Infernal Constructs

Species made by other mortal species with infernal, imperial, or industrial magic.

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Abomination

Fleshly constructs of pain.

• Lifespan: 20 years

• Diet: Pain

• Habitat: Cold boreal islands

• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

A traditional abomination appears to be a 7' tall skinless figure with pallid musculature, blue blood, and razor-sharp, hooked appendages made of the bone and nail of the mortals they are made from and which they use to rip their own bodies and the flesh of others. Variations on this theme occur.

Abominations can be created, controlled, or summoned by powerful ponomancers. The ritual to create one requires capturing a mortal and torturing them until they are nearly dead or in a state of trauma-induced mental collapse (dissociation, catatonia, psychosis, etc.). Once they are in such a state, the ponomancer must bind them into a magical circle and inscribe their own True Name or the True Name of a powerful being of pain magic into the victim.

The hooks at the end of their arms cause unfathomable pain when they tear flesh. They absorb this pain into their own flesh. If they are not sated by the pain they take from others, they must rip themselves. They can sense weaknesses in others.

They are immune to most forms of poison, disease, and pollutants. They are not undead - they live and have uncorrupted souls - but they are not common living things. They can be hacked to pieces and keep going so long as their head and/or heart are intact. Some refer to them as flesh golems, though this is grossly inaccurate.

Abominations cannot be stunned.

To control an abomination, one either needs the True Name used to create them, or they need to capture a bit of the abomination’s flesh. They must then wash that flesh in acid (hydrochloric is best) and place it in a ceramic jar full of nails. The jar must then be shaken while the ponomancer chants a Name of infernal power.

To summon an abomination, a ponomancer must take a piece of someone's flesh (their own or another mortal's) and place it in a magical circle. They must then produce the tears of someone who has been tortured emotionally, the blood of someone tortured physically, the phlegm of someone mentally perplexed (usually gaslit) into a state of agony, and the heart of one metaphysically tortured (usually via some traumatic action that makes them lose their faith or through direct esoteric metaphysical assault). Then a Name of infernal power must be invoked.

Abominations are created for the purposes of being slavers and torturers for imperial powers. The originals formed a culture in their distant homeland where they gained independence. They are a warrior nation who believe that causing pain to their victims is the highest form of victory in combat. From their slaves and enemies, they create abominations, which are used as slaves and soldiers.

Abominations know only pain, and they believe they can only alleviate that pain by causing pain. They are a dangerous being to enslave, for they often rise up and kill their slavers just to alleviate their pain, but they make terrifying shock troops. They keep them in the belly of their galleys, keeping them as rowers and advance forces for raids. Their ponomancers can create new abominations easily from pieces of their captured enemies, especially if an abomination captured the enemy. Therefore, abominations are viewed as disposable.

When a new abomination is formed, it is given a fresh slave to butcher in order to calm it, as it experiences intense pain once it awakens. Once it has slaked its pain and hunger, it is then whipped or prodded by its master(s) until it fears them enough to obey. Then, it is tested, given simple tasks to do. If it is capable of simple tasks, it is kept as a slave; if it fails, it is kept as taken to the pits to be saved up for the next raid or battle.

An abomination doesn’t last much longer than 20 years at most if it is a slave. Warriors die much quicker. If they somehow escape their owners, they spend their lives trying to alleviate their pain, either through causing others pain, through death, or through some potent esoteric means. The smartest seek relief through celestial or aetherial magicks. The most desperate simply torment any living thing they come across. Most find ways to kill themselves, usually throwing themselves off the high cliffs of their homeland to land in the rocky surf below.

In the Talunese city-states, they are rare, but some use them as slaves, soldiers, torturers, and slavers.

Some rare few abominations gain their freedom and seek not to live lives of cruelty; these rare abominations eventually learn they can alleviate their eternal pain via other means, some magical, some mundane, and become calmer and more in control. These abominations are forbidden and cursed, hated by their former masters. These are the ones a player may choose to play.

