Desolators are mostly created to serve powerful ogrish warlords who wish to sap the will of their enemies. They are sent through the rivers deep into enemy territory where they attack and drain the emotions from enemy forces. They grow powerful with these emotions, eventually becoming too bloated to move or function. These are either destroyed by surviving enemy forces or re-captured by the warlord's forces. If re-captured, they are drained and reused.

Some desolators manage to escape enslavement, usually by leaving the river early or sneaking away before bloating themselves. These live on the riverbanks far their former owners, dwelling near bridges or in shallow, calmer waters, waiting for victims to come by. They form small communities of amphibious predators. As these desolators have little to no memory of their lives before, they are not influenced by them. They do vary somewhat, but each community generally follows the same pattern. The strongest will dominate the others, forcing them to hunt and bring back victims that they all feast upon, one by one, until the victim is entirely drained. Unlike some abominations, desolators cannot subsist on non-intelligent beings.

Each community also has a few other roles: priestess, whisperer, lachrymosan, and singer. Priestesses lead their devotions to Dernier Recours. Whisperers help them weaken the wills of their victims. Lachrymosans make use of the tears they gather, often creating new desolators. Singers sing the tales of their escape from enslavement, the hatred society has for them, and the justifications for their predation on those communities. New desolators are created often, because although they are inmortal, they commit suicide often.

They have no genders--all are assumed to be female--nor any conception of love save as a form of food. Their social structures revolve around feeding and survival.