| Species | Akuskerka |
| Order | Femmes Mortes |
| Classification | Undead |
| Dominion | Stillborn |
| Sphere | Stillbirth |
| Origin | Early midwives who commit murder. |
| Lifespan | Inmortal |
| Habitat | Wilderness near communities or homes |
| Food | Children or pregnant folk's lifeforce |
| Description | Akuserka appear to be frail feminine figures draped in misty grey, wearing the uniforms of their occupations from life in a muted grey tone. They have no flesh on their faces, but have a long, worm-like tongue. |
| Corruption | When a female, female-identified, or femme midwife, nurse, doctor, or other figure responsible for helping a person give birth betrays that person and murders either the parent, the child, or both, they doom themselves to an undead fate. Arts of msawhat may also form such a being, if they have this relationship to birth or parenthood or something similar (18). |
| Esoterica | Akuserka are beings of msawhat and pravum. If they were users of any healing or vibrant arts in life, these are corrupted and turned into powerful sources of msawhat and pravum for them. They also use dark powers such as parasitic energy, vile energy, doom, uafas, misfortune, gossamer light, black nommos, and spirits. |
| Special Powers | Akuserka cause unease in those who are near them. Their tongues are coated in a sticky substance that can attach the tongue to any kind of flesh. It can drain the lifeforce of anything they attach it to. Their empty eye sockets can see souls, and their hands cause intense cold. They can vanish into the mist around themselves any time between dusk and dawn. They can smell the blood of children or pregnant people, and they can hear a baby crying from miles away. |
| Necromancy | To create an akuserka, one must corrupt a woman (etc.) who is aiding in a childbirth, convincing them to kill the birthing parent or child. Some ensure the corruption through arts of msawhat (18), but the person will not become an akuserka unless they have betrayed their profession or responsibility in order to commit such a murder. Controlling an akuserka requires similar power of msawhat, but often controlling their source of sustenance is an alternative method. To summon an akuserka, one may use msawhat between dusk and dawn. They will not operate in full daylight. To use the powers of an akuserka, one must capture her mist, rendering her unable to vanish. If one does so, their powers may be replicated. |
| Sending | It is said that allowing an akuserka to hold a newborn child that is related to her will open her heart back up, allowing her to move on. |
| Weaknesses | Silver, ailsilver, quicknickel, or linealsteel will harm them. Qi, light of matriarchy, banaru, curacion, and light of vibrance are all especially potent against them, but any heavenly essence or the gates can send them. Daylight burns them but will not kill them. If they do not remain fed, they weaken and eventually become faded versions of their poweful forms. These exist in agony unless they can chance upon a source of sustenance. |
| Behavior | Akuserka lurk outside of communities or near isolated homes where they can sense children or pregnant people. They wander through a region, going to community to community, if there are not enough to keep them fed. They stalk their prey, waiting often til the day of birth to feed off both parent and child, but any pregnant person or child will do. They never go out during the day. |
| Dominion Culture | In the Stillborn Dominion, akuserka are part of the ruling class, a cruel sisterhood of powerful esotericists, hunters, and stalkers who are feared by most other undead in the Dominion. They are usually part of the priesthood that serves the Indomitable Deep. The most powerful of them is the High Priestess Dzicia Jesc. |
| Other Dominions | In the Raesian Dominion, akuserka are sometimes employed to hunt specific targets who are children or pregnant. They have stronger soulsight. In the Srisian Dominion, they are enslaved and used for similar purposes, being given stronger blood scenting. In the Qhanuum Dominion, they are very rare, and in the Godless, they are only employed infrequently on special missions (but given better hearing). Among the Fellwood and Phatahuan, they have stronger cold touch, but they are almost never in use there. |
| Mortal Interactions | Akuserka feed off mortal children and pregnant people, stalking them from the edges of their communities. |
| Afterlife | Akuserka are almost irredeemable. Only true remorse can save them, and this is only possible if they are allowed to hold their first granddaughter upon her birth. Otherwise, no force is strong enough to completely save them, and they end up being sent to the Grey Lands. |
| Notables | Maci, Akuskera Manifest; Dzicia Jesc, High Priestess of the Indomitable Deep; Sister Serycarviak, Horror of the White Forests |
| Special Classes | Midwife, Nurse, Doctor, Priestess, Stalker |
| Sample Stats | PRO 11 ATH 9 STR 10 AWA 14 Soulsight 16 Blood Scenting 16 Cry Hearing 19 WIL 18 ROG 10 Unease Presence 12 Tongue 18 Cold Touch 14 Vanish 13 |
Topic revision: 05 Jul 2020, SallyJaneBlack
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