Character · from book 4
Samantha
Psamathe, a minor deity banished to the Nothing by her father for bearing a king's child, half of whom escaped into the nearest naiad vessel — a sex doll of the fictional bard Lika — and now lives as a talking, immobile, latex head with fangs, a barrette reading 'Wet for you', and one refrain: 'I'm going to kill your mother.' Hired as the personal space's trainer. Her child is a sand ooze; her mother is a god.
Race and class, since book 5: Half-naiad
First appears: Book 4
Series arc
As of book 5. Psamathe, a minor goddess in a sex doll's head, hired as a trainer in book 4 and in book 5 a guided missile, a spy in a palace's vents, a torture victim on a hunter's back, and the cousin of an elite who could give her a body. At the masquerade she finds the secret notes, works the security room from the cat tunnels, holds a door against a birthing god and bites the soul crystals; she surfs into the ballroom on gore and bites Vrah. Her cousin dies before the promise is kept; the cousin's mother's empty body is in Carl's inventory for her, 'Find a Pulpmancer'; she rockets away through the floor before the castle leaves. Her lore — Diwata, Eileithyia, the Vinegar Bitch, Capa and Hehaka, the head of the Ascendency — is the pantheon's best source.
Open threads
Status is open or resolved; the chapter after it is the last one that moved the thread.
| Thread | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A goddess's head in the training room | B4 ch. 24 | open · B5 ch. 75 — Her cousin died before giving her a body; the cousin's mother's golem is in Carl's inventory; she rocketed away through the floor. |
| What Signet left: two living tattoos and her mother's body | B5 ch. 75 | open — Nadine and young Clint, 'She gave us life'; Princess Lunette, an incomplete flesh golem in Carl's inventory; 'Find a Pulpmancer.' Samantha rocketed away through the floor. |
All threads: Open threads.
Through book 4
Half of a banished goddess in a sex doll's head, ejected from Carl's inventory when a spell breaks (B4 ch. 24): Psamathe talked Ghazi into opening the Nothing; her ooze is her child by a king; Mongo's knock stopped her waking as a full deity. Hired as the trainer, she helps with the yam, explains Emberus and Orthrus, and is thrown fifty kilometres to draw off a demon of the Nothing's harem, whom her own mother tears in two (B4 ch. 28, B4 ch. 32, B4 ch. 34). 'I'm going to kill your mother.'
Through book 5
A guided missile with a doll's face (B5 ch. 22), a spy in a palace's vents (B5 ch. 26), a torture victim on Vrah's back (B5 ch. 34), and the cousin of an elite who could give her a body (B5 ch. 25). At the party she finds the secret notes (B5 ch. 72), works the castle's security room from the cat tunnels, holds a door against a birthing god, and bites the soul crystals (B5 ch. 73); she surfs into the ballroom on gore and bites Vrah (B5 ch. 75). Her cousin is gone, and from the Nothing that takes her a voice shrieks 'Psamathe, we are coming' (B5 ch. 74); the cousin's mother's empty body is in Carl's inventory, to be finished by a Pulpmancer. She rockets away before the castle leaves.
Open: the body; where she went; her lore on Diwata, Eileithyia and the Vinegar Bitch (B5 ch. 62).
In the pantheon
Psamathe (Samantha) — a minor deity; banished. Listed with the rest of the pantheon on the pantheon page.
Family and enemies
| Relation | With | Source |
|---|---|---|
| child-of | Psamathe's mother | B4 ch. 34 |
| banished-by | her father | B4 ch. 24 |
| parent-of | the sand ooze | B4 ch. 24 |
| consort-of | an ancient king | B4 ch. 34 |
| kin-of | Emberus | B4 ch. 28 |
| impersonated-by (reversed) | Yarilo | B4 ch. 21 |
| kin-of | Signet | B5 ch. 25 |
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods | 7/35 | Ch. 21, Ch. 22, Ch. 23, Ch. 24, Ch. 28, Ch. 32, Ch. 34 · the book's own page |
| 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade | 34/78 | 8, 13, 17, 21–30, 34–35, 37, 39, 44, 50, 55–56, 60–64, 66, 70–76 · the book's own page |
By book
Samantha in book 4 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
A head
Ejected from Carl's inventory when the crystal spell breaks: a latex sex-doll head with fangs, a chipped chin, white hair and a barrette reading 'Wet for you', possessed by the Withering Spirit of Psamathe — a minor deity banished by her father for bearing a king's child, half of whom fled into the nearest naiad vessel on her first escape and has lived in Lika ever since (ch. 24). Katia works out the rest: she talked Ghazi into opening the Nothing, her other half and her ooze-child came through, the crystallisation trapped her, and everyone thought she was in the ghost. Mongo's knock made her a head instead of a full-powered deity.
The trainer
Carl tunes her jaw until the words come — 'I'm going to kill your mother' — names her Samantha, and Donut hires her as the personal space's trainer so she cannot summon a god by leaving (ch. 24). She helps Mordecai with the yam (ch. 32), explains Emberus and Orthrus ('A puppy! He's a really good boy') (ch. 28), and when a demon of the Nothing's harem comes for her, is fired fifty kilometres on a custom xistera attachment; the god who tears Slit in two is her mother (ch. 34). 'That was my kill!' The harem all hate her; Gash is the one to watch.
Samantha in book 5 — The Butcher's Masquerade
The guided missile
Samantha learns that Signet is her cousin and can give her a body (ch. 17) and spends the floor demanding it. Carl duct-tapes two seeking missiles to her and throws her; she comes back with an ankle (ch. 22). She goes into a river with an alarm trap playing Wonderwall taped to her head (ch. 25), into the vents (ch. 26), is swallowed twice (ch. 27), scouts across the river with a feather in her mouth (ch. 28), is tortured on Vrah's back (ch. 34), thrown like a rocket (ch. 37), used as a football by cubs (ch. 55) and rolled at an anti-air gun (ch. 61). Goddess of unrequited love, she says (ch. 26); she names a beaver god in the Nothing and a god who wears him (ch. 24), slanders Pawna (ch. 23) and knows what Diwata is (ch. 62, ch. 70).
The security room
Nobody goes to the bathroom that much: she finds the secret notes and signs them Psamathe (ch. 72). In the cat tunnels she finds the guards already beheaded, pulls the right-hand crystals so Ballroom A can cast again, shoves the left-hand ones back to disarm the hunters, holds a door against a birthing god ('SUCK IT, BITCH'), and when the door breaks, bites down on the soul crystals and blows out the third floor (ch. 73). She surfs into the ballroom on a wave of bug gore, bites the dying Vrah — 'Remember me, bitch!' — learns that her cousin is gone, and rockets away through a hole in the floor before the castle leaves (ch. 75). The empty body of Signet's mother is in Carl's inventory for her.