The Cantigaster

"You can see immediately that the Cantigaster was once a man. Now he is a living, shuddering sac of poison. His flesh swells green and soft like rotting fruit. Foul venoms ooze beneath his skin."

The Cantigaster is a bloated and horrifying creature, which possesses and oozes the deadliest venom known to man.

A Permanent Form of Death

"Only poison I know that's strong enough to kill for sure. And I've personal 'istory to back that up. Should be undetectable. Keeps things fair."

In large enough doses, Cantigaster venom can cause permanent death, a relative rarity in the Neath. It works best when applied to a blade (implying that it is most effective when it enters the bloodstream), but can also be dissolved into another liquid and remain both undetectable and effective. The smallest doses can cause extensive nerve damage and paralysis; the Cheery Man was poisoned with half a drop and cannot walk without assistance, as well as losing... certain other faculties below the waist. Even inhalation of Cantigaster venom is dangerous, and can damage or destroy a person's voice. This venom has a short shelf life in open air, but can be dried to retain its deadly effects.

The Masters of the Bazaar are immune to Cantigaster venom, as is the Duchess (presumably).

What He Was

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"The Duchess kisses him fondly and they embrace. You watch as the Duchess... as she milks the poison from his skin. The Cantigaster sighs with relief as his venoms trickle into a stone bucket. The Duchess looks up. Has she seen you? You flee the cellar."

The Cantigaster is locked away in the Palace cellars, where it — or rather, he — is occasionally attended to by the Duchess. Beneath the oozing, swollen flesh of this monster is the Duchess's father, to whom she was also betrothed in accordance with royal tradition. The Duchess sent a cobra to kill the Pharaoh so that she could be with her lover, a scribe. She regretted this action immediately, and bargained with the Bazaar to save the Pharaoh's life in exchange for what became known as the Second City. The Masters' methods worked, but left him in this tormented state for millennia to come.

The Duchess still visits her father at midnight each Sunday, in the third wine cellar under the Shuttered Palace, to milk venom out of his skin and bring him relief. What she takes away, presumably, is Cantigaster venom. Rumor has it that the Duchess sends him to Parabola sometimes, perhaps to give him a moment of relief in dream.

While the Duchess was the one to sign the contract, the Pharaoh, for unknown reasons, was most likely the one responsible for summoning the Bazaar to the Second City in the first place. The Bazaar may already have been present by the time the Duchess attempted to kill her betrothed, and the act simply changed the terms of a bargain that was already being written.

Historical Inspirations

It can be safely deduced that the Cantigaster is the Pharaoh Akhenaten, originally called Amenhotep IV. After he ascended the throne, he implemented his own state religion, casting aside the traditional pantheon in favor of monotheistic worship of the sun disk Aten. To centralize his power and beliefs, he abandoned the capital of Thebes and established a new capital, which he called Akhetaten but is now known as Amarna. While it was to be short-lived, his reign marked perhaps the most dramatic religious shift in Egyptian history.

Akhenaten’s family life has long been a subject of fascination and debate. His Great Royal Wife, Nefertiti, was renowned for her beauty, influence, and possible co-regency. Together they had six daughters: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten (later Ankhesenamun), Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Neferneferure, and Setepenre. Akhenaten also had a less-well-documented wife, Kiya, whose exact role in his court remains unknown. More famously, Akhenaten's son later became the pharaoh Tutankhamun, who restored Egypt's previous religion (changing his name from Tutankhaten in the process) and moved the capital from Amarna to Memphis.

Genetic evidence indicates that Tutankhamun was the child of two full siblings, ostensibly Akhenaten and his sister (not Nefertiti). That said, it is not known for certain whether Akhenaten married one or more of his daughters. The latter practice was known among Egyptian royalty, including Akhenaten's father, and Akhenaten's eldest daughter Meritaten is recorded in different sources as a Great Royal Wife (to both her known husband and Akhenaten) and as "mistress of the house." However, there remains no definitive proof, and the subject is still debated among Egyptologists.