Lemures
Grim Reflections
Whenever a spirit is granted the heightened sentience to become a soul, a twisted mimicry of it is also born. These horrid creatures manifest as a Lemure: a shapeless, repugnant, hideous blob of roiling flesh. They drag themselves around by contorting their folds and grasping at anything in reach of their stumpy appendages. Atop this mound, a nearly featureless face stares obliviously into nothing. Its mouth always hangs open and groans incessantly. In this state, a Lemure is of little threat to anything, but it has the potential to become something terrible.
Whenever the soul it is connected to performs an act of evil, a permanent mark is left inscribed into the fabric of the Lemure. Eventually, the soul's mortal vessel will perish and the soul will be set free. It is at this moment that the Lemure begins a rapid and sickening metamorphosis. Suddenly, its form collapses inwards into a dense ball of sludge. Then, it will begin to writhe and scream as new limbs and features spring from its convulsing mass. By the time the process has come to an end, the Lemure will have arisen as a true Devil. The form that it takes depends on two factors: the nature of its counterpart soul's sins, and the severity of said sins. A soul who only performs minor wrongs during their life will see their Lemure become a paltry lesser Devil. Those whose sins were extreme and plentiful might incite the birth of a new Archdevil.
Burst of Conscience
When a Lemure's mortal counterpart perishes, it is not only the pitiful fiend's body that transforms, but also its mind. Where it was a virtually thoughtless creature that functioned solely on instinct, it will suddenly develop the ability to think. Additionally, memories will begin to appear in the Devils head. They recoil at the visions of their previous life as Lemures; all fiends harbour a silent self-loathing for what they once were. Faint recollections of the life that their mortal analogue had lived will also materialise in the fiend's mind, flavouring the malevolence that they will embody. Those spawned of thieves will be duplicitous, those born of demagogues will be manipulative, and those proceeded by killers will be wrathful. Regardless of how minor the mortal's sins were, their fiendish counterpart will always be wicked.
The greatest despair that lesser Devils face is that they will never meet the soul they mirror. It is deeply ingrained into the psyche of fiends that to torment their twin is the most wondrous delight of all. Unfortunately for some Devils, mortals who only committed trivial sins are rarely condemned to Sarundel, instead being permitted to utopic Darycia. Fiends that are subjected to this fate can do naught but lament the unfairness of their situation. It is also true that even the most virtuous mortals will unleash a Devil into Sarundel upon their demise, regardless of how moral they were in life. Most, however, find peace in that their counterpart will be a comparably mild evil.
Pathetic but Indestructible
Lemures are meagre creatures. They could be torn asunder by a motivated housecat and the animal would walk away unscathed. Despite this, the other monsters of Sarundel afford the Lemures respect. This is not out of sympathy from when they themselves were once Lemures (compassion is an alien concept to Devils), but instead out of apprehension for what a Lemure might become. At any moment, the paltry thing could transform into a mighty tyrant, and so it would be unwise to invoke its ire. Furthermore, one cannot assure their safety by simply slaying the Lemure once they tire of tormenting it. A slain Lemure melts away into the earth of Sarundel and reconstitutes elsewhere on the plane. So long as the soul they mirror persists, a Lemure is truly immortal.
Origins of the Lemures
All Lemures are born in the same place. At the centre of Sarundel is a huge pit of rancid, oozing meat. Here, when a new soul is born, a Lemure rises from the filth and joins the writhing throngs of its kindred. They will be buried beneath the roiling mass, constantly fighting to clamber to the surface to escape the crushing depths. It is believed that it can take days for the Lemure to finally break from its claustrophobic birthplace. As the new Lemures trample one another in the pit, true Devils will cast great nets into the pile and reel in what they catch. Every realm of Sarundel desires Lemures for they are the only way to sustain their fiendish population.
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