Vestiges

Imperial Scholar's Thoughts

"I sit here, being asked to write about one of the darkest aspects in the Elsewhere's lineage. I find it difficult to remain objective as I have regaling the tales of The Great Tree. You'll have to forgive the shaky penmanship, my wrath and sorrow is as raw as all of The Children's. While I am not exactly one of them, I understand, I know.

The Vestiges... where to begin? They are, changed. They are... in pain. Tools of war in the fight between The Quartet and the Shadows. Tools made from our own people, tools made to live and breathe. They took the Children of the Quartet and... turned them. Shadow Touched Children, would be what we would have called them in the beginning, even now in the small enclaves left in the Shattered Lands, they are still referred to as such.

A thoughtfulness, a not quite polite way of referring to them. They are still the Children of the gods; they are still us, they are still alive. Those that survived the purge of the world made by the Shadows after they had taken what they so earnestly sought, were left to wander the distant horizons. Still tools, tools without purpose. Minds still intact and fully aware of what had happened to them.

Or so I would like to think they are still...sane. What happens to a mind after Eons of existing as a mutated, grotesque mockery of what was to be? What happens to a mind after so long being filled with the miasmic poison of the Shadows? I cannot say. For I do not know...

Only now, the denizens of The Great Tree call them monsters. Horrors that stalk the world, cryptids that are seldom seen. From what Anlyth, First Son of Syn and his Legions have been willing to tell me, there are a few known Creatures that are known to be Vestiges. Some even having been given names by the Shadow Touched Children that now call The Great Tree home. Some are even worshipped as local gods or protectors.

I fear that the Children one day, will have to relive the heartache and melancholy of putting down their brothers and sisters once more. I'm not so sure even our Queen would have the heart to do it again..."

Characteristics:

All Vestiages are formerly Children. Meaning, they are one of the four divine Races modeled after one of the four original gods. The Brownies, The Fairies, The Giants, and The Fae, are the Children of the gods. There are no distinct categories the Vestiages fall under. The Shadows changed the Children to fit what they were needed for, though for every one of the four fell, another Shadow Touched Soul was made. For every one of them that fell, the Shadows grew stronger.

The Vestiges more precisely are the Warped Children that survived the culling of the world after the Queen fled with the remaining untouched Children. Where there was millions of Shadow Touched Souls, there are possibly only a few hundred Vestiges. They can range in form to an unbelievable amount, many resembling nothing of their original forms. Many warped and mutated with little thought of how they would survive long-term, and many left with half-functional systems. Sometimes folded into whatever tech they happened to be wearing or interacting with at the time of The Calling.

They are ubiquitously deformed and in terrible physical condition. Precious few retained their mental capacities to grasp onto their personalities or anything resembling cognitive function. Many have wounds that never heal or are unable to control various bodily systems. They all at the time of culling were able to escape the wrath of the Shadows as they rebuilt the world, though they still retain the one function they all shared during the war.

Should the Shadows care enough to give a command again, they will obey, without question. So they hide, intentionally or subconsciously, they hide from the Shadows. As we all do here in the Elsewhere.

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