Revenge of Appendix Three: Corporeals

More filler posts! The plotline is still developing on Twitter, and I will make a post here only when I think it’s far enough. While you’re waiting for that, I’ll drop another filler post with more of the old stuff – this time Corporeals, based on D&D Githyanki/Githzerai which I tied to Warcraft’s Ethereals.

CORPOREALS

Not all inhabitants of K’aresh turned into Ethereals when the ritual that transformed them was completed. Many died from the sudden influx of arcane energies and catastrophes caused by the land tearing itself apart. And then, some of the K’areshi neither died nor turned into energy beings. Some of them built up a natural resistance to arcane energy and withstood the wasting effects of the arcane wind for a time. When even they could not survive unchanged, their bodies were changed and warped into barely resembling their former selves. While they kept their general shape, their faces no longer looked recognisable and even slightest physical effort tired them greatly. Then, K’aresh started breaking apart and the survivors had to escape.

All survivors of K’aresh’s catastrophical demise were thoroughly distressed by the changes that occured to them. While most Ethereals embraced their change and tried to adapt to a life of an energy cloud, the ones who still had a (dysfunctional) body were unhappy. Soon, they banded together and used the unnatural properties of the Twisting Nether to hone their bodies and train themselves, preparing to the new conditions. A leader appeared among them, called Gish, who held a grudge against the Ethereals for the transformations. Suspecting them to be culprits of calling the Void to K’aresh as well, he encouraged many of the “Corporeals” to shun their now-ethereal brethren.

Haramad tried to negotiate with this newly formed faction and race and to better facilitate those negotiations, he decided the Ethereals must appear less “inhuman”. His Consortium developed a special magical bandage which wraps around an Ethereal and binds it inside, giving it an illusion of a humanoid form. In this new shape, Haramad and his messengers appeared to Gish and tried to talk their differences out. Although Haramad was ready for many concessions, Gish kept pushing further and further until then-Lieutenant Zovax lashed out in anger and torn apart Gish’s body with a single spell. Furious at their leader’s death and disgusted by the way of his demise, the Corporeals attacked the Ethereal mission, killing almost all of them. Only Haramad and Zovax escaped. Soon Zovax was expelled from the Consortium for his crime, but Salhadaar’s Ethereum gladly admitted him, facilitating further splintering of K’areshi society.

While the Ethereum and Consortium started fighting each other over the disagreements, the Corporeals evacuated to further reaches of the Twisting Nether. There they looked for dead husks of slain Titans and fragments of other worlds destroyed by the Burning Legion, settling on those small homes and establishing their monasteries. Corporeals decided to start a monastic lifestyle, because only the rigid discipline and martial aptitude of a monk could train their new bodies to remain functional. Due to the way they parted, Corporeals hate the Ethereals and are taught that hate from the earliest childhood. Young Corporeals are taught Ethereals are little better than the demons and the Void, and so is anyone who allies with them. They do not negotiate with outsiders – they kill on sight (or flee) anyone who isn’t one of them.

NOTABLE INDIVIDUALS:
Gish: Gish was once a simple laborer on K’aresh. When the Transfiguration wasted his body and turned him into a weak husk of his former self, he sought spiritual treatment. He medidated for a long time and practiced simple martial arts, thus reaching a conclusion that the Ethereals are to blame for everything that happened to K’aresh. After preaching to the Corporeals and gathering a group of followers, he intentionally aggravated the Ethereal messengers, until he died as a martyr. Some believe the spirit of Gish lives on in all Corporeal monks, who follow his teachings.
Yahdra: Yahdra is the current leader of Corporeals. Residing in a monstery located on a piece of rock that is rumored to have once been part of K’aresh’s northern continent, she leads and organises the raids against the Void, the Burning Legion and the Ethereals. Like most Priors before her, Yahdra believes Ethereals are evil creatures, warped by their transformation, and must all be destroyed if K’aresh is to live again.
Elhandar: A school of thought among the Corporeals believes that nothing can restore K’aresh and whatever remains of it, must be left to rot. Elhandar leads that school and teaches that K’aresh lives on in them. He also attempts to open the Corporeal society at least slightly, but due to severe resistance from Yahdra and her supporters, he is forced to fight against the outsiders – albeit he is looking for a way out.
Rivanjar: Not all Corporeals are cut out for the rigorous training they receive from early childhood. Some of them, like Rivanjar, grow up with a severe animosity to their discipline which seeps into their very being and blackens their hearts. Most of those are found out quickly enough and terminated before they can become a threat, but Rivanjar was strong enough to not only hide his fel taint, but also to finish his hated training to become a Master of Fighting Arts. Rivanjar departed, creating his own fel-tainted school, with a single objective – to destroy Yahdra’s people who took away his childhood.