Adulterated Lineages of the Primordial Flesh

Breeding Pit, Anson Maddocks, 1994

The moon shone that night, its disk complete, like polished horn or dulled ivory. There Marwan stood. He was one of the pale people, tall and gaunt, and so the fullmoon rays shone through him, revealing the contours of his bones, the colour of his liver and kidneys. But more was unveiled. The new lobes bulged, beating as hearts in the old flesh of Marwan. From them flowed ichors, hormones, and types of cells found in no being born from a womb. These too were made brilliant in the silver light. The bodies shuddered, they convulsed. They squirmed with their strength and lent it to their host.

Marwan leaped from roof to roof like a cat. His pursuers tried to follow suit, making fools of themselves in the process. He turned to laugh at his enemies fumbling over themselves. Seeing Marwan pause, Yasmin raised her arms to cast a harmless light charm. Marwan felt a sudden tightening of all the muscles in his body. His implanted organs failed for a second. He lost his balance. His feet slipped from the lip of a roof. His skull cracked open when he struck the earth.

The Anatomy of the eye according to Hunayn Ibn Ishaq, from 13th century manuscript

A History

From the Primordial Flesh, from some unknown source in antiquity, came Exquisite Organs and surgeons who know how to bind them in new flesh. They kept the old flesh too, they preserved it, they cherished it. But the mind is eager to tinker, even with perfection. The flesh was mingled with geomancy and devilry and alchemy and necromancy and the blood of rulers. 

Make Me One With Unclean Meat

The new lineages are much blunter, cleverer tools. The organs are distinctive, active. They will slip into any gaping wound and integrate themselves, no surgeon required. They are eccentric, each lineage blessed and cursed with a particular side effect. How they reproduce is largely mysterious but they can be found in just about the same situations as normal Exquisite Organs. 

Organ Spells:  Found in dubious medical treatises and scrolls of made of skin

Birth Organ, R: 15ft  T: A Living Body D: Permanent 

You cause an organ of a random adulterated lineage to be born in a body. The target may attempt a Con save to stop the birth. Normally, the organs produced by this spell provide no stat bonuses but if you expend 500GP in alchemical regeants and sacrifice an animal while casting the spell, the organ provides +1d6 to a random ability score. 

Emergency Transplant, R: Touch T: 2 Organs in Bodies D: Permanent 

You touch 2 bodies and select 2 organs within them. The organs flow through you, swapping hosts. Each target body may make a Con save to resist this effect. 

20 Corrupt Lineages

All organs give a permanent bonus to a stat, usually +2 or greater

1. Strength - Increased Muscle Mass, Tertiary Lung, Increased Adrenaline
2. Dexterity - Improved Neural Sheathing, Faster Metabolism, Improved Fine Motor Skills
3. Constitution - Secondary Liver, Secondary Heart, Increased Bone Mass
4. Intelligence - Secondary Hippocampus, Increased Neural Density (not always in the brain)
5. Wisdom - Improved Vision, Increased Neural Plasticity
6. Charisma - Pheromone Glands, Improved Social Awareness

1. Lineage of the Esoteric Tongue
Organs of this lineage are incredibly light, almost weightless, and a light blue or turquoise color.
Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, you develop an allergy to magic. You get an itch when in the presence of magical places or beings. Whenever a spell is cast within 60ft of you, you undergo a spasm and drop what you're holding. You cannot wield or wear magical equipment, you burst out in hives if you try.

2.  Linage of the Midnight Lodge
Organs of this lineage are dark in color, produce a pitch black oily substance, and are prone to failure. If you roll a 1 on a check or save associated with the organ, it fails completely, you lose the stat bonus the organs provides and you will go into septic shock and die in 1d10 days if the organ is not removed. The defective organ can be made into a potent poison by a chemist.

3. Lineage of the Blood of the Warping Wood
Organs of this lineage look a fetus gestated in a tree stump, they have sightless eyes wound with thin roots, little arms with woody talons. Once implanted with an organ of this linage, you develop a terrible bloodlust. When you see and smell fresh blood, you are driven into a frenzy like a barbarian's rage. The rage can only be ended if you ingest a pound of blood and flesh.

4. Lineage of the Chthonic Star
Organs of this lineage are bulbous and rubbery, like big water balloons full of slushy ice, and highly bioluminescent. When you are in darkness, the organ glows a pale red in your body. Without taking major measures to hide your luminescence, you cannot hide in darkness.

6. Lineage of the Archon's Sons
Organs of this lineage are a dull yellow color and produce fluids that look like mercury but are sour to the tongue. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage you lose the ability to lie, directly and indirectly. You cannot lie by omission or even refuse to answers questions directed at you.

7. Lineage of the Limestone Shaws
Organs of this lineage are always warm and have cracks in them like a heated coal. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage your body temperature rises greatly as if you have a bad fever. If you overheat any further, perhaps because of being in a hot climate or wearing heavy clothing in sunny weather, you will fall unconscious from heat stroke.

8. Lineage of the Hive Lords
Organs of this lineage look like bits of white chewing gum, all chewed up and spat out. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, all your pores begin to produce a sticky mucus. It takes double the amount of time for you to remove equipped armor or drop held items.

