Species Bal-Bal (also Maninilong)
Order Abominable Undead
Classification Undead
Dominion Srisian
Sphere Deceit
Origin Early mortals who ate corpses
Lifespan Inmortal
Habitat Tropical mountains and coastal plains, rain forests, and river valleys
Food Corpses
Description Bal-bal have bare, hairless flesh, over-sized craniums, and long fingernails. Their flesh is slightly rotted. They have massive flesh flaps that serve like gliders.
Corruption Bal-bal are formed when someone fakes their death for personal gain, then is killed or dies.
Esoterica Bal-bal are beings of black nommos and msawhat. They retain very weak versions of the powers they had in life. They rarely learn new arts in undeath, but if they do, they are of brown aether, greenlight aether, bestial aether, blood energy, mijjit, Raesian energy, some humors, feirua, arnum, cacophony, and Damaskian powers.
Special Powers

Bal-bal cause unease in those who see them.

A bal-bal can smell corpses from a great distance. They can hypnotize small groups of people into sleep. After they raid a funeral or grave, they replace the body with a banana tree trunk that looks like the body.

They have sharp, curved claws which can rend clothing and thatch easily and fangs that are similar. They have long tongues which allow them to devour bodies. Their breath is extremely vile.

They can sail through the air like a flying squirrel with flaps of flesh on their arms.

Necromancy To create a bal-bal, one must either find a person who has faked their death for private gain or manipulate someone into doing so, then kill them with a ritual (9) that warps their Name (usually using a liesmithed blade). Invoking a False Name can also warp someone into a bal-bal, but that is considered overkill. To control a bal-bal, one can do so by using the leaves of a banana plant in a poultice to drain the bal-bal of will, and to summon one, one can simply leave a corpse out long enough in an area near the bal-bal or invoke the warped Name of the bal-bal. To capture one and draw its power, one must seal a bal-bal in a grave and plant a banana tree atop it, then eat the bananas.
Sending A bal-bal can be sent through wounds as if they were alive.
Weaknesses Nommos, light of truth, and waarheid can harm them more than other energies, but all qi, the gates, positive resonances, and heavenly essences can send them.
Behavior

Bal-bal attack funerals, rob graves, and generally seek out corpses wherever they can, to feed off of them. They are cunning and animalistic.

Dominion Culture In the Fellwood Dominion, bal-bal are unleashed in certain areas to terrorize the populace and gather corpses for undead armies. They act as recruiters among the commoner class.
Other Dominions Bal-bal are rare in other Dominions. In Srisian, Raesian, and Agikaani Dominion, they are sometimes used as minor soldiers or terrorists, but in other Dominions, they are not common enough to have any distinguishing role.
Mortal Interactions Mortals view bal-bal as dangers to be protected against when holding funerals in the areas where they are common.
Afterlife Bal-bal can achieve redemption through nommic powers, but otherwise usually end up in the Hells or the Grey Lands.
Notables Kumakain Ng Bangkay, Bal-Bal Manifest, Mother of the Corpse-Eaters
Special Classes Raider
Sample Stats PRO 9
ATH 10 Glide 13
STR 10 Claws +4/+4 Fangs +4/+4 Tongue 13
AWA 9 Smell 13
WIL 9
ROG 10

Unease Presence 9
Hypnotism 12
Banana-Shifting 13
Breath Stench 12

This topic: Shem > Reference > Species > Undead > AbominableUndead > Bal-Bal
Topic revision: 10 Aug 2020, SallyJaneBlack
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