Hollowtones
Hollowtones (Resonance-Warped Entities)
Overview:
Hollowtones are rare, dissonant creatures born from the collapse of soul frequencies. Unlike undead raised by something like necromancy, these are resonance-born anomalies—the echoes of beings whose connection to their Soul Frequency has been violently severed or corrupted. They are not truly dead, but no longer alive in any harmonized sense.
Once harmonized souls, they’ve become warped reflections of what they once were—driven by obsession, instability, or hate, and defined by the resonance they lost.
They are extremely rare, spoken of in the same breathless reverence and caution as Harmonic Dragons —but for entirely different reasons.
Core Traits:
- Origin: Created through extreme soul damage—often due to resonance corruption, failed harmonization, or prolonged exposure to corrupted frequencies like those near Fractured or resonance-collapse sites.
- Movement: Erratic and unsettling, like a melody played backward or stretched too thin. Their forms sometimes flicker, skip, or produce audible distortions as they move.
- Aura: Their presence carries a disturbing hum or buzz that distorts nearby frequencies, making harmonization difficult.
- Behavior: All Hollowtones are resonance-seeking. However, what they seek depends on their variant and how their soul broke.
Gravehowlers (The Most Common)
- Target: Individuals with stable, harmonized frequencies—especially those who’ve achieved full Harmonization.
- Ability: Their shrieking cry causes frequency shockwaves, disrupting harmonized individuals and making magic unstable or painful to use.
- Behavior: Will attack anyone in their path, but prioritize those who exude clear soul resonance.
- Notes: Found near battlefields or corrupted shrines. Believed to be former Tonebearers or Crystalbound who lost themselves during major resonance trauma.
Riftbloods (Ultra Rare)
- Target: Those with fractured or unstable frequencies, such as Fractured, overextended mages, or those nearing burnout.
- Ability: Can “latch onto” unstable souls and accelerate resonance collapse, sometimes even causing spontaneous Hollowtone creation in the weak-willed.
- Behavior: Unnaturally fast, hunting instability like blood in water. Will ignore others unless provoked or physically blocked.
- Notes: Nearly as rare as dragons—their presence is a sign of severe soul corruption in the area. Legends say they’re drawn to places where harmonization was violently rejected.
Echokin (The Haunted Ones – Rarest and Most Dangerous)
- Target: Driven by the hatreds or fears they held in life. An Echokin has a single, fixed target type—be it family, a specific order, a species, or even emotions like joy or forgiveness.
- Ability: Echokin will ignore all other beings unless directly obstructed(as in standing directly in front of them). Their presence creates an echo-loop, a harmonic illusion of their target’s worst memory or regret.
- Behavior: Haunting and singular in purpose. Once they find their target, they will pursue them across entire regions—relentless until destroyed or fulfilled. As above if you stand directly in front of them they will attack you, but as soon as you move out from Infront of them they will ignore you again and continue on.
- Notes: Believed to be born of twisted grief or obsession, making them especially feared by the Crystalbound and The Keepers of the First Note .
Cultural Context:
- Keepers of the First Note see Hollowtones as soul-tragedies—warnings of what happens when resonance is abused or neglected.
- Most communities perform Rite of Resonance-Purification in sacred places to avoid attracting or becoming one.
- Fractured often view the Hollowtones as omens or signs of “pure resonance freedom,” though even they fear the Echokin.