9. Lineage of the Tide Walker
Organs of this lineage have a tough exterior that looks like mother of pearl. Interfacing tubes poke through cracks in the shell. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, you become slightly amphibian. If you don't keep your skin moist you begin to wither. You constitution score lowers by 1 for each day you go without moistening, you die when it reaches 0.

10. Lineage of the Grey-Bearded Emperors
Organs of this lineage are slightly hairy, sometimes fine as dander or bristly as a bear. Organs of this lineage have latent personalities trapped inside them, such as a (1. Bigoted Senator 2.  Blustering Sophist 3. Brilliant Sycophant 4. Beautiful Courtesan 5. Bold Tactician 6. Bespoken Politician 7. Bashful Priest 8. Beneficent Governor). The personality is confused, a pagan, and used to being extremely privileged. The personality has a 1 in 8 chance of asserting itself over yours when you wake from sleep or any other unconsciousness. Increase this chance to 6 in 8 if you are under the effect of mind altering drugs.

Organic Landscape 3, Igor Vitkovskiy, (Source)

11. Linage of the Eternal Academy of the Love of Understanding
Organs of this lineage are pocked like meteors and porous as a sponge. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, your body begins to slowly turn to marble. You will be completely immobilized in 2d6 months. You get +4 to your AC and you speed is divided in half when your are halfway to being fully frozen. Basilisk stomach acid is one of the compounds which can reverse this effect.

12. Lineage of the Divided King
Organs of this lineage are desiccated, deposits of salt and calcium cling to them. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, you begin to mummify. After 1d4 weeks you will be technically dead but cling to unholy life until you are destroyed or the organ is removed. In this state, you are vulnerable to water. For every round you are in contact with water, you take 1d8 damage.

13. Lineage of the Twisting Hermit
Organs of this lineage look like crushed beer cans but darker, more muscled. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, your limbs become incredibly easy to slice. Whenever you are hit by a slicing attack, there is a 1 in 8 chance that one of your limbs will be severed from your body.

14. Lineage of the Sun Horned Bull
Organs of this lineage are a rich orange, like a brilliant egg yolk, and almost perfectly, uncomfortably, round. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, you must wake and sleep with the sun. When the sun sets you fall to sleep and when it rises you awake.

15. Lineage of the Unfortunate Weaver
Organs of this lineage are dark purple, web-like threads hang from them. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, you become a locus for evil, as if tied to it by invisible threads. The Undead, devils, demons, and all other abominations and ne'er do wells can detect your presence up to 6 miles away. They will be drawn to you.

16. Lineage of the Angelic Viscera
Organs of this lineage sprout thorn-like spikes, make a dull moaning sound, and have a sense of moral duty. If an organ of this lineage is in the presence of a subject who acts more righteously than its current host, it will bust from the host's body and implant itself in the new subject.

17. Lineage of the Reborn Garden of Paradise
Organs of this lineage have a pair of small wings sprouting from them, always flashy with gorgeous feathers. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, your body begins to weight much less. Strong gusts of wind will lift you off your feet unless you are weighted down.

18. Lineage of the Triumphant Temple
Organs of this lineage are slightly architectural. Cartilage structures like roofs, columns. Arteries like elaborate doorways. They also smell like incense. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, you become the seed of a dungeon. Whenever you level up, you have a level in 20 chance of running off into the wilderness and assuming the fetal position. You sink into the earth, you expand, you deepen, monsters are drawn to you. Once the process is fully completed you are a dungeon with a number of floors equal to your level. The hazards and creatures have personalities similar to yours. Your own treasure and items and more can be retrieved from within.

19. Lineage of the Barren Legion
Organs of this lineage have a metallic smell. They are covered in lesions the shape of a shield boss.
Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, you cannot help but stand at attention when you hear trumpets, drums, or any other bombastic martial instruments being played.

20. Lineage of the Tyrant's Banquet
Organs of this lineage are covered with little lips, closed tight. From a few of them beaks poke out. Once implanted with an organ of this lineage, you develop strange cravings. Each week you crave (1. Fine Olive Oil 2. Caviar 3. Mollusks 4. Honey 5. Quail Eggs 6. Spiced Dates 7. Oranges 8. Sheep Eyes 9. Crow Guts 10. Octopus). If you cannot satisfy your craving within the week, the organ dies. You lose the stat bonus the organs provides and you will go into septic shock and die in 1d10 days if the organ is not removed.

This post is dedicated to Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, the falasuf and physician

Exquisite Organs of the Primordial Flesh

Organic Tile Material, Tyler Smith, 2019 (Source)

The thing came in a jar. Maybe the jar was copper, textured like snake scale. Maybe the jar was clay, painted with black figures of surgeons and their heroes. The jar was full of liquid. The thing sat in the sludge like an embryo in the yoke. It was inert, perfectly so.

You kept the jar in your saddle bag, it bounced with the bolts of linen and the sacks of spices. Your camel didn't seem to mind, it was just a few more pounds to carry. Later, when you had the time, once you had eaten the camel and the spices and sold the linen, when you lived in a house with clay walls right near the temple, you kept the jar on a shelf. A curiosity from the old days, you told guests.

That much was true. You were still quite curious. You didn't tell guests about the other jars. The growths that covered the wall, like tumors turned to stone with age. The vaulted ceiling from which the desiccated bodies hung, tubes pouring from their dry orifices. All that you neglected to mention. But you were still curious.

