Denizens is a collective term for the dimensional beings. These include Fae, Phantasms, Specters, Angels, Malakim, Valkyries, Devils, Demons, Hags, Ghouls, Ghasts, Miasmas, Zyma, Humours, Vapours, Pneumas, Wraiths, Wights, Shiki, Kauns, Khrysos, Lunos, Wisps, Shadows, Shadowfells, and Netherfells.
Ephemerals
Fae
When discussing the denizens of the Fairywilde, it is key to remember a few things about terms for them and those drawn from them:
Fey is a “kind” of Faerie, with the other sort being Fells (singular Fell, and much like the other dimensional Fells). Fae is the term for all of them, any who come from the Fairywilde. Fell beasts include the dreaded Displacer Beast, as well as assorted other horrific creatures, inclusive of Cait Sidhe and Cu Sidhe. The Fell are, essentially, not able to be mistaken for people. The Fey, on the other hand, can and often are mistaken for them.
Fay is a term to denote a Halfling, with the reason behind it being that Elfin were shaped in part with stuff from Faerie.
Although spelled differently, they all sound very much alike, and there is no doubt that it is intentional and purposeful, a form of the natural unreality and chaos the forges that place and those people.
The Fey are dangerous, capricious, and prone to all manner of violence and harm against people, because they don’t believe that Wyrlde should have people in it, and that they are little more than overdeveloped animals and savages that might make for halfway decent pets.
The Rules of Fairywilde
It is not uncommon to encounter a Fae or Fell. It is of value to know certain rules gleaned through trial, tribulation, error, and grievous consequences.
- Never accept a Faerie gift.
- Do not eat Faerie Food or drink Faerie wine within the plane – their food is not meant for us, and they are known to be amused by our reactions.
- Do not follow the music and step into a fairy ring, nor follow the singer and descend a Mound, nor rest wearily to the wind’s whispers beneath a shady bough.
- Do not tell the Faerie your full name. Whenever possible, do not tell them your name at all, nor let those around you do so.
- Do not be impolite, rude, or offensive, even in jest. Be polite, very polite, so very polite.
- Do not give them any clothing except for the most wonderful, nor anything made that is not the most beautiful.
- Do not be surprised if they ask for a gift of you, and already know what they want.
- Do not thank them, but always show gratitude, lest you incur a debt or acknowledge one.
- Do not mention a newborn child you may know of when in their presence or within earshot.
- Do not kindle flame in the woods except in clearings.
- Do not shed the blood of another on Fae ground except in a duel, and always make sure you have witnesses.
- Do not run in the Woods at night, lest you step upon a resting Fae, or offend a dryad or nymph.
Phantasms
Phantasms are always in search of that which is solid, so that they themselves may obtain it. They can only be harmed by things which are, themselves, ethereal, but if they are in our dimension, they are capable of harming solid beings with a swipe of their long talons.
One big key is that phantasms differ from Ghosts, they appear corrupted, terrifying, malicious, and rotted, while ghosts will generally appear as they did in life.
Specters
Specters are among the most terrifying of beings. Specters are incorporeal, struck only by certain kinds of weapons (silver, imbued, ingrained, and such), and have the ability to suck all manner of essentialness of a being away. Psyche, mana, vitality – all of the are subject to the powers of a specter.
Specters are native to the Astral Plane, and they are known to attempt to cut the silver cord that bonds the spirit to the flesh.
Celestials
Celestials are denizens whose exact nature is often best described as merely ineffable and beyond the mortal ken. They are roughly akin to the Fey, Fell, Specters, and Phantasms of the Inner Planes around the Material. While not universal, most of the Powers That Be have some sort of demesne within this Plane. The Denizens of this plane are most notable for their use of an empowering by Celestial Energy, which is cool, comforting, and more than a little numbing.
Angels
Angels are winged humanoids that stand about 8 feet tall in their normal forms. Angels are servants of the Powers That Be, and they can serve any of them. are the children of the Powers That Be, acting as servants, messengers, and general support staff for the Powers. Sometimes they are given tasks to manage within the Ephemeral such as guarding a potential Ikon or supporting someone of interest to a particular Power.
Angels are exceptionally hostile towards Devils, and it is always warned not to get caught up in between the two. They tend to be neutral towards and even confused by the Fae, and they get along well with the Kauns of the Radiant Plane. They and the Reanimated of the Necrotic planes are an interesting thing – the presence of an Angel causes the Reanimates to collapse and stop moving. Meanwhile, the Wights of the Netherealm are capable of causing them intense damage that seems to ignore whatever it is that have to defend against Devils (with whom Angels are more evenly matched). Finally, they will generally attack a Yuma that is rampaging, but won’t normally act to save someone who has been infected. As with the broader denizens of the Outer Planes, they are there after having been sent there initially through the efforts of Belial, and like the Fey are not bound to the ways of thinking and custom with which we are familiar.
