Taala

People of healing clay.

Basics

• Taxonomic Order: Metahumans

• Taxonomic Family: Polymorphics

• Alignment: Celestial

• Energy: Curacion

• Lifespan: 120-150 years

• Diet: Salt- and mineral-heavy mortal fare

• Habitat: Temperate hills, flatlands, and valleys

Origins

Humans whose flesh baked into clay as they tried to heal the world.

Description

Taala appear to be humans made of clay. They move and operate just like humans, have blood and organs like humans, but their flesh is made of reddish clay.

Shapeshifting

Because their flesh is made of clay, taala can reshape it as they see fit. They cannot create new clay except through growth, nor can they shape bone, organs, blood, etc., but they can make their flesh into different forms and shapes.

Procreation

Taala reproduce with one another sexually. They can reproduce with other metahumans, and the species will follow that of the birthing parent. They cannot reproduce with other species without supernatural intervention.

Powers

Taala can take parts of their clay and press it into other taala in order to share clay. When they do this, they allow the other taala to feel their emotions and sense some of their thoughts.

Healing

The clay of a taala has healing properties. If they sacrifice their clay and use it as a poultice, wrap, tourniquet, bandage, or otherwise apply it to a wound, it will heal that wound slowly but surely, even if the wound should be fatal. If they apply it to the head, chest, or stomach of a sick person, that person will heal slowly but surely, even from fatal diseases. There are limits to their powers, but they go beyond what most healers can do.

Unlike ashar, the energy of life, the energy within taala is curacion, which is distinctly the energy of healing, health, curing, medicine. Ashar includes and understands that death and disease are a part of life; though ashar can be used to heal someone or even revive someone from death, it must be forced to. Curacion, which is part of the clay of the taala, will automatically do so if applied to someone. The default of their healing magic is that it will restore a body to the state that is most conducive to living longer.

If a taala needs to alter someone’s body in order to heal them in a manner that does not automatically heal, they must have a knowledge of what they are doing to direct the energy. That is, they can heal automatically with no knowledge of biology if they simply use their clay undirected, but if they direct the energy to do something, they need to know what they are telling it to do or they could cause major problems.

Power Required

The power required to heal something is equal to how close it has brought someone to death. A disease, any disease, caught early, can be easily cured, but in late stages, if the body has suffered a lot of damage, even a common cold will be hard to cure.

The power a taala has is determined by how much clay they use, how healthy they are, and how much they have used their clay to heal before - the more they have helped others, the more power they have to keep doing so.

If they misuse their power to harm others (excluding the undead), they will lose their powers to a degree equal to the harm they cause. If they completely run out of power to heal, their bodies dry out and they become conscious statues, a fate worse than death.

Some general guidelines on difficulties:

• Flesh wound: 1

• Normal wound: 7

• Deep wound: 13

• Re-attaching a newly missing limb: 16

• Mortal wound: 19

• Restoring a newly missing limb without having the limb to re-attached: 22

• Near-death or technically dead: 25

Unusual Circumstances

Curacion does not take social factors into concern - i.e., it will not turn a person of an oppressed group into a member of a non-oppressed group. Some forms of paraplegia, for example, will not be healed by default. If there is a current source of that paraplegia affecting a person - ongoing damage to nerves, damage from disease, or an unhealed wound - that will heal and probably restore walking ability, but if a person has an old injury that is not life-threatening but prevents use of their legs, the energy will not automatically heal it.

Forcing curacion to alter a body in order to heal in a manner that isn’t the default is not difficult - it simply requires the taala touch their clay that is being used to heal with and will it to do so - but it comes with a risk. If the taala alters the body in a manner that will shorten life rather than extend or preserve it, the powers of healing within that taala will weaken, possibly even go away if they kill someone with it. And if they lose this power, their clay becomes unliving, thus turning them into conscious but immobile statues.

As such, there are certain conditions considered maladies in class societies that are not truly maladies - autism, having a great weight, being transgender - that curacion will not affect unless willed to do so by the taala using their power.

Most taala will not alter someone’s autism, as altering the brain is very risky and they probably don’t know how to alter it to change the autism anyway, even if there is ample evidence that ableist culture is harming the autistic person.

Taala do not casually alter someone’s weight, either - it’s difficult to create mass for thin people (it requires transforming clay) and removing weight requires (a) doing something with the excess tissue and (b) it can lead to unforeseen health complications without knowing how to change weight safely. Only those taala who have studied anatomy and biology will even try to do something about a person’s weight, and then only with what they deem a very good reason. For those people who weigh more than average and have health conditions related to it, the curacion simply heals the condition and not the weight. For the most part, this is all that’s needed, anyway.

