Dunash
Contents
Fast Facts
Height: Varies widely, and is entirely based on origin race.
Weight: Varies widely, and is entirely based on origin race.
Lifespan: Eternal
Notable Features: Pearl-Colored Irises, Grey Skin Undertones, Unrecoverable Wounds, Jittery Movements
Player Restrictions: None
Racial Ability: True Undeath: Unlike all other races on Atharen, the Dunash are truly immunized from the consequences of death and aging. They may have their organs cut through, their arms and legs dismembered, and may live for a thousand years; in all cases, they continue to survive. The two reliable ways to kill a Dunash are to decapitate them, or to set them on fire. Few other things can truly kill them, and many have learned to repair their bodies with Necromancy.
Population: 91,000,000, 99% on Icheron; rare in continental Atharen.
Distribution: Icheron (the Unbreathing Horde), Kisei
History
The Dunash were created with a promise: that they would one day be the only men and women left, set to rule all of the surface world. The culmination of hundreds of years of purposefully whittling away at subject after subject, crafting, shaping and reshaping them to suit her desires. They were designed to transition mortals to immortals, living and dead to a perpetual state in-between. The Umber Lady, Y'shendra, crafted them with love and hope. Merely one of many races she would create, but finally, her last.
The first of them created went on to be made their King, a pawn by the name of Luther Wayte. Mortals should rule themselves, Y'shendra believed, even if it was only an illusion. Forged piece-by-piece in Bel from the carcass of a mortal man, Y'shendra crafted him to perfection; she stuck her talons into him and learned that no wound could truly subdue him, that he would crawl on his abdomen if not his legs, that he would grab with his teeth if not his hands. He was dismembered, piece by piece, and reconstructed until his construction yielded certainty. Death could not claim him by age or most wounds; he was as impervious as any living thing could ever be. A perfect creation to spite the Living Gods, who would not be able to harness his soul or those who came after him, reaving him of their essence for their selfish needs.
More Dunash were made, and sent out through the Barrengate of Zahn, which Y'shendra had managed to conquer from Valteran. Ten, then twenty, then thousands, they flooded through. In years they washed over the valleys locked within Icheron's desert spires, settling villages, building towns. Like with the Hyr'Norai, they were taught all they needed to know to survive. From beyond the Barrengate, Y'shendra guided them, because she needed to. The first ones were not allowed to have their memories; if they could remember, they would only recall decades of gruesome experimentation, the Imprisoned Goddess toying with their forms, testing their limitations; dismantling and remaking them like bundles of wet clay. For this reason, they were made a blank slate, like children, for a time.
Decades went on. More Dunash were incorporated; these ones through war, the undead villages filling Icheron's interior commanded to conquer the settlements of the living. Each man, woman and child they killed, they took back to their home to be reanimated by one of Y'shendra's Knights. Instilled with the power to convert both living and dead to Dunash, they offered peaceful conversions, but met denial with swift retribution. Like a plague, the undead horde washed over the eastern coast of Icheron, culling and converting millions to their order, only infants spared to be changed a later time. An entire Kingdom was filled before long with undead, and without the need to eat nor much ability to suffer fatigue, the horde continued to rapidly expand.
Though few know the exact month or day the Dunash were plunged into Icheron, scholars of the few surviving nations estimate that they overcame the Kingdom of Samara in the Year 4588, estimated at less than three decades after their emergence. Within six more years, by the turn of the century, they had conquered more than a third of all Icheron. The Dunash forged their own Empire: The Unbreathing Horde. The Horde's capital of Y'lir-Kuznetsk was thereafter built from the ruins of Icheron's greatest city, before the birth of the Horde.
Ten years, twenty years flew by; present day came. By the end of 4619, the entire continent had gone dark to the outside world. Few nations survive, shadows of their former span, desperately resisting the ceaseless hordes of the undead through whatever means may be required. The brief history of the Dunash is one of conquest, assimilation, and change.
Physiology/Biology
Dunash physiology is uniquely odd. It appears that their organs remain fully functioning after being converted into that of undead; on a molecular level, their cells continue to work, and they even engage in many of the behaviors of cells within living organisms. Despite all of this, organs are not necessary for a Dunash to survive. Many, in fact, choose to remove them in order to improve their alacrity.
For those who do keep their anatomical structure largely unchanged, life can appear to go on almost relatively normally. They may eat, drink, defecate and urinate; they may sleep and awaken, though all of these things are optional. Perhaps as a ghostly remnant of their former lives, many feel hungry, or tired if not properly sated, but if they ignore those feelings for long they will subside.
