The Retainers
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Damned)
Description: It seems that the retainers of both the Inik and Mena dynasties were raised as undead by something, judging by the testimony of the Gridanians that cleansed the grounds after the Lambs of Dalamud were destroyed. The undead were an issue in the Deepcroft long before the arrival of the cult, and so it may be that they were raised simply by the environment around them, so steeped in the accumulated aether of the dead as the Deepcroft is. It is also plausible, albeit much less palatable, that the ancient houses of Gelmorra raised their servants as undead to serve as guardians from beyond the grave. This would explain why they were armed and armored when interred, although this could also be ceremonial.
It is difficult to know whether these retainers were slain in order to be put to rest alongside their masters or had died independently and were honored for their service by internment alongside the house they served. The roles of the dead can be discerned by a number of factors, and it seems that amongst those found in the Deepcroft were varlets, a form of personal servant, groundsmen, who likely maintained the house’s holdings in Gelmorra, which would be caverns instead of the traditional woodlands and fields seen to by groundsmen.
Fleshfly Swarm
Taxonomy: Vilekin (Swarm)
Description: Thick clouds of aggressive insects, this behavior is fairly common across flying insects on Hydaelyn. Fleshflies are a species of carrion-eating insects that are known to carry disease.
Carrion Beetle
Taxonomy: Vilekin (Beetle)
Description: Beetles such as these are common throughout Hydaelyn, although their smaller kin such as fireflies are much more common. These particular beetles feed off of carrion and thus their reason for residing within the Deepcroft is clear.
Croftlight
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Will-o’-the-wisp)
Description: Amongst the simplest of the ashkin, wisps such as these are found in folk tales across the realms as lures leading the lost into further danger. Theories as to their true nature abound, however, and alternate from orbs of burning gas animated by the aether of the corpse they emitted from to the souls of the dead themselves.
Dalamud Priests
Taxonomy: Spoken (Hyur)
Description: Ranking members of the Lambs of Dalamud, these are thaumaturges responsible for channeling the aether through focuses to summon the superior voidsent into the corpse of King Galvanth. The leader of this particular group of cultists was the elezen Octavel the Unforgiving, who perished within the Deepcroft at the hands of those who purged it of corruption.
Gravedigger
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Imp)
Description: Low-ranking voidsent of the twelfth rung of the voidal hierarchy, imps are nimble, cunning creatures with a mischievous streak. That these are capable of magics, even minor ones, suggests that they are instead devilets, eleventh ranked variants of the imp capable of magic. Reports suggest that the Lambs nicknamed these creatures gravediggers, likely because of their purpose in assisting the cult in pilfering the old tombs for hosts for their summoned voidsent.
Void Soulcounter
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Demon)
Description: Commonly referred to as ‘reapers of souls’ by the people of Eorzea, demons are particularly rife throughout the folklore of Hydaelyn. It is a common opinion amongst scholars of the Void that demons were once members of the spoken races of the thirteenth shard, corrupted into mindless soldiers of dark entities when the shard was flooded by the Void. The fact that the Lambs referred to these creatures as ‘soulcounters’ implies that they had a role in the sacrificial activities of the Lambs.
Deepcroft Miteling
Taxonomy: Vilekin (Diremite)
Description: Diremites are a species of vilekin with complex social hierarchies, living in colonies led by females, named banemites. Below these are the diremite soldiers and the miteling worker caste. Diremite colonies are nomadic, and the ones encountered by adventurers within the Deepcroft were likely workers from an underground nearby or passing colony that have come here in search of food.
Yarzon Feeder
Taxonomy: Vilekin (Yarzon)
Description: Dreadful predators, yarzon are cunning creatures that seek to immobilize their prey by spraying their joints with corrosive material before sucking their brain out via long, hollow fangs. They are a remarkably adaptable species capable of living almost anywhere, which explains why they can reside in caves such as the Deepcroft.
Galvanth the Dominator
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Soulflayer)
Description: The dread creature encountered by the adventurers at the bottom of the Deepcroft was the corpse of King Galvanth. Galvanth was a respected monarch and a talented lancer in life, traits which made his corpse an ideal vessel for a voidsent of particular power. Specifically, a soulflayer was summoned within his body. Physically weak, soulflayers are sixth ranked voidsent nonetheless and are capable of great feats of intelligence and magical might.
Capabilities: According to those who slew him Galvanth, or the creature occupying his body, was capable of great feats of water magic, draining his prey of aether and summoning lesser voidsent, as well as animating ashkin and enslaving vilekin. He was also capable, as many soulflayers are, of releasing waves of aether to assault the perceptions of his foes and subjecting them to great pain in order to disable them. This technique has typically been referred to as ‘mind blast’ by voidal scholars.
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