Cane in hand, you went to the temple. The initiates had no clue. They reminded you to seek fullness with the Lord and washed your feet and meekly speculated about what the words of the Prophetess had really meant.

With your finest robes, you went to the house of wisdom. The historians were full of clues. The jar certainly had telling but strange designs. The anatomists were confused, they took a sample of the fluid. You declined to give them any more. The astronomer did your horoscope and you left.

Putting a veil over your face, you went to the back of a house near the bazaar of irregularities, closed by an agent of the Commander of the Faithful when you were still nimble in the saddle. The Surgeon was pleased. She smiled wide. She brushed the dust from the Codex Universae Medicus and read. She read with a fervor, greater than reciting priests or debating scholars.The tantalizing words flowed down, forming summary and quotation. You could only grasp the important bits.

"The flesh and spirit have always been at odds." You heard "Their method was flawed, they looked out instead of in for the answer... The Complete Supremacy of Flesh... the mystery in ligament and spinal fluid... The flesh will prove to be the cure to itself...to bring about its own perfection.... I cannot imagine any way but the through the Exquisite Organs... there will be a great and primal healing."

She took the Exquisite Organ from the jar, the inheritance of the Primordial Flesh, the glory of the unbroken lineage of Sublime Surgeons dripping in its carefully synthesized amniotic fluid. She counted the lobes, tested the membrane, she saw that it was ready to live again. It was time to operate.

Illustration from a 15-16th century edition of Mansur's Anatomy 

Find Me the Primordial Flesh 

The genesis of the Exquisite Organs is unknown. They have may have been fabricated by the Surgeon-Priests of antiquity, torn from the carcasses of mythical giants, bred over generations for greater and greater perfection. They can be found in specialized jars or preserved in mummified corpses or harvested from the bodies of living hosts. Each is worth its weight in gold to anyone who knows what they're buying. 

Find Me a Doctor

We live in a time of great medical marvels but Sublime Surgeons are hard to come by. They may be found in the halls of schools of medicine and anatomy, or as practicing doctors in slums and border towns, or as the personal physicians of amirs and aristocrats. Most surgeons could attempt to implant the Exquisite Organs if able to educate themselves about the proper procedure by reading the Codex Universae Medicus. Realistically, the chance of rejection is quite high but we can waive that for player characters.

20 Exquisite Organs

1. The Intercession Gland (Emergency Petrification Gland - inserted at the brain stem)
When you are reduced to 0 hitpoints, your body (but not your equipment) rapidly turns to stone. In this form you remain alive and regain hitpoints as if you were resting. When you receive magical healing of any kind, your body becomes unpetrified. A trained magic user can tell how to reverse the petrification process by examining you for a few minutes.

2. The Dragon's Tongue  (Noxious Parotid Gland - inserted in the cheek)
Your saliva is highly acidic. 10 minutes of sustained spitting is enough to melt a fist sized amount of any material as or less durable than metal. If your spit gets in somebody's eyes, it blinds them for a minute (but does no damage). Additionally, you can digest most organic materials, including bone and tough chitin. Food loses all its flavor to you.

3. The Mighty Cord (Fibrous Colonic Reinforcement Complex - inserted in abdomen)
You have a cable made of your calcified and extended large intestinal tract which comes out from your belly button. The cable is about as flexible as rope and as strong as steel, it is 20ft long. If the cable is tugged with a great deal of force, it will be pulled out and take most of your internal organs with it, killing you almost instantly.

4. The Blood Furnace (Energetic Myeloid Stem Cell Sack - inserted in the chest)
Your blood is highly nutritious and about as flammable as lamp oil. 1 hp worth of blood is equivalent to one ration or a flask of lamp oil. You smell absolutely delicious.

5. The Sanguine Mind (Aggressive Lymphoid Stem Cell Sack - inserted in the chest)
Your blood is independent and semi-sentient. When outside your body, you can command your blood to flow and climb in any direction. If your blood contaminates the blood stream of another creature, you can control their body for a minute.

6. The Wizard's Marks (Spell/Marrow Interfacing Complex - inserted in the back)
Your flesh can function as a storage space for spells. When you are the target of a spell, you have a 1 in 6 chance of absorbing it. You can store 1 spell this way and can cast it as if it were a scroll. You can have this organ implanted multiple times. Each implantation increases the number of spells you can store by 1 and increases your chance of absorbing spells by 1 in 6.

7. The Flame Body (Explosive Lymph Nodes- inserted in arms, abdomen, and thighs)
When you die, or when you will it, your body explodes as per a fireball spell. You can will your limbs to explode independently of the rest of your body, treat exploding limbs as a fireball with 1/4 the area of effect and damage. If your limbs/body are regenerated, they maintain their explosive powers.

8. The Priest's Chamber (Adaptive Bone Cavity - inserted in the abdomen or thigh)
You have a box hidden in your body. The box sits under a layer of skin than can be peeled back and is about as strong as a metal safe. There is a code word, chosen by you, that opens the box.

