Dredges

Dredges, also known as Forgeborn, Aether Veks, or simply Veks, are a sapient race of humanoids living in The Forgelands. They are powerful Shapers who are rarely seen outside of their territory and rarely allow other races to enter their land.
  This mysterious nature has led to endless speculation about their true nature and why they choose to live in such a hostile environment.
 

Biology

Dredges are humanoids encased in suits made of iron, leather, Aether, and synthetic materials. Their mouths are covered with respirators and their eyes are obscured behind thick, semi-opaque glass.
  Living dredges have never been seen outside of their suits. Removing their suits reveals pale, cracked skin with stark, purple veins and eyes. Their mouths are circular and jawless with razer sharp rows of teeth that clamp onto their respirator tubes.
 

Behavior and Culture

Dredges tend to be highly territorial and rarely social. They behave as a unified group and have never been observed fighting against one another. They aggressively defend the Forgelands, but show no signs of expansionism.
  Dredges have no known government structure, and seem to behave as independant merchants and mining communities. Despite this, they unify and respond efficiently to outside threats. It is unknown how they accomplish this level of coordination.
  Dredges behave as feral and maddened people, constantly threatening their neighbors with random raids. They often capture humans they attack, but do not employ slave labor in their mines. Nothing is known about the fate of humans captured by dredges.
 

Abilities

With no military and little fortifications to speak of, dredges are under constant invasion from human and chimera soldiers seeking to wipe them out and claim their abundant aether, but none of these attacks have ever been successful due to the natural resilience and power of the dredges.
 

Shaping

Dredges are naturally powerful shapers with special attunement to kinethus and vitethus. They can communicate telepathically, perform blood shaping, and unleash powerful, unstable blasts of raw essence. Dredges have been observed with abilities from all of The Five Reaches, and even greater reaches.