Thralls

Thralls form the majority of the army of the Bright Kingdom . They are mindless and completely under the control of whoever they are given to. They are created with Light- a Magician burns it into them, purging them of any darkness or connection to the world they might have. It is an incredibly painful process. What is left is a Thrall, with no ability to do anything for itself. It cannot speak, move of its own accord, nor even think. As it has no ties to the world, it also no longer needs to eat, drink, or sleep. It does not feel pain. It does not age nor will it die of any natural cause- no matter how much damage it sustains, it will survive. This makes Thralls invaluable as soldiers.

Creation

Only a Magician can create a Thrall. They are created by someone else forcibly cutting all bonds and connections a person has to the world. This is done with the Light That Brings No Healing. Their ties to loved ones, to their past, to the very cycle of life and death in the world are cut. The more involved with sorcery the person was, the harder it is to do this, the longer it takes, and the more it hurts.
Once they are purged or severed, as the Magicians call it, they lose all memories and all agency. They stand still and immobile. They are, essentially, nothing. Their eyes, bones, teeth, and blood take on an eerily bright shine and will glow in the dark. Their eyes are completely white and are difficult to look at directly.
Then, the Magician allows a bond to be created. Just one. They bind the Thrall to whoever it is going to serve; sometimes the person who made the Thrall, sometimes another. This one bond becomes all-consuming for the Thrall. Magicians, as they still maintain control of themselves, do not feel the same. They may feel some small connection to the Thrall but it pales in comparison to what the Thrall feels. It had nothing. Absolutely nothing. It might have been dead for all it knew, and now it has something. The only thing it feels, it knows, it cares about is keeping that bond. The amount of power the Magician wields over their Thrall is immense.
The High Magician controls the majority of Thralls.

Freedom and Destruction

Only a sorcerer can free or kill a Thrall. As a magician cut all bonds of the Thrall, a sorcerer can restore them. It takes a tremendous amount of energy focused in just the right way to be able to do this. But once done, everything a person once was comes flooding back.
The glow fades from their bodies and life returns to their eyes. They remember their name, and where they are from, and everyone they loved. They can move of their own volition and, if they were able to speak before, they regain the ability now. They still remember everything from their time as a Thrall, though. This leaves many heavily traumatised.
Their body also returns to its normal functions in its current state; many freed Thralls require immediate medical attention for wounds that were left untreated. But they are free now, and reconnected to the world. They can feel again. They can think and age and die. They are allowed once again to join the beautiful cycle of life and death, to die today or far in the future as their own person and return to the land and sea and sky, and not stay forever a lonely thing of the light.
To kill a Thrall requires much less skill; one needs only to fatally wound it with shadow. A fatal wound from a physical object may slow the body, yes, but it will not kill it. Only shadow can briefly reconnect the Thrall to the world, just long enough for the body to fail and the spirit and soul to be released. After battles, sometimes sorcerers would search the battlefields for those Thralls too broken to return to their commanding Magician, and will kill them out of mercy. Were they to be freed they would die instantly anyways. Better a quick death than to remain forever, not even truly alive.
Many a song has been written about the lights in an old battlefield, and about them slowly winking out one night, one by one.

Composition

Manpower

They do not comprise an enormous army, but Thralls are extremely difficult to kill. Their sheer unnaturalness is unnerving to begin with, and then add in the fact that they can weather any treatment and conditions without tiring, and you have a nearly unstoppable army. All a Magician has to do is point them in a direction and watch them destroy. They do not have any kind of 'supernatural strength,' but they do not get tired. They can endlessly pursue or fight until they are destroyed or the task is accomplished.
Thralls are able not only to fight, but to do anything that does not require a great deal of skill or oversight. They could move blocks of stone from a quarry to the foundations of a building, but actually building the thing would be beyond them.
They can be wounded, of course, by physical objects such as swords and spears. But they are not distracted by overwhelming pain. A Thrall will continue to walk on broken bones and attack while missing whole limbs. Even a completely broken Thrall can distract a fighter long enough for another one to land a killing blow. It nudges the fighter's shoe, the fighter looks down, and it is all over.
They cannot die in this state. No matter the damage done to their body, they cannot pass on. They also cannot be healed and are frequently left behind by their Magician if no longer usable. It is not uncommon to find dozens of faintly glowing bodies littering a battlefield, still twitching and trying to find some way to move and follow orders.

Weaponry

Thralls are given a scattered array of weapons ranging from swords to daggers to clubs to staffs. They will simply swing the thing wildly at whoever it is they are attacking, and are as likely to hit themselves as an enemy. They have no ability to learn any skill or plan battle tactics. They are a blunt instrument and are intended to be used as such. For this reason, they are often also fitted with metal gloves like claws- they feel no pain, so the metal pins through their hands do not dissuade them.

History

Historical loyalties

Thralls are loyal only to the one they are bound to. They obey no other orders and at times may see others as hostile; anything else is a threat to the one thing the Thralls know.

Type

Magic

Overall training Level

Untrained

Used by

• Bright Kingdom