9. The Legislator's Larynx (High Resonance Larynx - inserted in the throat)
You can raise your voice to incredible volumes. When you shout, you can be heard clearly as far as 6 miles away. Once a day, you can shout loud enough to make all non-deafened creatures in your immediate surroundings spend the round clutching their ears in pain. This makes your voice hoarse and you can only whisper for the rest of the day.

10. The Gourmet's Womb (Gastric Reproductive System- inserted in the abdomen)
By eating a raw chunk of a creature's flesh, you can begin to gestate a clone of it in your implanted womb. The clone takes 1d6 weeks to fully gestate, becomes an adult in 3 days, and dies a week after that. Gestating a non-humanoid clone this way is ill advised, beware under cooked food.

Organic Squish, Rafał Mierzejewski, 2018 (Source)

11. The Queen Bee Gland (Apisized Sudoriparous Glands - inserted in the chest)
 You produce a highly adhesive, waxy substance from your pores. The substance remains sticky for an hour after secretion. In a round, you can produce enough of the substance to cover an item or small object. In 10 minutes you can coat a 5' square area in the substance.

12. The Progenitor Gland (Intra-Organ Reproductive Gland - inserted in the abdomen)
This gland encourages other Exquisite Organs to reproduce. Other organs take 1 month to gestate another of their kind in the host body and each organ can only ever produce 1 offspring this way. New organs must be removed from their birth-host and inserted in another before they can reproduce again.

13. The Tortoise Skin (Super Keratinous Dermal Glands - inserted in the neck)
You can no longer feel pain or pleasure. All physical damage you take is reduced by 1d6 and if you would take 2 or less damage, you instead take none. However, you cannot tell how much health you have. The GM records your HP. You or another person can determine how much HP you by spending a round performing a medical examination.

14. The Slave Collar (Controlled Electric Impulse Generator - inserted at the brain stem)
Your body can be controlled using a special device (usually discovered alongside the organ) which looks like a remote control made of bits of bone, copper, and carefully chiseled obsidian. If this device is destroyed, the organ sends an electric shock to your brain, killing you instantly. The device cannot control you or fry your brain if you are more than 100ft away from it.

15. The Alabaster Arsenal (Rib Honing Complex - inserted in the chest)
Your ribs stick out from your chest slightly, all are sharp. You (or anybody else) can pull out a rib to use it as either an arrow, crossbow bolt, or a dagger. Rib weapons disintegrate one day after being removed from your body. By default, you have 24 ribs, you regenerate 1 each day. If more than 8 ribs are removed from you in a single day you take 1d6 damage.

16. The Philosopher's Gallbladder (Saturated Colic Gland - inserted in the abdomen)
Your body produces dark green gallstones. These stones transmit sound from within 10ft of them to your abdomen, from which the muffled sound can be heard. If a stone is cracked open, perhaps after being thrown from a sling, it produces a terrible scent which burns the noses of creatures with acute senses of smell and dissuades those with human-like senses of smell from being it its presence. You can produce 1 of these stones each day, they last for a week outside your body before disintegrating, and their stench lasts for a day.

17. The Piercing Eye (Hyper Sensitive Photoreceptor Groups - inserted behind eyes)
You can activate specialized sensors in your eyes which allow you to see by heat in the dark and see through solid matter. You can see through roughly 2-3ft of most materials but not through metal. You can activate your eyes 3 times a day for 10 minutes each time.

18. The Ocean Lung (Independent Respiratory Lobe - inserted in the abdomen)
You have an extra lung with extraordinary capacity and endurance. You can breathe smoke, ash, and poison gas without risk to your health. You can inhale enough gas/smoke to fill a 15ft radius sphere and can keep the gas inhaled for as long as you can hold your breath.

19. The Usurper Organ (Considered Immune to Categorization - inserted in the chest)
You have a small tube erupting from your chest, it resembles a flower and a mouth at once. When you feed the tube with the marrow of a whole humanoid body, your body begins to regenerate quickly, returning you to full health. If fed once a week, your body begins to age in reverse, returning to a state of unnatural youth in the course of a few months. If not fed weekly, your body ages rapidly. If not fed for a month, you die of old age.

20. The Meteor Heart (Copperous Mesenchymal Stem Cell Sack - inserted in the chest)
You are, essentially, a human electromagnet. You can activate and deactivate your magnetism at will. While active, metal objects up to 20ft away are pulled towards you and will stick to you. Items small enough to be held in one or two hands are pulled at a rate of 20ft per round, larger items are pulled at a rate of 5ft per round. Weapons pulled towards you make an attack against you (as if they had +0 to hit) when they come in contact with you.

This post is dedicated to Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a Nestorian at the heart of the Abbasid Golden Age

Devouring Priests: The Faith of the Knife and the Crook

Spirit and Flesh. One.
(Source)

It is written in a book with pages like thin white tissue:

“And so Petrus went among the slaves of King Aerom’s court, preaching deliverance from hunger and from tiredness and from hopelessness. The bonded men and women gathered around Petrus and the poor and the needy from far away followed him. Partaking of the Sacrament of Spiced Meat, all were cleansed of that which makes mortal life unbearable and so became devoted disciples of Petrus. The holy man wore robes of wool bound with a simple length of cord in which he kept his saw and his butchering knife, he only sustained himself by the sacraments offered to him, and he smelt of sugar and cinnamon and sweat. This is what he taught to those assembled: ‘I have given you communion from my own flesh and made you my kindred, but to receive and not give is folly.’