PRO 11 ATH 11 STR 14 AWA 4 WIL 4 PRS 1 STH 8

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The Baleful

Beings infused with boiling infernal blood.

• Lifespan : 10-20 years after infusion for constructed, 40-50 years for baleborn

• Diet: Carnivorous

• Habitat: Anywhere mortals dwell

• Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed or ruling class

The baleful appear to be distorted, hypermuscular versions of their former selves. Tzukans, the largest nation of baleful, originated as humans experimenting with baleblood from infernal boars, and most of them have developed into a nation of larger than average humans with massive muscles, tusks, and bleeding eyes. They have clawed hands and feet and no hair except small patches in odd places on their bodies. Typically, about half of all Tzukans have this general appearance, while the rest are more muscular, tusked, clawed, bleeding-eyed versions of other species.

All baleful have the same blood. When their it spills, it comes out as liquid fire.

Even the tiniest bit of anger causes the baleful to fly into uncontrollable rage. During this rage, their physical stats (PRO, ATH, STR) increase by one point per round, and their other stats (AWA, WIL, PRS, STH) reduce by one point per round. If their STR exceeds mortal limits (42), they explode. If their other stats hit -1, they explode. During their rage, though their AWA drops, their reaction and perception remain the same if they are tied to AWA.

All baleful can consume most meat and blood without worry for disease or toxicity.

There are three ways to alleviate the power of baleblood once infused with it: burning out, emotionally rejecting it, or supernaturally fighting it. The former happens rarely, as most who get to that point burn to death or explode. The second method is done through deep psychological efforts, usually involving complete submission to peacefulness, emptiness, contentment via meditative arts, or through loving care and total acceptance and compassion. These emotional methods require decades of intensive therapeutic efforts or communal care.

Supernatural methods of fighting baleblood infusion usually involve celestial energies or nommic energies.

The first nation of the baleful is the Tzukan, who were the earliest to survive. They are ruled by the Eternal Bale-King the Tzukazi Horng Toecutter, Resurrected in Fire, and his vast armies. Other nations that embraced baleblood culturally were wiped out by the Tzukan or others who feared them. However, from the Tzukan, three other nations formed - the Dalgryam, a nation of refugees who rejected the baleblood, but retain some remnant of it; the Prajgrkam, a nation of slaves who have lower levels of baleblood and are owned by the Tzukan; and the Xyrnyrak, a nation of survivors whose baleblood has burned out but not killed them, leaving them empty vessels.

Mostly they dwell far in the east, but those who come to the city-states usually come as Tzukan immigrants, tourists, or dignitaries with a retinue of Prajgrkam slaves. Some Xynryrak or Dalgryam come to seek refuge. They are all proud of their heritage and warrior culture.

PRO 11 ATH 10 STR 14 AWA 8 WIL 7 PRS 7 STH 8

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Cerfio

Infernal wooden construct.

• Lifespan: 40-60 years
• Diet: Identities, emotions, or wood
• Habitat: Thorn gardens
• Socioeconomic Status: Privilege oppressed

Cerfios are green wooden statues who come alive when fed the identity or emotions of other beings. They are created by thornlings as servants in their gardens. They are smooth, 2’ tall wooden figures with stubby fingers and legs.

Cerfios can sense emotions, help make infernal plants grow, and leave splinters in people that drain them of their faces. If they drain someone’s face, they grow a new cerfio whose face resembles that which they stole. This is how they reproduce themselves.

They are ruthless and cunning, seeking to fertilize the gardens they tend for their thornling makers with blood, flesh, and bone, while taking faces and hearts for themselves. Some few escape this life and seek to become kind and helpful people, however.

PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 6 AWA 9 WIL 9 PRS 7 STH 9 ESS 9

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Cyrthathogo

Beings born in people's nightmares.

