Husk

Legend

“Husks are nothing without a spirit sparkling them with life, thought, voice, and purpose. And spirit is nothing without a husk that it can linger steadily within. If a spirit is lost, arcane magic may bring it back. But know resurrection is not re-ignition but a forging of a new lock for an old key.”

“The resulting vessel is often brittle where it was once resilient.”

—Skjald Ulrich

 

Description

A husk is an organic frame capable of animation and normally contains a spirit governing the entire being’s consciousness and action. The relationship is a perfect, self-sustaining loop; the Husk provides the physical anchor, and the Spirit provides the animated energy. Without the Spirit, the Husk is merely biological clay, rapidly losing the arcane signature that maintains its form.

Husks can be trained and conditioned far beyond their innate limitations. This method, often referred to as resonance conditioning by scholars, enables them to surpass the usual abilities associated with their race or gender in areas like strength, speed, agility, or any other skill. Furthermore, nutrition has a strong influence on the state of a husk; a rich diet speeds healing and makes the husk significantly more durable and capable of withstanding damage.

If a husk is exposed to extreme or sustained damage, or overwhelming psychic or spiritual stress, the limen that binds the spirit to the husk can be catastrophically damaged. This tears the connection and can cause the resident spirit to be violently expelled—or to simply detach—leaving behind an empty husk that begins the Carcass Cyclus.

“Husks is our lair, the fortress of our soul and mind. It is where eternity meets the fleeting moment.”

—Skjald Sigurd

 

History

Dark Ages

The universal duality of Husk and Spirit was not always common knowledge. When the Boriacs, an ancient, immensely observant divine race, first encountered Archaic beings—creatures barely containing spiritual energy—they first theorised their existence. The Boriacs noticed that the Archaic’s husks and spirits were two separate parts of a whole, constantly fighting for equilibrium.

How they figured this out remains a grim mystery, though many scholars whisper of the practice of vivisection being performed on captured archaic specimens. It’s safe to say, knowing how divines act, that it must not have been a pleasant experience meeting Boriacs. As other races appeared and were studied, it became common knowledge that all mortals shared this intrinsic duality.

As scholars heard the tales and studied themselves, they discovered a tight symbiosis between husk and spirit, a connection secured by a spiritual conduit known as the limen. Without the constant flow of spirit energies maintaining the limen, the husk decays and crumbles. Conversely, without the husk to provide a focus, the spirit energy is without destiny, dissipating rapidly. In our world, this dissipating, unfocused energy often crystallises into a Magic Shard, a powerful but volatile byproduct.

“It’s still a mystery why some spirits instantly crystallise, while others may become lingering ghostly ‘echoes’ for long periods before dissolution.”

—Skjald El Mary

 

First Age

In 3967 something happened that eventually inflicted upon husks. As the Vampire War reached its climax and the 1st Cataclysm roared, the Vornir tore out their eyes and sang their Hymn of Truenames. These torn eyes became self-aware energies, similar to spirits but without husks. These  vornir eye energies have ever since roamed our world and taken residence in husks. As they linger there, they at times may protect or enhance the husk; thus, they are called Fylgia.

“That war was cataclysmic in far too many ways.”

—Skjald Yell'a'Beard