And then the Spirit arose from Within Petrus and tore his flesh asunder. The Flesh spoke, saying: ‘Rejoice, for to love is to lack and you lack everything! Feast and be feasted upon!’

At this, King Aerom looked down from his balcony and was aghast. And none could stop the tide of those who had ears to hear the Spirit and mouths to taste the Flesh.”

They are the Devouring Priests, always maimed and always ragged. Theirs is the faith of the crook and the knife. In Voich they are called Disciples of the Empty Belly, but in every land they choose a new name. They need no temples. They carry with them the heart of their worship: the place where the Flesh and Spirit meet, a mouth. It opens from the Priest's chest. Its lips are a scar reaching from shoulder to waist. Its teeth are wide and sharp. Its saliva is dark and sweet, like molasses. The tongue varies, horribly so. It may be an arm, a leg, an eye, it is a mark of the Priest's own order.

They offer a blessed sacrament, always meat and never bread. It is sweet and fragrant, like honey. It is the flesh of men. When you partake of it, you hear a deep voice in your ears, like a whisper. It is so calm, so loving, so reasonable, so silent. So long as you can hear and are within 120ft of the Priest, you are charmed by him and his disciples. This lasts for a day.

The voice compels you to eat more. It is hard to say no. When you have consumed a whole limb’s worth of flesh you become a disciple of the Priest. The voice swells in your ears, you hear it everywhere, it is inside you. This can take a week, 3 days if there’s a rush. Give your character sheet to the DM, you do not need it anymore. Your flesh will feed others.

The Devouring Priest requires his sacrament. He needs not food or drink, he is a kind of ascetic. He must feed the body of a person to the mouth in his chest each week. This is a sacred duty, his disciples, who hear his voice, who have their feet washed and their bellies filled by him, kneel before him as the muscled jaws of his body stretch open. If he cannot feed, he loses the ability to cast spells and perform miracles. He withers. He gains a point of exhaustion each day until he has 5.

Where is the lamb? Behold, it is before you.
(Source)

The Devouring Priest has come to your doorstep. You have found him in the wilderness. He has brought his faith with him. He is concealing his scar, the tabernacle of his body. What is he like? Roll 2d6 to determine how the Priest is maimed and unmaimed and what he yearns for. 

Devouring Priest

Medium Humanoid, Lawful Evil (I don't really use alignment in my games, but you might)

Armor Class: 16 (Chainmail)

Hitpoints: 62 (12d8+8)

Speed: 30 ft

STR 14 (+2) DEX 9 (-1) CON 16 (+3) INT 12 (+1) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 15 (+2)

Saving Throws: WIS +5 CHA +4

Skills: Religion +5, Deception +6, Persuasion +6, Perception +5, Athletics +4

Senses: Darkvision 30ft, passive perception 15

Languages: Trade Tongue, Pomroy Patois (or Common and some foreign tongue) 

Challenge: 4? (1100 XP)

Spellcasting. The priest is a 5^th level spellcaster. Their spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save is DC 13, +5 to hit with spell attacks). The Priest has the following spells prepared. He does not need verbal components to cast spells, his 2nd mouth does all the incantations.

Cantrips: Guidance, Sacred Flame, Thaumaturgy, Spare the Dying

Level 1 (4 slots): Cure Wounds, Shield of Faith, Command, Sanctuary

Level 2 (3 slots): Hold Person, Calm Emotions, Hungry Touch

Level 3 (2 slots): Wither, Mass Healing Word
(See 'New Spells' below for Hungry Touch and Wither)

Face of Hunger: The Priest's mouth is usually closed and hidden, he must use an action to fully open it and cannot move on a turn in which he does so. His mouth must be open in order to use his Bite and Consume actions or to use the limb inside his mouth. When the Devouring Priest is reduced to half his hitpoints (31) or below the mouth in his chest is revealed and opens automatically. It vomits a mixture of blood and dark, sweet saliva.

Actions:

Heavy Crook. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5ft, one target. Hit: 1d8+2 bludgeoning damage

Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5ft, one target. Hit: 1d4+2 piercing damage

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5ft, one target. Hit: 1d10+4 slashing damage.

Consume. As a bonus action, the Priest partakes of the flesh of a living disciple adjacent to him. The Priest regains 2d8+4 HP, the disciple then takes that much slashing damage +5

He is maimed and unmaimed. Something was taken from him and something greater was given. It is a mark of his particular conviction.

1.  The sheep must never stray far. A strong grip makes this so.
He is missing an arm. He has disadvantage on checks which require 2 hands.
His mouth contains a long arm with five strong fingers. It has a strength of 18, has a total of +8 to athletics checks, and may attempt to grapple a creature as a bonus action. Whenever the priest makes a melee attack he may make an additional one with his extra arm.

2. Unity is kept through scrutiny. If they wander, he shall know.
He is missing both eyes, blinded. He will have a disciple close, to guide him.
His mouth contains a huge eye, purple where it should be white, a pupil like gold. He gains blindsight 10ft around all his disciples. When the priest's mouth is open, he gains darkvision 90ft and truesight. As a bonus action, the Priest may scrutinize a creature with his eye. The target must succeed a Charisma saving throw (against his spell save DC) or become paralyzed as the Priest invades their mind until the end of their next turn. The Priest learns the target's deepest fears and closest secrets this way.

