Threshen

"Shynis altiris vinill moransh il tik xuzin vani corinashi. Alisk deriv vani il tik torisan il crokin vorgard." Wood and blood, leaf and bough grind to life, honor the instructions I now pose thee. Rise, my Threshen, rise to command, rise to control, awaken to my power, my dominance, and my instruction. Born of wood and leaf and branch, made to serve at my command. Root unto this spot I mark. Let none pass whom do not bear my mark. Upon face, the branding around their left eye, the only symbol that should leave you resting on high. Should any attempt to cross this path without, any sapient entity whom speaks words aloud? Any creature you can detect and sense with the wards and spells woven into your bark. Any sentient being of any lark? Destroy them if they do not bear this very mark."

A Forest Hag somewhere in some far off forgotten section of the ancient woodlands weaving the fell magick that allows them, with a human(oid) sacrifice to create a Threshen to serve them, laying out part of the parameters of its existence. Such spell work done properly can take hours, or even a full day of effort.

Discovery

The discovery of the Threshen is a heavily debated and little understood topic. It is obviously some sort of construct and is known to be created by rather foul means, yet the entity itself is not inherently aligned in any classical sense of the word. It is presumed that it was likely an accidental discovery by some apostate or Forest Hag once upon a time before the Sundering, or perhaps during the Void age before this current age of Revitalization. It is known to be predominantly Emerald Magick that is used to create these entities, though within the requirement of human(oid) sacrifice, that component of things, indicates very clearly that this also requires some Amethyst and Diamond Magick as well in the process, making their creation solely illicit and the realm of naught but apostates, hags and shamans or others of that heretical and criminal ilk.

Access/Availabilty

Threshens are understood to be easy enough to make by principle, the hard part, as with any constructed entity, is outlining the parameters of its existence. The shell of the body though requiring work and craftsmenship, is merely an endeavor of labor. The Jade control shard much the same. The difficulty comes in the spell work, runecraft and manna manipulation that must occur in the creation process of the shard when etching it with a mixture of Emerald, Diamond and Amethyst Dust (predominantly emerald) as well as then etching the entities body, all whilst handling the spellwork to imbue a sembalance of 'life' by drawing it out of the sacrificed victim, removing the essence of sapience, and imbuing all the rest into the constructed shell. This process is known to be one of the very few ways to directly damn someone's sapient essence, to funnel them directly past the Aether and the Void and actually remove their Meanma, their Soul, from existence. The energy itself will be reabsorbed, the manna cannot be created or destroyed, however the essence, the whispered memories and bits of eternal 'whispers' for want of a better word, that Meanma normally stores, those from the sacrificed individual are destroyed, wiped forever, lost to...what can only be assumed to be well...emptiness. Beyond the end of the realms, the end of the multiverse. Lost to the infinite nothing.

Complexity

The actual physical construction of a Threshen though sometimes time consuming, is not necessarily difficult, and can actually show some variety. Usually, however it is a section of a long dead and petrified tree some 2-3 meters in height, carved and etched into a very rough body like shape, with the top lacking any true facial features except for a slit cut like a mouth, and to eye holes that will be filled with pieces of transulcent quartz. Commonly braided nettle vines or creepers all twisted and knotted together will be fixed to portrusions to serve as arms, and taproots from the same tree or another will be grafted unto the bottom as 'legs' of a kind.

The true complexity comes with the hours upon hours of dangerous mixed arcane spell-weavings that must be poured continuously into the control shard and the object and the human(oid) sacrifice. It must be one continual process, with no breaks, no stopping, no stumbling. The more complex and detailed the crafter wishes to set the parameters for the entity upon its creation, the more specific sub-clauses and instruction sets one wishes to imbue into its essence, etch upon its creation so that they may be part of its base existence and operation, the longer this process takes. One need not do this, if one holds its control shard, one can activate that object to give temporary commands and alter its normal protocols, however this alteration will only last for a single day-night cycle and the Threshen will then revert if that effort is not reapplied.

Utility

These powerful constructs are used most often as sentinels and guardians for a specific area or location, often watching over a path or road or trail back in the thickest parts of the woods, which do provide a bit of natural camoflogue, aiding in not being noticed unless one is really looking for it. After all it is merely another tree trunk in a forest, with overgrowth and tangled other plant matter all about it. Since they also stitch back together via the magick that created them when they are unmoving and rooted, they also recover naturally from skirmishes and encounters, requiring very little upkeep or maintenance. This makes them very ideal guardian entities for apostates and their ilk, favored by Forest Hags and even some Fell Fae as well.