Cryptic (Crip-tick)

Basic Information

Anatomy

The physical appearance of a Cryptic is as diverse as the concepts they manifest. Each one is defined by the idea they embody, whether it be the shadow of a leaf falling, or the vast empire that is war and strife. How mortals approach their domain, and them in particular, in essence describes their appearance.

Genetics and Reproduction

Cryptics cannot inherently bear children, being themselves a consequence of absence. Instead, there are two ways Cryptics come into the world:

• The first is through necessity. As a new concept emerges, or an old one evolves, a new Cryptic will coalesce within The Shade. The raw magic of this world gains sentience, of a sorts, and power over its domain.

• The second is through will. A mortal can come to embody a concept so much that they will slowly supplant the original, or become the first of its reign should their actions have helped create the concept in question.

There is no affixed time or method for either to occur however, it merely happens as it does.

Growth Rate & Stages

A Cryptic's 'Maturity' is not described through age, but through power. The more specific a concept and the more irrelevant it is to the mortal world, the less adult and sentient it will be. The Cryptic of Love, for example, is an ancient and intelligent being; capable of deep introspection and long-term planning. In contrast, the Cryptic of Abel's Family Apple Tree is a minor being, barely able to string together a thought and utterly incapable of understanding outside of its world as a tree.
It is, therefore, possible for a Cryptic to regress as much as it progresses. As concepts become more or less important to the mortal world, so too do their abiltiies wax and wane in turn. They are creatures of change therefore, constantly in flux and ever-evolving.

Ecology and Habitats

Cryptics typically exist within The Shade, that half-world between reality and The Hands of The Clock. Here they form the solar winds that sail throughout the cosmos, manifest as the flickered lights within The Gloaming Sea. The largest, most powerful Cryptics collapse in upon themselves, the weight of magic too great for an ethereal form to contain, and become one of the countless jewels embedded upon the frame of The Clock. Each of these is an island amidst the void, its own world governed in totality by the being that made it.
When manifested upon the Hands of the Clock, each Cryptic seeks out its domain within reality. Those Cryptics of the Wilds find the woods and quiet parts of the world, the Cryptics of Flame meanwhile seek their deserts and molten hearths.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Cryptics thrive off two substances.

• The first is faith, or at least agreement. As a mortal practices the domain of the Cryptic in question, it is nourished by it, sustained and maintained through sympathetic reflection. Due to the importance of this mirror state, Cryptics will often seek to influence the mortal world, to encourage its domain to flourish. This then forms the principal reason for the Cryptic Bargains and Cypher Quests.

• The second is magic, the raw energy given off by The Clock that both defines the Cryptic and provides it sustenance for existence and action. Through mechanisms unknown to even themselves, Cryptics are able to filter out the Fel, allowing them safe usage of the raw substance and the ability to provide access to the arcane arts to the mortal realm.

Biological Cycle

A Cryptic will evolve with the passage of time, their nature altering in reflection to how the mortal world interprets their domain. Should the world turn more authoritarian, the Cryptic of Rebellion will become darker, fouler, bleaker and cruel. The mortals depiction of it as an entity of Chaos shall come to fruition. Likewise might it grow stronger, as the people subjugated strive towards its domain in greater number and fervour.
These 'seasons' are unpredictable and devastating, for the smallest change can have spiralling consequences.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Cryptics do not inherently possess a social structure, but rather, like mortals, create and define their own based upon expediency, circumstance and their reflection within The Clock itself. By nature of their absurdist obsession however, these organisations are either short-lived or incredibly brutal. The intense selfishness of the Cryptic spirit is such that only constant benefit or fear can keep them together for long.

Domestication

While domesticating a Cryptic is not truly possible, it is the case that some have become bonded for so long as to become associated with an individual, family or nation. These connections, like the concept that forms them, possess a reality over the Cryptics that is not shared with the mortal races. The 'belief' that they are bound and one with another is to make them bound, and such entities find themselves in generational bargains or life-long service without choice, but completely in accordance with their desire.
A Cryptic can also be bound. The arts to do so are incredibly difficult and dangerous, for if they go wrong, few mortals are capable of defeating a truly enraged spirit of concept. It is through these techniques however, that the few magical artefacts that grace The Clock came to be, as well as the fearsome guards and dark curses of those powerful enchanters mentioned in tale and song.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Cryptics have a multitude of uses, their utility perhaps the only thing saving them from a mortal world tired of their interference.

