Krish

Fast Facts

Height: 5'8"-6'4" Males, 5'4"-6'0" Females

Weight: 150-220(lbs) Males, 120-180(lbs) Females

Lifespan: Adult (18 years), Elder (180 years), Deathly (220 years)

Notable Features: Bronze, Olive or Light Green Skin, Sharp Ears (Often Serrated), Amber Eyes, Lean Bodies

Player Restrictions: None

Racial Ability: Dauntless: Krish can endure much greater amounts of pain and injury without it affecting their ability to move and fight. Muscle damage or other limb injuries can stop them, but even then they appear to be able to operate their bodies better than others. Additionally, they have improved stamina over the other races.

Population: 80,000,000 (within Outlands), 1,000,000 (on Atharen)

Distribution: Tarkus, Radenor

History

Some would say that the first Elven schism occurred not after the fall of Silor, but with the incursion of thousands of Elves into the Outlands, where they thought to find refuge for their heresy against the Creator-Gods. These Elves followed neither their makers nor the Eldashan, instead crafting their own savage idols and effigies, spiting and defiling the ones who made them. As the Elves continued to build their cult, growing it through time, the leader of these old Hyr'Norai began to conspire to herself become a God, taking captive the son of Venadak and murdering him in cold blood, feasting upon the filth that was his remains.

Of course, the God of Light was enraged by these ongoings. While the Gods had sworn not to intervene too much in mortal affairs, the murder of His own son out of spite drew the ire of the Light-God. His frustrations were channeled indirectly, creating countless enchanted beasts to roam the wilds around the Elves and their home, murdering them and isolating them further and further from the world. Decay set in within their tribe, and many left on their hands and knees, praying that Venadak allow them to pass. He did not; the beasts feasted upon the repentant sinners all the same, and their accursed souls likely went forth to the Dead Realm, even being denied the afterlife's release.

That same leader -- a powerful mage -- beseeched the Mark of Control to lead her to a new way. A path free from the stagnation of the Gods, and the weakness of their peers. She and her people had always wanted to be more; to not dwell beneath the God's light, crawling beneath the umbrage of malignant creators. While no such door opened to them in the realm of Elf and man, the woman found a doorway to a greater beyond - a plane she called ry'thiir - leading her people into that realm, one known to the Gods as the Outlands.

The truth was, this woman did not find the Outlands alone. Something spoke to her; something called to her, in the dark, inviting her in. Helped her navigate the planes, taught her of the limits of her own magic from the beyond. This creature, many know now to be the Outsider itself. A being that surely invited them for one purpose alone: to prey.

As the people from this tribe of apostates stepped through her door, they found themselves surrounded by naught but grey wastes and giant, floating stones the size of mountains. Moving to this foreign, hostile plane - one not made for them, nor engineered toward their survival - a great deal of them passed on, while others persevered. Hunting became their main source of sustenance for hundreds of years. The beasts of the Outlands were plentiful with meat, and more; strange nutrients that changed them over time, altering their blood and redirecting the course of their evolution. These old Elves became something entirely else, a race native to the plane, that belonged there. Many believe that the Outsider pushed forward their evolution, in order to make them a permanent source of food - of souls - for it to feast on, its own demesne of harvestable souls to match that of the Gods.

Whatever the case, as the Elves evolved, they started to call themselves the Kiras-Iliir, then the Krish as their tongue grew more guttural and harsh. They died younger, their skin changed tone and they decreased slightly in size, but they became hardened to their new world and became capable of enduring its many dangers and woes.

Hundreds of years into the migration of the Elves, they stood a new race, and one that had been divided into countless tribes by the need to forage and hunt, forming nomadic bands. Rather than savages, though, they were perhaps the most developed race of all. The countless materials within the Outlands proved effective for constructing advanced armor and weaponry. The beasts made incredible companions for the hunt, and the floating stones became their cities, and the basis of the technology that allowed them their ships. By the Third Age, the Krish had become a truly thriving race. The dominant life-form in the Outlands, they had forged an endless array of savage Kingdoms that warred with one another for dominance, subjugating all of the races truly native to the land. It was then that one of their Kings thought to return them to what they referred to as r'lisk, or Atharen, to seek out their divine rule.

Since then, invasions by the Krish have become a phenomena seemingly unimpeded by anything else, only adopting even a pause during the Bleeding. They emerge from the Outlands nearly every year, the warriors of a variant or even unheard of tribe each time, sacking and razing cities wherever they can find them. Much of the history of the Krish upon entering the Outlands is unknown; they are a mysterious race. The one certainty around them is that they are reviled by those on Atharen, and even their own plane.

