Varn'kul

(Half-Successful Origin Breed — Amphibious Piranha-Folk of Lake Avarn)

Origin:

The Varn’kul are believed to be one of the Elder Races’ mid-era prototypes — an attempt to engineer a sub-aquatic labour caste able to survive both water and land environments, suited for maintaining the Elder’s underwater facilities and extracting ley-infused minerals. The design achieved physical success but failed in temperament and intellect: the creatures proved uncontrollable, feral, and prone to frenzy under strong ley exposure.

When the Elder dominion collapsed, the Varn’kul survived in isolation, breeding freely within the depths of Lake Avarn. Over millennia, they evolved into a stable though savage society — self-aware, tribal, and spiritually corrupted.

Appearance

• Stature roughly human height, but lean and corded with muscle.
• Grey-green scaled skin, reflective in moonlight; rows of fine sensory pits along the neck and jaw.
• Wide, flat mouths lined with razor teeth; eyes black and lidless, adapted for dark water.
• Hands and feet webbed, nails evolved into barbed claws.
• Gills on the ribs and under the jawline allow amphibious breathing for limited periods on land.

Culture & Society

• The Varn’kul live in tribal shoals — loose federations of hunting and raiding groups led by a Tide-Speaker, their spiritual authority.
• Their settlements are built within submerged ruins believed to be remnants of Elder laboratories — now overgrown with coral and bio-luminescent algae.
• Tribal hierarchy is determined by blood-feats (number of enemies consumed) and blessings granted by their unseen god.
• They practice shamanistic rites involving bloodletting, bone carving, and songlike ululations that echo through the lake at night.

Faith & the “Deep One”

• The Varn’kul worship an entity they call Zhaur-Rin, “The Deep One Who Listens.”
• To them, it is a divine ocean spirit that grants power and fertility.
• In truth, Zhaur-Rin is an Astral Demon, trapped or anchored beneath the lake since the Elder era, feeding on devotion and sacrifice.
• Its influence grants the Tide-Speakers limited demonic power — the ability to command lesser water-wraiths, shape flesh, and channel bursts of boiling leywater.
• From the perspective of the Church of the Lifestar, Varn’kul shamanism constitutes Demonology, a capital heresy.

Behaviour

• Highly territorial and aggressive toward surface dwellers.
• Known for attacking fishing vessels and trade barges on Lake Avarn, dragging victims below for food or ritual sacrifice.
• During the “Blood Tides” (ley surges that turn the lake crimson under moonlight), Varn’kul war-bands raid shoreline settlements such as Rillmarch and Orrin’s Reach.
• Despite savagery, they show tactical intelligence — using decoys, ambushes, and underwater grappling hooks.

Language & Communication

• Speak in a mix of guttural hisses, chirps, and low clicks.
• Shamans and Tide-Speakers can mimic human speech roughly when in trance.
• Many old sailors claim the sound of “whispering water” before a Varn’kul attack — possibly a psychic resonance of Zhaur-Rin’s influence.

Weaknesses

• Sensitive to prolonged dryness and heat.
• Silver and consecrated salt burn their flesh.
• Disorganized without a Tide-Speaker’s psychic link to Zhaur-Rin.
• Easily driven into frenzy by the scent of blood or radiant ley discharges.