For transgender people, taala are sometimes capable of altering their bodies to better match society’s expectations relatively safely. Thus, it depends on the taala’s comfort level with altering someone’s body, their own beliefs about gender and bodies, and their confidence in altering a body. They can, however, use their clay to alleviate the physical and mental stress of dysphoria, even if it’s only temporary.

For other questions, consult the GM.

Weaknesses

Vile energy and brown aether can kill them.

Nations

There are four nations of the taala:

• Bahut Sa: the original nation in subcontinental Dabusen who were formed during the ritual of healing.

• Bolana: a breakoff nation of those who rejected the gift of healing and have embraced the powers of blood for the sake of blood as magic.

• Mittee: a breakoff nation of those who rejected the gift of healing and have embraced the powers of baleblood to fight the fires of curacion.

Culture

The Bahut Sa are a small nation in subcontinental Dabusen. They were once human, but they engaged in a ritual seeking to heal the entire world, ridding it of disease, and through this ritual burnt themselves into malleable clay forms. Or so their legends say.

Long ago, after the ritual, the original Bahut Sa were a small, classless people living in the foothills of Highreach, helping any who came through their territory and sharing their clay with all who they met. But as classes developed in nations around them, they became targets. They were hunted and enslaved by the nascent empires, and for Ages, this was their existence. Very few lived outside of enslavement. They were prized for their healing powers, and as slaves, they served emperors, god-kings, nobles, and generals. To this day, they are still sought after by the slaving empires and traders. But as empires rose and fell in their home region, some were able to escape and reclaim their culture.

They live in small communities isolated from other nations because of the long history of enslavement they have suffered. As an oppressed nation with no country of their own, they have long since left behind their distant roots as a matriarchal society and integrated into the various countries they now dwell in. Some of their customs do survive, however.

Bahut Sa live in households that include multiple generations, only splitting off when there is no room for more. When this happens, the youngest adults (ages 22 and up) find their own places to live, often close to one another if possible. Every week, the whole family gathers if they can, at least once, for a large meal. At this meal, they share their clay and tell stories of those they helped in the week, if they have. Then they tell the story of their family, going back as many generations as they can remember.

Every Bahut Sa child is raised by their extended family. Though they generally follow the norms of the society they are in, they still retain a handful of their own traditional milestones. At birth, the birthing parent shares clay with their child, and only the birthing parent will do so until the child is about 12. At that time, they will share with the whole family. It is looked down upon for a child to share clay outside of the family unless they are engaged to someone. By age 20, however, most taala have begun to branch out and seek other connections. At age 22, there is a coming of age rite called sakht ("hardening") wherein they are washed in special oils, then sit beside a fire for an entire night, letting their clay become rigid. In the morning, they rise, letting the hardened surface clay break off and come out with a fresh skin.

Despite their oppression, they have rules among their own that it is forbidden to refuse to heal the sick or injured, with the only exception being Agikaani military or rulers or plague-bearers from anywhere. The taala remember all too well the breeding, work, and death camps of Agikaan, and they refuse to heal those they see as responsible. Because they refuse to heal Agikaani leaders, they are often executed in Agikaan even to this day. Plague-bearers intentionally spread dangerous diseases, so they do not heal those who cause such horror. They see it as furthering the spread of disease (which is accurate).

Because they have supernatural healing abilities, they study medical science, anatomy, and biology, but through a mystic lens that they refer to as Rakt Kee Vidya. Rather than scientific terminology, it is all couched in ancient words and wisdom and metaphors. They honor others who study medicine in more modern ays, though, and view them as the best of other nations. They take them in often to discuss medical philosophy and teach them esoteric means of healing.

Music among the Bahut Sa is passed down through their families, and special songs are sung during festive occasions and celebrations. These songs all tell silly tales of animals; they once had more symbolic meanings, but those have been lost.

National Cultures

• Bolana: the Bolana rejected their clay forms in horror and sought to reawaken their flesh, thus turning to bloodcasting. They perform rituals as they grow up to restore their flesh and become “more human”, a form of complicated national self-loathing. They are never successful at completely rejecting their clay form, however, and all of them still retain healing abilities, just much weaker (it is culturally frowned upon).

