Psi-Wars Foundation Races: The Eldoth

Eldoth

Homeworld: Sepulcher
Other Worlds: Elysia, Acheron, Tartarus

Before the Alexian Dynasty, before the Ranathim Tyranny, before humanity even reached for the stars, the ancient and enigmatic Eldoth set the foundations for the first known pan-galactic Empire. They arose on the now frozen world of Sepulcher near the rim of the Arkhaian Spiral of the galaxy, and while exploring those far reaches, they encountered some great and terrible menace, something that drove them to the brink of extinction and that forced them to innovate and adapt, fighting an existential war for their very survival and in so doing, harnessed the very power of Broken Communion with their Deep Engine to defeat it.

The mad paranoia of the clinical and technologically unparalleled Eldoth drove them out into the galaxy, to gather resources and to ensure that nothing threatened their survival again, for they feared that the great galactic menace would one day return. Their pursuit for the safety of the Galaxy led them into direct conflict with, first, the Keleni Temple Worlds and then the budding Ranathim Tyranny. The sacred spaces of the Keleni threatened the integrity of their Deep Engine, and the Ranathim sacred spaces injected strange chaos into the order of their Deep Engine. The Eldoth sought to eliminate both threats. The drove the Keleni from their Temple Worlds, broke their power, shattered their temples, and dragged them off as prisoners to experiment upon them. In return, the Keleni turned to zealous assassination techniques to fight for the very survival of their species, and the Ranathim lent their power to the cause, uniting the worlds under the first Tyrant's banner and shattering Eldothic supremacy and taking the fight to Sepulcher itself, ridding the Galaxy of the dread Eldoth once and for all.

But the Eldoth have proven a tenacious species. Far from dead, they have rested in their regeneration sarcophagi in the catacombs beneath Sepulcher. A few of their number still roam the galaxy, some seeking to restore their slumbering queen to her throne and to rebuilt their fallen Empire; others concern themselves exclusively with preparing the galaxy for the return of the ancient menace that they once fought, whose presence drew the great galactic invasion to it; yet others seek to betray their race and the galaxy to that ancient menace, out of revenge of need for power.

The Eldoth are a tall and slender race, with long, lean limbs and necks. Male Eldoth have no hair on their head, though female Eldoth may have some, though usually at the back of their head. They have utterly black, calculating eyes, elongated skulls, and narrow ridges or furrows running along their features. While substantially taller and stronger than most races, they are not as strong as their size would imply, due to the lankiness of their physiology.

Broken Communion haunts the Eldothic homeworld of Sepulcher and so they, as a race, have learned to live with its strangeness. They have the natural ability to see ghosts, to pierce illusions, and they have a natural resistance to the corrupting nature of Broken Communion. This gives them an innate connection to Broken Communion, but forever separates them from natural psionic ability, or from other forms of Communion. This also means they have a very alien outlook on the world, and have a particularly poor grasp of emotions and have difficulty empathizing with others, especially other races.

Eldoth 75 points

Attributes: ST +2 (SM+1 -10%) [18]; IQ +2 [40]

Secondary Characteristics: SM +1 [0]

Advantages: High Tech (TL 12) [5]; Long Fingers [1]; Purity Reserve 3 [9]; Sarcophagus Bond [1]; Sharp Teeth [1]; True Sight 2 (Anti-Psi +0%) [21]; Unfazeable [15].

Disadvantages: Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Disturbing Voice [-10]; Low Empathy [-20].

Racial Skill: True Sight (H) Per-1 [2];

Eldoth Traits

Eldothic Physiology

The Eldoth have an unusual body structure, being both very tall and very lean, with very long fingers. Equipment built for the Eldoth will not fit with those built for more typical humanoid species. Treat this as a -2 for one to use technology built for the other.

Purity Reserves

 Whenever an Eldoth suffers corruption from any source, he may first pay the “corruption cost” out of his purity reserves. Purity reserves recover at 1 point per 15 minutes.

Sarcophagus Bond 

 The Eldoth aren’t truly immortal, though they have very long lifespans (an Eldoth can live two hundred or more years before dying of old age), but all Eldoth are bonded with a personal Regneration Sarcophagus when they are born. This sarcophagus uses the non-locality of the Deep Engine to maintain a “picture” of the ideal biological state of the bonded Eldoth, as well as a recording of his or her memories. Should the Eldoth enter the Sarcophagus, it will repair them. Should the Eldoth die, the Sarcophagus begins to rebuild the flesh and mind of the Eldoth; this should take at least a year, but it can be rushed, at the risk of causing instability and harm in the resurrected Eldoth. This trait is means that the character may always purchase Extra Life, even after the fact, but the character must pay for the cost, either by giving up character points, or accepting character debt to pay for Extra Life; the most common ways of paying for this is loss of memories or physical flaws representing mutations. Alternatively, the character can “wait it out,” but that generally means that the character is out of action for the duration of the story arc, which makes their ability to resurrect a feature. If someone can find and destroy the character’s sarcophagus, the character loses this perk.

Mailanka's Musings on the Eldoth

 If the Keleni represent True Communion and the Ranathim Dark Communion, I needed to represent Broken Communion.  The resulting race would naturally be horrific, but not because they were true monsters, but because they had a maddening logic, and alien otherness and an inability to connect with others.  They should be misunderstood monsters. In the planning stages, I called them the "Monolith" after the 2001 monolith and Lovecraftian "cyclopean architecture."  The name still remains in the "Wardens of the Monolith." I knew they would be positively ancient, and I drew inspiration from Babylon (and its relationship with the Jews), or other empires of Mesopotamia which had evoked furious and terrified responses from their neighbors, like the Assyrians.  The obvious connection, here, is Lovecraftian, and so eventually I chose a name that combined the "Eld" or "Elder" and "Eldritch" with the alien hiss of the "oth" (also evocative of "Goth") sound, and thus they were named.

All art here is by Christian Villacis, and owned by me.