Chapter I · Races

Other Beings

Not everything that walks Eldriloch is a person you can bargain with. Some of these beings are tools, some are hunters, and some are visitors from a reality that no longer exists.

Exspiratis

[ˈek-spir-ē-tis]

The exspiratis are an ethereal species that wander the ethereal. Once they had physical forms, but their deep manipulation of the aetheric web destroyed their own reality. Now they drift between alternate realities, able to watch but not touch. Each has its own motives, but all of them crave the physical world again, and as a people they lean toward violence.

Flicker. Because they are already half in the ethereal, the exspiratis are the one thing in Eldriloch that can step out of the world. An exspiratis given form, or riding a host, can flicker in and out of the ethereal at will, as the ashen Gift Flicker: attacks against it often pass through empty air, and it can pass through creatures and thin walls. It still has to cross the distance on foot or wing. Nothing, not even an exspiratis, can teleport. Dimensional anchor holds one fast in the world.

The Dark Sunder let the exspiratis reach into Eldriloch, though their access is still limited. Without a host they can influence the world but not touch it. They seek humanoid hosts through coercion, manipulation or brute force, and dream manipulation is a favorite tactic. A human who accepts one becomes an ashen. An exspiratis may also bind itself to an object that represents its goal. Such an object can't speak to its wielder, but it pushes the wielder's emotions toward what it wants.

Exspiratis society is a hierarchy of high kings and commanders. The high kings disagree sharply about how things should be done and fight each other politically. Drathul is one of the high kings and commands an army of both greater and lesser exspiratis. A body dying doesn't kill the exspiratis inside it. It only sends the exspiratis back to the long work of finding another host.

Mechanoids

Mechanoids came before the souldriven. They are animated constructs built for one specific task, and because they have no soul they can follow only basic instructions, like sweeping a floor. They aren't truly intelligent, but they spread widely through wealthier nations, especially in the north, because they spare people menial work. A chunk of fibrolite about the size of a four-sided die holds a mechanoid's instructions.

Nations have fought battles with mechanoids, with limited success. During the War of Souls, Adryae built gigantic mechanoid war machines that pushed the ashen back at first. The machines only followed preset routines and couldn't adapt, and the ashen learned to exploit them and destroyed them. Mechanoids make excellent sentries, though.

Skitz

A skitz is a nightmarish creature with spindly limbs, long skinny fingers, pointed ears, sunken eyes and jagged teeth. Skitz are animals possessed by lesser exspiratis, and they serve as henchmen for more powerful exspiratis and ashen.

Skitz run on four legs like elongated spiders, with short, rapid steps, then flip up onto two legs to fight. In Ethon's battles against the exspiratis, thousands of them formed ranks, drew crude bows from bags on their chests and fired in volleys. Don't let their feral look fool you. A skitz understands what is said around it and can relay it to whatever master it serves. Watch what you say near one.

Nibs

Nibs are mechanical monstrosities with six legs jutting from their sides, driven by large pistons. Two large arms with sharp mandibles reach out from the front, and the rear drags a large spearhead on a long, twitching, linked shaft. Nib Guardians are programmed to destroy any living creature not in their records. Nibs can tunnel with their spinning mandibles and pound through stone, and they are fast enough to run down anyone on foot.

Nibs are rarely used because they are too messy. Their victims are often still alive when the limbs come off. Veterans say the hoses are a nib's only weak point, and its fibrolite is well protected. A weapon that drains aetheric patterns can stop one outright.