The Diremites
Taxonomy: Vilekin (Diremite)
Description: Creatures with a strict social hierarchy not unlike an ant, diremites live in nomadic colonies that devour all the food in an area and then move on. There were representatives of the lowest rank of the hierarchy in the Deepcroft this time, mitelings, a caste that focuses on performing labor for the colony. There were also members of the middling rank of the diremite species, simply called diremites, who are the soldiers that act as guards to the colony. Finally there were banemites, egg-laying females that typically lead diremite colonies.
Demon Pawn
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. These creatures were seemingly created as ‘pawns’ of Edda, giving them their names.
Capabilities: The demons of the Deepcroft employed their dark energies to levy a ‘condemnation’ against their foes, presumably letting loose their hatred upon those who escaped the corruption that twisted them so.
Vodoriga Usher
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Vodoriga)
Description: The vodoriga are a species of Voidsent that specialize in possessing inorganic matter such as statues. These vodoriga seem to have been raised as ‘ushers’ in Edda’s sickening wedding, named for those who show individuals to their seats in occasions such as weddings. Presumably this ‘seating’ was the murder of the Warrior of Light that Edda wished to bring into her ritual.
Capabilities: These vodoriga were able to channel energies through their eyes, in a technique named ‘terror eyes’, perhaps because of the fear experienced by those subjected to it.
Etymology Notes: Vodoriga is Bulgarian for shark, likely a reference to the creature’s facial features and ferociousness.
Gargoyle Usher
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Gargoyle)
Description: Gargoyles are voidsent that occupy the seventh and sixth ranks on the voidal hierarchy. They manifest by possessing rock, and when their essence is banished to the void this rock will often retain its fel shape, leading to comparisons with the gargoyles so often found on ornate buildings and thus their name.
Demonswake
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Gnat)
Description: Lesser, twelfth ranked, voidsent, gnats are often confused for natural vilekin. They are about as unintelligent as general insects however, though they can use mild magics.
Liavinne Painefort ☠
Taxonomy: Spoken (Elezen)
Description: Liavinne was the Duskwight archer who joined with Avere and Edda, and by the time they had set off on their ill fated foray into Tam-Tara she had developed feelings for Avere and was taking part eagerly in his teasing of poor Edda. Regardless, the dashing Hyur perished in the Deepcroft and Liavinne found his death difficult to cope with, burying her sorrow in service to Avere’s heroes, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. As noble as her service was, she perished as so many other minor heroes did when Livia sas Junius, tribunus angusticlavius of the XIVth Garlean Legion struck the Waking Sands and slew all they found there. She has been unearthed by Edda and revived by her dark magics.
Capabilities: Edda’s sickening magical techniques forced Liavinne to fight alongside a number of corpses nicknamed ‘best men’ in order to replicate the best man role in a wedding. Her arrows, once used in service of Eorzea, had been transformed into ‘rotting arrows’ that further wounded those hit by them.
The Personae
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Persona)
Description: Using masks in order to manifest themselves into the Source, these personae occupy a middling eighth rung in the Voidal Hierarchy and have been appearing in Eorzea for centuries according to records. Amongst these is ‘The Man Without a Face’ a play penned in Gridania long ago that describes one of these creatures haunting a man. Presumably the personae here have possessed funerary masks used in the Deepcroft by the Gelmorrans. There were also lesser personae, named ‘phantom knights’, likely due to their service as warriors of Edda.
Capabilities: The fearsome dantalions were capable of unleashing energies upon their foe to stymie the foe of aether and ‘paralyze’ them. They were also able to unleash magical ‘darkness’ and unleashing a gout of power known as the ‘inner demons’, perhaps a reference to older myths such as those in ‘The Man Without a Face’ that believed that they overtook others souls.
Etymology Notes: Dantalion is a many-faced demon of goetic lore, obviously a reference to the countless masks of the Persona.
Discarded Body
Taxonomy: Soulkin (Dullahan)
Description: Golems of arcane origin, dullahan such as these are suits of animated plate armor. Opinions on the origin of the dullahan vary, from magical creations to ghostly possessed armor. The general scholarly opinion seems to lean towards the former, however. It seems as though Edda has created these creatures using the aether associated with the corpses of spoken slain or gathered by Edda.
Capabilities: According to reports given by those who cleaned the Croft, the dullahans were capable of using a number of terribly destructive techniques including a wide sweep named the ‘iron justice’ and a magical empowerment of their physical ability named the ‘king’s will’ which might reference the authority of their master.
