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Registered: 05-2014
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Void Entity Primer


(This was mostly written across two sitting sessions and was meant to try and address some of the questions I've been asked about my creations and beings like them on a number of occasions. If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to ask or point them out. I honestly might not have though some aspect through all the way and would appreciate it!)

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Background: The natives of the Ysherian Void and the pocket dimension they inhabit were created by a god-like entity once it became clear that the Oans turned self-proclaimed Guardians of the Universe intended to banish as much magic from “their” universe as possible. The Father of the Void, The Eater of Chains, their creator was known by many titles and commanded virtually unlimited power yet was heavily restricted in its use by its own nature. Though the Father could atomize entire worlds with a mere thought, it also embodied the primal struggle for survival and superiority experienced by all forms of life. Its power could only be used on the barren, the inanimate, and the willing. Otherwise the Father could not smite even the lowliest of insects without engaging it in an even contest of strength and will.
The Void Entities, and others like them, were planted and have evolved to bypass the Father’s inability to directly change the universe. They are both his experiments to create the “perfect” lifeform and the heirs to a multiverse in which the Father of the Void will ensure freedom and power of all who inhabit it once they too are transcended into beings like his “children”.

Biology: The Ysherian Void Entities’ natural habitat is essentially magic-saturated space and their bodies have developed accordingly. Forms of telepathic communication and an immensely powerful degree of telekinetic flight are ubiquitous among them. Their bodies are effectively composed of colossal amounts of magical energy woven into physical forms, with much of said forms save for their glowing white eye-lights being colored black to offer them a form of natural camouflage in the Ysherian Void and even “normal” space. They don’t experience pain as most organic life forms understand it, merely registering it as damage sustained in the same vein a person playing a video game observes their character’s life bar dropping, and in general tend to be significantly less hindered by conditions such was exhaustion or starvation for similar reasons.

The Void Entities typically reproduce by battling with and consuming each other, though they can “mate” with non-Void Entities without significant issue as well. The victor of any of these conflicts absorbs the other’s body, gaining greater power and at least some of the loser’s knowledge, as well as removing their soul or at least some sort of spiritual imprint of it. The details of the process aren’t well understood, but the result typically produces one or more “infant” Void Entities (they seem to be able to influence the number based on the perceived need). These “children” typically possess instincts from their “parents” that border on racial memory. While it isn’t the same as perfect knowledge and recall, these instincts do allow them to re-learn or remember skills their parents possessed and how to “properly” reconstruct their bodies. This ensures that very little is actually lost when one Void Entity devours another, and that these “juvenile” Void Entities can grow into beings that rival or surpass their parents and elders startlingly quickly.

Beyond all that, no two Ysherian Void Entities are truly alike. Each effectively builds their own body and develops their abilities as they grow and gain more power. However, the process of consuming each other essentially allows the victor to comprehend the techniques its victim and “mate” used to construct its own body and powers, which in turn permits it to copy what adaptations it feels would be worth expending its newfound power to develop and indirectly ensures the species as a whole is constantly innovating. The Void Entities are also quite capable of developing “minor” adaptations even without consuming each other, such as developing new senses (like hearing…sound doesn’t carry in space!), ways of surviving in a comparatively magically barren universe (such as not expending as much of the magic that fuels them…or finding new ways to feed. Like blood magic.), or even countermeasures to magic and technology intended to disrupt their forms.
 
As one of the seeds of what The Father of the Void hoped would develop into a “perfect” lifeform, the Void Entities are among the most individually powerful beings in the universe and suffer very few limits on their capabilities. The least among them is easily capable of going on a bloody rampage against most other lifeforms while the greatest are easily capable of threatening even advanced armies, star fleets, and worlds. The Void Entities are, however, not without their flaws…

Culture and Psychology: Put simply, the Ysherian Void Entities don’t really have a culture. They were intended to be a species of individualists free from the restrictions that societies and even nature can impose on life. The entire idea of having a civilization is an alien one that even Void Entities who have had extended contact with “children of flesh and metal” will likely find uncomfortable or even revolting.
The Ysherian Void Entities do have share a number of instincts that give them a common mindset, though. Their methods of reproduction and growing stronger mean they tend to be quite aggressive and utterly Darwinist in their outlook. However, this is tempered by a desire to only seek out worthy rivals to consume. While a Void Entity can grow stronger, and considerably so, by devouring large numbers of lifeforms less powerful than they, besting and consuming a peer or even superior tends to grant the victor not only raw power but knowledge of how to form new adaptations for their body and valuable combat experience. Ysherian Void Entities who do seek out and feed upon those weaker than they tend to be viewed as deviants who are not only developing in a way that makes them “fat” and bloated with raw power they neither “earned” nor know how to use to its fullest, but are actively snuffing out the potential of beings who could one day develop into more worthy rivals.