Valkyries
Valkyries are the children of the Powers That Be, acting as servants, messengers, and general support staff for the Powers. Sometimes they are given tasks to manage within the Material such as guarding a potential Ikon or supporting someone of interest to a particular Power. Valkyries are always women, or at the very least they all appear to be women, but we have no way of proving that, and even Valkyries talk about their men.
As with the broader denizens of the Outer Planes, they are there after having been sent there initially through the efforts of Belial, and like the Fey are not bound to the ways of thinking and custom with which we are familiar.
Valkyries ride winged horse like beasts and are drawn to bravery and battle. When seen, they typically have a sword, a shield, and a spear. Valkyries stand about 8 feet tall, and seem to shimmer, and their shadows are always strange.
Malakim
Malakim are the children of the Powers That Be, acting as servants, messengers, and general support staff for the Powers. Sometimes they are given particular tasks to manage within the Material such as guarding a potential Ikon or supporting someone of interest to a particular Power. Malakim are not winged, but always have an aura around them, and stand around 8 feet tall in their natural forms.
As with the broader denizens of the Outer Planes, they are there after having been sent there initially through the efforts of Belial, and like the Fey are not bound to the ways of thinking and customs that we are familiar with.
Malakim appear to all be men, but even they speak about the women they have, so it is likely that this is just our way of seeing them. Malakim have deep and intense dislike for demons
Infernals
Devils
Even Angels have not the breadth of lore and tale that Devils do, for only Demons are more feared.
Devils feed on souls, and the more wicked a person is, the sweeter the soul is. Evil is in actions, not in what the person thinks – intent is not magical, so Devils are extremely gifted at goading and encouraging and helping to set the stage so that thought turns to action and then to keep encouraging it They will use pleasure as a tool, but more often they use suffering and pain and trauma.
Devils have a fixed, horrifying shape that they obscure through Glamour, and they delight in pain, suffering, and trauma. This form is usually bipedal in some way, four limbed, often tailed, frequently with horns, sometimes with wings. Devils need only to touch to drain one, and their weapons and bodies are meant to draw blood and cause harm — they have a violent and cruel structure so oppositional to our own that even the Dread Powers That Be and their followers avoid Devils. They have a goal, and that goal is the subjugation and destruction of the Mortal Realms. It is said they take every shape and form that is possible, but that they settle most often a few that are well known.
A Devil is generally considered to be one of the most potent powers there is, and their hunger for the souls of humans is legendary and unyielding — there is no deal one can make that will not result in giving them a feast. It is said that Devils were the ones who made the bargains to create Vampires, and that they laugh about it. Devils are readily as powerful as Angels, and while Demons are older, they are the more dominant.
Devils have set rules that they follow upon their own Plane, and set structure, and are rigid and unyielding, which is part of why folks who conjure them often think in terms of dealing. Devils do not have the power to cross to the Mortality Plane on their own — they must be summoned, and they cannot remain here for long, never more than a single day. The amount of harm that a single devil can cause in that day, however, is incalculable.
Devils are eternally foes of Angels, will often take command of reanimated dead, consider wights beneath them but are not so foolish as to ignore them, are terrified of Yuma, and dislike Fae because they are too mutable. Devils like that which does not change, can be counted on, and no one has ever said such about the Fae. Kauns and Devils do their best to avoid each other.
Demons
Demons feed on human suffering, grief, fear, and terror, and like to chase it with a bit of flesh when they can – the younger, the better. Demons are more flexible in their shape and appearance than Devils, for their shape and form is affected by the being they are facing – and only the sharing of what one sees with others can fix the form of a Demon among any given group – otherwise they will see their own manifestation. They can seem to be almost anything since demons take their shape and forms from the minds of those they torment.
Demons are amorphous, shape changing, and often immaterial. They are distinctly different from Devils, in that they care nothing for souls, but everything for suffering and misery. Demons can only arrive on the Mortality Plane by being summoned — but they can persist and remain indefinitely. Demons can be forced back to their Plane, but the risk is often immense — Demons are chaos and uncertainty made manifest, filled with nothing resembling rational and logical thought.
Demons do not abide by rules, codes, or contracts. As many of them have names similar to those of Devils, to whom they are very distantly related, they are often summoned by accident, and as they cannot be bound in ritual summoning as devils can be, those failures are rarely recalled or recognized for there is never anyone left to tale the tale.