• The first and most common is access to magic. Mortals cannot typically draw upon the arcane arts safely without a Cryptic, for The Fel is toxic and fatal over extended use. Through bargains and deals, mortals retain access to the ethereal world.

• The second is favour, for Cryptics can provide not just access to The Shade, but cast themselves their own benedictions and black bindings. Many a farmer has had their crop saved by a friendly Cryptic, as many a great individual has found their lives darkened by a vengeful spirit enacting retribution on behalf of those who cannot.

• The last is permenancy, for magic itself is inherently temporary. When a spell is cast, an enchantment lain, eventually the magic that powers it will be devoured or fade away. By binding a Cryptic to an incantation, one can ensure it will last as long as one desires, even if one desires it last till the death of time itself.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Cryptics manifest virtually everywere upon The Clock, existing wherever there is magic and beings to give concepts life. Even where the latter is not the case, Cryptics can still be found, representing those aspects of existence independant of mortal experience.
The only known places where Cryptics are absent are within The Clock itself, and around the Iyl Draconys, the Star round which all the Hands follow. The reasons for either are ill-understood and mostly conjecture, positing sometimes an intensity of magic too much for a Cryptic to bear, or perhaps a Ban issued by one of the ancient Firmament.

Average Intelligence

Defined as they are by the importance of their domain, most Cryptics are intensely short-sighted and dull-witted. For every Cryptic of War, there are a million Cryptics reflecting upon the deaths of individual soldiers and minor injuries remembered only for a short few months. As such, within The Shade, most Cryptics encountered will be nearly animilistic. On The Hands however, their intelligence is far greater, for only the more powerful of the species are capable of the intelligence required to form bargains and interact with mortality.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

When manifested, Cryptics are able to experience reality by whatever means their form provides. They are also possessed of an additional mechanism however, an ability to 'feel' their concept manifested nearby. The stronger the Cryptic, the greater the range, and the more precisely they are able to navigate towards their domain.
Within The Shade, formless as they are, their sense is provided by desire. Should they wish to see something, they shall, and should they desire to experience it in a myriad of ways, it is only their imagination which limits them.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Cryptics are, by nature, inherently a parastic species. They feed off the actions of mortality, reflect their choices and desires, and provide nothing in turn. The more intelligent will seek to change this arrangement however, turning from parasitic to symbiotic through means of bargain and deal. These Cryptics offer the mortal races access to magic without exposure to The Fel, and in exchange, expect the mortal in question to further its domain where possible. This could be through some quest, a specific ordeal to be undertaken, or it could be a life-long pact in exchange for a lifestyle lived.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Cryptics do not possess names, recognising each other through concept rather than through verbal monikers. In the mortal world however, they bear the names given to them by the culture they appear before. The Cryptic of Ambition, for example, is known as Ashur within the southern lands of Naggaryn, but far to the east, they bear the title 'The Ire of I'. These names help define them further, for a Cryptic's nature will change based upon the region they manifest in, and many an explorer has divined truth from a simple name so different from the one they themselves know.

Major Organizations

Though most alliances and organisations within Cryptic society inevitably fail, there are those that have endured the test of time. These have become something more than deals between spirits, for they are reflected upon the mortal world as organised faiths and religion. As Cryptics band together, so too do their followers work in kind.

• The Cairn is an alliance of Cryptics found within Naggaryn. Made up of the Fae Princes and the Darkling Gods, The Cairn is ruled over by the Iron Triarch, Ashur, and exists to limit Cryptic interference upon the continent. This is not a benevolent choice however, but one of raw pragmatism, for before this agreement there was constant war and strife, and all suffered in the endless feud and blood-hate.

• The Church of the Cog Beneficent is an unusual collection of Cryptics, for it objectively recognises a Firmament as their leader. The Clock rules this alliance in name only however, for it has never spoken and most likely never will. Instead, they seek to protect The Northern Realms from the depredation of Cairnite intrigue, and to encourage progress, civilisation and order within their domain.

• The Harlequin's Court is riotous collection of those Cryptics in service to madness and Chaos, all under the dominion of The Harlequin in Black and Grey. Consisting only of those spirits from beyond The Great Veil, they are lunatic assortment who seek only collapse and anarchy.

• The Parliament of Rooks consists of those Cryptics bound to undeath and life without limit. Itself a fairly recent arrival, for the arts of Anima have only recently been discovered, they have yet to define themselves outside of the nature of their foul creator, The Crowfather.