Hunting down these “deviants” is one of the few reasons Ysherian Void Entities will cooperate for any significant length of time. Another is if a force powerful enough to threaten their entire species and the Void itself is somehow mustered. If their, admittedly rudimentary, attempts to cooperate and coordinate their efforts are not enough to deal with such a threat, the Void Entities will gather for a display that is equal parts feeding frenzy and mating coil to battle, consume, and reproduce with each other en masse. While this will result in vast numbers of powerful Void Entities being formed at a startling rate, this is generally seen as a last resort that will ultimately set their species back for a time. In such an environment, raw power tends to trump mental or utility-based adaptations, which means the resulting tide of offspring, while mighty indeed, will likely be less cunning and unique than if they had been allowed to develop naturally.


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Jul/2/2016, 10:43 am Link to this post Email Schwarz Jaeger   PM Schwarz Jaeger Blog
 
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Re: Void Entity Primer


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Void Entities and RP:

Subspecies: Do you want to use something tied to or simply like the Ysherian Void Entities without worrying about the restrictions that come with them? You can! The Ysherian Void Entities may have instincts you find restrictive, but there is no reason their magic-saturated pocket dimension was the only one seeded by The Father of the Void. If you want a Void Entity antagonist as an eldritch god out to consume entire worlds and use keep the souls of the devoured around as its playthings and minions, you’re welcome to say that it’s a product of some other Void or even a “deviant” Ysherian Void Entity that managed to escape and amass such power.

Interaction beyond the Void: A large number of the Ysherian Void Entities, particularly the greater ones, have recently begun to develop a curiosity about and interest in the universe outside their pocket dimension. While they aren’t explicitly aware of what The Father of the Void intended for them, they are unlikely to react well to how things work in “our” universe. Civilization itself is an alien enough concept for them to grasp on its own, but it can appear to be truly horrific to the eye-lights of a Ysherian Void Entity when so many of them rely on the harvesting of weaker lifeforms to sustain themselves (basically any civilization that needs food and can’t make it from nothing) and are downright gleeful at the prospect of exploiting or eradicating weaker civilizations they believe will stand no chance against them. The fact that the natural laws of the realms outside their Void enforce this will not help either. It is simply impossible for most species to sustain and strengthen themselves through what is essentially cannibalism like the Void Entities do, and the way nature defines its hierarchy is fairly set in stone. Though sapient lifeforms have the ability to develop and change their station in the universe, a rabbit has no chance of growing mighty enough to overpower a wolf under its own power purely because the circumstances of their birth.

This can lead to a fair bit of tension and hostility between visiting Ysherian Void Entities and the natives of our plane, particularly if Void Entities attempt to “help” said natives by pulling their souls out of their bodies to reproduce and reincarnate them as Void Entities. It can also produce some good as the Ysherian Void Entities will almost certainly take a dim view of slavers or hordes intent on pillaging the defenseless, and will almost certainly have the power to do something about it even without a guide or partner.

Pacts with Ysherian Void Entities: These can take a number of forms. The type favored by the Schwarz Jaegers of Ysheria involves an extremely advanced and complex magical process that allows the Void Entity to manifest an incredibly disproportionate amount of their power into the comparatively tiny armor worn by their partner while the rest of the Void Entity’s body remains “out of phase” but still present on the same plane of existence. Exceptional individuals or Void Entities may be able to come up with a similar technique if they don’t choose to manifest the power of their pact some other way, such as fighting directly alongside partial or even complete manifestations of the Void Entity or channeling the immense amounts of raw magical power into spells.
How the Void Entity benefits from such pacts depends on who they make one with, but generally speaking it allows them to acquire knowledge, skills, resources, and connections that they might never possess otherwise. While the Ysherian Void is an excellent arena to develop strength, cunning, and fighting experience in, it may not offer the same thing that entire traditions and schools of combat the greatest fighters produced by the “children of flesh” do-particularly since Void Entities may struggle to read and anticipate the alien (to them) queues of organic bodies. This tends to be even more true when it comes to subjects such as science and advanced magical theory and manipulation.

The terms of any such pact vary from individual to individual, but involving your soul can offer a number of boons if both participants are willing. It can make the Void Entity’s partner extremely difficult to kill given that many Void Entities can endlessly regenerate their partner’s body from almost anything so long as they have the magic (which their body is made out of) to fuel the process, and can simply hold onto the soul and re-insert it into the repaired organic body as needed. If the soul is somehow removed from their partner against their will, that bond will make tracking it down a trivial matter and attempts to conceal it from them doomed to fail in all but the most extreme cases.’

Such an arrangement can, depending on the terms of the pact, lead to the Void Entity simply using the soul given to them to reproduce and convert their partner into a Void Entity as well. That may or may not be a good thing depending on the wishes of the pact-partner.


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Jul/2/2016, 10:45 am Link to this post Email Schwarz Jaeger   PM Schwarz Jaeger Blog
 


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