'Husks' (English (UK): [hʌsk])
"I... I knew them once. They were a good sort; before all this. Before they became one of those... things. Now look at them. Look at what they've done. I could see it in their pale eyes. The... hate they had for us. Ye gods, how did it come to this..."
They could have been anyone, once. Heroes, Monarchs, Bandits, Beggars. 'The Sigil' and its 'Burden' does not discriminate, and those who could not be rid of the mark before they meet their end will suffer terribly. It matters not how they perished; the result is the same. These 'Forsaken' who fail in their duty are destined to become 'Husks'. Twisted reflections of their former selves, hollowed and corrupted until they are little more than a tortured echo serving the will of 'The Spurned'. Whatever skills they held in life will be applied in the name of their new cause beyond death.
Their suffering does not end there, however. They remain coherent; aware, and yet bound in service to this baleful cause, lacking the will nor capacity to break free. They bear witness to the actions of their body in painful lucidity, but have precious little means to resist their newfound compulsions. Any attempt to regain agency over themselves is agonizing and ephemeral. Perhaps they might expend the last of themselves to resist the urge to butcher a friend for but a few moments, but even that will fade; and with it, any last vestiges of mortal sentiment that lay within them.
For these reasons, 'Husks' are also referred to by names such as 'Tortured Souls', 'The Lost', and 'The Forgotten'. Sorrowful monikers befitting of these wretched beings. Tortured in every waking moment of their existence, lost to the few they still dear, and forgotten by the wider world who may view them as nothing more than the monstrous agents of 'The Black March'. These notions are not lost upon 'The Spurned'. In fact, it is for these reasons that those 'Husks' who remain martially potent are often employed during 'Breaches' in order to further demoralize the enemy. Their mere existence is a form of psychological warfare and an effective one at that. Their efficacy as agents of the enemy only intensifies this fact.
They are a poignant reminder of the enemy's depravity, and the notion that even the most virtuous may fall to ruin, and far worse thereafter. This evil will spare none if it is not stopped, and the 'Husks' stand as a bitter testament to such notions.Basic Information
Anatomy
Whilst there may be some shared traits between 'Husks', such as pale eyes, blackened lips, darkened veins, and so on; the anatomy of a 'Husk' depends entirely upon the anatomy of the individual prior to their transformation. For example, a 'Husk' who was once a 'Giant' will look markedly different from a 'Husk' who was once an 'Elf'.
Biological Traits
Whilst there are some characteristics that are widely present among 'Husks', or in some cases, even universal; the biological traits of a 'Husk' will depend almost entirely upon the race of the individual before they became one.
Genetics and Reproduction
'Husks' do not reproduce as they once could have. In fact, following their transformation, they are incapable of such things. The sole means by which more 'Husks' can be created is through the death of those 'Forsaken'. So long as they bear 'The Sigil', their demise will yield another 'Husk'.
Growth Rate & Stages
'Husks' are fully "grown" upon their transformation. Whilst certain traits and skills will manifest in time, they do not grow as mortal races would. It should be noted, however, that the aging of a 'Husk' stagnates upon their transformation. They will remain as they were when they perished, regardless of age, build, creed or disposition. This has led to some particularly tragic occurrences since the first appearances of these tortured souls.
Ecology and Habitats
'Husks' are capable of enduring many environments their mortal kinsmen have considered ill-suited to their nature, or otherwise uninhabitable. That is not to say they are entirely immune, however. A 'Husk' born of those dwelling in the sea could not hope to survive long amidst a barren desert, for example. Not without assistance, that is. Despite this; all 'Husks' find themselves most at home within 'Hollow Lands', even if they invite no shortage of trauma to the vestiges of their former selves still dwelling within them. In these places, they are able to operate most efficiently, for they stand among lands steeped in the corrupting influence of their masters. This is a most unsettling prospect, given the efficacy of many outside of these places.
