The Rekkhysians

"This bone field stretches on for miles..."
"Lets go the long way around, this place doesn't feel... right"

- Two Syrkanian traders pasing by the Dead Coast region.

These fearsome monsters are beings of immense size and unrivaled strenght that began appearing following the end of the Second Age, in the period of time known as The Fall.

Origins

Like many of the hardships suffered by humanity during the Fall, three centuries ago, these monsters are linked to the The Blight, an awfull infection of unknown origins that impacts all living things. It infects humans and animals, turning both into vicious monsters that take many forms, which all seek to spread the infection, and also convert plant life into highly infected goo. The rekkhys come about when many infected humans and/or animals merge their bodies together. It is unknown what is causing this, but it seems to be a rare occurance. However, once it happens it quickly snowballs, as the newly formed creature will seek out any other living beings in the vicinity to infect and absorb into their bodies. In their final forms, these monsters are composed of thousands of what used to be separate beings, now fused into him.

Behavior

Their only objectives seemed to be to absorb as many infected beings into itself as it can. To do this, it is able to travel many thousands of miles in search of people to infect and absorb. Once it locates its prey, usualy a large group of humans or animals, it will pursue them relentlensly. To catch individuals, they can modify their limbs or create new ones to stretch towards the prey they are attacking. Once touched, the prey is immediatly infected with a very virulent version of the blight, and they begin transforming into monsters within seconds. The rekkhys usualy do not wait for the person to be fully assimilated them, meaning that the person is still conscious when it occurs.

Regional impacts: The Dead Coast

The dead coast of south-western Enaskia was were three large large rekkhys were fought and killed. The battle that killed them destroyed the nearby ancient syrkanian city of Ekko, which remains a ruins to this day. The land and sea in and around the region was stripped and emptied of animals and plants, which were both absorbed into the creatures. After they were killed, their blighted bodies contaminated the land they fell onto. The semi-desert climate of the region killed off any blight residue relatively fast, but the land was so stripped bare of any life that it has yet to reemerge, hence the region's name. These bones come from all the various animals and humans they absorbed. Many of them are fused into large bone structures that used to support the mass of these monsters. No one travels to the dead coast, as the nearby locals believe the land is cursed with the spirit of the people and animals that died to these creatures. Necromancers also categoricaly refuse to go or return there, as they say that the ghostly agonising screams of all the dead are too much to bare.

A horrible death

It wasn't uncommon that while battling against these monsters, warriors would be caught and dragged into the monster to be assimilated. Since they were exposed to a mouch more potent version of the blight, they immediatly became infected and started mutating, meaning that it was too late to save them. Many could be seen by their comrades in arms screeming for help as their bodies mutated into a monstrous form before being ultimatly absorbed and assimilated into the Rekkhys's mass.

Etymology

In the Darnian language, the word Khysis can mean many things: it generaly means "something dark", but it can also mean "from the Underworld, or "deep Darkness", depending on the context. For naming these monsters, the word "Rekkhysis or Rekkhysians" is used, which roughly translates to Underworld demon. This name came about from Darnians who believed that these monsters were the result of a breach of the Underworld, which allowed its corupt darkness to seep onto the surface and eventualy create these monsters.