3. Our faith is a wandering one. He must never stay in one place long.
He is missing a leg. He moves at half speed (15 ft). He uses a simple prosthetic.
His mouth contains a twisted leg, all muscle, joints moving every which way. While his mouth is open, the Priest's speed's increases to 40ft and he does not provoke opportunity attacks. As a bonus action, he may attempt to sweep all creatures adjacent to him off their feet. They all must succeed a Dexterity saving throw (against the Priest's spell save DC) or be knocked prone and take 1d6+2 bludgeoning damage.

4. The soul of the faith is the voice. He shall sing for all the world.
He is missing his tongue. He cannot speak. He may have a disciple to talk for him. 
His mouth contains a long, sticky, purple-black tongue. When his mouth is open, even those who have not tasted the Sacrament can hear the Priest's voice. You cannot help but find it beautiful. As a bonus action, the Priest can speak in enchanting tongues. All creatures who can hear him must succeed a Wisdom save (against his spell save DC) or are unable to intentionally harm the Priest and cannot defend themselves against melee attacks the Priest makes against them until the end of their turn.

5. The Spirit turns all weakness to strength. From infirmness he finds fermity.
He is missing a vital organ. He looks sickly. He makes Con and Str saves at disadvantage.
His mouth contains an amalgam of grey-purple tubes and lobes. Like the liver and the lungs and the heart bred together. When his mouth is open, everyone can hear their hearts beating in their ears and all their organs convulsing within them. Everyone who can hear the priest makes all saving throws at disadvantage. As a bonus action, the Priest can spew sweet bile at a creature, treat as a ranged spell attack. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 acid damage and the Priest's disciples gain plus +1 to attack rolls and damage rolls against the target, this stacks and can only be ended by washing the bile off.

6. Eyes deceive as much as words, as much as ears. He lives by faith alone.
He is missing his entire head. The stump of his neck continues to bleed. He is blind, deaf, mute.
His mouth contains a malformed head. It has perfect black orbs for eyes. Teeth like razor blades. When the Priest's mouth is open, he regains the use of all his senses and speech. His two voices harmonize perfectly, Disciples of the Priest gain advantage on all attack rolls and ability checks. As a bonus action, the Priest may drive all Disiples into a frenzy,  they may make a melee attack as a reaction against a creature adjacent to them.
(This is a very rare sect, if you roll this option first, reroll)

He yearns not just for flesh, but for something more.

1. He yearns for information. He keeps well connected socialites close to him. When he tastes the blood of a humanoid, he may gain a whole day's worth of their memories. These memories can be kept into perpetuity.

2. He yearns for truth. He keeps sages and wise men close to him. When he tastes the blood of a humanoid, he may gain a spell they know of 3rd level or below for a day. 

3. He yearns for experience. He keeps people skilled in every craft close to him. When he tastes the blood of a humanoid, he may gain the use of a class trait they posses (such as a fighter's Action Surge or a paladin's Divine Sense). He may only gain one trait at a time this way and can't gain Spellcasting. 

4.  He yearns for perfection. He keeps those who excel in every quality close to him. When he tastes the blood of a humanoid, he may increase one of his ability scores so that it matches that of the person who's blood he tasted. He may only have one score increased at a time.

5. He yearns for culture. He keeps all manner of people from all places with him. When he tastes the blood of a humanoid, he may gain one the traits they gain from their heritage (Such as a Dwarf's Dwarven Resilience or a Rowing Person's Wide Eyes). He may only gain one trait at a time this way.

6. He yearns for devotion. He keeps many people close and none can leave him. When he tastes the blood of a humanoid, he gains the ability to track that creature perfectly and his attacks against them cannot have disadvantage. This effect lasts for two days.

My house is for all people
(Source)

What of the Disciples?

It is written in a book with ink of auburn:

"That day the Anointed One had fled to the hills where the shepherds plied their trade, and indeed a great many people had followed him. He told them many things in parables, saying: 'Look upon that herdsman. Though he be a servant to one man, he does toil day and night not for his own welfare but for the creatures under his care. Though he carries his crook in his left hand, at his right is a knife.'"

Who are you to stay my hand?
(Source)

He does not come alone. His Disciples follow him. They could be anyone. They remain themselves, in some ways, placid but happy expressions, old edges made smooth. They will always follow the Devouring Priest's commands and will never flee or suffer from cowardice.

 Most are maimed, their flesh needed to feed others, give them a major injury from your preferred death and dismemberment table (let me volunteer my own). If you need to run a large number of Disciples, run them all as having the same, vague, major disadvantage like disadvantage on Strength rolls, or all as having 1 hand because of both missing arms and needing a free arm to hold a crutch, whatever you feel is appropriate.

The Priest knows the value of protection. He may have unmaimed Disciples who were once soldiers or mercenaries to guard him.

The Priest may create an equal. He will take a time to prepare, eating 10 of his followers in 10 days. He will take one of his Disciples and cut them open, a laceration reaching from shoulder to waist. He pours himself into them, dark saliva and seeds of a foreign flesh. There is much chanting and jubilation. This is a kind of marriage. It takes 3 hours. The scar will heal quickly and in a week it will open, a new Devouring Priest is born. The maiming comes afterward, when it is time for a new congregation to be gathered, when the first sacrament must be prepared.

