Upalga

Once magically powerful humanoids, the Upalga are now little more than shriveled husks too ashamed to be seen. They hide under thick layers of patchwork cloth, and use their great magical ability to animate wooden hands to interact with the world.

The Upalga have two main goals: undo their curse and claw their way back to even a sliver of their civilization. They skulk through the shadows of Savinaru, seeking any way to reverse their horrid transformation. They most often do this by gathering as much knowledge as possible, primarily magical.

Basic Information

Anatomy

The Upalga take every precaution to never be seen without their mask and clothes, but investigation of corpses has revealed their true form. Upalga are emaciated, hunched humanoids with clawed hands and feet. They have one eye in their head, but have several others scattered around their body. One on their shoulder, one on their palm, one on their knee, and more. The exact locations seem to vary between individual Upalga. Their limbs are stretched and thin, with their arms dragging along the ground as they walk unless they lift them. They also have a pair of horns on their head, which seem like they were there before their transformation, but many of them also have horns across their body as well, from ridges growing along their spine to a horn on each elbow.

Genetics and Reproduction

It is unknown if new Upalga can come into being. The original Upalga were cursed by the eldritch god Upalgurith, but no one has seen new Upalga being created since then. The Upalga do not seem to have any way to reproduce, so the only way new Upalga could be born would be for someone to be cursed in the same way.

Behaviour

The Upalga are paranoid about never being seen, and so cover every inch of their body with cloth. These garments are often patchwork, as they care less about the fashion and more about hiding from the world. They also carve masks to serve as a face to their pile of miscellaneous fabric, and personalize them to reflect who they are/were. These masks are often made of wood, but it is not uncommon for them to paint them or attach other bits like feathers or small stones. Each mask is unique, and can give information about the Upalga to any who know how to decipher it. Usually this is other Upalga, who read each other’s masks as an introduction, though any who know what each piece means can learn of the Upalga.

Civilization and Culture

Major Organizations

A group of Upalga have begun to worship Upalgurith, though it is unclear why. The two leading theories are either that the Upalga are being compelled to serve Upalgurith, possibly through some form of mind control, or that Upalgurith's display of power has led the Upalga to worship it as a god out of a mix of fear and awe. Regardless to the reason, these Upalga work toward appeasing their dark god, serving its whims and being its hands in the mortal world.

Beyond this cult, most Upalga operate either alone or in small groups. They seem ashamed of what they have been reduced to, and so prefer to hide away from the rest of the world. The fewer people who know they exist, the better. They can overcome this fear of others to work with other Upalga, forming groups of a few Upalga in order to achieve their shared goals.

Average Technological Level

Before their collapse, the Upalga were magically advanced, mostly fueled by siphoned eldritch beings. They created a way to summon creatures from The Fractured Worlds, then trapped them in specially designed cages while they drained them of their magical power. This stolen power was harnessed by Upalga mages and used to fuel even more powerful spells.

Following their collapse, the Upalga reverted to a very low technology level, only using either what they can craft with their own floating hands or what they can steal from others. They retain their innate talent for magic however. One of their most common spells is animating carved wooden hands to float around them and interact with the world for them while they hide under their cloaks.

History

The nature and origin of their curse is not well known, but through putting fragmented pieces together from speaking with Upalga and studying their ruins the rough picture forms. The Upalga’s civilization was a great and powerful one, built on the stolen power of siphoned eldritch beings. They imprisoned these creatures, then drained them for every drop of power and used it to fuel their own greatness. Eventually, they bit off more than they could chew and tried to bind something too powerful: Upalgurith. This entity cursed the Upalga and shattered their civilization.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

When Upalga interact with the other intelligent species on Savinaru, they prefer to be shadowy quest givers supplying treasure in exchange for arcane knowledge. They will use other species as mooks to complete jobs for them in exchange for treasure or arcane lore. They do not particularly care about those they employ, and will casually send people into certain death if it will give them a chance to learn something important.