For the Tcho-Tcho people there are many mystical arts, and one of the most crucial to the health, well-being and safety of their race as a whole is the ability to weave mystical energy and open gateways to what is known as The Dreamlands. The Dreamlands are another reality, just adjacent to our own, accessed via a handful of permanent hard-point portals in The Waking. Most humans and other living creatures tap into the ethereal energies of The Dreamlands when sleeping, giving them access for the sake of letting their slumbering mind room to wander. The Dreamlands act as something of a psychic heat sink, dumping energy from The Waking into the ether and letting it either dissipate or mature.

In The Dreamlands there are many races, such as the Gug, Ghouls and the Tcho-Tcho. The Tcho-Tcho originate from Earth, once an Asian race from a civilization lost to time, much like Lemuria, Mu and Atlantis. This race of ancient sorcerers owed allegiance only to the Old Ones, and the Elder Gods. In exchange for being taken from this world to The Dreamlands they offered undying loyalty, or at least they claimed to. When their loyalties came into question and rebellion seemed certain they were struck with a particular vicious curse: If they do not consume the flesh of other sentient, living beings they begin to wither and degenerate, growing steadily less human with time and turning into something...Other.

As such, when the Tcho-Tcho Dreamweavers and Portal-walkers were able to make passages back to Earth via their magical energies they came to live among humans once more, frequently disguising their complete lack of body hair, their unnaturally short stature and violent, vicious tempers as best they could. The lovely young Mar, though, is only half Tcho-Tcho, taller than the average for her race by a fair margin, and has adopted a particularly punkish style that helps her baldness pass for simply "quirky".

Living in Felton means a lot of things for Mar. For one, it means being close to her family, including her Human father and Tcho-Tcho mother, as well as the extended Tcho-Tcho family. For another, it means she frequently has access to the food necessary to keep her so-called humanity in check, as her family has the good fortune of operating a funeral home. A few missing organs won't be much of an issue. Unfortunately, she is still expected to be a sorceress and hunter by her Tcho-Tcho family, despite her mother's more understanding stance on her obvious apprehension.

She sometimes steps through the portals she can weave, traveling to The Dreamlands to explore, but more often to hunt fresh game. The human residents of The Dreamlands, of which there are a fair few, are frequently hunted by the other native species for food and sport. Though, Mar has been trying her best to abstain since she joined Man-Eaters Anonymous. She knows that if she lets herself fall too far into the old ways of her heritage she may never make it back, and frankly she likes Earth, and being human, far too much to let herself lose the path.

Not every monster has a choice in who they are, but Martha Talbot sure as hell does.

Art by  Horri, with Mar being a creation of my girlfriend  FeltonIrregulars for our shared Feltonverse setting. She is a Lovecraftian-inspired Sorceress and one of the main protagonists, exploring her powers, her sexuality and her identity as both a human and a Tcho-Tcho at the difficult age of nineteen.