Encounters:
Should you meet a Devouring Priest, he may appear in this manner.

1. A tent in the wilderness. The cripples are so kind, they speak so highly of their new faith. They have plenty of meat, but there are no animals in sight.

2. A poor maimed holy man stumbles upon you. He looks withered and tired. He begs you to take him to the nearest town.

3. The local authorities are trying a man for heresy on the roadside. His followers violently agitate for his release.

4. He has been caught at a bad time. His gaze (or lack there of) meets yours just as the legs of a woman slide into his chest. His followers are shocked by your arrival.

5. A child calls out to you. Her parents followed a man who promised to feed them in this hungry time. They have not returned.

6. A caravan of wealthy men and women on horseback, traveling with their new spiritual guide. Beggars tied up, trailing behind, parts of them cut off, they beg you to free them.

Many fleshes, one faith
Illustration by Harry Clarke, from Faust

Devouring Priests grow as their congregation grows. His voice will become greater, the bond he shares with his Disciples deeper. He gains spell slots and cantrips as a Cleric does and he learns new spells from the Cleric's spell list. When the congregation shrinks, the benefits the Priest and his Disciples enjoy take 3 days to disappear.

The Faith of the Crook and the Knife will spread using all the tactics of a plague and with all the grace of a modern cult. They spurn public displays until they have a critical mass and spread whispers of dissent, of secret answers and initiations.

It is unlikely that a single Priest will assemble more than ~170 Disciples. The cult will split into new segments as new Priests are created and it will take a long time for one Priest to prepare the sacrament required to acquire so many followers.

 Number of Disciples/Benefits

0: No benefits. The cult must grow.
20~ (about the size of an extended family): All Disciples gain +1 to all saves. Priest's health increases by 10.
40~ (about the size of a small war-party): The Priest becomes a 6th level spell caster.
80~ (about the size of a large merchant caravan): All Disciples gain +1 to hit. The Priest becomes a 7th level spell caster.
170~ (about the population of a small village): The Priest's voice takes on a new confidence. Though still silent to the uninitiated, it can effect the devoted and the infidel in new ways.  Roll a d6 on the table below.

1. His voice is louder. Whenever he casts a spell of 1st level or higher, all enemies who can hear him must pass a Wisdom saving throw (against the Priest's spell save) or take 1d6 psychic damage.

2. His voice is more horrible. Whenever he casts a spell of 1st level or higher, an enemy who can hear him must pass a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of the Priest until the end of their next turn.

3. His rhetoric is more mocking. Whenever he casts a spell of 1st level or higher, an enemy who can hear him must pass a Wisdom saving throw or be compelled by rage to move their speed towards the Priest, avoiding dangerous terrain if able.

4. His rhetoric is more extreme. Whenever he casts a spell of 1st level or higher, two allies who can hear him gain advantage on their next attack roll.

5. His voice is more soothing. Whenever he casts a spell of 1st level or higher, two allies who can hear him may regain 1d4 hitpoints.

6. His rhetoric is more uplifting. Whenever he casts a spell of 1st level or higher, all allies who can hear him may make another saving throw against negative effects which require a save to end.

350~(about the size of a hamlet): The Priest gains 25 health. His Disciples gain Pack Tactics.

700~(about the population of a small town): The Priest's ambitions grow. Roll a d6 to give the Priest a new yearning. If you roll a yearning the Priest already possesses, then his desire deepens. Whatever he gains by tasting the blood of a humanoid, he may also cause the humanoid to lose. For example, if he yearns for information, he may cause people to lose the memories he gains from them. For the yearnings for which this principle is not obvious:
Yearns for perfection: Victims have the ability score the Priest steals reduced to 10
Yearns for devotion: Victims forget all the places where they have friends or allies
Anything stolen by the Priest is returned when the Priest dies or after 2 days.

1900~(about the size of a medium sized town): The Priest is now a 9th level spell caster. His Disciples gain +1 to their unarmored AC. The Priest's voice becomes greater again, roll a d6 on the table above, rerolling if you get a trait which the Priest already posses.

4000~(about the size of a large town): The Priest becomes a 11th level spell caster. His ambition explodes. Roll for 2 new yearnings. He gains 25 HP.

9000~(a small city): A metamorphosis, perhaps a crisis of opinion. The Priest gains a new organ/limb in his mouth, roll on the Maimed and Unmaimed table again but don't apply the maiming portion.

18000~(a large city):
It is written in a book with a spine of ivory:

"What of the world to come? Even if you knew all, saw all, and were prepared for all, you could not fathom it. For now we see each other as in a mirror, dimly. Then we shall be face to face and flesh to flesh and all these mysteries will fade. " 

Once in his life, the Priest may consume 1000 of his followers in a ritual frenzy over the course of a week in order issue forth from his body, in a process which is similar to a snake unhinging its jaws, an ANGEL OF HUNGER. 

