a foot long, with a poison-fanged head at each end of its body and high regenerative capacity. Dangerous alone, their breeders often weave multiple amphisbaenas together to create larger monstrosities, linking long woven chains by the prehensile, multifurcated tongues.

By means of a secret ritual, priests of Thaia-thaan'ag are able to implant an amphisbaena into a willing or bound subject. One head burrows beneath the skin of the neck, where it attaches to the brain stem and injects potent narcotizing venom. The body of the serpent lies along the spine most of the time, but can coil over the shoulder to strike at enemies or hiss into its host's ear, from which their addled brain creates praise and direction. This is the most common way the cult swells its ranks, followed by the depredations of the samaelisks.

A person infected with a bane is not beyond redemption in most cases. Merely killing the serpent will result in an infection which will take the life of the host within a week or so. Surgery, even of the roughest sort, makes removal of the head possible, at which point the victim must contend face withdrawal from the narcotic toxins, and possibly the memory of whatever deeds the committed while influenced. It is not unheard of that a rescued Thaia-thaan'ag slave eventually seeks out their former masters and welcomes the amphisbaena back into their body to quell this addiction, though suicide seems more prevalent. Thus the venom of the thaaskith corrupts long past their death.

The amphisbaena has a twin head, that is one at the tail end as well, as though it were not enough for poison to be poured out of one mouth. --Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia, ca. 77 AD