56th of Ash, 124 AS
From her perch atop one of the crumbling buildings of the Zaichaer market district Lyra could see much. The black sun overhead hovered in its usual menacing way, and the violet colored clouds cast the already gloomy environment in even deeper shadow. She dangled her feet over the lip of the roof she sat, leaning forward to view the streets below. Over the past few days she had taken to shadow watching, as she called it. Her interactions with the shadow spawn had shown her there was still much she needed to know of the Nyxus if she was to truly use it to the fullest. She had begun to reassess her earlier thoughts on the structure of the shadow spawn and their relationships with one another, beginning with the most common type, the beasts.
Observing the spawning pits had revealed much to Lyra, but she felt that she could not quite see the entire picture. To begin the number of spawn that came from the pits she had found in no way could account for the numbers of shadow spawn she saw across the city. The rate at which new spawn were made did not match with the number which she saw torn to shreds on a daily basis. Sitting where she was Lyra had already observed a pack of dog like spawn devouring one of the humanoid spawn that had not even tried to flee. She'd seen several avian spawn capturing smaller rodent like spawn, and even some of the more grotesque things had past by and consumed almost anything that did not evade their path. The rate of consumption was seemingly greater than the rate of spawning... Which meant that the spawning pits were not the only place from which shadow spawn came.
Perhaps the pits were like a primordial spawning pit, and there existed other methods for spawn to 'breed'. Could two spawn procreate in some way? Perhaps like plants? Were there the equivalent of shadow spawn eggs? That seemed unlikely, given how the spawn liked a soul of their own. Without a soul there was no instinct to procreate, and really no need to continue the species as it were.
Lyra had also begun to notice the shadow spawn within the city of Zaichaer. Many of them shared similar traits, or perhaps mannerisms was a better word. There was a form of cooperation among some of the spawn, but even allies would turn on one another if a big enough prize were presented to the group. That in and of itself would not be unexpected, but whenever the spawn behaved in such a manner Lyra felt a... shift of some sort. It was very similar to hearing a note from someone's symphony, but so faint that it may have been her imagination. All of the shadow spawn she saw seemed to echo that single note, but none strong enough for her to make out exactly what it was.
One night while Lyra was observing she got to see as a shadow spawn integrated a new concept into their being. It was one of the rodent one's. It managed to evade, and then kill, one of the bird like spawn. When it consumed it there was a short pause before its body shifted, and from its back a pair of wings sprouted and it took on more avian features. It physically looked very similar to the creature it had consumed, but there were a few noticeable differences. It still had a long, worm like tail, and needle like teeth. Lyra would not say this proved her theory on the "void spawn consume each other for their concepts" idea, but it seemed a strong possibility. Maybe if someone or something from the prime material realm wandered in she would be able to confirm. On that note, Lyra began to tell which of the spawn had ventured outside of the Void.
It had been rather on accident when she noticed. There were certain shadow spawn which possessed throbbing, heart like growths on parts of their bodies. Some were even bloated, to the point Lyra wondered if they were disfigured in some way. When she followed one such creature she found that, over time, it would return to its normal shape and appearance, but often was slightly bigger, or a feature or two had altered or changed. These ones in particular gave off the odd sound the loudest, still faint, but enough that Lyra knew she was not imagining things. She observed as one of these spawn passed through a shadow, but did not return for some time. When it did it came back bloated once more, but it dripped a warm liquid Lyra knew all too well. She killed it of course, and cutting it open revealed the mangled corpse of some creature. It was more of a meat ball than anything recognizable, but Lyra thought it might be a small dog from the fur and teeth she found. The blood was awful, but then she was in no position to complain.
This told her two very important things. The first was that she could spot shadow spawn which could pass across the veil into the prime material realm. This was a fairly rare talent, Lyra had found, and only about 1 in 100 shadow spawn seemed capable of it. Those that could, however, gained power rapidly. With some effort she resisted killing every one she found, and observed over the course of a few days how much the spawn's power grew from consuming the concepts from the prime material realm. The shadow spawn were also the most interesting physically. They took on many of the physical qualities of the things they ate, thus one that hunted mainly dogs became very dog like, where as those that hunted cats were cat like. They were different from the usual dog and cat variants she had seen before though. They were somehow MORE canine or feline. It was hard to explain, but Lyra thought that these shadow spawn brought in concepts from the outside, and over time shadow spawn within the Void would eat them. Over time as the shadow spawn with that concept was eaten over and over again, by more and more spawn, the concepts it held eventually became diluted. This suggested that the true tell whether a shadow spawn would become powerful, or simply be food for something bigger, lay in whether or not they were able to pass between realms. As of yet, however, Lyra could not figure out what determined if a spawn would have that ability. She assumed it, too, was related to what they consumed.
All of this is what lead Lyra to where she was now, staring down at the street where various types of shadow spawn were milling about like a kicked anthill. She was not interested in just any shadow spawn, however. Her focus was on the humanoid ones which had the oddest behavior of all.