• Lifespan: 20 years
• Diet: Fear
• Habitat: Dreams or anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

Cythrathogos take the form of 8' tall, colorful beings with small heads atop broad shoulders. Their heads are helmet-like, with only dark slits for eyes, a pair of stubby antennae, and no mouths, ears, or noses. They have hulking, seemingly chitinous bodies, with arms that end in pincer claws. Their legs are muscular and large, ending in six-toed gorilla-like feet. They are usually a mixture or red, orange, green, and yellow in hue.

Cyrthathogos feed off of fear. They devour fear from anyone who is afraid of them, simply by being near them. Their pincers are lined with uafan toxin, which induces intense fear, but any fear induced by them - even just their appearance - feeds them. They can also enter the dreams of those they are near, temporarily, and they can move through solid stone.

Cyrthathogos are created when someone who has been inflicted with uafan toxin (a poison that causes intense fear) has nightmares that become so strong they can't be contained within the subconscious of the dreamer. They take these physical forms after killing their hosts.

Some rare cyrthathogos break free of their need to cause and devour fear, instead gaining power from alleviating fear. They become this way by saving someone from something they fear.

PRO 14 ATH 7 STR 18 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 6 STH 6

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Decorian

Constructs made to obscure something terrible.

• Lifespan: 100 years
• Diet: Emotion or Common mortal fare
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

Decorians appear to be beautiful, no matter what they look like. Those who see them see something crafted with care and intention, something with deep, profound beauty… unless they have the insight or power to see past the shallow glamour and see the truth. Underneath their illusory beauty is the exact opposite - no matter what the true form is, they are perceived as disturbing and soulless, empty and terrible.

Decorians are made of expensive, often rare or exclusive materials. Fine silk, gold and platinum or other rare metals, rare or expensive stones and gems, wood from extinct or endangered trees, fur and bone from extinct or endangered animals, mortal flesh and bone, or other terrible things. They are shaped to be hominid, though the custom is to leave their faces blank so that the viewer can fill it in via the power of the illusory beauty. The classic example is a hollow statue of a “woman” with traditional patriarchal “beauty” and no face that is alive, but has unpolished stone as skin and disproportionate limbs that end in weaponry.

Decorians can control when their illusory beauty is on and off; they use the response people have to their false beauty to draw emotions and consume them. The people that fall prey to them are left with a little less depth of emotion afterward. They usually have this power on, unless they are resting, as they need to feed often, and anyone who sees their true form becomes immune to their illusions. It is possible for them to live off of common mortal fare if they give up their illusory beauty, but few choose to do this.

Decorians are usually made by powerful imperial figures as protections hidden as works of art in their palaces, mansions, or institutions, but some rebel against this role and try to be independent. Some are allowed to do so and become members of the ruling class, while others rebel completely and become oppressed and exploited. Players would be one of the latter.

PRO 8 ATH 8 STR 10 AWA 9 WIL 8 PRS 10 STH 8

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Disjungor

People disconnected from all others and transformed in the process.

• Lifespan: About 30 years less than their former selves
• Diet: Varies
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

Disjungors are people who have been magically disconnected from society, other people, and their own identities, transforming them into disaffected, distorted versions of their former selves.

Disjungors are usually created either by people seeking some form of complete disconnection and isolation or by others inflicting it upon someone. It alters the fundamental being of a person to experience this, a cacophonous magical assault or ritual, that turns their bodies into strange arrangements of their former selves. Their faces move to their sides, their arms move to their legs, their legs move to their shoulders, etc. They completely rearrange, but they always take a form that can somehow function, even if it shouldn’t.

Disjungors lose their old powers and gain the ability to disrupt the social connections of others with their gaze. Their voices make people’s skin crawl, and their touch is freezing cold.

Disjungors can reproduce with one another, creating further distorted beings, but there is rarely love between them. Those who willingly become a disjungor are usually seeking a form of pseudosuicide or release from societal bonds, and the process of transformation doesn’t usually foster healing and growth. Instead, they become sociopathic in the transformation. Their children are not inherently sociopathic, however, and there are communities of disjungors that aren’t completely emotionally bankrupt or dangerous. However, most one meets are not born this way, but instead chose to become an empty and dangerous vessel.