• Mittee: the Mittee use baleblood in an effort to drive the curacion from their own bodies. It works temporarily, but the two energies conflict. They must constantly reinfuse themselves with baleblood, making them quasi-Baleful. They are horrifying, violent warriors who are feared as a culture.

Esoterica

Taala are beings of curacion and the greatest of its wielders. They also commonly use emotional resonance, flux, and mijjit. They are also commonly users of blood energy, ashar, stagma, humors, tmakikan, hegnh, mansam, banaru, aifaellam, prasinofos, euergasia, hasken fure, tyvka vlast, oalkhyaloataa, yahas, euphoria, nzwara murazvo, euphony, lahab al'qalb, ma'dhahabi, bijalee, radiance, spirit energy, ethereal essence, menab'e, waarheid, nommos, kazaddarean, bailaohu jinghua, iremia, and poarta.

Their healers are called aarogy karanevaala, and they mix a number of esoteric energies into their work. Curacion, mijjit, and emotional resonance are the main parts of it, but they also use blood energy, ashar, and tmakikan to complement those. They use prasinofos, hasken fure, and tyvka vlast for making medicines, and they use hegnh, banaru, and yahas to bring together protective and healing energies. Euphoria and iremia are used to heal emotional states, and oalkhaylaoataa is used to make the weak stronger. If they treat animals, they also use nzwara murazvo. Sometimes they use lahab al'qalb, ma'dhahabi, or bijalee for heat or electrical support, especially for cauterizing or shock therapy.

Religion

The Bahut Sa worship Aushadheey Paanee, called Lahuen Có in eastern Palhur, who is the Divine they say saved them during the ritual of healing. He is the bringer of healing waters, and he is said to soften their clay. He is seen as not their progenitor, but the one who breathed healing into their clay when they were lost. He is their teacher, and as such, they are committed to teaching others to honor him. He and his consort, Chumma Dava, are the first healers in the world, they believe. Aushadheey and Chumma are always together, and every statue of the two shows them kissing, god and mortal. It is their union which made the clay soft, their tears of love that did so. Aushadheey is seen as a plump man, sometimes with quail feathers on his arms; he rides a giant quail. Chumma is seen as a shorter man, stocky and strong, sometimes with the head of a goat, sometimes riding one. He always carries an ewer full of glowing water, which he pours into the mouth of Aushadheey before they kiss.

Those who lead the teachings of Aushadheey Paanee are called shikshakon kee (sing. shikshak). They lead prayers, teach the stories of their god, and keep all medical knowledge of the community. They go into the higher mountains and meditate for many months, then come down to teach, then go back up. Sometimes, they find someone who they view as especially holy, and they take them with them. Most are men, but some teerasa raasta go as well. They never cut or shave any of their hair, no matter their genders, and they wear quail-feather mantles while they teach.

The main customs they follow are the blessings of the dying, funerals (giving the body to water, so that its clay may be returned to the world), and prayers of protection against plagues. These last only happen when relevant.

Gender

Traditionally, gender among the Bahut Sa has been seen as malleable, and given their mutable bodies, they did not connect biology and gender until forced to do so by oppressing nations. They still have some customs that eschew gender norms among them, particularly their respect for those who do not match the rigid gender roles of their oppressors (effectively, trans people, though they call them teesara raasta). Among them, the teesara raasta are honored as more potent healers (which statistically is true, though not set in stone). Same-sex marriage is honored among them even when it is not by their oppressors.

Economy

The Bahut Sa live within other countries and therefore obey their economies.

Military

The Bahut Sa do not have their own military, nor is combat a major part of their culture.

Language

Their language is based on Hindi.

Trade

Bahut Sa trade their healing skills to others, though they never turn anyone away.

Occupations

• Aarogy Karanevaala, those who practice healing for a living

• Shikshak, a guru of the Healing Waters

Outside View

Bahut Sa are an oppressed nation throughout their former homelands. They are viewed as a means to an end by ruling classes, and as heretics or cannibals by others. This latter is a misinterpretation of the sharing of clay that is intentionally spread by those who seek to keep them oppressed. Those who get to know them or live closer to them tend to realize how untrue it is and how potent and helpful their healing powers are.

Notables

• Tamanna Mohanty, Taala Manifest, Aeonian

• Chumma Dava, First Healer, Consort of Aushadheey Paanee, Jack of Opals, Aeonian

Estimated Populations

• Bahut Sa: 20 million

• Bolana: 5,000

• Mittee: 5,000

• Other: 5 million

Sample Stats

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

Clay 11