After spending so much time tampering with newly spawned shadows, Lyra began to truly wonder about these in particular. They were simply so very different from the rest of their kin. To begin with, they were not aggressive. In fact, they were down right passive. When she first saw them Lyra had assumed these things humanoid spawn were simply shadow spawn that had eaten many of the humanoid races, and like other shadow spawn taken on similar traits. She had even seen a shadow spawn become humanoid after eating some silly witch who had stumbled into the Nyxus. Now, however, she was not so sure. Lyra had begun to notice that there was a very distinct difference between types of humanoid shadow spawn. The normal ones behaved like their counter parts, and attacked other spawn they thought were weaker to consume their essence. Eventually their physical forms became odd amalgamations of humanoid and animal traits, and other eldritch abominations. These that she was watching now though, she had not seen a single one consume anything.
Lyra's eyes followed a pair of these shadows as they walked down the sidewalk. They stopped from time to time, as if looking at the wares of a market stall before continuing on their way. They would also make peculiar motions with their hands, like they were discussing something. At first it was easy to confuse them for a sentient form of shadow spawn, but the longer one watched the more it became clear. They were not intelligent. They followed the exact same pattern, in exactly the same way, over and over again. They would stop in the same spots, step in the same sequence, and make the same gestures at the exact same time in the same way each and every time. It was an endless loop.
Lyra furrowed her brow, watching this couple go through the pattern for the 8th time since she had come to watch them. It was like watching a shadow without a body. They mimicked the appearance of life, of sapience, but did not themselves possess anything of the sort. Normally Lyra would simply file this away under just another oddity of the Void, were it not for one simple fact. These humanoid spawn gave off the loudest sound of all. She had noticed it before, and thus theorized the possibility of shadow spawn developing pseudo souls because of the similarities to a symphony. Lyra had even dismissed them outright, but as she began to observe the creatures of the city she realized something. These humanoid spawn did not have a similar sound to the rest of the spawn, just louder... Lyra suspected THEY were the source of the sound she could faintly hear among the other shadow spawn.
There was also something else very odd about the humanoid shadow spawn. Not just anything would attack them. Most of the spawn seemed to ignore them completely, but there was ONE type that did go out of their way. Those spawn which could cross the Veil, and leave the Void. Lyra had seen several of the humanoid spawn fall to these creatures, but no matter how often they were attacked, or consumed, the humanoid spawn always seemed to come back after a certain amount of time. They always went about their routines as if nothing had changed. As if they couldn't change.
All of these observations told Lyra that these particular shadow spawn, these shades of life, were important somehow. She just needed to figure out how, and why.
From her perch atop one of the crumbling buildings of the Zaichaer market district Lyra could see much. The black sun overhead hovered in its usual menacing way, and the violet colored clouds cast the already gloomy environment in even deeper shadow. She dangled her feet over the lip of the roof she sat, leaning forward to view the streets below. Over the past few days she had taken to shadow watching, as she called it. Her interactions with the shadow spawn had shown her there was still much she needed to know of the Nyxus if she was to truly use it to the fullest. She had begun to reassess her earlier thoughts on the structure of the shadow spawn and their relationships with one another, beginning with the most common type, the beasts.
Observing the spawning pits had revealed much to Lyra, but she felt that she could not quite see the entire picture. To begin the number of spawn that came from the pits she had found in no way could account for the numbers of shadow spawn she saw across the city. The rate at which new spawn were made did not match with the number which she saw torn to shreds on a daily basis. Sitting where she was Lyra had already observed a pack of dog like spawn devouring one of the humanoid spawn that had not even tried to flee. She'd seen several avian spawn capturing smaller rodent like spawn, and even some of the more grotesque things had past by and consumed almost anything that did not evade their path. The rate of consumption was seemingly greater than the rate of spawning... Which meant that the spawning pits were not the only place from which shadow spawn came.
Perhaps the pits were like a primordial spawning pit, and there existed other methods for spawn to 'breed'. Could two spawn procreate in some way? Perhaps like plants? Were there the equivalent of shadow spawn eggs? That seemed unlikely, given how the spawn liked a soul of their own. Without a soul there was no instinct to procreate, and really no need to continue the species as it were.
Lyra had also begun to notice the shadow spawn within the city of Zaichaer. Many of them shared similar traits, or perhaps mannerisms was a better word. There was a form of cooperation among some of the spawn, but even allies would turn on one another if a big enough prize were presented to the group. That in and of itself would not be unexpected, but whenever the spawn behaved in such a manner Lyra felt a... shift of some sort. It was very similar to hearing a note from someone's symphony, but so faint that it may have been her imagination. All of the shadow spawn she saw seemed to echo that single note, but none strong enough for her to make out exactly what it was.
One night while Lyra was observing she got to see as a shadow spawn integrated a new concept into their being. It was one of the rodent one's. It managed to evade, and then kill, one of the bird like spawn. When it consumed it there was a short pause before its body shifted, and from its back a pair of wings sprouted and it took on more avian features. It physically looked very similar to the creature it had consumed, but there were a few noticeable differences. It still had a long, worm like tail, and needle like teeth. Lyra would not say this proved her theory on the "void spawn consume each other for their concepts" idea, but it seemed a strong possibility. Maybe if someone or something from the prime material realm wandered in she would be able to confirm. On that note, Lyra began to tell which of the spawn had ventured outside of the Void.
