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)

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 Sundering. They emerge from the Outlands nearly every year, often the warriors of a different 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

Work in progress.

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 Grisith 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 in 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. Clockwork technology has taken and adapted these methods for their own use, with Grisith 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 Transposition 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

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Clothing, Grooming and Art

WIP

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

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Reproduction, Aging, and Death

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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