Dietary Needs and Habits
'Husks' do not need to eat, nor drink, nor rest as the mortal races do. They are fueled by the baleful essence that controls them, and the world they taint with their passing. Nonetheless, some do partake of these activities in an almost ritualistic sense. Perhaps it is a strange, and tragic attempt to remind themselves of the things they once indulged in; or a failing search for vestiges of who they once were. Much of what they eat, however, is often desiccated or otherwise rotten. 'Hollow Lands' are not wont to yield fresh produce.
Biological Cycle
'Husks' have stagnated in their biological cycle. The changing of the seasons does not hold any sway over them, nor does the passage of time. They stand outside of such things, and as an affront to the natural order of the world. This is true of most, if not all things related to 'The Black March' and their masters.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Between one another 'Husks' share a limited social structure. Those who were peers in life are liable to share a higher measure of cohesion beyond death than those who were enemies, and so on. It is not entirely unheard of for 'Husks' to clash with one another, but these bouts are often short-lived, and seldom concern their masters.
'Husks' who have entirely lost all sense of their former self will be granted minor commands among 'The Black March'. These veterans have often survived multiple 'Breaches'. It should be noted, however, that though 'Husks' have an important place within 'The Black March', they are by no means grand commanders. They are still subservient to 'The Chosen' and 'The Spurned', alongside any other 'Husk' that has been appointed to a station of authority. Some would go so far as to refer to them as little more than "glorified pawns".
Just like the rest of 'The Black March', 'Husks' come to revere 'The Spurned' as deific leaders. There may be some resistance, initially, as the fading remnants of their being lash out in response to their sorry fate, but these momentary acts of rebellion are costly, and only intensifies their allegiance to 'The Spurned' after the fact. As their mortal vestige fades, so too does their newfound loyalty find its resolve.
Domestication
'Husks' are not domesticated, but they are bound to 'The Black March' and 'The Spurned' therein. Resistance is often fleeting and futile, serving only to hasten their fall into the arms of their newfound masters.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
'Husks' hold the potential for a variety of uses depending on the skills and aptitudes they had in life. From small-scale tacticians and leaders to mages, warriors, artisans, and ought else in-between, 'The Spurned' make good use of those 'Forsaken' who fail in their duty.
Facial characteristics
The facial features and characteristics of 'Husks' vary greatly depending on the individual that has become one. That being said, there are some traits that are apparent in the vast majority of 'Husks'. 'Husks' are often referred to as "ghoulish" in their appearance. This is in relation to their gaunt cheeks, sunken eyes, blanched or otherwise grey skin, and blackened veins. To many, they look as though they have lost all hope, and such an assertion is often not without truth to it. Perhaps their most striking feature, however, are their irises. They glow with the pale malice of 'The Spurned'. They say the eyes are the window to the soul, and to look into the eyes of a 'Husk' is to witness a hollow vestige and little more.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
'Husks' can be found all over the world, at least wherever 'The Black March' roams or encroaches. That being said, you are seldom likely to see them without a reason; and those reasons are never to the benefit of the mortal realms. During 'Breaches', 'Husks' can be found in far larger numbers as they are sent forth to decimate and demoralize the enemies of 'The Spurned'. When such occurrences have not come to pass, however, you are most likely to find them roaming amidst 'The Black March' beyond 'The Shroud'. Some may take up more "permanent" residences within strongholds erected inside of 'Hollow Lands'. These 'Husks' usually have a more defensive, or supporting role within 'The Black March'.
Average Intelligence
'Husks' are possessive of varying intellects based on the individual in question. There will be some who, in spite of the torment their condition afflicts, retain a vast and commendable intelligence, there will be those who are dullards by comparison, and there will be many more who rest somewhere between these extremes. Racial characteristics will also influence this factor. For example, the intelligence of an 'Elf' is, on average, higher than that of a 'Human' for example.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
'Husks' retain most, if not all of the sensory capabilities they had in life. Naturally, these will vary from race to race, and from individual to individual. Some will be particularly keen in their perception, others will not. In addendum, after some time following their transformation, 'Husks' will begin to "feel" one another, and their fellow members of 'The Black March'. This extrasensory awareness, born from the baleful unity of 'The Black March', serves only to boost their cohesion. It is also what allows them to detect 'Forsaken' whose 'Burdens' have grown too heavy for them to carry.