Physiology/Biology

Krish are not so far apart from the Hyr'norai in their physiology and physique. Rather than golden-embroidered plates upon their chest, they often grow black, armor-like plates, generally around their collar, atop their shoulders, or around their lower abdomen (such as along the length of an Adonis Belt). They are, like Hyr'norai, somewhat taller than regular humans - though not by as wide of a gap as their original ancestors. Krish tend to have olive or light green skin, though some of them may appear more bronze, like a tan shade, though one that will typically have olive undertones. Their builds are generally lean; they are not so robust as the Hyr'norai often are, and tend to be dexterous fighters as a result of the composition of their build. Their lean bodies lend well to their speed and agility, and their inhuman endurance makes them stand out as one of the fastest races, able to maintain peak running speeds for significantly longer than most other races.

Krish ears are alien-like, strange and serrated. Their ears sometimes appear to have spines leading out into bulb-like edges, while others simply appear to have genuinely sharp ear-lengths with ridges that come out like pronged knives. Almost all Krish have black hair, and all of them have amber eyes. The sole exceptions are half-breeds, who can sometimes be mistaken for Orkhai-Hyr'norai half-bloods, due to their green undertones and sharp ears.

Technology

Krish technology is well beyond that of most of the other races. In fact, it is from the remains of Krish war-machines that the Grisic Empire built its own air technology, utilizing materials salvaged from their remains - materials that could only be found in the Outlands. Chief of these materials is one called 'kilesh', black crystals that line the Outland's floating mounds of stone. These rocks are salvaged when discovered, their crystals refined and turned into the external layer of Krish ships, also known as Harbingers (pictured above). Harbingers are massive, airbound vessels that naturally float due to their kilesh exterior. Their ascent and descent is manipulated by a magnetic core infused within a gravity well to their center, one that shifts the magnetic currents within the upper or lower parts of the ship to either ascend or descend, allowing them to float. Industrial technology has taken and adapted these methods for their own use, with Grisic Skyships all utilizing this magnetism along with a kilesh exterior.

Krish, due to their mixture of magic and technology, are a truly devastating race: of all the races, they are known to be the most effective when it comes to war and invasion. Many, many Krish learn Resonance at an early age, and many of them master it to the point where they are capable of forging Interplanar Portals. Large cabals of these master-Transposers will be stationed on each Harbinger, allowing them to warp across the Outlands easily, or even into different planes. The Harbinger will then assault the city it warped to with its incredible magical weaponry, leaving smoking ruins often before any help can arrive. The process can be more involved for Krish seeking to salvage and enslave rather than destroy, with Harbingers effectively dropping large battalions who will be funneled into city-squares through regular portals. Either way, the incredible hull of these Harbingers makes them nearly impossible to fell, and these invasion forces can be so shocking and devastating to the unexpecting people of Atharen, that their defensive forces often rout immediately.

Culture and Psychology

Krish culture is cold and militant. It is imperialistic, brutal and war-obsessed, with conquest, murder and victory being incredibly important to the social standing of any Krish. These feats determine who and what an individual Krish is: a weakling, vermin, or a powerful warrior worth recognition, admiration and even desire. Strength is valued above all in the culture of the Krishkir, and almost all Krishkir spend at least a significant portion of their lives serving in the military of their Tribal Kingdom, also known as their Zi'dask (in Ki'taan). Spending years or decades as crew-members of Harbingers, a sort of communal military culture often forms, and the social relations of most Krish tend to revolve around their old military comrades, even later on in their lives.

Krish are worked virtually until death. There is no such thing as 'retiring': all men and women must work until they are unable to work, at which point they will be made to labor regardless, their taskmasters pushing them towards death willingly. The Outlands, while providing powerful materials for weapons of war, are hostile and far from bountiful in food. As such, an elder who can no longer work is a wasted life to the Krishkir. This is not an outlier to their psychology: Krish base much of their actions on efficiency, servicing their Zi'dask, and overall being 'useful' to those around them. This culture of extreme, self-sacrificing service is ironic considering the brutal nature of the Krish; they act almost entirely selflessly, yet not for the betterment of their direct peers, but rather their Zi'dask itself - an entity they prize above all.

Krishkir are, then, easy to describe as dangerously nationalistic. Their Kivash, or King or Queen, in some way becomes their everything. Yet: the Kivash must act selflessly as well. Their lives are not to be focused on enriching themselves, or engaging in opulence or debauchery. The devotion they receive is met with devotion in exchange: an utter diligence to keep the Zi'dask alive at all costs, to preserve the lives of as many Krishkir as possible.