The Ghosts
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Ghost)
Description: Despite folklore to the contrary, ghosts are actually fully corporeal creatures, solid to the touch. They are typically said to be bound to the mortal world due to an unfinished purpose of some form. These creatures were likely those who were cast aside by Edda in her quest for an animus to drive her frightful ghoul version of Avere. There were two kinds of ghost in the Deepcroft, spare wills and souls.
Etymology Notes: It would have previously been difficult to differentiate the two forms of ghost if not for the mind-soul partition introduced in patch 5.1 Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty. It seems that Edda, self-taught as she is, has managed to separate the two and distill them into two separate entities.
Phantom Soldier
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Bhoot)
Description: Bhoots are particularly dangerous variants of ghosts, driven to strangle their foes with their small hands. Some, typically priests of Nald’thal, theorize that this is out of a desire to obtain new souls and gain life once more through them. The names of these creatures may suggest they were risen to use as the forces of Edda.
Paiyo Reiyo ☠
Taxonomy: Spoken (Elezen)
Description: Paiyo Reiyo is a Plainsfolk Lalafell who was charmed by Avere’s abundance of natural charisma and put great stock in the younger Hyur’s leadership abilities despite his many imperfections. Paiyo decided to become the naysayer and sensible right hand of the group, but despite his protestations he was unable to dissuade Avere from leading the group into the Deepcroft. The Lalafell retired into village life after Avere’s death, but was been lured to the Deepcroft by Edda’s invitation. He had been placed into what was essentially an elaborate, multi-step plan by Edda to murder Paiyo and force his soul to amalgamate with her hideous reincarnation of Avere.
Discarded Eye
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Hecteyes)
Description: Tenth ranked voidsent, these creatures bear a superficial resemblance to the flans that occupy their same rank, and have many eyes, each of which is almost blind due to infections or their habit of wandering, yet through their sheer number allow a greater measure of sight. The hecteyes are one of the few species of voidsent able to reproduce on their own, as eyes discarded by these creatures grow into their own hecteyes. According to the name of these creatures, the voidsent have possessed those eyes that were cast aside from Edda’s creation of Avere.
Capabilities: The hecteyes were able to channel their powers through their eyes, including casting forth ‘death rays’ and conjuring waves of dark energy named ‘hex eye’ for the source of the ability.
Spare Lung
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Slime)
Description: Slimes are produced when humors leaking out of corpses come to rest on an area enriched by earth aether. The earth aether adopts the aetheric energies left behind by the dead individual(s) and uses them to control the congealed biological material. These seem to be the putrefied remains of lungs intended for the vile Avere golem.
Flyblown Failure
Taxonomy: Ashkin (Damned)
Description: The long-dead scions of Gelmorra, these seemingly pseudo-mummified figures were forcibly wrenched from their final rest, dressed in rotten replicas of Avere’s armour and cast aside when it was decided that they were not up to Edda’s seemingly exacting standards.
Piscodemon
Taxonomy: Voidsent (Soulflayer)
Description: Physically weak, soulflayers are sixth ranked voidsent nonetheless and are capable of great feats of intelligence and magical might. This specific individual seems to have been summoned here as Edda’s right hand and assistant in the ritual.
Etymology Notes: Piscodemon is a name derived from Dungeons and Dragons, as a minor form of demon known for having a many-tentacled face as well as being common choices for summoned servants, they are rarely seen in modern editions of D&D. Their name is derived from a mixture of Pisces and demon, in reference to their semi-aquatic appearance. This individual seems to have been summoned here as Edda’s right hand and assistant in the ritual.
Edda Pureheart and Avere Bravearm ☠
Taxonomy: Spoken (Hyur)
Description: Edda Pureheart and Avere Bravearm were Midlanders from the impoverished villages along Alabathia’s Spine. They left their homes at the tender age of sixteen in pursuit of a better life, travelling to La Noscea in pursuit of fame and fortune, starting a romantic relationship on the way. On the way they encountered two other companions, Liavinne Painefort, a Duskwight archer who developed feelings for Avere as well as Paiyo Reiyo, a Plainsfolk who fell under the sway of Avere’s charisma. Although Avere did genuinely care for Edda, insecurity and the influences of youth kept him from showing this and instead he proved a cruel companion to his love. His partially repressed desire to become worthy of Edda drove him to take an extremely dangerous job.
This intrepid little group journeyed to the Tam-Tara Deepcroft shortly before the Warrior of Light’s first visit and were driven back by the undead serviles in the first few sections of the Deepcroft, with Avere losing his life in the process at the tender age of nineteen. Paiyo retired to his villagfe, Liavinne joined the Scions of the Seventh Dawn but was slain in a Garlean attack. Edda, heartbroken and half mad, took her lovers decapitated head and disappeared, eventually resurfacing with a tome of dark magics and a healthy dose of lunacy.
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