Some compare this supernatural awareness to that of the 'Forsaken', who appear unnaturally aware of the enemy's presence when they are near to them. Unfortunately, 'Husks' possess a far more accurate sense than their mortal counterparts.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Like most, if not all entities associated with 'The Black March', 'Husks' share a necessary, symbiotic, and subservient relationship with 'The Spurned'. They exist because their masters allow it, and they will bring ruin to the mortal realms because their masters demand it.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
There are no known naming traditions pertaining to the 'Husks' save that they will largely be referred to by their rank within 'The Black March', and little else. Most 'Husks' will retain their name beyond death, though its significance to them will be quick to wane.
Major Organizations
All 'Husks' are bound to the will of 'The Spurned'. They will find their place within 'The Black March'. There may be subdivisions within that baleful host that 'Husks' may be a part of, but there are no other major "organizations" that 'Husks' hold a place in. That being said, 'Husks' are sometimes assigned to cults loyal to 'The Spurned' when their efforts to destabilize a region begin to escalate. This is often a precursor to an imminent 'Breach'. These 'Husks' are loyal to 'The Black March' first and foremost, however. It is not unheard of for cultists to meet sticky ends as they attempt to circumvent the loyalty of a 'Husk' to their true masters.
Beauty Ideals
'Husks' have no need for these kinds of ideals. Any lingering opinions they may hold are largely cultural, and individual. They hold little love for that which they once considered beautiful, preferring instead to be apathetic or dispassionate towards such things. Many 'Husks' loathe what they have become, and how it has twisted them, but there is little to be done about it. Their fate has already been sealed.
Gender Ideals
'Husks' retain the gender ideals they held in life, though they have little need of them beyond death. They care little about how someone identifies, it will not dissuade them from their wicked deeds.
Courtship Ideals
'Husks' do not court, so they have no specific ideals in this regard. Any dispositions a 'Husk' does hold would be purely individual, and likely steeped in the outlook they held in life.
Relationship Ideals
Whilst 'Husks' may retain a measure of their former bonds beyond death, these are vastly diminished, and often have little place amidst 'The Black March'. These creatures need not the comforts and companionship mortals often crave. What yearning they may feel is often fleeting, and in time, will fade into obscurity as their loyalty to 'The Spurned' becomes absolute. For most, the unity of purpose 'The Black March' provides will come to be more than sufficient. They will have little need for much else as they enact their masters' will.
Average Technological Level
Though they are only provided with what is necessary, or otherwise befitting of their station; 'Husks' are a part of 'The Black March'. As such, 'Husks' are privy to the advanced technology their organization provides.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
'Husks' retain the capacity to speak and understand the languages they knew in life. 'Husks' also, like the rest of 'The Black March', possess an intrinsic understanding of one another. Whilst it may take some time for a newly risen 'Husk' to discern this fact, they will soon come to utilize this ability to its full, and terrible advantage.
Common Etiquette Rules
'Husks' possess very little by way of conventional etiquette. Aspects of the dispositions and ideals they held in life will linger for a time, but soon fade, replaced with unconditional loyalty to 'The Spurned'. They are suitably utilitarian, sparing little time for things that are not directly to the benefit of 'The Black March'. To that end, there has been little room for the emergence of etiquette unique to 'Husks', rather, most simply oblige the expectations of 'The Black March' and their masters.