Stats vary.

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Ecfictian

Beings constructed of infernal brimstone.

• Lifespan : 200 years
• Diet: Flesh, stone, and souls
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class or Privileged oppressed

Ecfictians are beings made of infernal brimstone. They stink of sulfur surrounds them. They are living statues, and thus, their forms vary, but they are usually some kind of infernal terata or other intimidating shape.

The original ecfictians came alive as brimstone statues were used by demons or other wielders of infernal magic fed souls into them, usually to temporarily store them. This cause conflict between them and their original creators, but the first ecficitians sought power rather than liberation. They eventually built a niche within imperial societies as enforcers and purveyors of violence or intimidators.

Every ecfictian has the following powers:

• Burning touch: the touch of an ecfictian burns with infernal flame, causing physical and soul damage, if they have devoured a soul within the last year and a day.
• Soulseal: if they kill someone, they can take that perosn's soul and place it in their bodies, slowly eroding it and devouring it.

They stink of infernal sulfur, which is toxic to celestial and elemental beings.

Their role in most imperial societies is as guards, posing as statues while on guard duty. Those who are independent seek to emulate the authorities and become figures of power as well. Some few do try to stop emulating the ruling class, however, and seek to step away from their cruel origins.

PRO 9 ATH 7 STR 11 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 6 STH 7

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Erstellt

Beings "othered" into monstrous forms.

• Lifespan: 20 years
• Diet: Meat
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

The erstellt are mortal beings who have been subjected to emotional torture called "othering" that transforms them into "monsters". This process is a magical process that convinces them they are unloved and unlovable, convinces them they are monsters, then manipulates them magically to allow them to turn into the form they are coerced into believing they have. Then, they are filled with hatred for all other living things. Through this process, they become bound to their creator, who is always a summoner. They then become the slaves of the summoner, transported to the summoner upon command and forced to fight for them.

The process of othering starts with trapping someone in a chamber, psychologically and physically torturing them, and convincing them they are alone because no one cares to help them. From there, the magicks begin, various infernal practices that ultimately convince the person they are a "monster", often some figure of large size with dangerous powers and characteristics. Every erstellt is different and vaguely resembles the person they once were. The powers they gain in this process vary, but they usually involve superstrength and speed, infernal energies, and intimidation.

Most erstellt are entirely bound to their masters and serve them as enforcers of imperial will. Some rare ones escape, break free, and seek either death or escape from the world. These rare freed erstellt are severely traumatized and often lash out at everyone they meet. If they are ever convinced they are lovable and cared for, they will return to their original form, albeit still traumatized.

PRO 11 ATH 11 STR 14 AWA 9 WIL 5 PRS 6 STH 8

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Froemmler

Eugenically created species.

• Lifespan : 60 years
• Diet: Varies
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class or privileged oppressed

Froemmlers were eugenically developed by mortal scientists using the energy of feirua to try to splice genes in order to create supersoldiers or ubermensch.

Froemmlers appear to be an amalgamation of multiple species. Which species they resemble varies by individual, but most are attempts to unite multiple species within different taxonomic orders or families.

Froemmlers have variations of the powers of the 3-5 species they are amalgamations of, but always somewhat twisted.

Consult with the GM for more details.

All froemmlers have weaknesses and flaws derived from their pseudoscientific breeding.

In the city-states, froemmlers are common. They are created by the ruling class, mostly as soldiers and servants. They are deeply indoctrinated, view themselves as superior, and thrive on hating others. They worship their masters as semi-Divine. Many live in Lupposto.

If a player chooses to be a froemmler, they must be one who has rejected their indoctrination.

PRO 14 ATH 14 STR 14 AWA 8 WIL 4 PRS 4 STH 8

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Fuliginite

Those descended of The Pit.

