Character from Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
Goddess of Pestilence, the Mistress of Disease — she walks where plague walks and delights in the suffering of the afflicted.
Poliel is feared and reviled even among the gods. She embodies plague, infection, and the slow rot of disease. Her followers are few and secret, worshipping through the spread of contagion. She unleashed the plague upon Seven Cities during the Chain of Dogs, killing thousands. She takes genuine pleasure in suffering and views her pestilences as art forms, each epidemic a masterwork of mortality.
A tall woman whose beauty is ruined by the visible signs of every disease she carries. Sores weep beneath silk, her smile reveals blackened gums, and flies orbit her like a living crown.
Also known as: Poliel, Mistress of Pestilence, The Grey Goddess