Tales of a Fox: Update page

[Niro]

Niro here and today I will be revealing a bit of my ever continuing and probably never going to be finished novel... Tales of a Fox!

Topics to cover:
Wraiths
The Fade
Death of Tess (Prologue)
Chapter 1 (or parts of it at least)
Revamp on The Fade (have a few changes to make)


(Suggest something you want to know about I may add it)

Ahem... Todays topic will be none other than Wraiths!
Wraiths prey on anything living mainly to feed or breed. Wraiths cannot breed amongst themselves and therefore change or turn others into one of their own. Now Wraiths are pretty much the source of evil, turmoil, and all that other malicious happenings in Endorance. Wraiths in general are corporeal beings that are also phantom like in appearance. Wraiths can sometimes be hard to identify due to the many varying appearances and types. There are six known sub categories of Wraith, each more deadly than the last, but we'll get to that in a moment. A wraith is created under two known circumstances, a person is killed by a higher class wraith(4-6) and the body is transmuted, or a dark ritual is performed binding the body to soul. The latter causes a person to live eternally, but the body will continue to rot with time and eventually only a tainted soul remains.

Okay lets get on to the class of Wraiths.

Class 1 Rots
Rots are the lowest class of Wraiths. Any race or creature can become a Rot, they are identified by pale or rotting flesh. However, newly formed rots can be tricky to spot. These are normally formed by the ritual above. They can simply be killed by destroying the brain, body, or releasing the soul with a certain spell or incantation. Destroy them quickly. They are weak and frail alone, but lethal in larger groups.

[Niro]

Class 2  the Shifted
Shifted are beings turned into a Wraiths against their will by a high class Wraith. Normally the being will keep control over their body for a few days after the transition but, eventually will be lost to the urges of hunger and hatred. These Wraith are especially deadly because the only identification they will have is soild black eyes and fangs. If this class of Wraith is let to feed for too long he can mutate and evolve unlike rots into the higher classes of 4 or 5. Proceed with caution and kill by fire, or destroying the head and body.

Now here is where the gap of power begins.

Class 3 Shadows
Little is known about Shadows. They may not even fall under the class of Wraiths. Shadows are hard to study because few have ever seen one and lived. In theory Shadows feed by possessing a being and pulling its soul into their own body and devouring it. Shadows can be identified by a dark mass moving across the floor with several eyes protruding from it. A Shadow has no true form when its not possessing and therefore is almost impossible to kill. The moment a shadow possesses someone it can be killed but it usually kills the possessed along with it. Shadows can't pass through solid barriers, but can slide into any size crack or crevice. No known weakness, avoid if possible. Fire seems somewhat effective.

[Niro]

Class 4 Fears
Fears are the most common of the higher class Wraiths. They are Shifted that have fed long enough and grown and developed. No matter what race the being once was it loses that appearance almost entirely when it becomes a Fear. Fears look some what like people would imagine a grim reaper, they usually have a skeletal like face with little or no skin and the rest of their flesh is dead and black. They are surrounded by a dark black mist or aura that repels most magics. The body of the Shifted twists and grows when it becomes a Fear. They usually can get to be six or seven feet tall and are thin and swift. They prey on anything living and if they manage to capture it alive they will transition it by stealing the soul without harming the body. This forms a new Shifted which then is left to fully turn. Fears have no weakness, destroying its body completely seems the only effective way to kill it. Even without a body and head a Fears limbs can still move.

[Niro]

Class 5 Terrors

Terrors are exactly as the name sounds... a living envisionment of terror itself. There has been no known killing of a Terror. Some think Terrors are Fears that have reached the peak of potential and once again grown. A Terror, unlike a Fear, is slow and bulky. They grow to known sizes of up to twenty feet tall and mutate usually forming new limbs or appendages that morph into some form of weapon. A Terror has grey skin and the aura that surrounded it as a Fear has vanished. Some say that it swallows its own aura in order to reach the mass it has. Even without the aura magic has little effect on a Terror and weapons cannot cut its thick hide. These beast have milky white eyes and some think they are completely blind. The best advisement in fighting a Terror is don't. Most can outrun them due to the slow movement they have. Terrors are often accompanied by a group of Rots. They scavenge whatever the Terror leaves behind... if it leaves anything at all.