Common Dress Code
'Husks' commonly wear the attire they perished in, though it is often twisted and reformed by the artisans of 'The Black March' to better suit their dire aesthetic. Some will be clad in new raiment as necessity demands, or to make a particular example of them to the mortals they are due to oppose. Some 'Husks' opt to wear armor or clothing that reveals their twisted brands, something they now bear with malevolent defiance towards those who had once cast them out.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
'Husks' retain their cultural heritage beyond death, but it is twisted and warped by their own dispositions and the baleful affliction that has corrupted them. Before long, this heritage will become little more than superficial as they assimilate into 'The Black March', and its calamitous agenda. By the end, they will stand as a mockery of much, if not all their cultures stood for.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
'Husks' have forsaken many, if not all of their former customs and traditions. Instead, they have adopted those created by 'The Black March', however bleak.
Common Taboos
The only major taboo a 'Husk' could consider, or even partake in, would intransigence against 'The Spurned'. Little else concerns them in such a fashion. Truly, like 'The Black March' and its masters, they are more likely to embrace the taboos of the mortal realms and become them. If it serves their ruinous objective, most will do as they must, no matter its abhorrence.
History
The history of 'Husks' is intrinsically tied with that of 'The Spurned', 'The Black March', and 'The Forsaken'. It is one that, though brief, is steeped in bloodshed and tragedy.
Following the rising of 'The Spurned', and the billowing advance of 'The Shroud', this calamitous enemy began its incursion into the mortal realms. Many knew not of how to react when they saw the divines they had come to view in contempt now marching upon their cities with little to offer but death and despair. In a grim tide, countless towns and settlements fell beneath the advance of this dire foe. Those who survived this violent incursion would come to join what remained of 'The Grand Host' in becoming what we now know as 'The Black March'. Thousands would perish before the world could even begin to muster a defense, and to propose it would be united would be nothing short of preposterous.
As the influence of 'The Spurned' expanded, and 'The Shroud' advanced, settlements bordering that malevolent veil began to find members of their populace afflicted with violent nightmares. These unfortunate victims of circumstance would awaken with a grizzly mark on their body. This would come to be known as 'The Sigil of The Forsaken'. Many were soon to notice the correlation between 'The Sigil', its appearance, and the incursion of 'The Black March'. Where 'The Sigil' manifested, doom would be sure to follow. As the number of afflicted rose, that doom drew closer, and closer, and closer, until it was upon those unfortunate enough to be in its way.
In time, through a mixture of misfortune and malicious action, those who bore 'The Sigil' would come to be reviled as bringers of the end by many populations. They were often driven out, ostracised, or otherwise shunned by their communities and associations. Before long, they would be referred to as 'The Forsaken' by virtue of their unfortunate circumstances. The affliction did not discriminate, and it brought shame to many. From kings to peasants and all that lays between, none were safe from the possibility of becoming 'Forsaken'. Unbeknownst to these sorry souls, a grave burden had been placed upon them. To bring low 'The Spurned' and free themselves from this affliction before it consumed them.
To date, such a duty has yet to be achieved in even once.
Whilst 'The Sigil' provided boons to those who bore it, they would prove insufficient all too often. Before long, many who carried this burden would fall to the wrath of 'The Black March'. Those that did, regardless of their station, would suffer a fate far worse than death. Their forms would be twisted into the first 'Husks'. What will they had to resist the dire commands of their newfound masters would soon erode. In turn, they would soon come to join the ranks of 'The Black March' as they advanced further into the mortal realms. It does not require much of the mind to picture the horror writ upon the faces of those who had turned their backs upon these 'Forsaken', only to witness them marching upon their refuges astride the monsters of their most hated foe.
The notion that 'The Forsaken' and the 'Husks' were interconnected did little to assuage the fears of the masses towards the afflicted, and 'Husks' would continue to appear as more of 'The Forsaken' fell. Their skills would be pledged in service to 'The Spurned', and in turn they would contribute to the ruin of further territories. These tortured souls would become an instrumental part of 'The Black March' and its machinations and have continued to be so for nigh on thirty years. Since then, knowledge of these tortured souls has grown, but the fear they inspire remains no less impactful than it did when they first came to be.
They are a poignant tool in the enemy's arsenal, and whilst 'The Forsaken' remain, they will always have the means to replenish their ranks...