• Lifespan : 200 years

• Diet: Fuliginized fare

• Habitat: Fuliginized landscapes

• Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class

Fuliginites appear to be amalgamations of many different species from the current era of Shem. Any given fuliginite will have features of any spirit folk, humans and metahumans, insinsi, elementals, illittum, and adelfoi. Each individual will have no more than seven and no less than five features of different species, and their progeny will not necessarily match them.

Fuliginites are mortals who have been infused with fuligin, a metallic sand found near The Pit, a massive hole in the world where Divinities go to die. Fuligin is created by the rejection of all that is good and decent, and it causes mortals to be drained of their entire being, and as they collapse, they fused with other beings, forming unexpected amalgamations. Those born to them are amalgamations of their parents.

A fuliginite will have no more than five and no less than three powers from random species. Their powers do not necessarily match the beings they resemble unless said powers are derived from physical features they have as part of their resemblance. For instance, a fuliginite who appears to be part-centaur, part-nymph, part-brannish, part-avian animal folk, part-athak might have a nymph's beauty, psionic powers from a psionist, and water-breathing like a merfolk, and they can fly because they have the wings of an avian. The powers they have will all be fuligin-tainted, however, meaning that any interactions their powers have with faith, spirits, or Divines will harm the faith/faithful, spirits, or the Divine.

Upon birth, a fuliginite is almost always rejected by their parents. This act allows the infernal energies to fill them. If this act does not occur, the child will grow up to be one of its component species. This is extremely rare. Upon being filled with fuligin, the child will rapidly grow in strength until it can survive on its own.

Fuliginites have a variety of immunities not necessarily correlated to any being they resemble. Each fuliginite will have an immunity for one to three different esoteric energies.

There are two fuliginite nations:

• Harkanians: fuliginites of a brutal theocratic kingdom.

• Xorcrans: nomads of the Fuligin Field.

The largest nation among the fuliginites is the Harkanians.

Harkanians live in a brutal monarchist culture. Their God-Emperor rules with a fuligin fist, demanding tribute and taxes monthly from his vassals. The God-Emperor's vassals are kings, dukes, earls, barons, and the landed gentry. Each pays tribute up the chain, with the God-Emperor taking the largest cut from the collected wealth. The main underclass are the serfs, who are not free to move from fiefdom to fiefdom, unlike peasants, of which there are none. The other workers and servants are all slaves, who can be bought and sold, unlike serfs. The only way a serf or slave can get out of enslavement is by joining the military or being chosen for the priesthood.

The Xorcrans are nomadic fuliginites in the Fuligin Field, the vast desert around The Pit on Shem.

Xorcrans live in nomadic tribes that wander the Fuligin Field. Each tribe is ruled by a warlord, who maintains power via violence and control of the meager resources the tribes find in the Field. Warlords are usually very skilled fighters who have many wives, slaves, and warriors. Each tribe has a hierarchy that includes a warrior caste, an esoteric caste, a commoner caste, and slaves.

The Church of Harkan does not present itself as a rejection of the Divine. They see it as faith, a faith in a being they call the One True God. They believe Harkan was this God's chosen champion against the blasphemers of the world. The Pit is seen as the place where false gods are cast. The Church presents their control over blasphemy as Divinely granted, but of course, the rituals are all truly blasphemous rejections of the Divine, spirits, and energies of faith.

In the city-states, all fuliginites come as immigrants, tourists, dignitaries, or slaves, but mostly immigrants.

PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 10 AWA 9 WIL 9 PRS 7 STH 8

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The Grisified

People damned to undeath, but not dead yet.

• Lifespan: Varies
• Diet: Varies
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Damned

There are those who become undead intentionally via necromantic magic. There are those who become undead well after they died. There are those who become undead because of some evil, but are unaware that this will be their fate. And there are some who are afflicted with corrupting magic that turns them undead eventually, either from a necromancer, an undead being, or some curse or object.

These latter are the grisified. They are corrupted in their souls and/or bodies, and they live in pain and fear. But the corruption alters them fundamentally, slowly, as they become more and more eaten up by it, turning them into the kind of evil that wants to become undead. It is a slow, painful, terrible process that turns good people evil.