Because of their lacking vulnerability to death, Dunash have an incredible ability to modify their bodies through Necromancy. A Necromantic surgeon can make grievous errors without considerable consequence, and as a result of this, organic modification is extremely common within the Horde. Many Dunash make themselves taller, wider, give themselves additional arms, place strange pouches or addendums within their anatomical structure, and so on. This tends to result in some of the most 'detached' undead appearing akin to freakish abominations, body horror in the eyes of the continental main, with even some Dunash finding this modification-compulsion unsettling.
Typically, Dunash tend to vary in the level in which they accept and thrive in their undead state. Like a spectrum, many (most, even) dwell closer to the side of the living. If they experience a wound they will seek to have it mended through Necromancy. They hope to retain their life-like, natural appearance. Some accept the advantages of their undeath; they will allow wounds to remain open for months, even years. They will remove unnecessary aspects of their body, or make small modifications for their benefit. Few truly wade into the territory of what some call 'morbid undeath'; an abandonment of any aesthetic mortal inhibitions.
As a note, Dunash are not any better at resisting the negative effects of magic. If anything, because Dunash do not recover naturally from wounds, many of the arcane damage dealt to their bodies is exceptionally difficult to recover from. Mageblight is something that can take years to flush from their systems, typically requiring the intervention of a truly masterful Necromancer to expedite the process of recovery. Magic is often said to be the third way in which the Dunash can be killed, as mortality from initiation and overstepping is equally as high, leading to few wanting to be initiated.
Culture
Considering the regional, ethnic, racial and ecodiversity of Dunash across Icheron and even the world, it is impossible to truly ascribe any overarching cultural tendencies to them. What is typical is a strong reverence for Y'shendra, strong communal behaviors towards other Dunash - and therefore greater social cohesion - and an increased wanderlust and philosophical set of tendencies as a result of their eternal life.
Given that the Dunash do not need to labor in the fields to survive, as most other mortals, some would say they have a much richer culture. Their urban life tends to be truly impressive. While many Dunash live in smaller communities, they tend to journey to and congregate within cities, and their cultural festivities of old have become much more vibrant and active since their loss of true hunger and other limitations.
Clothing, Grooming and Art
The Dunash are a rather fashionable race. Icheron was - before ceasing trade and communications with Atharen - always known for its fabulous silks and other fabrics, as well as its mixture of bright colors and earthly accents. As less and less Dunash needlessly labor, a change in their society similar to that of Lorien has occurred, with more of them focusing their efforts on arts and other trades. This has resulted in a cultural renaissance of sorts, though with a far more marginal focus on efficiency and technological growth than in Lorien. The Dunash are among the most artistic of peoples, facing few external threats.
For this reason, Dunash art has become a staple of their culture. It is also typically fairly dualistic; often either beautiful landscapes, painting the dry but astounding contours of the continent of Icheron, or depicting themes such as death, suffering, the plane of Bel, and life's many tyrannies. Considering the vast majority of Dunash do recall their lives before their change, many feel an odd disconnect with those days, and demonstrate those feelings through sketches, poems, stories or an easel.
Grooming for the Dunash is complicated. Their hair continues to grow, and the cultural styles of the past largely remain present on a wider level throughout their society. Necromancy is often required to upkeep one's appearance, meaning they often rely on others to keep them looking vibrant. Dunash do not smell like rotting corpses; they are as alive as they are undead, and typically smell similar to most other mortals.
They tend to wash their skin carefully so as to not damage it (and therefore require Necromantic grafting), and indeed, they do sweat, leading to a strong emphasis around skin cleanliness in their culture. Many jest that preventing themselves from appearing as sweat-covered corpses is the new labor, as many spend hours grooming themselves on a daily basis. Some, however, do not, and the difference is notable: they tend to appear sagged, dirty, with patches of color across skin that almost looks dead, but still attached to their body.
Those Dunash who totally ignore cleaning and grooming do tend to eventually resemble rotting corpses, if only due to a culmination of bacteria, dirt and odor accumulating over their skin.
Religion and Psychology
The Dunash are among the most fervent people in the world. Within the dogma of their faith, Y'shendra is more than a God of the Path -- she is the God; the creator of all life, breaker of the cycle of death. From the lips of the Blacksworn, it is said that Y'shendra is the one God who loves mortal-kind; who would see them freed from death and suffering, allowing them to live unburdened from fear or the subjugation that is the afterlife.