Historical Figures
Numerous 'Husks' were once major historical figures. 'The Sigil' did not discriminate in who it afflicted. Many, however, have since been forgotten; the memory of who they once were tarnished by the infamy their reborn selves have accrued. Those who have returned to a position of renown have not done so through noble deeds. They are reviled, disdained, and feared.
Common Myths and Legends
'Husks' may cling to the myths and legends of their former selves, but in time these things will find their relevance fading. In time, they will come to revere 'The Spurned' and the terrible legacy they leave in their wake. That which they once were holds a little place in the hearts of 'The Black March', and the 'Husks' are no exception to this sentiment.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
'Husks' do not discriminate based on one's former lineage, or race; at least after they have fully committed to 'The Black March'. They are all one beneath 'The Spurned', harbingers of their dire purpose.
'Husks' also hold no interest in interspecies relations that are not to the benefit of their cause, or to find some fleeting closure before their final vestiges of self fade.
The mortal races are treated with almost universal contempt, however. Past grudges may linger and are actively fed by the twisting of their nature, fueling the wrath 'Husks' inflict upon the world and its populations.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Scientific Name
'The Lost', 'Husks', 'Tortured Souls', etc.
Origin/Ancestry
The ancestry of 'Husks' depends entirely upon who, or what they were before they perished or succumbed to 'The Burden of The Forsaken'.
Lifespan
'Husks' find themselves stagnant after rising from death. They do not age further, and so theoretically could live indefinitely. Alas... their life span is short by virtue of how often many of them are thrust into combat. Perhaps a decade, at most.
Conservation Status
'Husks' are given little by way of conservation. Their masters hold no designs over such, and they are largely considered useful but expendable. That being said; when they are not present upon the field of battle, or tasked with a specific objective, they are generally held behind 'The Shroud' where their chances of being slain are somewhat diminished.
Average Height
The height of 'Husks' varies immensely. Numerous races and individuals have fallen and become these tormented creatures, to such an extent that a true average would be very difficult to discern. There will be small folk who are scarcely taller than three and a half feet, 'Giants' who tower above the houses of the hamlet they assault, and ought else between these extremes. Their racial characteristics are not forsaken, however. The 'Husk' born from an 'Elf' would still fall within the expected height range of that race, largely speaking.
Average Weight
The weight of 'Husks' varies considerably. Many races and individuals have been turned into these baleful creatures, to such an extent that discerning a true average would be rather difficult. There will be those who are as hefty as a horse, and those who are as light as a feather by comparison. Each will find their use within 'The Black March'. Just as with height, it would be wiser to consider the average weights of individual races as largely still applicable to the 'Husks' they can become.
Average Length
The length of 'Husks', much like their height and weight, varies substantially. By virtue of the myriad races and individuals that have been twisted into these tortured beings, it is difficult to define a true average length among all 'Husks'. There will be those with great, serpentine length, those of more middling stature, and those who are far more diminutive by comparison. As with the above, it is better to regard the average weights of individual races as applicable to the 'Husks' they could become.
Average Physique
The physiques of 'Husks' will be entirely dependent upon the race of the individual prior to their transformation. Their physical traits will vary greatly. There will be some with the strength of an ox, others with the swiftness of a tiger, and others who are far more middling in their nature. They will all have their place among 'The Black March'. Just as with intellect, however, racial characteristics will also play a factor here. For example, the strength of a 'Giant' will almost always be higher than that of a 'Dwarf', stout though they are.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Though there will always be a degree of difference based on the natural characteristics and markings found on the individual prior to their turning; these features appear to be more uniform among 'Husks'. The "ghoulish" description of their features holds true with regard to their body as well. Their flesh is pallid, grey, or blanched, and their veins are blackened. They are by all accounts a twisted shadow of their former selves. The most striking feature, however, is 'The Sigil of The Forsaken'. It remains, though it glows with the same malice as their eyes, and the flesh around it has blackened like a decaying scar. This trait always appears in 'Husks', no matter their race, nature, or creed.
Geographic Distribution
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