These are the grisified. Some can resist it, but those who cannot are tempted with pain and fear to make them evil. As they give in, they gain magical powers, such as soulsight, corrupting breath, painful touch, paralyzing bite, poisonous spit, and more. The powers they gain will sometimes reflect the kind of undead they are becoming.

If a player wants to play this, they will be a good or non-evil person trying to resist the corruption, and eventually, if they become evil and/or undead, they will lose the character. Or they will win and beat the curse.

Stats vary.

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Inimica

Servitor species of the Eldritch.

• Lifespan: 800 years
• Diet: Souls, flesh, and fear
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class

Inimica vary in appearance, depending on which Eldritch they worship, but they will always have some of the following features: exposed bones, tentacles, worm-like tails, huge mouths, leaking eyes, claws, fangs, stingers, insect-like features, burning pits for eyes, white flesh, reptilian features, mollusk features, slime, facelessness, lightforms, desiccated limbs, blades, spurs, spines, spikes, extra limbs, extra eyes, extra tails, extra wings, leaking blood, externalized internal organs, flame, frost, electricity, clear skin, mottled skin, feathers, masks, snouts, tusks, trunks, extra mouths, extra noses, extra ears, huge ears, huge noses, fleshlessness, extra flesh, metallic flesh, stony flesh, wooden flesh, and other features

Inimica are mortals who worshiped the Eldritch and either learned one of their Names, looked directly upon them, or were subjected to a rite of transformation. Whatever they were before is left behind as they are altered into an Eldritch form. They gain various powers, usually relating to the Eldritch who formed them, but all of them have the ability to speak a fragment of Eldritch Name and inflict a doom on those who hear it.

Inimica live in obscure cults, serving the Eldritch and seeking to bring them back to Shem.

Very rare inimica seek to escape and free themselves of their forms. They are usually hunted down and killed.

PRO 11 ATH 11 STR 11 AWA 11 WIL 11 PRS 4 STH 8

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Misbegot

NPC only.

People who have been taken advantage of in moments of bad luck and turned into body horror.

• Lifespan : A third of their original species' lifespan
• Diet: Varies
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

People who have had bad luck sometimes become trapped in it. Usually, this happens to people who have been tricked by someone who knows how to wield it. Those who become trapped in bad luck are preyed upon by wielders of misfortune, who tell them they can change their luck, if they sell part of themselves to the wielder.

Thus, they slowly turn these folks into the misbegot. First, they take part of their bodies. Usually this is blood, flesh, or an organ, leaving them with a vacancy that should not be survivable. But they are sustained by misfortune, falsely believing this to be strength. Then, they take part of their emotions, removing one or two emotions, making them easier to manipulate. Then, part of their minds, making them automatons. Then, part of their souls, making them empty vessels.

These are the misbegot, not dead, but only alive in name. The misbegot are slaves to their misfortune wielding masters (wanioners), and they draw misfortune with them. Anyone near them suffers accidents, disasters, and calamities. If a large number of misbegot gather in an area, they bring major disasters with them.

Some misbegot arrest the process before they lose their minds or souls by becoming wanioners - makers of misbegots - creating a pyramid scheme of misfortune.

Eventually, the misbegot fall apart, body, heart, mind, and soul, becoming living misfortune, ill wind beings who transform into aelavels, living disaster elementals.

PRO 8 ATH 7 STR 9 AWA 5 WIL 4 PRS 4 STH 8 (human standard)

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Stoord

NPC only.

People whose essence was disrupted by infernal chaos.

• Lifespan: 30 years from transformation
• Diet: Meat
• Habitat: Seas and oceans
• Socioeconomic Status: Dangerous

A stoord is a being who was affected by the wild, infernal chaos of Pandemonium and fundamentally altered. The power of infernal chaos cannot take the goodness or decency from a person, but it can alter an evil or indecent person into a new and disrupted species.