That is ultimately what Krish culture is about: survival. More than anything, they fight to ensure the survival of their tribe, to maintain and further their war-like legacy. As the product of this feverish devotion, their personalities can often appear predictable; the cultural norms of the Zi'dask are almost overbearing upon them, and they appear much like a cult-like hive with little independent thought. Yet -- there is a certain wildness to the Krish that comes out in battle, in the heat of intimacy, or any other primitive thing. Innately, beyond their extreme discipline, they are bestial creatures led by rage and desire. They are among the most brutal of all races, often even surpassing the Orkhai, and also act as some of the most passionate lovers - though one is likely to be discarded once the heat has passed.

Clothing, Grooming and Art

Krish clothing is sleek, effective and imposing. It is often armor-like, black or silver, and lined with the mesmerizing gems of the Outlands for the more decorated of warriors or statesmen. While a war-like race, are incredibly sophisticated, and their clothing matches this: they dress well, are ashamed by so much as a wrinkle, and their grooming tends to match this very immaculate and meticulous appearance they tend to portray. Krish are often difficult to tell apart from one another, in fact, as they tend to dress very similarly, and have little variation in their hair styles. Men will typically only have one of a few styles: parted or combed hair, harsher or spikier hair, or more loose curls. Women almost always have long hair of some sort, and their hair tends to either be set into a braided ponytail, let loose as long, straight hair, or placed into one or several buns.

Krish art is a unique and grim aspect of their race. One of the most common forms of Krish art is one that requires little artistic skill, only creativity; it is the collecting of soul-husk Krish that have had their souls devoured by the Outsider. As they die by this method, they are left behind as ash-like black husks in the shape and position they held in death, similar to statues. These 'statues' are retrieved from settlements harvested by the Outsider, only to be made into elaborate arrangements of corpse monuments, a metaphorical terracotta army of ash-like dead. Often, Krish city centers are filled with these monuments, which appear to be memoirs of the lost - like those fallen in war.

Religion and Worship

The Krishkir are an atheistic people. The Zi'dask itself is more-or-less worshiped, and sometimes this devotion lands upon their Kivash (King or Queen). While Kivash are not truly worshiped, they are revered fanatically, at least until they fail or reveal their incompetence. Aside from this, while the Krish frantically fear the Outsider almost to the level of paranoia, they do not worship It, and instead often fantasize about killing it; the ultimate goal of every Zi'dask is to eventually slay the Outsider, though given that it is a primordial God, this feats is well beyond the bounds of feasibility.

Reproduction, Aging, and Death

Krish reproduction is a similar process to that of Elves and humans. One thing to note, however, is that Krish are very fertile: they tend to produce twins or even triplets during conception. With most Krish believing the Outsider had a direct hand in their evolution, many believe he designed them this way to produce a more bountiful race for him to predate on, acquiring more souls. Given that the Krish are perpetually at war with one another, and even the nations of Atharen due to their invasions, this eternally exploding population serves them well. It is not uncommon for Krish cities to grow ten-fold in population in a generation, only to be completely culled in a war, or by the Outsider.

Aging is a fairly mundane process for the Krish: they tend to age as normal until they are around one hundred and fifty years of age, at which point they will begin to appear 'middle-aged' and their functions will begin to diminish. They then wither to that of elders in about twenty five to thirty years, and will eventually die well past the age of two hundred. Before this period, they live in their prime from the age of eighteen - where they fully mature - until the next century-and-a-half.

Krish death is a cold thing. Mourning is not common: people die all the time, even young ones. The dead are not resented or shamed, or mourned, but typically forgotten. As faces pass, Krish rarely think on them or their memory; it is as if they simply fade from the mind, going to a far-away land. Even the death of family is rarely consequential. To most Krish, their most important social unit is their battalion or those they labor with, and given the professional nature of those relationships, those peers are not meant to be mourned.

Of course, even despite the cultural dismissal of death and dead ones, some Krish cannot deny the pain of loss. These men and women will often mourn quietly, in private, never letting others know of their pain. They will often burn their fallen loved ones as if to protect them from being devoured, and will keep a memento or two for the purpose of memory.

Language

The Krish speak the language of Ki'taan, a - quite literally - alien language, that serves as the dominant language of the Outlands. The language is guttural, sharp and harsh, often described as 'violent' by those who hear it; it is often spoken with aggressive body language and form, as if the practitioners are perpetually within a state of growing agitation, or even rage.

Krish names tend to sound as harsh as their words, and common ones are as follows:

Male: Zakir, Kixan, Xanitz, Yarik, Tyretzkal

Female: Voshka, Ly'ketz, Kryveka, Yar'ishek, Maevhen