ANGEL OF HUNGER. 
100 ARMS. 12 WINGS. TOO MANY MOUTHS TO COUNT, ALL GNASHING, ALL WANTING. ALL MANNERS OF TEETH AND ALL VARIETIES OF DESIRE WHICH CANNOT BE SATISFIED. 
LARGE. CELESTIAL. LAWFUL EVIL. 
AC 15 (NATURAL ARMOR) HP: 111 SPEED: 30, 90 FLY
+5 IN ALL ABILITY SCORES.
+6 TO ALL SAVING THROWS.
DAMAGE IMMUNITIES: ALL WEAPONS WHICH HAVE NOT BEEN USED TO COMMIT MURDER OR AS CUTLERY IN A CANNIBAL FEAST CANNOT HARM THE ANGEL

IMMACULATE IN ALL WAYS: THE ANGEL HAS ADVANTAGE ON ALL SAVING THROWS

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE: EVERY HUMANOID IN A MILE OF THE ANGEL MUST SUCCEED A DC 15 WISDOM SAVING THROW OR BE OVERCOME WITH CANNIBALISTIC FRENZY FOR A DAY. AT THE START OF EACH DAY, ALL THOSE WITHIN A MILE OF THE ANGEL MUST SAVE AGAIN.  IF YOU SUCCEED THE SAVE, YOUR DEEPEST DESIRE BECOMES CLEAR TO YOU, IT MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU ENVISIONED. 

LET THY LIPS BE FRESH WITH PRAISE: NOBODY IN A MILE OF THE ANGEL CAN LIE OR UTTER HALF TRUTHS. THEIR MOUTHS FILL WITH FETID BLOOD IF THEY TRY. 

ACTIONS: 

RAPTUROUS VOICE: THE ANGEL TELLS YOU SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL. ALL CREATURES WHO CAN HEAR THE ANGEL MUST SUCCEED A DC 15 CONSTITUTION SAVING THROW OR TAKE 4D8 PSYCHIC DAMAGE. 

KNIFE LIKE NO OTHER: THE ANGEL MAKES 3 MELEE WEAPON ATTACKS AGAINST A SINGLE TARGET: +8 TO HIT, REACH 10ft, 3D8+5 SLASHING DAMAGE

TIDE OF FLESH: THE ANGEL SINGS TO THE VERY EARTH. A 15x15ft CUBE OF NON-SENTIENT MATERIAL TRANSFORMS INTO WRITHING MEAT. IT IS DIFFICULT TERRAIN. ALL CREATURES WHO BEGIN THEIR TURNS ADJACENT TO IT MUST SUCCEED A DC 16 DEXTERITY SAVING THROW OR BECOME GRAPPLED AND RESTRAINED. THEY MAY ATTEMPT THE SAVE AGAIN AT THE END OF THEIR TURN. 

ALL WRITHE (1/PER MONTH): THE ANGEL CASTS WITHER ON ALL HUMANOIDS IT CAN SEE. IT'S SPELL SAVE IS 15. 

GLORIOUS CONVOCATION (1/PER WEEK): THE ANGEL DRIPS A DROPLET OF SWEET AMBROSIA INTO THE MOUTH OF A HUMANOID ADJACENT TO IT. THEY MAY ATTEMPT A DC 17 DEXTERITY SAVING THROW. IF THE HONEY TOUCHES THEIR TONGUE, THEY BECOME A DEVOURING PRIEST IN A WEEK.

I am doing as I should
(Source)

New Spells:

Hungry Touch, 2^nd Level Necromancy

Casting Time: 1 Action, Range: Touch, Components: V, S, Duration: Concentration up to 10 minutes

You lay your hand on a creature. They begin to feel starved, as if they've been without food for 2+your proficiency bonus days, and gain points of exhaustion appropriate to the number of days they've been effectively starved for (a creature can go 3+their constitution modifier days without food before they begin to gain a point of exhaustion for each day spent starving beyond their limit). If you continue to touch the creature they continue to starve, feeling as if they've been without food for an additional day for each round you touch them. The creature cannot gain more than 4 levels of exhaustion this way and may lower their exhaustion level by eating an amount of food equal to that which they would have needed during the time they've been effectively starved for. 

Wither, 3^rd Level Necromancy

Casting Time: 1 Action, Range: 20ft, Components: V, S, Duration: Variable

You call out to the limb of a humanoid which can see and hear you. You command either an arm or a leg to wither. If an arm is targeted, the creature drops anything it’s holding with that arm, if a leg they fall prone. The target must succeed a constitution saving throw or their limb withers and becomes unusable for 1d4 days. If an arm is targeted, the creature has one less usable hand and gains disadvantage on all checks which would require two hands to perform. If a leg is targeted, the target moves at half speed for the duration and has disadvantage on all saves against effects which would knock them prone.

Credit where it's due: This post is based of Zedek Siew's excellent Priests of Want class, which you should go and read now. I've taken the main ideas of his post, the cannibalistic and enthralling sacrament, and added my own twists.

It is written in a book bound with perfect black leather: 

"How do you think that I come alone? When I arrived to this country I had ears to hear and eyes to see but I was nothing. Now I have seen this country. I have eaten with the people of the villages and of the hills. They have showed me such kindness. Do you think they are not with me now? For I have been made greater by all those who have loved me. 

For all the might on earth and all the miracles of the Spirit, nothing can match devotion."

This post is dedicated to Jón Arason, who, I have read, was the last good man in his nation