Tealescent Absolem
Tealescent Absolem is the god of tea (both the Tea bush, and the steeped beverage) within the Culinary Conclave of the Bureau of Humanity in the Celestial Bureaucracy. Absolem takes the form of a gigantic blue-green caterpillar with a human face and human arms in place of legs. Its whole body is covered with a fine fur of tea leaves which grow and dry as it moves, and its hands will compulsively remove the driest bunches to brew in an Orichalc teapot which remains constantly steaming hot, as other hands juggle porcelain teacups to be offered up full of fresh tea to those with whom it converses.
Absolem was once subordinate to Striking Magnificent Potentate, in the days before the Primordial War, but he emerged as a loyalist of the Incarnae and an ally of Lumen of the Fattened Duck, whose star was ascending rapidly: in the post-War purges which wracked Yu-shan, Potentate was destroyed and Absolem elevated in his place.
During the early rule of the Solar Exalted, Absolem remained a backer of Lumen in the Conclave, and was one of few spirits there to view Kanyor the Triumphant Infusion with hostility, arguing that soups and infusions were in fact teas and should fall under his own aegis. However, by the time of the Golden Age, the pair had settled their dispute, and Absolem increasingly favoured the company of the Viziers. In the wake of the Usurpation, he emerged firmly on the side of the Bronze Faction, and was one of few gods to support the Dragonblooded claim to inherit the Mandate of Heaven. Some in Heaven hold that the widespread popularity of the Tea Ceremony amongst the Terrestrials of the Shogunate Era was a payoff for this support, though no Censor ever saw reason to prosecute.
In the present day, Absolem continues to serve in his role, and issues no challenge to the leadership of the current Iron Shogun. His political positions have surely earned him many enemies, but perhaps a few valuable friends... the massive human-handed caterpillar is a common site calling for tea at the offices of Chejop Kejak.