It had been rather on accident when she noticed. There were certain shadow spawn which possessed throbbing, heart like growths on parts of their bodies. Some were even bloated, to the point Lyra wondered if they were disfigured in some way. When she followed one such creature she found that, over time, it would return to its normal shape and appearance, but often was slightly bigger, or a feature or two had altered or changed. These ones in particular gave off the odd sound the loudest, still faint, but enough that Lyra knew she was not imagining things. She observed as one of these spawn passed through a shadow, but did not return for some time. When it did it came back bloated once more, but it dripped a warm liquid Lyra knew all too well. She killed it of course, and cutting it open revealed the mangled corpse of some creature. It was more of a meat ball than anything recognizable, but Lyra thought it might be a small dog from the fur and teeth she found. The blood was awful, but then she was in no position to complain.
This told her two very important things. The first was that she could spot shadow spawn which could pass across the veil into the prime material realm. This was a fairly rare talent, Lyra had found, and only about 1 in 100 shadow spawn seemed capable of it. Those that could, however, gained power rapidly. With some effort she resisted killing every one she found, and observed over the course of a few days how much the spawn's power grew from consuming the concepts from the prime material realm. The shadow spawn were also the most interesting physically. They took on many of the physical qualities of the things they ate, thus one that hunted mainly dogs became very dog like, where as those that hunted cats were cat like. They were different from the usual dog and cat variants she had seen before though. They were somehow MORE canine or feline. It was hard to explain, but Lyra thought that these shadow spawn brought in concepts from the outside, and over time shadow spawn within the Void would eat them. Over time as the shadow spawn with that concept was eaten over and over again, by more and more spawn, the concepts it held eventually became diluted. This suggested that the true tell whether a shadow spawn would become powerful, or simply be food for something bigger, lay in whether or not they were able to pass between realms. As of yet, however, Lyra could not figure out what determined if a spawn would have that ability. She assumed it, too, was related to what they consumed.
All of this is what lead Lyra to where she was now, staring down at the street where various types of shadow spawn were milling about like a kicked anthill. She was not interested in just any shadow spawn, however. Her focus was on the humanoid ones which had the oddest behavior of all.
After spending so much time tampering with newly spawned shadows, Lyra began to truly wonder about these in particular. They were simply so very different from the rest of their kin. To begin with, they were not aggressive. In fact, they were down right passive. When she first saw them Lyra had assumed these things humanoid spawn were simply shadow spawn that had eaten many of the humanoid races, and like other shadow spawn taken on similar traits. She had even seen a shadow spawn become humanoid after eating some silly witch who had stumbled into the Nyxus. Now, however, she was not so sure. Lyra had begun to notice that there was a very distinct difference between types of humanoid shadow spawn. The normal ones behaved like their counter parts, and attacked other spawn they thought were weaker to consume their essence. Eventually their physical forms became odd amalgamations of humanoid and animal traits, and other eldritch abominations. These that she was watching now though, she had not seen a single one consume anything.
Lyra's eyes followed a pair of these shadows as they walked down the sidewalk. They stopped from time to time, as if looking at the wares of a market stall before continuing on their way. They would also make peculiar motions with their hands, like they were discussing something. At first it was easy to confuse them for a sentient form of shadow spawn, but the longer one watched the more it became clear. They were not intelligent. They followed the exact same pattern, in exactly the same way, over and over again. They would stop in the same spots, step in the same sequence, and make the same gestures at the exact same time in the same way each and every time. It was an endless loop.
Lyra furrowed her brow, watching this couple go through the pattern for the 8th time since she had come to watch them. It was like watching a shadow without a body. They mimicked the appearance of life, of sapience, but did not themselves possess anything of the sort. Normally Lyra would simply file this away under just another oddity of the Void, were it not for one simple fact. These humanoid spawn gave off the loudest sound of all. She had noticed it before, and thus theorized the possibility of shadow spawn developing pseudo souls because of the similarities to a symphony. Lyra had even dismissed them outright, but as she began to observe the creatures of the city she realized something. These humanoid spawn did not have a similar sound to the rest of the spawn, just louder... Lyra suspected THEY were the source of the sound she could faintly hear among the other shadow spawn.
There was also something else very odd about the humanoid shadow spawn. Not just anything would attack them. Most of the spawn seemed to ignore them completely, but there was ONE type that did go out of their way. Those spawn which could cross the Veil, and leave the Void. Lyra had seen several of the humanoid spawn fall to these creatures, but no matter how often they were attacked, or consumed, the humanoid spawn always seemed to come back after a certain amount of time. They always went about their routines as if nothing had changed. As if they couldn't change.
All of these observations told Lyra that these particular shadow spawn, these shades of life, were important somehow. She just needed to figure out how, and why.