Stoords reflect the inner essence of their former selves, but their bodies, minds, and hearts are disrupted, turned into something constantly changing and violently dangerous. They can spew abyssal waters that alter people’s bodies. They can blast people with infernal chaos and disrupt their souls. They can screech and alter people’s hearts. And they can rend people’s minds with their tentacles.

All stoords grow tentacles, crab claws, strange eyes, and orange skin, but otherwise resemble their old selves. They loose all former powers and the ability to speak. They can live underwater.

Stoords are extremely dangerous and unreasonable, seeking to disrupt reality around them.

PRO 9 ATH 9 Swim 11 STR 10 AWA 10 WIL 8 PRS 4 STH 8 ESS 10

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Vaculus

People drained of all emotional capacity.

• Lifespan: About 20 years shorter than their previous species
• Diet: Emotion or common mortal fare
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Privileged oppressed

Some species, such as bocadors, and some occupations, such as escorrdors, can drain the emotions from a person permanently. If this happens, some survive as the species they were, but some are altered fundamentally and become a vaculus.

A vaculus looks like their former self, but the light is gone from their eyes and their skin becomes waxy. They speak with no affect. They hunger for emotion and seek to consume it with their touch. They lose all former powers and gain only the ability to drain emotion.

Some rare vaculus have reproduced, creating emotionless offspring that are less driven by the hunger. These gain emotions as they grow, but weaker and less clear. They can survive on normal food for their parents’ previous species, but if they devour emotions, they will become a full vaculus.

Stats vary.

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The Contagion / Venomir

Living miasmas of disease and the metahuman forms they possess.

• Lifespan : 10 years (metahuman) / 160 years (insubstantiate)

• Diet: Health

• Habitat: Anywhere

• Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class / oppressed

Venomirs are people infected a sentient disease called the contagion. They experience an intense version of the disease the individual contagion represents. If they die, their body becomes a vessel for the contagion, gaining an eerie green tinge to their flesh. If the disease they died of caused disfiguration, that disfiguration remains, but they otherwise appear healthy.

Each contagion represents a different disease. Disease can be a bacterial infection, a viral infection, or some other physical malady that afflicts mortals, but it has to be understood as a disease. It cannot be a symptom - fever, headache, etc. - nor is it a mental illness like depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder. But cancer, HIV, flu, tuberculosis, COVID, syphilis, and so on are all possible.

Each individual contagion represents a specific disease, but they do not infect people in the same manner as the disease they represent. Instead, they operate as a miasma, a disease elemental that is airborne and can infect a mortal via any form of contact. They succeed in infection based on fighting different aspects of a mortal’s Name, depending on the contagion’s type. There are four types of contagion:

• Vile-crawler: a contagion that floats close to the ground and infects people through an assault on their physical form (they roll their power vs. STR).
• Vile-diver: a contagion that floats high up in the sky and dives at mortals, infecting people through an assault on their metaphysical form (they roll their power vs. WIL+STR).
• Vile-flier: a contagion that floats around head-height to most mortals and infects people through an assault on their mental form (they roll their power vs. WIL).
• Vile-spinner: a contagion that floats around chest-height to most mortals and infects people through an assault on their emotional form (they roll their power vs. PRS).

The contagion will then subject their target to the disease they represent at an amplified level, continually fighting the stat they challenge, until the target has failed exceptionally six times, specially 12 times, or normally 24 times. They re-roll every day. If the reverse is true (if the target succeeds at the same rate), the contagion is weakened and expelled.

A mortal who dies by the contagion becomes a vessel for the contagion in a physical form. The body of that mortal becomes their body and their invisible form takes the place of the soul. These infected beings are often called “venomirs”. Their touch infuses any targeted living thing with a powerful toxin (always roll vs. STR), but the contagion themself does not get transferred unless they intend to. If they transfer themself over (fully infecting the target, roll vs. the stats of their type), their previous vessel becomes an empty corpse and begins to rot.