Of course, this is the public face. There are complexities to Y'shendra's chorus of praise. Few Dunash were made willingly. Most resisted until the end, forced into their new state at the end of a pike, or within the walls of a crumbling city, beaten by siege machines constructed in the Infernal Plane. Most, when they awaken as undead, do so screaming in utter agony and terror. A majority find it woefully difficult to adapt to undead life. While most sensations remain the same, few would claim not to have experienced some degree of hollowness since their transformation.
The sun feels less satisfying on their form, which chars and chars their skin without the cells themselves ever dying or experiencing regrowth. They find their appearance dissatisfying after a while, seeing their features sink in as their skin becomes loose and ragged from exposure. Necromancy becomes the only method of restoring the vitality of their appearance, and many go too far. Like the Lich, many Dunash experience difficulties with their identity as they change their bodies and features. They do not age linearly, but almost evolve across a horizon of strange possibilities; changing to whomever they wish to be through a Necromancer's threads. This perfect undeath yields little challenge, and little sense of true self, ironically creating much of the same conflict as those bound to Muid.
Not all Dunash feel this way. Some find their undeath to be a true blessing, a catalyst for unlimited possibilities. The ability to learn and expand infinitely, to become great scholars, warriors, craftsmen and rhetoricians all in the same life. To never be bound to the shackles of an afterlife they may not wish to be a part of. Even those who do not internalize these privileges would certainly not claim to loathe Y'shendra. Nearly all Dunash adore her, even if some question whether their new life will ever suit them. Internally, over time, unrest continues to build.
Many scholars on Atharen who are aware of the Dunash often compare them to the Kohrun, who appear to have achieved a similar level of deathlessness without needing to sacrifice many of their mortal attributes. The comparison between these two races is often regarded as a direct example of Y'shendra's slow psychological decay, becoming more and more detached from life and more fascinated by morbid undeath.
Reproduction, Aging, and Death
Y'shendra is and has always been the Adac with providence over life. It is no surprise, then, that her favored species is one not only capable of defying death, but creating new life in strange, unconventional ways. To begin with, the Dunash do not sexually reproduce. While they are capable of reproductive behavior, fertilized zygotes within the womb of a Dunash woman will quickly be treated as a foreign aberration, culled via a forced miscarriage. Dunash men appear to be able to initially inseminate women of other species, but after a period of several months, the fetus will wither and rot, leading to an unusual miscarriage that tends to happen over days, decayed pieces of something emerging at the bottom of the woman's chamber-pot.
The vast majority of Dunash that existed in present-day were converted by Blacksworn into their undead state, either while alive or after being killed.
However, Dunash can reproduce, and do so by melding themselves to a tree, field or other body of plant life. They will quite literally begin to merge their cells with the living object they are embedding into, effectively becoming one with that structure, melded with it visibly. Going into hibernation, they will emerge months later attached to a cask of flesh, one they must carefully break open. Most do so with a thin knife, cutting down the center. What emerges is... strangely, a child of their old race. They will grow as a mortal, and be converted by a Blacksworn at the age of twenty-five. Considering Dunash do not age, any child who is converted will remain a child forever. Thus, they wait until they are sufficiently mature.
This process of reproduction works by threading and converting the reproductive cells of the Dunash through the surrounding life as an incubator. Through the hormones that remain within their body, they produce both a sperm and an egg cell, effectively creating a genetic clone of themselves, though the child born will be more akin to their sibling in genetics than an identical twin.
A Dunash cannot easily die. As stated earlier, only total immolation, magical initiation, heavy overstepping, severe mageblight or decapitation - or some other form of obliteration - appear to work in permanently dispatching them. Wound after wound will fail to overcome them. They may lose their ability to use their core muscles if you bludgeon them in, but they can still move. Their organs are barely essential if at all, and many do without them. As such, any Dunash must be killed in a vicious and unmistakable manner.
Language
Given the great scope of the continent of Icheron, the Dunash speak a large number of different languages. Increasingly, though, they have begun to be inducted into schools where they are taught Common in order to communicate with the people of continental Atharen. Y'shendra believes that most mortals who see the perfect undeath of the Dunash, and can communicate with them, will willingly submit; given this, they are educated on a societal level to impress their devotion to her towards others, speaking her praise in the world's major tongues.
