Thramorri (The Watchers in the Dark)

No matter the sub-species, all Thramorri share some key traits:   They are deathly allergic to light in all its forms. The brighter the light, the more damaging it is to Thramorri flesh. In the presence of a candle, a Thramorri will burn as if thrust into a pool of acid.   They are effectively blind. Though they can register movement and a limited range of colours, the Thramorri rely instead of smell, hearing, taste, and touch.

Shradechi: The most common of the Thramorri encountered, Shradechi resemble pale, misshapen humans; they are bald, with wiry limbs and talons on their hands and feet. Their eyes are large and milky blue or grey and they are on average around 5 feet tall. The creatures’ teeth are sharp and pointed, and their tongues resemble long, blue fleshy grubs or worms, and are somehow able to “taste” the air around them. The Shradechi dialect is formed primarily of clicks and throaty vocalizations, though they are capable of understanding and speaking the Common Tongue – albeit with a heavy, wet-sounding accent that is impossible to disguise. Despite their appearance, the Shradechi are intelligent and cunning, and it is not uncommon to see them in positions of command within Thramorri hierarchies.   Khybim: The powerful Khybim are the fewest in number, but terrifying in aspect; they are the only Thramorri aside from the Esek known to be capable of unassisted flight. An adult Khybim stands nearly 8 feet tall, with vast, batlike wings that are covered in fine brightly coloured scales. As Khybim age, their skin becomes more gnarled and tough, and the skin on their wings becomes thinner and more translucent, giving ancient Khybim the look of a skeletal demon. A Khybim can live more than a century, though the older they get, the less capable of sustained flight they become. Like most Thramorri, Khybim skin is pallid; thin blue and red veins can often be seen pulsing just beneath the surface.   Khorgh: Like the Khybim, the Khorgh are tall and powerful, though unlike their Khybim cousins, Khorgh are incapable of flight. Instead, Khorgh are powerfully muscled, with long powerful arms and shorter, stocky legs. The Khorgh’s faces are shrunken in desiccated looking, and while their eyesight is quite weak, their sense of smell and their hearing are superb. Though not as intelligent as the Khybim, the Khorgh are nevertheless cunning and make excellent ground troops. It is not uncommon to see Thramorri armies composed primarily of Khorght troops.   Esek: The heralds of the Thramorri. These stunted creatures boast enormous eyes and large, bat-like ears that they use to locate prey or other hidden things. What sets the Esek apart from their kin is their largely air-borne nature; like the Khybim, the Esek can fly, using their large, delicate wings. There are vast numbers of Esek; though not animals, they are only barely sentient, and they are used as messengers, scouts, and hunting companions for the larger, earth-bound Thramorri. Their colonies can be found in ruins and caves where they roost in great numbers.

Thramorri gestate in ichor-filled cocoons sealed within the walls of a hive. The pods are crafted by some unknown process, though rumours suggest the existence of a fifth Thramorri species that produces the cocoons from their own bodies. Once a cocoon is ready, a female - usually the hive matriarch - deposits an egg within, after which a male Thramorri inseminates the cocoon. The honour of insemination goes to the ranking Hierophant of the hive.

All Thramorri, no matter their species, go through similar life-cycles, beginning with the larval stage. After insemination, Thramorri cocoons protect and nourish the larval Watcher, which doubles in size every few days, until it is ready to pupate. During this phase, the Watcher takes on the characteristics of its adult form and begins to grow at a slower rate. Thramorri remain as pupae for more than four years, during which the cocoon hardens into a crystalline shell around the creature. Upon reaching its juvenile state, the Watcher shatters the cocoon and emerges, where it is taken to the Hive's maturation creche. There it will spend the next few months to years (depending on species). Thramorri do not organize into family units; their young are considered property of the hive. Once they reach maturity, the Thramorri are removed from the creche and assigned a role within the hierarchy based on their natural inclinations, talents, lineage and species.   A healthy Thramorri can live many centuries, though the esek tend to measure their lives in years.

Thramorri are technically omnivorous, but their preferred food is human flesh. They can survive quite well on fungi, animal proteins and even the occasional vegetable, but they prefer the flesh of humans who have suffered horribly before death.

Hierarchical. Khybim occupy the dominant positions of any hive, followed by the Shadrechi, whose intelligence and cunning make them able administrators. Below them are the Khorgh whose primary function is to serve as a heavy labour force or as soldiers to the Shadrechi and Khybim. At the bottom of the hierarchy are the esek, who are barely sentient and incapable of complex reasoning.

Khorgh and Shadrechi faces are sunken and skeletal. Their eyes are atrophied, giving them a hollow, even gaunt look. Their cheekbones are pronounced and their noses small. their mouths are filled with small, serrated teeth, and their tongues resemble fleshy grubs.   Esek look like nothing so much as winged slugs with tiny grasping hands and feet. Their faces are rounded and devoid of either noses or eyes.   Khybim resemble powerfully built humans, though their faces share the same skeletal qualities as the Shadrechi. Their eyes are large and glow with a pale light, and their mouths are large and black-lipped. Their expressions are haughty and cruel.

While the esek are barely sentient, the Khybim possess intellects that easily match, and often surpass those of their human prey. Shadrechi possess a human-level intellect, while Khorg and cunning, if not overly bright.

With the exception of the Khybim, Thramorri are virtually blind. Some, like the Shadrechi are capable of limited vision, though they tend towards extreme nearsightedness. The Khorg are similarly myopic, while the esek's eyes are little more than light and motion sensing spots on the front of their heads.   Thramorri hearing is excellent, and they are capable of hearing sounds that are above human ranges. What really sets the Thramorri apart however is their almost supernatural sense of smell. They are able to sniff out prey almost a league away; in the right conditions, Thramorri can detect the scent of prey over two leagues. Thramorri can tell the difference between humans by scent alone, and once they've smelled something, they never forget it. There have been rare stories of humans who have managed to escape a hunting Thramorri, only to have the same Watcher stalk them again years later..

The terrible creatures known collectively as the Thramorri are not in truth a single race but rather many different races bound together in common purpose and sharing a unique physiology: Thramorri are fatally allergic to sunlight. Even the weakest sunlight will cause nearly unbearable agony, while direct exposure to sunlight (or the light of a Lamp) will cause a Thramorri’s skin to boil and slough off before doing the same to muscle and organs. It is, all told, a painful way to die, and even those who survive brief exposure to direct sunlight will be forever scarred, as Thramorri seem unable to properly heal from the effects of the light.   The origins of the Thramorri are currently unknown, although it is speculated that they dwell in some dark realm far away. Ancient legends refer to the Thramorri homeland as “beyond the Terminatus” which scholars have interpreted as allegorical, linking the Thramorri’s arrival to the end of human civilization.