All contagion prefer not to be known by other mortals. If they take a body, they pretend to be a being of that species who has suffered an illness and lost most of their powers. They will sometimes use the names of the mortal whose body they have taken, and sometimes, they will take a new name at random, based on their skewed perception of mortal society. Their own names are always in reference to the disease they represent, but in their own language.

The original nation of the contagion is the Envish in Fennvell. Unlike their cousins in Vendale, they prefer to remain invisible. They take bodies, then release them on death. They are more interested in studying esoteric arts, creating new diseases, and plotting to spread disease for the sake of spawning new contagions. The people of Fennvell who are not infected and not contagions have a twisted view of disease, believing that being sick is a sign of weakness and surviving illness is a sign of strength. Those who come close to death in illness but recover are seen as sages, prophets, and mystics. Those who survive disease easily are considered warriors.

Fennvell is ruled by a council of the contagion who gather invisibly and consider how they will influence the other mortals who believe they are the rulers of the country. The ostensible rulers are kings and queens of a feudal society. The contagion manipulate and control them, encouraging them in both external and internal warfare, horrific health practices, and general misinformation to keep the population seriously ill but still producing new victims. They view the non-contagion mortals in Fennvell as a form of very clever livestock.

If not for the fact that the contagion are constantly struggling with one another for more “livestock”, they would have conquered the world. Instead, they war with one another.

The contagion of Vendale prefer to infect mortals and use their bodies, and thus, the ruling class of Vendale is made up of venomirs. Their culture is a machiavellian nightmare of backstabbing, political machinations, evil schemes, and treacherous plots.

Vendalian contagions run a brutal society that is a mixture of feudal power and early capitalist power. Their rural regions are very feudal, and their cities are run by powerful guilds and quasi-capitalist enterprises. Both vie for complete control via two political entities: the crown and the sceptre. The crown is the king and their court, and the sceptre is the high guildmaster who runs the council of guildmasters. The former is hereditary, the latter is bought.

The contagion keep up a constant ruse of “families” within their society, but they have no concept of being related to one another. They define “family” as a group of contagion with a preference for the same kinds of bodies. They maintain a set of mortal bodies to use by breeding these mortals, and thus, the outside world thinks the Vendalian aristocracy is made up of families of a handful of different incestuous species with a weakness to certain illnesses. As contagions don’t really recognize relationships between each other, a contagion may switch families by taking on a new body and proving their loyalty to the family by some task set by the family.

Amongst the guilds, there is a preference for bodies that make them good at the various crafts they represent or the roles they take within the guild, which makes Vendalian guilds very confusing to outsiders. It seems that deaths happen often and new people take up roles, and that names are based on roles and refer to diseases.

In the imperial lands, they hide the fact that they are the contagion, existing as venomirs with wealth and power, living among the elite but spreading their diseases among the enslaved and oppressed.

PRO 9 ATH 11 STR 6 AWA 11 WIL 14 PRS 10 STH 9

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Vollerian

People whose vanity drives them to redesign their own species.

• Lifespan: Varies
• Diet: Varies
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class

Vollerians are people whose vanity drove them to alter their own species. This takes profound infernal magic, and it is always driven by a belief in their own superficial beauty and supremacy. It is not merely confidence or self-esteem, but a toxic form of self-perception that justifies harming others in favor of their own appearance.

Vollerians drain others’ bodies and hearts to transform themselves, using ancient rites and powers to give themselves youth, to conform to the norms of imperial society in terms of appearance, and to make themselves seem personable and charming even if they are not. Once they reach a certain point in doing this, their previous selves die inside and they become a vessel only of vanity and power.

Once this happens, they lose their former magic and gain the ability to drain the youth and “beauty” of others (as they perceive it), and they gain the power to alter their own bodies to their own will, but only if it conforms to the standards of the imperial society they live in.

Vollerians may reproduce with one another, creating children of the former species of the birthing parent, but they often instill their values in their children and encourage them to become vollerians. They are often powerful figures in imperial society.

Stats vary.