[Niro]

Class 6
The Silent

Now these even I have learned almost nothing about. They are named Silent, because none speak of them. Silents are more of a myth than anything. No report of one has been recorded in decades and many wish for it to stay that way. In texts it is said that Silent are intelligent Wraiths, they no longer need to feed and no one knows why they exist other than to cause pure chaos and destruction. Some rumor that if a being is turned into a Wraith by the touch of a Silent it becomes a Terror immediately and skips the first two phases. Silent destroy anything in their path even other Wraiths. From the few reports I have gathered Silents are actually smaller than Fears and are beings that seem to move as though nothing binds them not even time itself....

[Virmir]

Cool stuff. Look forward to seeing how you use these in a story.

[Niro]

 The Fade
  
  The Fade, a race of races in a sense. The Fade is composed of many different race and species... or was. Originally there were four hundred and fifteen members. Never more. When a Fade died their spot was filled over the next few months. A new born would randomly have the mark of the Fade on them instead of an average birthmark. This mark burned through any hair, fur, scales, feathers, or skin and showed brightly. Over time Faded just suddenly stopped being born.....
  A member of the Fade was said to live forever. Their lifespans could go on for centuries if left unharmed. Members could regenerate from any wound unbelievably fast. However, over time their weakness bled to the surface. A Fade could be killed with a diamond blade, or by having their soul drained by a Wraith. The first was rarely an issue. The Wraiths were a different story.
  Wraiths at one point went unchecked killing as they pleased. In theory this is why the Faded were formed. No one really knows how either race appeared, the Wraiths came first and Fade later. The Fade made it their sworn duty to hunt Wraiths and keep the chaos at bay. For this act most cities gave them free pass and quartering. Over time the Wraiths killed off more and more of the Faded and no new members were surfacing. In the end the remaining Fade fled to the city of Endorance.
   The Fade were originally divided into two main divisions. The Magi, and the Warriors. The Magi of the Fade possessed a rare division of magic that would drain the essense from objects and beings and convert it into a pure form of energy which they used to cast various spells. The Warriors of the Fade possessed no magic, but instead a weapon. These weapons seemed to be one of the few objects that could destroy Wraiths easily. It would pull their very essense of them into it and leave nothing but a shell or husk. A trained Fade Magi or Warrior learned to control his own essence over time. They could pass through solid objects and take on the essence of a material. This drained the body of a Faded greatly, so it was not practiced freely.
  Only three of the magi and eleven of the warriors remain. They protect all within the walls of Endorance and serve as bounty hunters for the Wraiths in the area. It is only a matter of time before the race is no more. It is old, it is crippled, and it is dying. Even the ageless will one day meet their own end. Let us just hope that the Wraiths meet their end first.

~Old Wise Man of Endorance

[Stormkit]

Why are the Fade going extinct exactly? Don't they get new members whenever old members die?

[Niro]

"Over time Faded just suddenly stopped being born....."

I tried to give out as much information as possible without spoiling too much. So yeah its going to be skimpy on a few of the details. Here is a little bit more into the matter to answer your question though.
 The Fade have extended life spans, and no one knows how or why they come to be marked on random children. It use to be a reoccuring process that a new Fade child would replace any of the Faded they were felled within the next few months. In the beginning this was thought to be a reincarnation, but the child would have no connecting to the member that had died what so ever. (I'll get into auras and souls later, they play a role in identity) In time the birth of a Fade was just partly accepted by people, some saw it as a blessing to their young, others saw it as an omen and would discard the child from their society.
 Anywho I don't want to go to far in depth, because I think I cover a lot of the history in chapter two or three. I'll have the story in a separate post coming soon.