• The Sin Serpentia is the self-cannabilistic faith of Tol Baldir, and the alliance of Dragons long dead. Each one represents a specific vice, a cruelty or self-indulgent excess that so defines the Balduran. They live shadow lives now however, their mortal forms broken and banished centuries ago, and spend their time in self-destruction and arrogant rest.

• The Cult ex Nihil is the oldest alliance of Cryptic and mortal, and worringly cohesive. Those Cryptics in service to it are nothing, nought and not, beings of total absence. They serve with loyalty and dedication, paying homage to a being they call only, 'The Silence at the End of it All'.

Beauty Ideals

As is their nature, each Cryptic defines beauty entirely differently. To them, perfection is their form released upon the mortal world, their desire and love only that which they themselves reflect. Self-obssessed as they are, they cannot tolerate that which opposes them, and find only disgust at its appearance.

Gender Ideals

Cryptics, being creatures of magic and singular point, do not possess gender. It is often the case that mortals will ascribe such a thing to them, and in physicality they will reflect it once manifested, but their true forms neither understand nor register the difference.

Courtship Ideals

Cryptics, being possessed of emotions and attachments, are capable of love. The rarity of this however is extreme, for few mortals can tolerate the obssessive nature of their partner, nor survive the realisation that, when forced to decide, a Cryptic will always choose their domain over their paramour. The love of a Cryptic, like all of their relationships, is a self-indulgent affair that exists as long as it serves them. Despite this, those that embody the ideals represented by the Cryptic will often catch their attention and, should the Cryptic possess a personality permissive of such feelings, mayhaps draw their ardour.

Relationship Ideals

In accordance with their passion, Cryptics are drawn like a moth to flame, attracted intensely to those who reflect their own concept. The more powerful of these spirits are capable of further understanding however, recognising that mortals change differently from themselves. It is not uncommon for a Cryptic to reach out to a mortal opposed, or influence their life somehow, in the hopes of drawing them into their web. Despite this, however, all relationships with a Cryptic are selfish, divorced of anything but self-adulation and personal gain.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Cryptics, themselves possessed of a multitude of variations, possess in accordance a variety of languages:

• Cypher is the original tongue, the principal form of language spoken by the Cryptics. Over time however, the spirits diverged leaving only the Firmament fluent in this divine speech.

• The Dark Song is the musical language of the Fae Princes and the Darkling Gods. It is a cruel tongue, whose sound elicits feelings of aggression and primal urge.

• Seraphin is a cold language, its nature disciplined and sharp. It is the language of the Seraph, and its hollow words reflect their own empty nature.

• Demense is the evocative speech of the Daemon, alluring and passionate. It calls upon the virtue and vice within us all, hypnotic as it denies anything but one's self.

• Crow is a curious language, for it appears to be a butchered interpretation of Cypher, forced together and blackened by something foul enough to taint thought itself. Only the once-dead speak Crow, and those Cryptics enthralled by unmortal allure.

• Quin is the code-tongue of the Harlequin's Court, practiced by its members and employed by its murderous agents. It is a strange language, filled with mirth, and shared with those Cryptics of The Dancing Man.

History

The existence of Cryptics appears to have begun the moment existence itself began. The birth of The Clock, a Cryptic of a peculiar kind, is the point from which time was born and therefore can be measured. As The Clock came into existence, so too did others, known collectively as The Firmament. These Cryptics reflected those concepts that persisted without mortal concern, The Cryptic of Death, The Cryptic of Chaos and countless others that defined existence without awareness.
From these Cryptics it is assumed life was eventually formed, though why they would make such a choice has never been answered. With the existence then of mortal thought, countless others began to spring into reality, and from there the Chaos began. The countless feuds, the endless wars and meddling in mortal affair began. The decision to create life has, therefore, sparked countless questions as to the point, for it appears to have created little but suffering, and serves no purpose of The Firmament that any can tell.
What came before The Firmament is unknown however, and many assume nothing. There are those who believe in a being behind even the most ancient of Cryptics, a creator of The Clock. The Watchmaker they name them, though there is no evidence as to their veracity, and if they did exist, they certainly do not care about what has happened.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Cryptics, by nature, possess a complicated relationship with the mortal world. Relying on them in part for their existence, and yet utterly divorced from their varied view of life, they both seek to emulate, manipulate and control what they do not fully understand. Few Cryptics are inherently inimical to the mortal races, but fewer still are benign. By nature of their obsession, Cryptics understand only that which furthers their domain.

Scientific Name

Principal Forma

Lifespan

Immortal

Average Height

N/A

Average Weight

N/A

Average Length

N/A

Geographic Distribution

• The Clock