Demons seek to dominate and control people, but do not cooperate or partner only dominate and force. They care nothing for rulers or leaders, heroes or cowards, they thrive on emotions and the darker the better. Some demons prefer the brighter emotions as an appetizer – the sark of love, the first flush, the contented happiness, the amuse bouche of nostalgic amusement – and they are often considered the worst, for they will encourage and feed and toy with those emotions, slowly draining everything through it, and then they will turn and destroy what is joyful to feast upon the darkness and horror and grief.
The most powerful Demons known include Vinirial, Pathos, and Penitwis.
Hags
This is the home of Hags, horribly vile beings whose eternal struggle against Valkyries are documented in many myths across all the Mortal Realms.
Hags seem to be uniformly women, as no one has ever reported encountering a masculine or neutral Hag. They are gifted with the ability to produce Glamours, and perhaps the most notable thing about them is that they make bargains that are incredibly dangerous.
Hags are extremely territorial and will only bow down before the greatest of their kind, whose threat is ever ominous: Baba Yaga. Hags loathe witches and claim to be offended by the mere sight of them. There is a long history of Witches interfering with the plans and schemes of hags, which are always tied to some bargain, and always have the same end results: servitude and consumption.
Hags will eat anything but prefer things that complain about it while they are being eaten.
Radiants
Kauns
Kauns are a short, green loving people who love joyously, but lack a certain generosity of spirit. One tells a long and torturous story of centuries spent struggling to live in a hostile world after getting trapped there one time. Name of Lepra, he takes a lot of flak from others. As a result, we call these Denizens “Leprechauns”.
Khrysos
Khrysos appear to be golden hued people, said to be eternally happy, optimistic, outgoing, and joyful. They are all of those things even while doing incredibly cruel and malicious actions.
They always have incredibly complicated names, like “Rumplestiltskin.”
Lunos
All of them are named Bud. Except for when they are not. Lunos appear as house cats of larger than normal size, usually very white, and fond of using their right forepaws to interact with things. It is said that if you shake that paw, you will be either lucky or unlucky. Black is not an uncommon color, but then so is any other coloration – white just seems to predominate.
Necrotics
Miasmata
Reanimates are the Undead: Zombies, Mummies, Skeletons, Severed Limbs, and so forth that are powered by the spirits of this plane. Strictly speaking, it is Miasmas that animate the dead, Pneumas that animate golems, Zyma that animate certain constructs such as the Dreadnaughts, Humors that can affect the living, and Vapours that can interact with the world more physically.
Ghouls
Ghouls come from Quietus, and it is believed that the poor fools who originally summoned them are themselves now ghouls. Ghouls are discussed in the Bestiary.
Ghasts
Ghasts are almost like personifications of their home – silent, swift, and feral. They appear to be emaciated humanoids, bald, with long pointed ears that stick up above their heads and make it appear at a distance as if they have small horns. They are carnivorous and have a double row of sharp teeth. They live in small villages led by a combination of shaman and chieftain, and they are quite industrious in their underground lairs.
The upper world is occupied by the Gormen, immense Minotaur like beings who are almost exactly like the Ghasts, except they are omnivores and while they will eat Ghast meat, they prefer their farms and grains and vegetables.
Shadowfells
Shadowfells are very much like the Fae, a reflection of them, but as a shadow is a reflection.
Shadows
Beings of nightmare, like the hellish versions of Shiki.
Wisps
Appearing as glowing orbs of intangible light to most, these beings are mischievous, and may help or may hurt, but always are of their own mind and hate to be alone.
Netherfells
Netherfells are spirits that have fallen to a curse, denied the peace or horror of the afterlife deserved, and bound to a space. Netherfells are often said to be the spirits of people – and they may well be so. However, it is likely that they are Spirits of the World. It should be noted that Netherfells are not undead, though they are often confused with such.
Wraiths
Wraiths delight in their psychic tortures. Like the Fey, they are powerful and dangerous.
Nightmares
These many shaped peoples are exactly what they are named for, the manifestation of fears and worries and darkness combined, literal nightmares come to walk the earth.
On Wyrlde, when you speak of the Boogeyman, he is real.
Shiki
Shiki are tiny sized, hybrid animal (such as cat/fox) creatures that are magical and denizens of the Netherealm who are summoned to Wyrlde. They are also known to escape and venture into the world at large, where they flit about and observe things. It is believed they are spies for the Netherealm, who likely have designs on Wyrlde for themselves. There are many different varieties of them, and according to legend they were once actively sought out for arena fighting purposes, since they do reproduce. That was before the God’s War, however, and the manner of capturing them has been lost, except perhaps to Sages and their Theurges. They do not like Beholders.
Wights
Wights are essentially the Demons of Purgatory and appear to be proud of it.
