Okugatta

Fused beings. Pl. bakugatta.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Constructs

• Alignment: Aetherial

• Energy: Kuvva

• Lifespan: 50 years

• Diet: Aether

• Habitat: Tropical montane woodlands

Origins

Blasts of aetherial magnetism fusing materials together.

Description

Bakugatta are beings of living material being fused with inorganic material. Metal fused with flesh, stone fused with bone, dirt fused with guts, water fused with blood, air fused with hair. They appear to be mortals of other species, but they have these materials present in their bodies. A human-based okugatta appears to have metal skin, stone teeth, a gut full of dirt, watery blood, and hair like mist. They are elemental constructs.

Procreation

Bakugatta are either created by wielders of kuvva fusing their flesh to the aetherial materials or they are the offspring of existing bakugatta. The latter always have the appearance of their birthing parent as their base with some features of their seed-granting parent as complements to their looks.

Fusing

Wielders of kuvva create bakugatta by taking aetherial materials, placing them in a special iron cauldron, and mixing them with a lodestone rod. The cauldron must be prepared by placing magnets all over it for an entire year (a precise year), then removing them, immediately filling it with materials, then stirring. It takes great strength to then stir the cauldron.

The materials that must be put in must also be subjected to kuvva. The cauldron will supply the skin. The lodestone will become the bones. The dirt must be from where the cauldron has sat all year; the water must have been used to wash magnets; and the air will naturally be within the cauldron. In futuristic areas, electromagnetic pulses may be employed to bombard all of these materials with kuvva, but most do not have access to this. The mixing requires some living component, however, which the creator usually provides themselves, placing a part of their own body into the pot. They must remove it fresh, or it will not have enough ashar in it to trigger to transformation.

The magnets are made aetherial by being kept in pure aetherial boxes made of natural materials, untainted by anything industrial or pollutant. These are extremely difficult to make, as everything that goes into making them must be pure.

The resulting okugatta is an elemental construct with magnetic powers. Their base form will look like the mortal species their creator belongs to.

Powers

Bakugatta are magnetic. They can, at will, turn their metallic skin into a giant magnet, or focus different parts of it to be magnetic (i.e., their hands, feet, etc.).

Discharges

Their latent magnetism also draws in aether constantly. If they are in a place with concentrated aether, they draw it in in great quantities and have to discharge it. These discharges turn the aether they are drawing in into kuvva, which they release as a wave of electromagnetism.

Weaknesses

Brown aether will de-magnetize them and turn them into a pile of their component parts.

Nations

There is but one nation of bakugatta, and it is synonymous with their species name. They dwell in east-central Taggarus.

Culture

The bakugatta are constructs who are created to protect nature, usually the mineral-rich montane forests of east-central Taggarus. They are split into two categories: those who are born to other bakugatta and those who are crafted by local mortal communities. Both are devoted to nature and have independent will. In gratitude for being made, they often spend some time directly serving those who make them, but most are drawn to the okugatta communities in the forests.

Each okugatta community is built around a stone-and-earth bulwark in a clearing in the forests, usually carved out of the mountainside. They are designed such that they draw in streams, plant life, animal trails, and fungal colonies, creating a vibrant village full of natural life. They avoid using metals except for special, ceremonial purposes. Bone, stone, and wood are their most common materials besides dirt.

Every village is run by a council of elders, the most powerful among them. There are four on the council, one each for the directions. The Elder of the North is the most powerful builder. The Elder of the South is the most powerful magnetist. The Elder of the East is the most powerful warrior. And the Elder of the West is the most powerful hunter.

The builders are those who build the village and design it to attract aether, which fuels them. The magnetists are those who draw the energies in and disburse them. The warriors are those who fight invaders, and the hunters seek out dangerous non-aetherial or natural beasts, of which there are often many near them due to colonial invasions.

Okugatta children are raised by the whole community, but they are drawn to their fathers (or seed-parent), who often become mentors to them. Their mothers or birthing parents usually let them do this, save in rare circumstances where they require them to be raised for a different role. Most begin learning the ways of the community by age six, take serious training and lessons by age twelve, and become adults at age sixteen, at which time they are tested by the four elders. There is no passing or failing; the test simply shows what they need to work on to be better members of the community.

Bakugatta who are constructed and seek out the communities are welcomed with open arms, but they must spend years learning the local culture before they are fully accepted.

Fusing things together is an important part of their culture, and they take in not just materials, but customs, traditions, arts, music, everything. Everything they make is a fusion of things they have seen with things they come up with themselves. They make their music and fuse it with that of the birds. They make statues and fuse them with styles used by the colonials. And so on.

Bakugatta are often enslaved by colonials and forced to work in mines, which they resent and rebel against. Their fractiousness as slaves is countered, in the eyes of the colonials, by their ability to draw metals toward them.

Esoterica

Bakugatta are beings of kuvva and its most powerful wielders. They are also known to wield other aetherial powers, especially bailaohu jinghua, kazaddarean, prasinofos, kiiric yihi, nzwara murazvo, bijalee, and conflueverant. They sometimes wield celestial powers to resist colonial powers, but more often, they resort to unaligned energies. They are able to wield nommic powers, but more often they resort to aetherial powers for similar purposes due to the composition of their bodies.

Religion

The bakugatta worship Okukuba, a Divine spark of power that is considered the source of all kuvva, a mirror image of the sun made of iron plasma that exists on a separate plane. This figure can only be seen through special visions given to the shamans and priests of the bakugatta. They guide the communities in religious rites that coincide with the rhythms of the sun.

Gender

Bakugatta believe all genders are two genders at once, as all people are two things fused, and so everyone has two sets of pronouns used at different times. They engage in social and romantic rituals that create an interplay between them and two different partners at once, which is the standard for their communities.

Economy

They are matriarchal.

Military

Every community has warriors and hunters who protect the community. They wield special weapons made of stone and bone along with armor made from metals that are magnetized to their bodies.

Language

Their language is based on Luganda.

Occupations

Common roles in their communities:

• Kabona: priests of Okukuba.

• Omulogo: the magnetists.

• Omusamize: shamans who guide the community.

• Omulwaanyi: the warriors.

• Omuyizzi: the hunters.

• Omuzimbi: the builders.

Outside View

Colonials view bakugatta as important to their mining operations and constantly seek to enslave them. They are bad using aetherial powers, so they rarely create bakugatta on their own, instead stealing them from native mortals. Outside of the area, they are demonized as nothing better than beasts.

Notables

• Enjuyi Nnya, Okugatta Manifest, Aeonian

Estimated Populations

• Main population: 300,000

• Created bakugatta: 10,000

• Enslaved population: 100,000

• Other: 20,0000

Sample Stats

PRO 8
ATH 9
STR 13
AWA 8
WIL 9
PRS 8
STH 7