Infernal Insubstantiates

Bodiless beings with infernal or imperial powers.

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Aelavel

NPC only

Living disasters.

• Lifespan: Hopefully brief, at most 10 years
• Diet: Misfortune
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Not applicable

An aelavel is a living green wind. They appear as swirling wind forms, about 8' tall, and around them, disasters occur.

Aelavels are the final form of the misbegot, the remains after a person has been torn asunder by predatory wielders of misfortune. They draw in misfortune, amplify it, and create various disasters. The more power they get, the more devastating the disaster. Though they all have the appearance of a whirlwind, they can create any kind of disaster, including but not limited to tornados, waterwhirls, firewhirls, wildfires and other fires, floods, cyclones, derechos, thunderstorms, supercells, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, geysers, sinkholes, cryovolcanic eruptions, meteorite strikes and other impact events, vehicular collisions, toxic spills and other environmental disasters, mudslides, avallanches, blizzards and other snow events, dam bursts and levee failures, structural collapses, dust storms, sand storms, acid rain, droughts, famines, landslides, solar storms, explosions, mass killing events, tsunamis, radiation events, lightning strikes, cave-ins, shipwrecks, outages, epidemics, mass poisonings, contamination events, unexpected large falling objects, and the last date you went on.

Most appear once a misbegot is completely eroded, exist briefly, cause massive destruction, then implode into their own misfortune. Some very rare ones attain a balance of misfortune and are able to exist as a conscious, malevolent spirit spreading woe. These become major assets to imperial powers.

PRO 17 ATH 17 STR 22 AWA 17 WIL 14 PRS 1 STH 5

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The Contagion / Venomir

• 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 colonies, 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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Igothus

Living webs of light.

• Lifespan: 100 years
• Diet: Willpower
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class

An igothus appears to be a web of soft white light. While made of light, they still operate like spider webs, clinging to surfaces and capturing anything that interacts with them. They feel sticky. Though they cling to surfaces, they are ambulatory.

Any living thing that touches an ignothus risks being stuck in it, and if they are stuck there long enough, the igothus will begin to drain them of their willpower. If they remain too long, the damage will be permanent, and if they are there long enough to lose all of their willpower, they become enslaved to the igothus. However, many who reach this point then have no idea they are under anyone's control.

Igothuses are extremely rare and extremely dangerous. They believe they were spun by a divine spider called Ettuttu, who created them to help create a world where everyone serves Ettuttu's will. Though they can live off of the will of any kind of living thing, they culturally prefer conscious mortals. Some seek to live less tyrannically, seeking out only small animals to feed off of.

PRO 9 ATH 7 STR 4 AWA 19 WIL 19 PRS 8 STH 10

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Lofio

Living desiccation.

• Lifespan: 100 years
• Diet: Water
• Habitat: Anywhere with an atmosphere
• Socioeconomic Status: Oppressed

Lofios appear to be grey wind beings, spinning whirlwinds about 8' tall, who eradicate the water vapor around them. They come into being during droughts, created by those who profit off of the desperate conditions created by the lack of water. Many exist entirely under the control of their creators, but some break free.

All lofios absorb water of all kinds anywhere within 50' of them. This includes water in the bodies of any living thing within that range. Lofios under the control of others have no control over this; free lofios can decide which water they target within that range.

A lofio who escapes bondage will usually seek to live in some remote place where they will not kill others, but those under control of imperial powers - and it's always imperial powers - will devour the water of any area they are directed to.

PRO 9 ATH 17 STR 15 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 4 STH 8

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Peccant

NPC only

A damned soul.

• Lifespan: As long as they can continue feeding
• Diet: Souls
• Habitat: Anywhere
• Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class

Peccants are the souls of the damned who choose to relinquish their physical forms. They are not undead; they are the living soul of someone who has forsaken their own body. They appear to be vague impressions of the body they once had.

Peccants are formed when someone who has commit a grievous act (murder, rape, genocide, abuse, exploitation, oppression, etc.) decides their body is simply getting in the way, but that they do not wish for the corrupted state of undeath. So they perform a ritual known as the Culpatic Ritual that turns their body into energy and absorbs it into their soul. This permanently turns them into a being that, while alive, resembles a phantasmal undead. They need to absorb other souls to live; any individual they touch, they absorb part of their soul.

Peccants keep only the imperial or infernal powers and abilities they had in their bodies.

All ruling classes of the empires deny the existance of peccants, claiming them to simply be a kind of undead, while secretly supporting and keeping peccants employed or as part of their ruling class structures. Most are a ruling class individual who chose this path, faked their death, and continue to rule from behind the scenes. Peccants are cunning, secretive, and manipulative, feeding constantly.

PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 4 AWA 14 WIL 17 PRS 4 STH 11